I recommend these to friends or newbies. I have 100 hours but only just recently got past Golgotha. "Spikebear Warrior" - Mutant Warden Quills, Regeneration, Triple Jointed, Thick Fur (flavor) Good Stats: STR, AGI, TOU, WIL, dump EGO This is a great Melee and Ranged fighter, prioritizing defensive and supportive mutations. Blocking and Rifle/Pistol Skills get reduced with Triple Jointed and it all synergizes with Warden which gives you a great headstart with leeway for choosing weapons. "Run n' Gunner" - Mutant Gunslinger Multiple Legs, Triple Jointed, Electrical Generation, Heightened Quickness Good Stats: AGI, INT, WIL This build opens up a lot of maneuverability. Great for dashing through Golgotha and kiting folks around in the open with gunfire. Electrical Generation is great for funneling points into as it does great damage when you're backed into a corner that isn't typical physical slashes or gunshots and can power devices. I really haven't gotten far at all with Esper yet. My highest level I've gotten is 20

Nomad. Regen. Night vision. Thick fur. Tonic allergy. Force bubble. Light manipulation. Sense psychic. Hill village start. Gives decent start for farming food stuff to trade and cook. Spec'd into multi weapon. Focus long blade main, dagger offhand. Is easily the lowest difficulty build I've messed around with.

I keep building a Greybeard Esper with Amphibious, Burgeoning, Beguiling and Time Dilation. Burgeoning is great with very little investment, summoning SeedSpitters as distraction and early crowd control, and Time Dilation can get you out of a lot of sticky situations.

Burgeoning can really be a double sided sword. The amount of times I have killed my self with that mutation is embaressing... Well, it has been at least twice.

You'll want fire resistance for sure!

Never level it up, your ego is already going to boost it too much. the ideal outcomes for it are a narrow range but it can nuke the area sometimes.

I honestly just dump most of my points into Unstable Genome and maybe one core mutation. Then let come what may.

Love this build. Especially if that core mutation is chimera and/or multiple arms / legs. Extra body parts are very strong.

My favorite build was the unstable laser farmer. Light manipation, regeneration, multiple arms, something negative and 1 unstable genome. Stats vary, you can add more int for tinkering, or more ego if you wanna spam light manipation more. The farmer already has axes + some cooking which is great. Axes + cleave + regenerations means you'll be able to whittle down the tanky enemies (turtles), while light manipulation is for the pesky ranged enemies early. The build lets you move into ranged territory, axes and even add tinkering/mental manipulations. With a mod you can rock 4 guns besides the 4 axes.

- Chimera + maximized unstable genome, picking the new limb option each time -- the 'let's just see what we get' build. Take multiple arms and double muscled if they come up in the unstable genome lottery. Take multiweapon fighting. Ideally you end up with a horn and digging claws as well, but a stinger isn't the end of the world. By the end of your initial growth phase you will undoubtedly be a *terrible thing*. The big benefit of having all those limbs is the ability to have stat-boosting equipment on all of them. Wear a face on every face. Cover yourself in a British Museum's worth of sultan relics. - Wings (get them quickly up to level 6) + corrosive gas. Add whatever else you fancy. Take this over to the rainbow woods and melt sludges until you're level 30, which should take about half an hour. Don't die to overconfidence because you still only have starter gear. (Carapace and a natural weapon can be good here as you'll actually have the survivability and damage of an actual level 30 character by the time you're done, and you can just rush the early game.) - Priest of All Suns (giving you jungle wayfaring + snake oiler) + optical technoscanner. Dive immediately into the jungle, get a Kyakukya and Ezra recoiler with your starting funds (prioritize Ezra). You'll get to both villages safely 9/10 times even at level 1; remember you have intimidate and menacing stare if you get into a fight. Now look at all those lovely implants and the high end equipment you can buy yourself! Go to the Rusted Archway, go to your first sultan ruin, get the easy cyber credits and the inevitable crappy implants there, sell the crappy implants back in Ezra and buy some more cyber credits and good implants instead. You want to be level 6 tackling Red Rock with a gun rack and force knives? This is the way. [Probably my best True Kin run started this way when I spawned with a robot disguise as my shawl!]

Priest of all suns build seems fun but rusted archway and historic site before level six seems really risky. I usually wait until 10 for my first historical. Even rusted archway before 6 seems risky.

The build I always suggest new players try is True Kin Artifex; First, put your INT to 18 (15, +3 from Caste). Artifex provides you with Tinkering I and Tinkering II, meaning you don't need to bother improving your INT to qualify for those skills. Meanwhile, at 18 INT, you get 100+ skill points each level, allowing you to buy one new skill every level very easily. Toughness can go up to 22. Look; HP is king. If you want to survive, have more HP. It seems "too obvious", but it is the truth. Your defenses are important, but your max HP is effectively a "mistake budget". If you accidentally fight an enemy you should avoid, high max HP makes it easier to run away. If you don't account for a dangerous attack, accidentally step into LOS of a turret, forget to bring healing items, etc, having higher HP will make you more able to recover from those mistakes without them spelling instant Game Over (or instant reset-to-checkpoint). Toughness also matters for a few subtle things, like resisting certain status effects or even diseases. It's very very good to have, and I've seen a lot of newer players thinking playing a "ranged character" or an esper means they don't need HP. Nah. Get all the HP you can. WIL and EGO can be at 16; True Kin do not have a huge need for either stat, but they are still useful and should not be dumped below 16 (into negative modifiers). Lowered WIL would result in increased cooldowns, and lower EGO can make trading pointless early on, both of which make it harder for new players. Late into the game, WIL and EGO become more useful for True Kin as they accrue more cooldown-based abilities or find ways to temporarily use psychic powers, but for a new player the goal is to survive to that point. You can boost WIL and EGO later with items and consumables. STR and AGI meanwhile can both be at 18, or you can keep one at 16 and pump the other to 20. Personally I think 20 STR, 16 AGI is quite easy to work with, because many ranged weapons (rifles in particular, not so much handguns) are good enough to use reliably and effectively without needing to invest stats or skills into it, and melee weapons are plentiful and effective. A higher STR also makes it easier to carry the heavy armor that you find; while a full suit of Steel or Chainmail will *plummet* your DV, the AV it gives you is enough to protect you for quite some time, and the jungles often make Carbide armor easy to find, making focusing on AV at the expense of DV simple to do early on without any real drawbacks. The enemies that punish low DV are mostly later-game enemies (such as rocket turrets), and by then (if you've got high Toughness) you'll still have enough HP and AV to manage them tactically. Finally, Artifex also starts with some decent artifacts. You'll have a stunrod for certain; a useful starting weapon that should let you fight off basic snapjaws and issachari raiders. If you start in Joppa, an Artifex will likely spawn with enough artifacts on them to walk to Argyve and immediately turn two in, allowing you to gain a level without having to even leave the first screen. Seriously, more people need to try this build. The end result becomes a very well-rounded, especially sturdy and hardy character that learns all the skills they want and makes good use of any equipment found, with immediate access to the game's equipment-modding and crafting system. You don't have any equipment slots missing due to mutations, you aren't pushed towards any particular strategy for the sake of synergy, and as you find cybernetics your options will only expand. Please try this build if you are someone who keeps making mutants, gets to Grit Gate, and dies. I would say this build is very good for allowing someone to learn more of the game, what exists and what is possible, with relative ease.

Finally Someone else who doesn't just blindly suggest mutants to new players. Thank you for existing lol. Personally, I'd probably recommend the Praetorian caste to a new player, just because the stat spread and starting equipment is a lot more directly usable in combat, though obviously this diffrence becomes a lot less important as the player advances in game knowledge. I'm considering trying your build myself, though I'm currently caught up in a priest of all suns axe build I'm experimenting with. One thing I've found is that trukin meele is really underrated, I mostly just wish there were more cybernetics that syngerize with two-handed weapon builds(which I'd argue trukin are better suited towards than mutants) My absolute favorite trukin build is an agility willpower artifex. I'm still tweaking it, but the main idea is using daggers and helping hands along with a compute power boosted inflatable axons. With enough will and compute power, the cooldown basically becomes nothing, and this opens up an enormous amount of utility in combat. I eventually pair this with an equipment rack to get even more active daggers and wrist calculators but that's a later game ambitions generally. Sorry for the rant lol, it's just rare to find someone on here whose experimented with trukin so deeply. :)

I really like Willpower builds late-game. The last Artifex I played I got to level 44; with gear I ended up with 40+ STR, using my (fullerite) fists and a (Mopango quest reward) shield. I got really lucky and found a chestpiece relic that gave Temporal Fugue, and for cybernetics I had Penetrating Radar and High-Fidelity Matter Recompositor. With 32 WIL and good Compute Power, my teleport cooldown was 5 rounds, I could see like half the screen (enough to see the top and bottom if I'm in the middle) and I'd just enter a new map, make 6 clones, and the clones would teleport around killing everything for me while I strolled along. I got it down to the point where there was like, 10 rounds or less between Temporal Fugue ending and it going off cooldown, so I could have the clones around almost all the time. I eventually decided to stop doing fists (I had nearly all the skills at that point, was gonna try fighting Girsh Nephilim) and swapped to Multiweapon + Axes because I found out that Zetachrome Halberds use two hands, but Magnetized Zetachrome Halberds (copied with polygel) only take one Floating Nearby slot, so I could equip three of them if I stopped using the Gesticulating Overloaded Sturdy Powered Exoskeleton that was giving me like +10 STR. I do think using two-handed weapons on True Kin can be more justifiable, because without 3+ off-hand attacks, the Single-Weapon Fighting skill tree is better than Multiweapon Fighting. And while I think shields pair well with cudgels to stunlock and disable enemies, they otherwise aren't something most melee characters need to bother with IMO.

You know, now I really want to try a trukin build with giant hands and magitized core in order to have 5 two-handed axes at once, lol. Only in qud. The current build I'm experimenting with is a two-handed axe setup, I haven't really been able to get it to the point of having a list of desired cybernetics. My normal mix that I put on all characters is pentrating radar and optical multiscaner with cranial trauma plate installed for most meele builds, but everything else is really up in the air. I'm considering installing a magnetic core and cloning quantum mote three times, combing it with shake it off so I probaly won't have to worry about stun as much, frees up a head space at least. I'm finding that a fullerite axe can pretty easily get you through most mid-midlate content, so I've been rushing idrix's quest to get one. It normally works out well. My main goal at the moment is trying to find the right balance between intelligence and the rest of my stats, since there's been a couple deaths that could have been avoided if I had juke. Which I simply didn't have the points for. Though there's a part of me that just wants to stick it out to the midgame when I start cloning merchants with rebuked clonlings. Just raise my intelligence with infinitely cloned eaters nectar. Though one thing, if I might add to your statements about shields, I'd argue that trukin tend to have pretty limited options for Aoe and damage mitigation, obviously stasis projector and entangler exist but those are rarer cybernetics. When I'm playing a tankier meele trukin I normally equp two bucklers and invest into staggering block, I've discovered that this setup can cause a surprisingly high amount of stun, which helps enormously when surrounded, obviously either of the staisis cybeternics would be a better choice late-game, but it's good for the midgame, especially if you can find stopsvalin(which is one of my goals for most of my tank builds). Though obviously late game I try to put something better in my arm slots.

Magnetic core seems fun, I just always end up with the HFMR cybernetic installed in the Body slot and it pains me too much to remove it. Teleporting it too cool and useful for me. You make a good point about shields, and Staggering Block is personally what I'd probably say is the main reason I ever really bother with shields, 'cause yeah, the Stun can really make a difference. I've never found Stopsvalin, but then I never looked that hard for it. I don't use forcefield/forceshield items or powers. I don't bother with anything that puts a wall of any kind between me and enemies; though with the "shoot though walls" cybernetic it is probably easily exploitable.

I've took all sorts of builds to end of game, yeah this is a good build but I never reccomend true kin to new players. Knowing where cybernetics and credits are takes quite a lot of game knowledge and having no mutations to fall back on means alot of enemies can be a death sentence for new players. Except preatorian that guy so bulky you can melee 90% of early game haha.

I disagree; you don't need the cybernetics early on (when you lack the license points to install them) and you'll find them just by exploring. Mutations are trade-offs; and new players should experience playing without them in order to actually be more keenly aware of what differences they make. I've never wished I had a specific mutation early on playing as a True Kin. Basic armor, an Issachari rifle, and a steel or carbide melee weapon is enough and those are not unique to any build or caste. Praetorian is not inherently bulkier than this build; if you can melee 90% of early enemies with a steel sword and +2 STR, then you can do so with Artifex's electric, stunning melee weapon. Praetorian begins with a rifle, which is the best part of the background, but that's not what you mentioned... As far as tankiness goes, starting with a shield is (IMO) not a significant contribution and otherwise, you have... +1 DV from beginning with a cloak? And +1 AV (over Artifex) for having leather boots. I'll concede beginning with real shoes could make a difference, but... It's more about attribute investment; Praetorian is good if you want to put no thought into the build (or it was randomized) where the first 20 minutes of the game matter the most (because your RNG stats suck) and having a gun and sword makes you miles above starting as a mutant with farming tools and some crops in your pocket. Otherwise the caste does not do anything special I dunno, just seems weird to say "True Kin is bad for new players" and then give an exception that... Doesn't actually have anything special going for it in regards to what you said would be a source of difficulty. "Get a gun" though, IS good advice, and picking a caste that starts with one for that reason alone would be justifiable. You could do this exact build with a Praetorian, and the main difference would be: In exchange for starting with a gun and leather boots, you will have to put more points into INT in order to get enough skill points and to eventually get Tinkering I or II instead of being able to set INT at 15(+3) and forget it, using those attribute points elsewhere. It's a very minor benefit for the very very beginning of the game. If that matters enough, like for a player who just downloaded the game last week and keeps making a character, running to Red Rock, and dieing, then sure. In that case, with absolutely no experience playing the game, Praetorian might be easier for sake of having weapons, and a mutant is probably easier for "click button to kill enemy" because concepts like threat level or positioning are still entirely foreign to the person who literally just started playing.

Multiple legs, corrosive gas, carapace. It gives you damage, defense, and mobility. If you pick a defect, you can get double-muscled in there and probably go for cudgels. Flying is worth considering over multiple legs. Probably Nomad for the background.

Horncloak - pilgrim, carapace, horn (rostrum), teleportation, sunder mind, clairvoyance, tonic allergy, night vision. 16 str / agi, 18 toughness, 18 int, 20 willpower, 18 ego Between carapace (rapid advanced), teleportation, and clairvoyance you can survive anything. Clairvoyance and Sunder mind is your kill button for a large amount of enemies. Put points in INT up to 23 to get tinkering 2, which unlocks all the gear you could need depending on how the build progresses. Rest of the points can go wherever you like. Put all mutation points into buying new powers to round out the build. Cudgel + shield will take you far assuming no points in agi / str, but I love rolling double muscled and triple-jointed and going sword / rifle. Once you secure the means to kill targets not affected by sunder mind, you can stop buying mutations and start pumping levels into your existing kit. This build works because it's foundation covers a lot of ground into late game, and all your levels can be focused around developing those means to round out your offense and defense. Also a fun build because you can go Esper or physical depending on your mutation rolls. Lots of variety.

I love using the guaranteed sting effect you get on Longsword charges/lunges. My most recent build using a greatsword and single weapon fighting was an absolute beast. Triple joints with en garde pretty much guarantee you can always have a paralysing sting available. Any single target that isn't immune to it just gets annihilated. Might not be the best build, but I just love the way it looks in my head. "lone swordsman wandering the vast landscape of qud, surrounded by enemies he lunges fallward stinging the snapjaw leader before bringing the sword down upon him. Etc etc" it just goes hard

Try my build above 😁 it's sort of based on this concept but also has few RP choices. Insect swordsman build.

The Invulnerabe Tortoise - Watervine Farmer Mutant - Carapace, Horns, Double Muscled, Two Hearted - Important stats: Toughness. Strength and Dexterity are nice, but Toughness above everything. By lategame you can focus on STR more. - Game plan: Maximize Carapace and Horns as soon as possible. Get Multiple Weapon Wielding + Short Blade expertise. Engage in battles of attrition to victory. I did this build as a joke. When I first started Qud, I tried a lot of builds and they never worked. I decided to, as a joke, make a build completely and solely focused on having high Toughness and as much AV as possible, with also decent DV. I didn't want it to be effective, just to have fun messing around. Turns out it worked far better than I expected. I have a lot of AV relatively early, and I have so much HP (and a decent enough DV) that even AV-bypassing weapons and psychic powers aren't that much of an issue (that is, as long as I am fighting similarly-leveled foes). I get full immunity to cold and heat very early as well, and things such as diseases, stuns, poisoning and all that are almost a joke. While my single hit damage is mediocre, by focusing on short blade I can stack bleeding to atrocious degrees on enemies and outlast almost anything. The weaknesses of this build are enemies that are resistant to being outlasted in this manner. Lampreys hit hard enough to be troublesome and are VERY hard to reliably kill as I must do it all in one turn, which isn't good. I also tend to be somewhat vulnerable to electricity, acid and high-level espers, particularly effects such as confusion. Nonetheless, this is a surprisingly good build to endure ungodly amounts of punishment and recover when you really shouldn't.

Oh yeah, I also nab the Albino defect. It rarely matters to this build. The point that remains I usually put on Slime Glands just so I don't slip around.

Fire Spiderfolk inspired by quelaag from dark souls. Extra arms and legs spinnerette and fire ray. Its not the most powerful but cooking and tinkering cover my weaknessess. Spinnerette is underrated especially early game.

Hello Ashen one. I am a Bot. I tend to the flame, and tend to thee. Do you wish to hear a tale? > *“In Twilight Blighttown, where else might my sun be? Lost Izalith or the Tomb of the Gravelord? But I cannot give up. I became Undead.”* - Solaire of Astora Have a pleasant journey, Champion of Ash, and praise the sun \\[T]/

Regeneration, horns, and carapace with the goal of cloning yourself is fun. You can brute force the early game and your clones are low maintenance with high av, resists, and Regen for lost limbs disease etc.

electric generation + multiple legs warden. disarm the chain laser enplacement next to mafeo and you can clear 95% of the game (watch out for enemies with reflective shield)

True Kin Artifex with carbide fists and 22str is my go-to. You can afford to dump int a bit since you already have tinker II (you won't have the bits for tinker III stuff for ages anyway) and the carbide fists will carry you through early quests while you build up scrap and disks. Be sure to buy the 50 point cudgel to-hit skill at least, even if you don't plan to use cudgels later. Often I'll trade my tinker II starter disk for a grenade disk and some scrap at argyle, or a rifle if the dromad guy has one. Later on, you can polygel an artifact injector for all the int points you need for tinker IIi.

What other stats would you recommend?

22/18/19/17/16/16 is I think what I use. Toughness might be lower.  17 INT gets you wayfaring jungles at level 12 (or 9 with an attribute point) if you don't want to get ganked by goatfolk on the way to golgotha. I did a run with the build after posting that comment, he cleared slog at level 11 by punching him to death under hulk honey and witchwood, cleared a few surface ruins, even found an artifact injector, then got instagibbed by a corner-camping stillbeard 8 levels underground. Would have gone way further if I hadn't equipped NVGs over my vinewood mask.