Tips for a beginner?

[lokk23]

So getting into caves of qud, and I am going through a buncha deaths, even on runs that seem to be good. I know that this is the kinda game where you can just die out of nowhere and theres nothing you can do, but id still like to get a better idea of whats actually good.

the build ive been going for is pure melee with 4 arms and sometimes carapace and horns. I like the idea of having 4-5 chances to attack since it seems pretty good to kill things as fast as possible. I was also thinking of using bucklers and getting block and dual weild skills. I dont remember what the chance is, but it seems amazing to have a decent block chance 4 times because of extra arms.

also, what is considered good stats? Whats a good amount of hp to have at say lvl 5? And what about armor? i read somewhere that a fully lvld carapace is the best single peice of armor (idk if this is still true) but its only like +6 or something, which doesnt seem like much. Also any recommendations for point allocations would be helpful, as ive been throwing them into toughness, strength, and agility. LASTLY, is there any mod or file i can change to get a few more mutation/attribute points in character creation? there are so many options and i kind of want to try a bunch of stuff for fun without taking a debuff because they are super heavy penalties. Sorry for the long post and thanks for any replies.

[dbennett88]

decide what stat you want to favor: survivability (tough), hitting/dodging (agi), damage (str). if you go agility, shortblades are deadly and you'll strike frequently with all arms. if you go str, the other trees are equally nice, maces especially, and you can carry a couple shields and block many attacks.

statwise for a phys build I try to have at least 18 toughness, 18 agi, 18str. 16-18 ego is desirable so trade doesn't hurt, and willpower is ok for the extra regen and skill tree.

I generally pick my primary stat at creation and pump most of my extra pts into that, but if you feel like you aren't hitting you can boost agi, or boost str for more hp, etc.

your last q: you can wish for level-ups, or turn off permadeath, which should let you play around with build ideas. but i recommend just trying things that seem cool and dying a lot. it's fun.

[AlphaBeard]

http://nightowl.pinback.space/qudguide.html

[lokk23]

Didnt expect a reply from a dev, but thanks for the link. Didnt know about the w and alt key, and waiting to get a few levels before doing the quest seems like a better plan (if i can stop dying to random wildlife that is). And for the build, if i wanted to do an agility build with the short swords, should i avoid too many extra points into stregnth? I dont know if they get damage from agility or not. And if it increases dodge, should i get armor with dodge or stick with regular stuff and/or avoid stuff that hurts the dodge rating?

[Ryan Dorkoski]

Originally posted by killu42:

wasnt expecting a reply from the devs but thanks for the link. Didnt know how great the alt and w keys are, and holding off on the main quest is making things.....better at least. Excet now im just dying to random wildlife that can outrun me. And from what skinsurf is saying, i should just pick one main stat and just do that for the most part. And if i go for agility should i just ignore stregnth? or does it not factor into damage for short blades? seems this game tends to raise question after question for me.

You'll have to do a lot of experimentation on your own. Also do this stuff:

1. Search and read about various builds on the forums, here

2. Check out the Steam guides. There are great ones for basic builds (see Esper), and I even wrote a beginners guide with general tips.

3. Again, dig through the forums for strategy - you'll find a ton.

Best :)

[HunterZ]

Originally posted by AlphaBeard:

http://nightowl.pinback.space/qudguide.html

Is there an updated link for this? It doesn't work for me.

[Laughing Fool]

I would recommend 24 strength, 20 agility, 20 toughness, multiple arms, horns, carapace, double-muscled and amphibious. Marauder or Warden.

I haven't been able to make a viable agility and dodge, short blades build since the rework of that skill tree. It went from being disgustingly overpowered to useless.

[HisShadow]

Short blade good in conjunction with range weapon, like True Kin Eunuch bonuses show. Short blades make burst dmg in 2 turn and give enemy -50% move speed reduction, so after burst you can run away and shoot, while he still bleeding

[BabaBooey]

Originally posted by HunterZ:

Originally posted by AlphaBeard:

http://nightowl.pinback.space/qudguide.html

Is there an updated link for this? It doesn't work for me.

http://pinback.space/qudguide.html

[BabaBooey]

Should work for you now man :)

[Greep]

Well, qud pretty much has the normal roguelike formula: get lots of defense, have a way to escape bad situations, have enough damage to get through normal enemies quickly, and have enough burst damage to deal with tougher enemies.

For defense, you want 20+ toughness (startign with 26+ honestly is best), and a focus on either AV or DV (with a smidgen of AV). For a beginner, AV is better, so get carapace. With carapace, you'll get a lot of cold resist, so you'll also want either freezing hands or Tinker I for freeze grenades, which would mean startign with 18 int. And teleport is a great get out of death free skill for a beginner.

Mental mirror is vital in the long term for defense against confusion, which late game can hurt you bad due to being permanently confused. There's ways around that if you know about some spoilery stuff, but this is the standard defense. Will won't save you against confusion sadly, even with the higher saves and iron mind.

Strength builds get you through up to golgotha pretty quickly but drop off in usefulness considerably after that once you get a carbine. Mostly because strength builds will end up needing to have 29 strength at some point to have penetration and their top skill, which is attributes points you could have put into not dying,

Will/ego are basically a dump stat unless you go heavily into mental mutations. I've really only found will useful on truekin. Maaaybe on normal mutants if you really really hate deathroot or hornblowers or something.

Even though true kin start out with better gear, they're not a newbie race at all, they require a ton of knowledge about the game to not flop hard in the long run. Then once you've found all the spoilery stuff in the game, they end up about even xD

Edit: as for carapace being the best armor, it actually locks you out of the best. BUT don't worry about it since it's armor you only get after you've seen pretty much everything.

As for more mutation points, just pick amphibious, it's the hidden freebie 3 points xD

[VexImmortalis]

what is so good about amphibious?

[Stafford's Bees]

Originally posted by Cocklesmack:

what is so good about amphibious?

Carrying 10000 rounds of water is a lot less weight than 10000 rounds worth of food.

[Stafford's Bees]

Also the sprint ability is always there and always pretty OP versus most early game stuff and a lot of late game stuff.

Bind it to a key and use when things look even kind of dicey, then wait for it to come back off cooldown and then reengage.

[Alugere]

Also, while it isn't immediately obvious, skill points from increasing intelligence and hit points from increasing toughness are both retroactive.

If you boost your inteligence in the late game, you'll get all the skill points you would have gotten if you started off that high, and the same for hp and toughness.