Quickness
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This information is reliable as of patch 2.0.182.2. If this is no longer the current patch, you can help by updating it. |
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This information is reliable as of patch 2.0.182.2. |
Quickness (QN) is an attribute that controls how quickly a character performs actions.
Some common actions include:
- Moving
- Attacking
- Reloading
- Waiting
- Using an ability
- Picking up an item
- Equipping, unequipping, or using an item
The player and most other characters have a default QN value of 100. That value can be modified by a variety of factors.
Quickness can't be adjusted during character generation, and has no relation to other attributes, such as agility.
How Quickness Works
Caves of Qud is a turn-based game.
Each turn, a character is granted a number of action points equal to ten times their quickness value. Action points are expended when taking actions.
- The amount of action points that a skill consumes is sometimes referred to as the action cost or energy cost of that skill.
- Turns are also sometimes referred to as rounds.
Most actions consume 1000 action points by default, which means that a character typically takes only one action per turn, such as moving one space, attacking one enemy, or equipping an item. Unspent action points are carried over to a character's next turn. For example, if a character has a quickness value of 125, they generate 1250 action points per turn. If the character attacks each turn, they use 1000 action points and carry over the extra 250 action points to their next turn. After four turns have passed, the character will have accumulated 1000 extra action points and will be able to attack two times in a single turn.
Free Actions
Free actions are special actions the player may take that do not consume any action points. Some examples of free actions include:
- Using the look command to inspect your environment
- Using the Juke ability
- Applying an injector while wearing a chem vest
Modifying Quickness or Action Cost
The number of actions a character can take per turn is affected by a wide variety of skills, mutations, items, statuses, and effects.
Quickness Modifiers
These things directly modify a character's quickness, changing the number of action points that a character generates each turn, and thus the number of actions the character may take.
| Name | Type | Quickness Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Adrenal Control | physical mutation | +5 permanent QN. Up to an additional +95 temporary QN while active |
| Blaze Injector | effect | +10 or +20 temporary QN while active, depending on whether the user is a mutant or a True Kin. |
| Cold Blooded | physical defect | -10 permanent QN. Up to +24 temporary QN while at a high temperature/on fire. |
| Cold Temperature | effect | -1 temporary QN for each two degrees that a character's temperature falls below zero. |
| Cooked Meal | effect | variable temporary QN bonus while metabolizing. Attained from cider or lignen ingredients, or randomly from the Tasty effect. |
| Eater's Flesh | effect | -60 temporary QN. |
| Famished | effect | -10 temporary QN. |
| Heightened Quickness | physical mutation | +7 to +21 permanent QN, depending on mutation level. |
| Inflatable Axons | cybernetic implant | +40 temporary quickness for ten rounds when activated, followed by -10 quickness for ten rounds. |
| Photosynthetic Skin | physical mutation | +2 to +6 temporary QN from basking in the sun, depending on mutation level. |
| Time Dilation | mental mutation | variable temporary QN penalty to characters that are near the user who is dilating time. |
| Two Hearted | physical mutation | -3% to -9% permanent QN penalty, depending on mutation level. |
| Waxflab | disease | -2 temporary QN as long as the character remains infected. |
Action Cost Modifiers
These things modify the action cost of certain actions, allowing a character with the same quickness to perform more or less of those actions.
| Name | Type | Action Cost Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Bounding Boots | equipment | 33% reduced action cost of sprinting while worn. (you sprint at 3 times your normal movement speed instead of 2 times your normal speed) |
| Empty the Clips | skill | 50% temporary reduced action cost of firing pistols for twenty rounds. |
| Fastest Gun in the Rust | skill | 25% permanent reduced action cost of firing pistols. |
| Swimming | skill | 50% permanent reduced action cost of swimming. (swimming costs only 250 extra action points, instead of 500 extra action points) |
| Two-Headed | physical mutation | 20% to 56% permanent reduced action cost of using mental mutations, depending on mutation level. |
Movement Speed
Movement is one of many actions that is influenced by quickness. Like most actions, it has a default cost of 1000 action points.
However, movement is special because it also has its own modifying attribute, called movement speed.
A character's movement speed controls the amount of action points that are required for the character to move, and thus movement speed can have a significant effect on how quickly a character moves.
For more information about movement speed, refer to Movement Speed.