Death

Death is an inevitable part of Caves of Qud. Anything dies when it reaches 0 HP or less, although there are also various means of instant death.

In Classic Mode, the player dying would typically end the run unless they were in a precognitive vision or dominating a creature. In all other modes, it's possible to reload from the last checkpoint made.

Death Screen

When the run ends, a death screen will display summarizing the run. The screen will contain:

• The name of the player character surrounded by Ωs. If they ended their game by crossing into Brightsheol, the name will be surrounded by φs instead.
• Date and time that the game ended
• Cause of death, instant or otherwise.
• Level
• Points scored for scoreboard (See #Calculating Points for full logic)
• Turns survived
• Number of lairs discovered
• Number of items named
• If any artifact was created, how many storied items were generated.
• The most advanced artifact in your inventory (See #Calculating Most Advanced Artifact).
• What mode the game was played in
• The last 30 messages in the message log
• The player's chronology, as detailed in the journal

Calculating Most Advanced Artifact

The most advanced artifact is measured by summing Tech Tier, Tier of the item, Complexity and Difficulty (for Artifact examination). If the total is the same between two artifacts, the game will break the tie by comparing stats in this order:

1. Total sum of TechTier, Tier, Complexity, and Difficulty
2. TechTier
3. Tier
4. Complexity
5. Difficulty

If the items are exactly the same in all of these stats, the previous artifact will not be replaced.

Calculating Points

After dying, the player's score is calculated from the various actions they took, items they obtained, locations they visited, and so on in the course of their game. This is the score recorded in the High Scores menu.

The player's score is summed across the following categories:

Category	Points calculated for score	Notes
XP	(# of XP points) × 0.334
Most advanced artifact	max(tech tier, complexity) × 250	Tech tier and complexity are calculated from your most advanced artifact. If it's a stack of artifacts, the number of points will be multiplied by the size of the stack.
Finished quests	(# of finished quests) × 733
Accepted quests	(# of accepted quests) × 133
Turns survived	(# of turns survived) × 0.01
Visited zones	(# of zones visited) × 35
Storied items generated	(# of artifacts generated) × 1211	This is not used in the base game.
Lairs found	(# of lairs found) × 75
Crossing into Brightsheol	+100000

After adding points across all categories, 422 points are automatically subtracted to build the final score.

Death Messages

Depending on the method, unique death messages will replace the typical "You died. You were killed by (killer)." This displays whenever the player character or one of their companions die. If it was accidental, "accidentally" is added before the kill verb.

Death Method	Message	Notes
Fire/Heat damage	You were immolated(this becomes cooked if you are unable to be set on fire) by (killer).
Vapor damage	You were vaporized by (killer).	This one cannot be considered accidental and will be attributed the last creature who damaged them.
Cold damage	You were frozen to death by (killer).
Electric damage	You were electrocuted by (killer).
Acid damage	You were dissolved by (killer).
Disintegration damage	You were disintegrated by (killer).
Laser damage	You were lased to death by (killer).
Other forms of light damage	You were illuminated to death by (killer).
Poison damage	You died of poison from (killer).
Bleed damage	You bled to death because of (killer).
Neutronic damage	You were crushed under the weight of a thousand suns.
Explosion damage	You died in the explosion caused by (killer).	If the explosion was caused by you, the message becomes "You died in your explosion, which you caused."
Drained via syphon vim or leech	Your vital essence was drained to extinction by (killer).
Damage from Sunder Mind	You head was exploded by (killer).	Before this death message, the player will get the additional popups: "Your sense of self is pulled apart by what feels like a billion years of geologic pressure." "Your head explodes!"
Damage from dehydration	You died of thirst.
Failing to contest normality	You dashed yourself against the crags of spacetime.
Bleed damage caused by a nosebleed using Sunder Mind	You died from a nosebleed.	If the creature or player lacks a face, nosebleed is replaced with "hemorrhage".