Trading

The player may trade with NPCs in Caves of Qud. Most commonly, players will be trading with merchants.

Trading UI

Trading dialogue

The trading screen is separated into two halves: the left half is the character the player is trading with, and the right half is the player's inventory. Here the player can offer to buy the NPC's wares off of them or attempt to offer up their own for water.

Controls

Key	Purpose
Esc	exit trading inteface without an offer
left/right	navigate between both trading sides
up/down	scroll through the items on one side
Tab	choose to buy/sell the entire inventory
enter	select an entire stack of an item
-/=	decrease/increase the amount of items offered in a stack by 1
o	offer to complete the trade
Space	general interaction menu. Here the player can examine objects, or ask the trader to identify or repair items (if they have the proper skill)
i	ask trader to identify an object (can be either in their own inventory or the player's)
r	ask trader to repair/recharge an object (can be either in their own inventory or the player's)

Trading Formula

Main article: Commerce

Caves of Qud has a bartering system where items vary in price based on a multitude of factors. Items do not have a "set" price like other similar games of the genre. Instead, items all have a commerce value. Commerce is the base value that is specified for each item that is then multiplied or divided by a multiplier depending on selling or buying.

This multiplier depends on the player's Ego modifier as well a few other factors, such as the Snake Oiler skill.

Trading Formula Details

This section is an excerpt from Commerce#Trading Multiplier Formula.

${\text{Multiplier}}=0.07\times ({\text{Ego Modifier}}+2{\text{(if Snake Oiler)}})+0.35$

If the player has Glotrot, Ego modifier and Snake oiler no longer have an effect and returns a flat -3. The equation then becomes

${\text{Multiplier (with Glotrot)}}=0.14$

The multiplier cannot be higher than 0.95(achievable with +9 Ego modifier or +7 Ego modifier with Snake Oiler) and the multiplier cannot be lower than .05 (-5 Ego modifier).

When buying an item from a trader, the value of the item in question is divided by this multiplier. When an item is sold by the player, its value is multiplied by the multiplier.