Spoiler Warning: This article contains information normally only found in the course of advancing the main quest line.
There are a total of 140 Steam achievements awarded for completing certain tasks in Caves of Qud. Of these 140, 53 are hidden; meaning that neither the requirements for completion nor the achievement's icon are displayed until after the player has completed them. These hidden achievements are displayed further down the page in a separate section from the non-hidden achievements.
Note: Many achievements such as Open Your Mind will kill the player (or have other highly undesirable effects). In these cases, using Precognition or a sphynxsalt injector for True Kin before dying will still award the achievement. It is also possible to use Domination to obtain some (but not all) of these achievements by killing the player-controlled creature instead of the player character.
These are currently only available for players playing on Steam clients.
Have a reputation of +600 or more with one of the in-game Factions.
Reputation can be gained by performing water rituals with legendary creatures liked or loved by a faction and by killing legendary creatures disliked or hated by a faction. Reputation can also be gained by giving secrets in the water ritual with faction members, completing quests for that faction, or by equipping certain gear or having certain mutations.
The Mechanimists in particular are easy to get large amounts of reputation with. Simply toss artifacts in the sacred well at the Six Day Stilt to gain reputation proportional to their commerce value. Artifacts such as the laser rifle are easy to tinker but have a high value.
Absolute Unit
Successfully cook a meal with neutron flux as an ingredient.
Cooking with neutronflux (typically stored within a phial) has a 90% chance to succeed. However, be aware that failure will cause a gravitational collapse (instant death).
Aleph
Defeat one of the Girsh Nephilim.
Kill one of the six Girsh Nephilim that can be found in various locations in Qud.
Arconaut
Descend 50 strata deep.
Travel 50 strata deep into the earth, most easily accomplished with use of spiral borers.
Can be achieved with a space inverter fitted with a beamsplitter by shooting at several walls. Ruins usually have a good geometry for this. It is much easier to obtain with a high quickness and pistol skills as the clones disappear after 5 rounds. Alternatively, drink or cook cloning draught, use Temporal Fugue, or combine cloning methods to have several clones of yourself.
Close the Loop
Recover Kindrish.
Find and acquire Kindrish, the lost bracelet of the hindren of Bey Lah. Its location can be learned from Trolls by asking them for secrets during a water ritual.
The location will always be the center zone of a random tier 4-6 parasang, between 0-9 strata deep. It will be generated either within a normal colored chest, a creature's inventory, or on the ground.
Thus, if you have it, it is a good idea to use Precognition (or a sphynxsalt injector, if you are True Kin) before activating your timecube so that you can earn the achievement and still have a timecube to cast into the sacred well.
Dalet
Defeat four of the Girsh nephilim in a single playthrough.
Kill four of the six Girsh Nephilim that can be found in various locations in Qud.
This achievement will typically require multiple playthroughs, as only one repulsive device can be found and it cannot be duplicated with metamorphicpolygel. However, Precognition can be used to give the repulsive device to one of the children of the Tomb for achievement progress and then revert back to keep the device.
Donation Level: Kasaphescence
Make an offering at the Sacred Well of an artifact worth at least 200 reputation.
This will require you to be hit by a Crungling Gaze from a dreamcrungle whilst already within a waking dream.
This achievement is highly chance-based and usually hinges on awakening as a creature in the Moon Stair, as most creatures do not carry any water and thus cannot travel long distances without dehydrating to death.
Eat an Entire Bear
Kill a bear and eat it. Just eat an entire bear.
Kill a bear and eat its corpse raw by picking up the bear corpse, waiting until you are famished or hungrier, and choosing to eat it.
Players with the Carnivorous (D) mutation need not wait until they are famished.
To perform the water ritual with Mamon, he must be made neutral or friendly by raising the player's Children of Mamon reputation (from the default of -600 to at least -249) or by recruiting him as a follower with BeguilingProselytize, or a love injector.
Friend to Fungi
Host 3 different fungal infections at once.
Become the host of 3 different types of fungal infection.
This can be easily achieved by walking near three differently colored broodpuffs. Make sure that one fungal infection has grown before walking near the next broodpuff, as itchy skin does not stack and walking into more spores will not change the infection type. This can also be achieved by water-ritualing legendary fungi and asking them to colonize your body.
Killing Crowsong is, for obvious reasons, an expedient. They are affiliated with the Village of Kyakukya, so you need to worry about others joining in the fight. However, dominating will also suffice. Unequipping and re-eqiupping a sword is required as the achievement is only checked when they are equipped.
Note that once you equip the amaranthine prism there is no way to remove it, and it will eventually kill your character. Using Precognition or equipping it on another body using Domination is necessary for this to not be fatal.
Infiltrating a temple mecha mk Ia, temple mecha mk II, or temple mecha mk Ib can be done by interacting with it and then selecting the Infiltrate option. This will perform a melee attack which has a 10% chance to infiltrate per penetration.
Gimel
Defeat three of the Girsh nephilim in a single playthrough.
Kill three of the six Girsh Nephilim that can be found in various locations in Qud.
He
Defeat five of the Girsh nephilim in a single playthrough.
Kill five of the six Girsh Nephilim that can be found in various locations in Qud.
Heat Death
Get vaporized.
To be vaporized your temperature needs to be above 10,000. This can be accomplished with relative ease via being covered in plasma and then detonating multiple thermal grenade mk IIIs on top of your character in quick succession. Alternatively, Great magma crabs have the same burn point and vaporization point, meaning they will vaporize from overdosing on blaze injectors.
I-
Wink out of existence.
Die by ceasing to exist in one of several ways; see instant death.
Mouse control is required for this achievement, as looking through keyboard commands means the cursor will always start to centered on yourself, making you fall in love with yourself before you have a chance to look at a sign. Turn on mouse controls, apply love injector, and right click a sign to look at it.
Love Thyself
Fall in love with yourself.
Inject yourself with a love injector and look at yourself.
May the Ground Shake But the Six Day Stilt Never Tumble
Can be obtained with a space inverter fitted with a beamsplitter by shooting at several walls. Ruins usually have good geometry for this. It is much easier to obtain with a high quickness and pistol skills as the clones disappear after 5 rounds. Alternatively, drink or cook cloning draught, use Temporal Fugue, or combine cloning methods to have several clones of yourself.
More Than a Willing Spirit
Return from Golgotha with a repaired waydroid and gain admittance to Grit Gate.
It is much easier to do this with a Mental Mutation as their level is boosted by Ego modifier. You can also use mutants' rapid advancement to boost a physical mutation to this level.
My Many Facets
Eat the Crystal Delight.
The recipe for the Crystal delight can be obtained from Thicksalt during a water ritual for 50 reputation. Thicksalt will not teach the recipe to True Kin.
Non-Locally Sourced
Cook a meal with an extradimensional limb as an ingredient.
Have either yourself or a follower ready an axe and use Dismember on the delicious visitors. Then cook a meal with the limb of a hunter turned prey. Alternatively, they can be recruited and have a limb removed via Amputate Limb or being made to fight a creature with Dismember. Infecting them with Ironshank or a fungal infection is required in order for them to allow the limb to be amputated.
Open Your Mind
Have your head explode.
Die to the burst of damage at the end of Sunder Mind.
Dying to any other damage from Sunder Mind does not count. It may be prudent to bring a supply of healing items in order to make sure that you have enough health to survive the 10 turns of mental attacks but not enough health to survive the cumulative burst at the end.
Somewhat difficult to attain due to the rarity of newly sentient beings. Reputation can be gained from Schrodinger pages and water ritualing creatures that are loved by newly sentient beings and killing creatures hated by them. Completing Landing Pads is also helpful as it increases newly sentient beings reputation by 300.
Proteus
Have 10 mutations.
This can be easily done by creating a character that has a 4 point defect and choosing all the cheapest mutations possible.
Get damaged by a neutronflux explosion or similar effect, such as the explosion caused by failing to examine an tier 8+ artifact with Dystechnia (D) or the explosion created by baetyls and sparkingbaetyls when at low health. Alternatively, cook with neutron flux and get the 10% chance outcome of instant death.
The recipe for the Cloaca Surprise can be obtained from Slog of the Cloaca during a water ritual for 50 reputation. Slog will not teach the recipe to True Kin.
Swollen Bulb
Consume 10 drams of sunslag in a single playthrough.
Prove the information paradox by causing your surroundings to glitch.
Pour a dram of warmstatic onto the terrain, causing everything nearby to randomly change position or transmute into something else. Note that the player can be turned into another creature, which can be unexpectedly permanent if you were using Precognition and your new body does not have precognition. True Kin can safely use sphynxsalt injectors to avoid permanent consequences.
When you deal the final blow to an esper hunter there is a 10% chance to be prompted to encode their psyche and gain +1 Ego permanently. Have some glimmer and keep killing hunters. It will happen.
Reach a reputation score of -600 with the Villagers of Joppa, for instance by killing legendary creatures they admire.
Three-Sludge Monte
Kill a trisludge.
Kill a soupy sludge composed of exactly 3 different liquids.
Proselytize or beguile a soupy sludge, and dump 3 different liquids on it. Then wail on the helpless thing. It must be a trisludge: any more and it will not count.
Five-Sludge Monte
Kill a pentasludge.
Kill a soupy sludge composed of exactly 5 different liquids.
Ten-Sludge Monte
Kill a decasludge.
Kill a soupy sludge composed of exactly 10 different liquids.
Token of Gratitude
Be gifted a 10-pointed asterisk.
Complete the main objective of the Landing Pads quest by convincing at least ten villages to accept the slynth.
To Thine Own Self Be True
Wear your own severed face on your face.
Get your face dismembered and equip it on a face slot.
Most easily accomplished by being Two-headed and using the Amputate Limb skill on one face, then equipping it on your other face. If you do not have multiple face slots you will need to regenerate the severed face first.
This achievement is tracked cumulatively between runs. It is tracked when you first enter a village, meaning the same village can also be visited 100 times using Precognition.
Pouring warm static on yourself is potentially irreversible including when using Precognition as the mutation can be removed. True Kin can use sphynxsalt injectors without risking permanent consequences.
With even a modest willpower score this can take quite a long time. Being a creature with naturally low willpower such as a glowcrow or being effected by will saps or enigma snails can speed things along.
Spot the flattened remains. They are located in the center zone of a random salt marshparasangAn area made of 3x3 screens, which is represented as one tile on the overworld map..
Your Thirst Is Mine, My Water Is Yours
Perform the introductory water ritual 100 times.
Make a habit of performing the water ritual with all the NPCs in your starting village after beginning a new game and this should not be too difficult to complete.
This achievement is tracked cumulatively between runs.
Hidden Achievements
0 for 2
Die of thirst.
Easiest to do by dropping any fresh water you have and then travelling on the world map until you die of thirst.
The easiest way is to take Space-Time Vortex at character creation and use it at every opportunity. This is an aggregate number so it can be done across playthroughs.
Decoding the Signal
Travel to the Temple of the Rock and decrypt the mysterious signal.
Note that Ironshank must actually be contracted in order to be cured. Removing the stiff legs condition before it progresses into ironshank does not count. Curing ironshank by other methods than the cure perscribed by the CorpusCholiys also does not count.
In addition, you can be decapitated by a decarbonizer'sDecarbonizer effect, an axe-wielding dervish, or by an Evil Twin (D) if you know decapitate or are wielding a relic that has a chance to decapitate. If you only have one head, losing it will kill you unless you have Regeneration at level 10.
When finding a book in the world, make a habit of choosing to read it before putting it in your inventory. You need only look at the first page of a book for it to count as read.
Note that monochrome must actually be contracted in order to be cured. Removing the blurry vision condition before it progresses into monochrome does not count. Curing monochrome by other methods than the cure perscribed by the CorpusCholiys also does not count.
Reclamation
Recover the Spindlegrounds from the Putus Templar war party
When finding a book in the world, make a habit of choosing to read it before putting it in your inventory. You need only look at the first page of a book for it to count as read.
Oathbreaker
Violate the sacred covenant of the water ritual.
Kill someone you performed the water ritual with. Note that this reduces your reputation with every faction by 100.
On the Rocks
Drink lava.
Randomly generated thermoelectriccells occasionally contain some lava inside. It can also be found deep in the asphalt mines, surrounding lava weeps, or being sold by ichor merchants. Then just drink that good juice. Note: this usually deals enough damage to kill you instantly.
Psst.
Find the oddly-hued glowpad.
Find the oddly-hued glowpad in the salt marsh. They will be located in the center zone of a random salt marshparasangAn area made of 3x3 screens, which is represented as one tile on the overworld map..
Red Rock Hazing Ritual
Be stoned to death by a baboon on the surface of Red Rock.
Note that Glotrot must actually be contracted to be cured. Removing the sore throat condition before it progresses into glotrot does not count. Curing glotrot by other methods than the cure perscribed by the CorpusCholiys also does not count. This also counts for the Synolymb achievement.
Shoot.
Get killed by a chute crab.
Easily done if entering Golgotha blind. For a dedicated build for this, take Precognition and Wings, fly to Golgotha, and precog until you find the shaft with scratched vents, and wait.
Choose the "Your hair is a quasar of red ochre and indigo." option while talking to Q Girl. Note that this option is not available if you have monochrome.
The Recitation of the Drowning of Eudoxia by the Witches of Moonhearth
Get dismembered and eat your raw dismembered body. Cooking with your dismembered body part as an ingredient does not count towards this achievement. Note that if the body contains a cybernetic implant and you have automatic Butchery enabled the cybernetic will be butchered from the body part, destroying the body part and possibly the cybernetic too.
Precognition or a 
sphynx salt injector for True Kin before dying will still award the achievement. It is also possible to use 
Domination to obtain some (but not all) of these achievements by killing the player-controlled creature instead of the player character.
neutron flux (typically stored within a 
phial) has a 90% chance to succeed. However, be aware that failure will cause a gravitational collapse (instant death).
spiral borers.
Spray-a-Brain or a 
nano-neuro animator.
Giant clams are commonly found in Lake Hinnom and the Palladium Reef.
Temporal Fugue, or combine cloning methods to have several clones of yourself.
Kindrish, the lost bracelet of the hindren of Bey Lah. Its location can be learned from Trolls by asking them for secrets during a water ritual.
timecube, and then activate it. A time cube is also one of the few artifacts which can earn the achievement Donation Level: Kasaphescence when cast down into the 
sacred well.
Tomb of the Eaters, kill or trade with 
k-Goninon for the 
repulsive device. The device can then be given to one of the four children: 
Nacham, 
Va'am, 
Dagasha, and 
Kah. This is the final objective of the Fraying Favorites quest.
dreamcrungle whilst already within a waking dream.
bear and eat its corpse raw by picking up the 
bear corpse, waiting until you are famished or hungrier, and choosing to eat it.
Kyakukya and begin the Raising Indrix quest to receive directions to 
Mamon Souldrinker's location.
Caslainard & 
Polluxus, 
Crowsong's two electrified longswords.
amaranthine prism that he drops.
goat.
temple mecha mk Ia, 
temple mecha mk II, or 
temple mecha mk Ib can be done by interacting with it and then selecting the Infiltrate option. This will perform a melee attack which has a 10% chance to infiltrate per penetration.
thermal grenade mk IIIs on top of your character in quick succession. Alternatively, Great magma crabs have the same burn point and vaporization point, meaning they will vaporize from overdosing on 
blaze injectors.
Oboroqoru, Ape God and then perform the water ritual with them.
Stopsvalinn can be easily gained from trading secrets from the Barathrumites, Trolls, or Snapjaws.
love injector and look at a 
sign.
Thicksalt during a water ritual for 50 reputation. Thicksalt will not teach the recipe to True Kin.
Sunder Mind.
humble pie will permanently decrease your ego by 1. They are sold by 
apothecaries. At least one 
Six Day Stilt.
alchemist found in the depths of 
Bethesda Susa.
Flume-Flier of the Sky-Bear can be acquired from 
Saad Amus, the Sky-Bear.
helping hands. Or grow four extra arms via 
Chimera. Or 
beetlebum.
Dystechnia (D) or the explosion created by 
baetyls and 
sparking baetyls when at low health. Alternatively, cook with neutron flux and get the 10% chance outcome of instant death.
sunslag can be rarely found in a 
swollen bulb by plucking coral from a 
palladium strut with coral growth. It can also be purchased from 
ichor merchants and the 
Phase back into the corporeal realm inside a wall which is completely surrounded by other walls.
space inverter such that the beams hit multiple objects.
warm static onto the terrain, causing everything nearby to randomly change position or transmute into something else. Note that the player can be turned into another creature, which can be unexpectedly permanent if you were using 
Kesil Face, 
Shemesh Face, 
Earth Face, 
Levant Face, 
Olive Face, and 
Null Face, all found within the Tomb of the Eaters. This will take multiple playthroughs unless the player has 
soupy sludge composed of exactly 3 different liquids.
slynth.
hookahs can be commonly found around the stiltgrounds and require at least one dram of fresh water to be smoked from.
flattened remains. They are located in the center zone of a random 
salt marsh parasangAn area made of 3x3 screens, which is represented as one tile on the overworld map..
Mak and his 
Yd Freehold.
lithofex.
adiyy, who are located within the Banana groves near the spindle.
Aoyg-No-Longer, servant of Ptoh in the Cosmic Wood is found at the bottom of Eyn Roj.
Space-Time Vortex at character creation and use it at every opportunity. This is an aggregate number so it can be done across playthroughs.
Rainwater Shomer that you want to enter Brightsheol. This will end your run!
brain brine, and 
gamma moths), or by equipping the 
Otherpearl.
salt kraken or 
star kraken.
Corpus Choliys.
thermoelectric cells occasionally contain some 
lava inside. It can also be found deep in the asphalt mines, surrounding 
lava weeps, or being sold by 
oddly-hued glowpad in the 
Eskhind becomes the hindriarch of Bey Lah.
Hindriarch Keh remains the hindriarch of Bey Lah.
Golgotha blind. For a dedicated build for this, take 
Wings, fly to Golgotha, and precog until you find the shaft with 
scratched vents, and wait.
Regeneration, entering a 
regeneration tank, or applying an 
ubernostrum injector after losing a limb. Regenerating a tongue to cure Glotrot also counts for this achievement.
Q Girl. Note that this option is not available if you have monochrome.
0lam by trade or combat.
