Fantastic roguelike Caves of Qud gets more accessible with new game modes, new regions

Caves of Qud is a roguelike we've been writing about for years now and it continues to be one of the best modern iterations on the classic gameplay style. A huge new stable update just went out making it better than ever, for all types of players. Some of the big changes have been available in a Beta on Steam for a while but now all players get it.

The Palladium Reef update is out and not only does it bring new late-game regions for long-time players, it also makes it easier than ever to get into. Freehold Games have added in new game modes to suit different types of gamers:

• Classic. This is the standard Qud experience with permadeath. Nothing has changed.
• Roleplay.
  • Checkpointing at settlements. When you die, you have the option to reload from the last checkpoint. Your checkpoint is automatically set whenever you enter or leave a settlement. You can also set your checkpoint manually while at a settlement by hitting Esc and then 'c'.
• Wander.
  • Checkpointing at settlements.
  • Your reputation with every faction starts at 0 (or higher), meaning most creatures start neutral to you. Aggressive creatures of neutral factions will still attack you.
  • You get no XP for kills.
  • You get more XP for discoveries, completing quests, and performing the water ritual. This amount scales with your level.
• Daily. This is the daily challenge as it currently exists. We removed the weekly challenge.

Completely changing the way you can play a game is huge, especially for a game as unforgiving as Caves of Qud can be. There's a huge amount of lore and places to explore, that getting to see it all can be a ridiculous challenge but thanks to modes like Roleplay and Wander, you can do so massively easier than before.

Making your character is also a lot clearer and just better, with a whole new user interface that works with both mouse and keyboard which improves the accessibility dramatically. It's highly moddable too, so it will be fun to see what the community can do with it. Not only that there's new ways to jump in quickly with nine preset character builds with their own tiles and they're fully customizable as well.

Outside of that there's the two new late-game regions, a new two-tiered settlement with many new NPCs, two new factions, a new side-quest, the Rainbow Wood was expanded and is now more dynamic, there's new plans, new plant-like animals, tons of new items and the list just goes on forever.

You can purchase a copy from GOG, itch.io and Steam.