Caves of Qud for Switch launches February 16

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Kitfox Games and Freehold Games have announced that the science fantasy roguelike game, Caves of Qud, will be available on Nintendo Switch starting February 16th.

The role-playing game Caves of Qud was first released as an Early Access title for PC on July 15, 2015, and officially launched on December 5, 2024. You can find it on Steam, GOG, and itch.io.

Here is an overview of the game, via its store pages:

About

Caves of Qud is an expansive science fantasy roguelike game with a unique retrofuturistic setting, incredibly detailed simulation, and a world filled with intelligent plants. Explore a dynamic, evolving world and uncover the secrets of ancient civilizations. The question is: is this world fading away, or preparing for a new beginning?

Explore a truly unique world in Caves of Qud. It’s a place with incredibly detailed simulations, diverse lifeforms, and a rich, complex culture – you can do almost anything you imagine.

Key Features

  • 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.

Character Creation

Caves of Qud has one of the most expressive character creators of all time.

Choose to play as a mutant native to the salty deserts and jungles of Qud, or as a descendant from one of the last safe havens—the poisonous gardens of Ekuemekiyye, the frozen city of Ibul, or the underground settlements 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 nine preset characters and start your adventure right away. Then return to character creation when you are ready.

Modes

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?

What’s New in Version 1.0?

After nine years of work and many improvements, Caves of Qud is officially version 1.0! Here’s a look at some of the new features included in this release:

  • The last leg of the main quest.
  • The new, fully graphical user interface.
  • Hundreds of visual and sound effects.
  • Lots of polish and stability.

History

Caves of Qud is a massive, long-term project, having been developed since 2007. It started as a vision of Jason Grinblat and Brian Bucklew, who wanted to create a science fantasy roguelike game, and they released a first playable version in 2010. Over the years, others have joined the team, adding visuals, sound, music, a better interface, new gameplay features, detailed backstory, and a huge amount of content. Caves of Qud has become a unique game where stories unfold naturally within a deeply simulated world, blending carefully designed elements with randomly generated content to create a truly living and breathing experience.

Watch a new trailer below.

Switch Rlease Date Trailer

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2026-02-05 00:47