Caves of Qud is a Hugo Award-winning science fantasy roguelike epic steeped in retrofuturism, deep simulation, and swathes of sentient plants. Come inhabit a living, breathing world and chisel through layers of thousand-year-old civilizations. Decide: is it a dying earth, or is it on the verge of rebirth?
Do anything and everything. Caves of Qud is a deeply simulated, biologically diverse, richly cultured world.
DEEP PHYSICAL SIMULATION — Don’t like the wall blocking your way? Dig through it with a pickaxe, or eat through it with your corrosive gas mutation, or melt it to lava. Yes, every wall has a melting point.
FULLY SIMULATED CREATURES — Every monster and NPC is as fully simulated as the player. That means they have levels, skills, equipment, faction allegiances, and body parts. So if you have a mutation that lets you, say, psionically dominate a spider, you can traipse through the world as a spider, laying webs and eating things.
DYNAMIC FACTION SYSTEM — Pursue allegiances with over 70 factions: apes, crabs, trees, robots, and highly entropic beings, just to name a few.
RICHLY DETAILED SCIENCE FANTASY SETTING — Over fifteen years of worldbuilding have led to a rich, weird, labyrinthine, one-of-a-kind storyworld, layered on top of the simulation, all for you to explore. Live and drink, friend.
TACTICAL GAMEPLAY — Turn-based, sandbox exploration and combat offers as many solutions as you and your mutations, implants, artifacts, and skills are creative enough to invent.
RPG ELEMENTS — Quests, NPCs, villages, historic sites; some dynamic and some handwritten, interwoven to produce a transportative RPG experience.
ATMOSPHERIC ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK — Over two hours of otherworldly music to delve to.
Caves of Qud has one of the most expressive character creators of all time.
Play the role of a mutant indigenous to the salt-spangled dunes and jungles of Qud, or play a true kin descendant from one of the few remaining eco-domes — the toxic arboreta of Ekuemekiyye, the ice-sheathed arcology of Ibul, or the crustal mortars of Yawningmoon.
Build your character out of:
Over 70 mutations — outfit yourself with wings, two heads, four arms, flaming hands, teleportation, the power to clone yourself…
Dozens of cybernetic implants (and more to find as treasure) — night vision, translucent skin, carbide fists, spring-loaded ankle tendons…
24 castes and kits from across the social order of Qud and beyond Moghra’yi, the Great Salt Desert
Too overwhelmed to build a character from scratch? Choose one of 9 preset characters and start your adventure right away. Then return to character creation when you are ready.
Play one of four modes:
CLASSIC — Like other traditional roguelikes, this mode has permadeath, meaning you lose your character when you die. Extremely challenging even for experts.
ROLEPLAY — Play it like an RPG. Save your progress at checkpoints located in settlements.
WANDER — Focus on exploration. Most creatures will not attack you, you don’t gain experience by killing, but you DO gain experience by discovering new locations and treating with legendary creatures.
DAILY — One chance with a fixed character and world seed. How long will you survive?
After 9 years of continuous development and frequent updates, Caves of Qud has finally reached its 1.0 release! Here are some highlights of what's been added for 1.0:
The last leg of the main quest
The new, fully graphical UI
Hundreds of visual & sound effects
Lots of polish & stability
Caves of Qud is a project of epic proportions that's been in development for over fifteen years, since 2007. It began as the science fantasy roguelike dream of co-creators Jason Grinblat and Brian Bucklew, who released the first beta in 2010. Since then, it's accrued a few more contributors who have enriched the project by helping to add visual effects, sound effects, an original soundtrack, a new UI, new game systems, new lore, and half a world of content. Caves of Qud has grown into a wild garden of emergent narrative, where a handwritten story weaves a path through rich physical, social, and historical simulations. The result is a hybrid handcrafted and procedurally-generated world that's alive in a way few games are.
Caves of Qud is a Hugo Award-winning science fantasy roguelike developed by Freehold Games, released in its 1.0 form in 2024 for Linux, Windows, Mac, and Nintendo Switch after more than fifteen years of development. Set in a retrofuturist world of decayed civilizations, sentient plants, and strange mutant ecologies, the game places players in the role of either a mutant native to the salt deserts and jungles of Qud or a true kin descendant from one of the surviving eco-domes. Character creation draws from over 70 mutations, dozens of cybernetic implants, and 24 castes and kits. The turn-based, sandbox gameplay rests on deep physical and biological simulation — walls have melting points, NPCs carry their own skills and faction allegiances, and psionic domination of a creature transfers full control of its body and abilities. More than 70 factions, dynamic and handwritten quests, and an original two-hour soundtrack round out the experience, which supports four distinct play modes including permadeath Classic and exploration-focused Wander.
Come inhabit an exotic world and chisel through layers of thousand-year-old civilizations. Decide: is it a dying earth, or is it on the verge of rebirth? Play the role of a mutant indigenous to the salt-spangled dunes and jungles of Qud, or play a pure-strain descendant from one of the few remaining eco-domes - the toxic arboreta of Ekuemekiyye, the Holy City; the ice-sheathed arcology of Ibul; or the crustal mortars of Yawningmoon. Follow the plot to Barathrum the Old, a sentient cave bear who leads a sect of tinkers intent on restoring technological splendor to Qud. There’s a story in every nook, from legendary items with fabled pasts to in-game history books written by plant historians. A novel’s worth of handwritten lore is knit into a procedurally-generated history that’s unique each game.
