Caves of Qud guide

    Caves of Qud newbie guide version 0.0.1 by Anonymous

    Character Creation:
    1)New players should play mutated humans. The lower stats and starting gear don't matter as much as you think. Mutations make a nice crutch.
    2)Don't waste mutation points on morphotypes, and stick with physical mutations for now. That way willpower and to a lesser extent ego can be dump stats.
    3.1)Favor these mutations (roughly in order): multi legged > two-hearted > regeneration = double muscled = triple-jointed > Freezing hands > Flaming hands.
    3.2)Electrical Generation probably goes here, but I haven't played with it enough. The last two reverse when you can get to Golgatha consistently.
    4)Avoid Burrowing Claws and Multiple Arms. They aren't terrible, but they are most likely over priced.
    5.1)Backgrounds for physical mutated humans: Arconaut, Marauder, Nomad, Warden, Watervine Farmer. These are all fairly equal.
    5.2)Marauder and Watervine start with axes, which are arguably the strongest weapons in the game.
    5.3)Arconaut gets amazing skills, and agility is the only stat with both defensive and offensive uses.
    5.4)Warden starts with good skills, but only a buckler and real shields are annoyingly rare.
    5.5)Nomad starts with the amazing Recycling Suit, and good skills for survival/exploration; need to invest in a weapons skill ASAP.
    6.3)I exclude Gunslinger because starting with guns as a mutant is not a very good idea.

    Things to do in Joppa:
    1)Get the quest from Mehmet to go to Red Rocks.
    2)Find the three houses with chests in them. Go in each one, closing the door behind you. Loot the chest with the door closed.
    3)Optional: Kill the zealot of the six day stilt. Nobody will care, and his book is worth a lot of dosh.
    4)Go to the southwest corner and get the quest from Argyve. If you got two artifacts in step (2), then you can turn them in now for a quick level two.
    5)Sell any junk you collected to Argyve and Mehmet for their vinewafer.
    6)Press <, go up twice, and press >. You should be at Red Rocks. Find the entrance and explore the first three floors. Beware plant life; it's generally more deadly than anything else.
    7)The fourth floor should be your first real threat. Remember to collect the corpse of one of the glowthingers to bring back to town.
    8)After the fourth floor is cleared, you can follow the underground river south to its source; you have a good chance to get up to folded carbine and maybe a floating glowsphere. A miner's cap and anti gravity sphere are virtually guaranteed. From the source, go up until you're back in Joppa.
    9)Or you can be a pussy and just go back overland.
    10)Go do the quest for 200' of wire in the Rust Wells. There's three dungeons here, so you can grind quite a bit. Just be careful if the last floor is a vast underground cavern, don't explore to far or you'll be killed.
    11)Don't go straight to Grit Gate. It's worth it to explore the Rusted Gate on your way. The loot on its last floor can be quite amazing.

Stat allocation: for newbies playing physical attackers, put int at 16 to 18, ego at 14, and the rest into physical stats. By the time you come back from red rocks to sell your loot, you should hopefully be over level 6 (which gives +1 to all stats) and have a knollworm skull to wear (+1 ego) so that you get fair prices at the shop.

Shops restock on a timer, by the way. There will be a message upon reentering a town if any shop owners refreshed their stocks.

All weapons are good in certain situations.
Cudgels: best penetration, worst damage dice. They tend to get 2x, 3x, or 4x criticals thanks to their penetration, and do steady damage against opponents with extremely tough armor.
Axes: second best penetration with the cleave skill, and much better dice than cudgels.
Long Blades: High +hit from the skill tree, but mediocre penetration. You really have to pump a lot of xp into the tree to get the most out of it, unlike axes or cudgels.
Short Blades: Get multiple attacks per round and synergies with two other trees. Easily the best offhand weapon (which is why Child of the Wheel is an amazing background for True Men).
Ranged: I think this really depends on the first good energy weapon you find. I prefer backgrounds that don't start with ranged skills, so I can choose later based on what I find.

I have never bothered with the wayfarer skills, but I consider starting with Mind's Compass to be quite useful.