Caves of Qud is a masterful roguelike by Freehold Games that has been working its way through a long stint in Early Access. The game originally released all the way back in 2015, and it has been steadily updated ever since.
Development has been speeding up of late, after the devs signed with Kitfox Games, the publisher behind Dwarf Fortress (they’ve been busy this week, I just wrote about DF’s Adventure Mode).
The most recent evidence of Caves of Qud’s progression is the release of The Creatures of the 7th Plague, a huge content drop that includes a bunch of really cool stuff. This “cool stuff” includes the next chapter in the main quest and fully native Steam Deck and controller support. Oh, and there are mechs!
The Creatures of the 7th Plague Update
The update is out now, so I’ve put the highlights for you below for your convenience. However, there are far more in-depth patch notes on Steam if you want to get lost in the details.
- Arrival of the Girsh Nephilim, 7th plague of the Gyre, mythic beings whose cradles are tucked throughout the caves of Qud as five new dungeons
- Next leg of the main quest: a climactic battle with the Putus Templar at the foot of the Spindle
- Finalized, fully native gamepad and Steam Deck support
- Hundreds of new visual and sound effects
- New UI for the hotbar & Abilities screen and new icons for every ability
- New creatures (mechs!), skills, furniture, items, implants, and more
Another interesting tidbit is the news that this is the last major update to the game in Early Access. According to their post, the studio is shifting “focus completely to the 1.0 release.”
If you cast your eyes below, you can see the trailer that dropped alongside the announcement. Then, once you’ve watched that, you should head over to the best roguelike games feature and see which other games are there alongside Caves of Qud.
