A Hugo Award-winning science fantasy roguelike epic steeped in retrofuturism, deep simulation, and swathes of sentient plants. Chisel through layers of thousand-year-old civilizations.
Age rating content: Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood, Use of Alcohol.
Languages: English
Screenshots
About this game
Decide: is it a dying earth, or is it on the verge of rebirth?
Do anything and everything. Caves of Qud is a deeply simulated, biologically diverse, richly cultured world.
DEEP PHYSICAL SIMULATION — Don’t like the wall blocking your way? Dig through it with a pickaxe, or eat through it with your corrosive gas mutation, or melt it to lava. Yes, every wall has a melting point.
FULLY SIMULATED CREATURES — Every monster and NPC is as fully simulated as the player. That means they have levels, skills, equipment, faction allegiances, and body parts. So if you have a mutation that lets you, say, psionically dominate a spider, you can traipse through the world as a spider, laying webs and eating things.
DYNAMIC FACTION SYSTEM — Pursue allegiances with over 70 factions: apes, crabs, trees, robots, and highly entropic beings, just to name a few.
RICHLY DETAILED SCIENCE FANTASY SETTING — Over fifteen years of worldbuilding have led to a rich, weird, labyrinthine, one-of-a-kind storyworld, layered on top of the simulation, all for you to explore. Live and drink, friend.
TACTICAL GAMEPLAY — Turn-based, sandbox exploration and combat offers as many solutions as you and your mutations, implants, artifacts, and skills are creative enough to invent.
RPG ELEMENTS — Quests, NPCs, villages, historic sites; some dynamic and some handwritten, interwoven to produce a transportative RPG experience.
ATMOSPHERIC ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK — Over two hours of otherworldly music to delve to.
Caves of Qud has one of the most expressive character creators of all time.
Play the role of a mutant indigenous to the salt-spangled dunes and jungles of Qud, or play a true kin descendant from one of the few remaining eco-domes — the toxic arboreta of Ekuemekiyye, the ice-sheathed arcology of Ibul, or the crustal mortars of Yawningmoon.
Build your character out of:
- Over 70 mutations — outfit yourself with wings, two heads, four arms, flaming hands, teleportation, the power to clone yourself…
- Dozens of cybernetic implants (and more to find as treasure) — night vision, translucent skin, carbide fists, spring-loaded ankle tendons…
- 24 castes and kits from across the social order of Qud and beyond Moghra’yi, the Great Salt Desert
- Too overwhelmed to build a character from scratch? Choose one of 9 preset characters and start your adventure right away. Then return to character creation when you are ready.
Play one of four modes:
CLASSIC — Like other traditional roguelikes, this mode has permadeath, meaning you lose your character when you die. Extremely challenging even for experts.
ROLEPLAY — Play it like an RPG. Save your progress at checkpoints located in settlements.
WANDER — Focus on exploration. Most creatures will not attack you, you don’t gain experience by killing, but you DO gain experience by discovering new locations and treating with legendary creatures.
DAILY — One chance with a fixed character and world seed. How long will you survive?
Prices by country
Cheapest today: 🇨🇱 Chile, $15.81.
That is 45% below the typical price across eShops today.
Lowest since October 2026: $12.65 in 🇨🇱 Chile on Oct 23, 2026.
Country
Price
🇨🇱 Chile
$15.81
🇧🇷 Brazil
$16.28
🇲🇽 Mexico
$17.97
🇵🇪 Peru
$18.31
🇨🇴 Colombia
$21.61
🇳🇿 New Zealand
$23.22
🇦🇺 Australia
$26.83
🇵🇱 Poland
$27.41
🇿🇦 South Africa
$27.89
🇨🇿 Czechia
$28.64
🇦🇹 Austria
$28.73
🇧🇪 Belgium
$28.73
🇧🇬 Bulgaria
$28.73
🇨🇾 Cyprus
$28.73
🇩🇪 Germany
$28.73
🇪🇪 Estonia
$28.73
🇪🇸 Spain
$28.73
🇫🇮 Finland
$28.73
🇫🇷 France
$28.73
🇬🇷 Greece
$28.73
🇭🇷 Croatia
$28.73
🇭🇺 Hungary
$28.73
🇮🇪 Ireland
$28.73
🇮🇹 Italy
$28.73
🇱🇹 Lithuania
$28.73
🇱🇺 Luxembourg
$28.73
🇱🇻 Latvia
$28.73
🇲🇹 Malta
$28.73
🇳🇱 Netherlands
$28.73
🇵🇹 Portugal
$28.73
🇷🇴 Romania
$28.73
🇸🇮 Slovenia
$28.73
🇸🇰 Slovakia
$28.73
🇸🇪 Sweden
$28.75
🇩🇰 Denmark
$28.83
🇨🇦 Canada
$29.38
🇺🇸 United States
$29.99
🇳🇴 Norway
$30.34
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
$31.04
🇨🇭 Switzerland
$31.27
Click a country to see how to buy there; new to buying abroad? Here is how it works. Prices are as each eShop lists them: VAT included where the eShop includes it, US prices before sales tax, and for Canada we add the 5% federal tax Nintendo leaves out · fetched up to 2026-11-05 14:34 UTC.
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