Voluntary Dismemberment

Please note that while “limb” is used in this article, body parts not traditionally considered limbs, such as your face, can be severed.

There are a variety of reasons a Caves of Qud Player may wish to dismember themselves, such as completing the To Thine Own Self Be True or You Are What You Eat achievements, or for an Esper who wishes to receive the Ego bonus for wearing a face without needing to deal with the reputation penalty. Either way, there are a few major techniques for achieving this:

Precognition Dismemberment

You will need:

• The Precognition Mutation (Or, if you are a True Kin, a lot of sphynx salt injectors, though you are probably better off using the Regeneration Dismemberment method.)
• A method of regenerating severed limbs, such as a spare ubernostrum injector, access to a regeneration tank, or the Regeneration Mutation.
• A madpole
• A few drams of blood
• Enough Hitpoints to tank a single dismemberment from a madpole and not die of blood loss while walking away from it
• A few bandages
• A method of attacking at range, unless you are confident you can kill a Berserk madpole in melee.

Steps:

1. Find an isolated madpole, ideally in a relatively small pool, surrounded by trees. Areas such as this can be found in plentiful quantity on the banks of the River Svy.
2. Clear the rest of the map so that no hostile creatures can interfere.
3. Make a small clearing around the madpole's body of water by attacking nearby trees, if there is not one already. 3 squares of open land between the madpole and trees should suffice.
4. Hide in the trees such that the madpole cannot see you and you cannot see it.
5. Activate your Precognition and walk to the edge of the pool.
6. Pour blood into the pool and wait for the madpole to swim through it. The madpole should now go Berserk and begin hacking your limbs off.
7. Let the madpole rip exactly ONE of your limbs off. If the limb it dismembered was the one you wanted it to, proceed to step 8. If not, end your vision and wait in the trees until Precognition’s cooldown is up, then go back to step 5, repeating as necessary. When repeating, it is not necessary to pour more blood into the water.
8. Immediately begin sprinting and move away from the edge of the pool, keeping in mind that there may now be a pool of blood under you which the madpole can swim through.
9. Bandage up and kill the madpole.
10. Walk back to the edge of the pool and pick up your severed limb.
11. Through your chosen method, regenerate your lost limb.

Regeneration Dismemberment

This method, while not requiring a method to look into the future, is either extremely costly or extremely slow if you do not have the Regeneration Mutation.

You will need:

• A method of regenerating severed limbs, such as ubernostrum injectors, access to a regeneration tank, or the Regeneration Mutation.
• A madpole
• A few drams of blood
• Enough Hitpoints to tank a single dismemberment from a madpole and not die of blood loss while walking away from it
• A good deal of Bandages
• A bedroll, if using the Regeneration Mutation (Technically optional, but will make the process much, much faster)
• A method of attacking at range, unless you are confident you can kill a Berserk madpole in melee.

Steps:

1. Find an isolated madpole, ideally in a relatively small pool, and surrounded by trees. These can be found plentiful quantity on the banks of the River Svy.
2. Clear the rest of the map so that no hostile creatures can interfere.
3. Make a small clearing around the madpole's body of water by attacking nearby trees, if there is not one already. 3 squares of open land between the madpole and trees should suffice.
4. Move into an adjacent map tile and clear it of enemies. (If you are using the Regeneration Mutation. Otherwise, skip to step 6)
5. In this map tile, build a campfire and place down your bedroll (if you have one).
6. Go back into the madpole's tile, walk up to the edge of its pool, and pour blood into the water.
7. Wait for the madpole to swim through the bloody water. When it does, it should go Berserk and begin hacking your limbs off.
8. Allow the madpole to rip exactly ONE of your limbs off, then sprint away from the pool, keeping in mind that there may now be a pool of blood under you which the Madpole can swim through.
9. Apply enough bandages to stop the bleeding. If the madpole dismembered the limb you wanted it to, you may now kill the madpole and collect your severed limb before going on to step 10
10. Regenerate your lost limb through your chosen method. If this method is the Regeneration Mutation, go to sub-step 1.
    1. Sleep in your bedroll until your limb grows back. If you do not have a bedroll, use a combination of the wait 100 turns and wait until morning commands to pass time.
11. If you have your desired severed limb, you are now done. Otherwise, repeat steps 6-11 as necessary. When repeating, it is not necessary to pour more blood into the water.