big dave's surprisingly small guide on defects

This list is going to work a little differently from the others, since defects are supposed to suck. As per usual, these are my opinions and should not have too strong of an influence over how you like to play the game.

ALBINO

Under certain circumstances, Albino is a very deadly defect to take, pretty much disabling your hp regeneration while in the sunlight. It also only grants you two bonus points, a pretty small reward for such a large risk.

If you take Albino, you should almost always be spelunking in caves to offset the penalty. Avoid the jungle and desert at all costs, and take care to apply sunscreen at least twice a day.

It's punishing, but not hellishly so.

AMPHIBIOUS

Probably the second most picked defect, since running out of water is barely ever a problem. However, in the early game it can be a real killer if you aren't careful with dram management.

Thankfully, simply purchasing Fasting Way removes the only downside to this defect, so make sure you have enough willpower to afford it.

The bonus reputation with frogs is nice, but you are going to need some funny magic book pages to make them non-hostile towards you.

If you aren't planning on taking a certain other defect that I will discuss later, take this one.

BRITTLE BONES

Taking Brittle Bones is like choosing hard mode for your run, even with the four bonus points.

Any enemy that is able to deal concussive-type damage is going to MURDER you.

If you fall from pretty much any height, you are ♥♥♥♥♥♥

If an enemy stuns you for more than one turn with a cudgel, YOU ARE DEAD.

Avoid enemies like apes and cragmensch like the plague, and be on constant guard for any other potential threats.

Good luck.

CARNIVOROUS

If you absolutely HATE cooking in this game, take Carnivorous. Why bother making five star dishes that require rare ingredients when you could just eat some loser's corpse.

However, the longer you go in a run, the more you will begin to feel the negative effects of Carnivorous.

Witchwood and Urberries become practically useless, forcing you to rely on tonics to survive. With how rare tonics can be, having to go on an annoying trek for a salve injector becomes more and more of a common occurrence.

Make sure you know what you are doing if you take Carnivorous, as it can really ♥♥♥♥ up your endgame builds if you aren't careful.

COLD BLOODED

This defect can actually be a boon in certain locations, the Salt Desert and the Asphalt Mines being good examples.

However, you aren't going to be spending much time in these places. In Qud, you will be mostly fighting in cold areas, having to deal with the quickness penalty often.

And don't even get me started on Bethesda Susa.

Always make sure to have a chat with your local snail farmer before venturing off if you take Cold Blooded.

ELECTROMAGNETIC IMPULSE

If you aren't one of those nerds who use fancy gizmos and all that, Electromagnetic Impulse just gives you a small chance to disable nearby robots in combat.

However, if you put on your nerd glasses and fake buck teeth, you are going to have a rough time with this defect. Having most, if not all of your weapons and tools shut off at any moment is terrible, and can really mess you up in the heat of the moment.

And remember, NEVER EVER take this defect with Electrical Generation, just... don't.

HOOKS FOR FEET

Having a completely useless foot slot sucks, as it really kneecaps your potential AV and DV. This doesn't mean you can't at least try to make them worthwhile.

To do this, maximize your strength and unarmed combat skills to get as much damage as possible out of the hooks so they aren't complete garbage. Also remember that the hooks are considered shortblades, and benefit from things like Jab.

With full strength builds, this is not a terrible option if you really need the extra points.

Also, thank you Glass Zebra for reminding me that the Cloaca Surprise overrides Hooks for Feet, so make sure you enter slug mode as soon as possible.

IRRITABLE GENOME

First off, never take this with Chimera. Second, it's fine to take with Unstable Genome so don't worry about that. Lastly, taking fewer mutations in general makes this a better option.

Having your purchased or upgraded mutations randomized is fun, but can get irritating (kill me) pretty quickly if the odds aren't in your favor.

Though if you really don't care about what mutations you are getting or buffing, this defect is for you.

MYOPIC

I HATE this one.

Not only does this defect put you constantly on edge, but it forces you to waste a face slot in order to negate the extremely punishing downside of limited vision.

Wasting a slot is already awful, but having to wear glasses of all things is extra awful. If you don't know, glasses have a small chance to break in combat, rendering them useless. This forces you to either go into tinkering builds to repair/mod the glasses yourself, or pay someone else to fix the damn things for you.

In short, this defect is terrible.

It doesn't even give you four points, you get three.

NERVE POPPY

Nerve Poppy is one of the most anxiety inducing defects in the game, second only to Myopic.

Having no real grasp on how close you are to dead is not only extremely dangerous, but rage inducing. You have to make constant judgement calls on if you should continue fighting or run for your life.

Bioscanners do help, but you have to be checking your vital signs ENDLESSLY to feel comfortable in combat.

AND IT ONLY GIVES YOU TWO POINTS.

SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION

Being set on fire is a very easy problem to solve in Qud, and having an extremely low chance in fights to be set ablaze isn't a big deal very often.

Granted, getting set on fire at low health can be a death sentence, regardless of how unlikely it is to happen.

Still worth the trade in most cases though, especially if you take something like Carapace beforehand.

TONIC ALLERGY

You take this one, always.

Having a higher chance to react negatively to a tonic as a true kin would be terrible, but for a mutant? Mutants almost never use tonics to begin with, as they provide less health, have an already higher chance to cause allergic reactions, and things like urberries exist.

Plus, it grants four points for some reason? I'm not sure if this one is going to stay as strong as it currently is forever, so enjoy it while you can.

AMNESIA

Forgetting secrets isn't too big of a deal. At most, you will miss out on some juicy Resheph gossip.

On the other hand, forgetting the layout of locations IS A ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ NIGHTMARE.

You will be constantly backtracking, second-guessing, and losing your sense of direction. This may be personal bias, but getting lost is one of the most annoying aspects of Qud. Imagine if you were pretty much always lost.

Hell no.

BLINKING TIC

Blinking Tic can save you just as much as it can kill you. Sometimes, you will be magically teleported away from a dangerous combat you were about to die in. Other times, you will get hit by a snapjaw and teleport into a sultan croc.

You decide if the risk is worth the reward here, as this defect is a little too unstable to properly rate.

DYSTECHNIA

BEHOLD! The one reason to ever use Psychometry.

Failing to identify a high tier artifact and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ exploding for it sucks big time, but being able to safely inspect that spacer rifle with Psychometry gives this garbage mutation one go-

What? You can't use Psychometry with Dystechnia?

♥♥♥♥

YOU AREN'T EVEN EXAMINING THE ARTIFACT YOU ARE READING IT'S PAST WHY DOESN'T IT WORK WHY DOESN'T IT ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ WORKKKKKKKKKK

EVIL TWIN

In my personal opinion, this is the most fun defect.

Fighting an evil version of yourself is a very easy way to die in Qud, especially later on in runs. The twin has all of your abilities and all of your mutations, so make sure you know exactly what you are up against.

With how dangerous the twin is, combined with how infrequent and random it's spawns can be, this defect can create really tense moments when you least expect it.

Then again, you could just walk offscreen whenever the popup message appears, but that's quitter talk.

NARCOLEPSY

Guaranteeing that an enemy will get a higher-penetration hit on you is dangerous, and Narcolepsy's random nature makes this even worse.

It isn't the end of the world though, since wearing AV-heavy armor protects you from taking too much damage from the strong blows you will inevitably take with Narcolepsy.

Just be careful with this defect, coffee isn't a thing in Qud.

PSIONIC MIGRAINES

It doesn't let you equip horns. (Horns cost four points now and are generally much less powerful so this doesn't matter nearly as much as before I am crying and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ and pissing rn)

In all seriousness, your head slot is vital in keeping you alive, and having it forever locked is terrible. You are losing out on things like Zetachrome Apexes, Psychodyne Helmets, etc.

Don't take it, unless you plan on either flux-cooking with Precognition or turning into a big fat crystal.

QUANTUM JITTERS

It's like Blinking Tic, but instead of teleporting to a random spot on the screen, you risk teleporting to a random spot on the map.

Granted, you have a chance to avoid the teleportation, but don't forget that things can come out of the portals. Plus, if two portals collide, they create a highly unstable neutron flux explosion, so that's fun!

I almost never take this one, since losing an obnoxious amount of time backtracking to where you were is annoying beyond words.

SOCIALLY REPUGNANT

Socially Repugnant is probably the safest pick in terms of mental defects, but it's still not very good. Having previously neutral factions now wanting to murder you can really catch you off guard if you aren't paying attention.

Being Socially Repugnant also makes it more difficult to heal your damaged relations, since you are going to need substantially more anal page- sorry, annal pages to rectify the damage your ugliness caused.

*licks lips*

[billy.checkers.21]

updated one thing, can you find it?

[billy.checkers.21]

*eats keyboard* thanks!!!!

[Silvester Mascarpone]

*licks screen* very good

[billy.checkers.21]

updated images are on, will begin editing the text in this one tomorrow before i really get going on the final guide, dont expect that one for a while!

[billy.checkers.21]

swap spittle?

[dandelion]

Slurp time.

[billy.checkers.21]

ah, sorry for not replying to this comment sooner, this is a real threat with QJ, but there are a few ways to mitigate it i.e fast movespeed/quickness etc

[Ed1749]

Bonus fact for quantum jitters, if two vortexes touch they explode. And by explode it's the neutron flux explosion so you probably die if it hits you. If the wiki is to be believed, it's 1d200 damage. Might even be 2d200 since it's two vortexes. Either way, it's practically an rng chance of instant death. Maybe that makes it more fun. It's certainly a great way to get the achievement without needing to find neutron flux.

[billy.checkers.21]

Lmao, it's true. Mutants barely ever use em. I would suggest not completely ignoring if you are a true kin though, for obvious reasons.

[Frank]

I used to always take nerve poppy since I play on roleplay and dying is just something that happens every so often, doesn't matter, but after reading your guilds I had never considered how I basically never use tonics except for throwing love tonics at legendaries