•Caves of Qud is receiving its first expansion, Diaspora, which will launch into early access on December 9th. The DLC lets players control a range of flora and fauna—including cats, dogs, frogs, chameleons, vines, and trees—according to a blog post from developer Freehold Games.
The studio explained that the expansion’s complexity is why it is adopting an early access model for what is normally packaged as DLC. “Caves of Qud is an extremely complicated game with many interlocking systems & features and lots of unpredictable, emergent gameplay,” the blog post says. “Diaspora will add a whole new layer to that. Just like with the base game, our approach to building something this complex is to have the community stress test it the whole way.”
New playable species come with fresh mutations such as claws, muzzles, and tails, along with additional creatures and “artifacts of disparate cultures.” The expansion also features improved road and river networks that, per Freehold Games, “use a much more sophisticated set of worldbuilding algorithms to snake their way through Qud,” making it more likely that following a road leads to an interesting location.
Freehold Games outlined plans for further additions throughout 2027, including a questline centered on “the migrants’ journey into Qud and an idiosyncratic dromad known as Je’ome the Bounty,” two new humanoid factions called the foxen and snailfolk, plus more creatures, items, biomes, ingredients, and diseases. Additional content in development includes “roaming mega-caravans, underground villages, multi-zone dungeons/arcological spaces, new music and more.”
A free update to the base game is also planned, arriving either just before Diaspora leaves early access or alongside it. Some of those additions will appear in the DLC first, since “those updates will be driving a lot of Diaspora’s content.” Updates are expected on a weekly basis, or monthly when there is more going on, with a roadmap scheduled for launch in December.
Caves of Qud originally launched into 1.0 two years ago and received RPS’s Bestest Bests badge at the time. Caves of Qud
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