User:Kernelmethod/Sandbox:Build Guide

Introduction

Some disclaimers:

• This guide is oriented towards character creation and the early game.
• This guide is primarily written for people playing mutant characters. "Build design" is, of course, just as much a concept for True Kin characters as it is for mutants. However, outside of figuring out a rough stat distribution, most important True Kin build decisions are deferred to the middle- and late-game. In contrast, the decisions that mutant characters make at the start of the game can influence their entire run.
• And finally -- this guide is highly opinionated, and by no means definitive! There is no objectively "best" build; there is barely even a meaningful concept of what a "meta" build might look like in Caves of Qud. The best build is the one that you enjoy playing with. The intent of this guide is not to give specific recommendations, but rather, to provide a framework with which to judge what builds you would enjoy playing.

Additional references

• Build library
• Early Game Checklist
• Affine's advice on buildcrafting

Stats

Primary stats

See the attributes page for more information:

• Strength:
• Agility:
• Toughness:
• Willpower:
• Intelligence:
• Ego:

Secondary stats

Beyond the stats listed above, there are also secondary stats that you don't get to adjust directly during character creation. However, these stats may be influenced by gear, cybernetics, and mutations, and are just as important to consider when designing a build:

• AV (Armor Value): AV decreases the number of penetrations of incoming attacks, reducing the damage dealt to you.
• DV (Dodge Value): DV increases the chance of dodging an attack, and is increased by having a high Agility. It is worth knowing that in the early game, AV tends to reduce damage much more than DV -- one point of AV reduces damage roughly as much as 3 points of DV.
• MA (Mental Armor): MA decides how well you protect against psychic attacks. In the early game this includes attacks from the notorious Sunder Mind mutation carried by novices of the Sightless Way, which can quickly end runs if you neglect your MA. There are few ways to increase MA, but one of them is by having a high Willpower.
• Quickness: Quickness (QN) decides how many actions you can make per turn. You start with 100 base QN, and every additional 100 QN gives you (on average) one additional action per turn.
• Move speed: Move Speed (MS) decides how many movements you can make per turn. Like QN, you start with 100 MS and every 100 additional MS gives you one additional movement per turn, on average. Note that QN also allows you to make additional movements per turn, and in fact QN and MS stack together very well. However, it is easier to increase MS to high values than it is to do the same for QN.

Step 3: Choosing your stats

Once you've figured out what your toolkit looks like, you should start picking stats that support your toolkit.

A good rule of thumb is to select initial stats that make your character well-rounded, and then specialize as you level up (however, this rule is very flexible).