Reputation

Reputation is a core mechanic in Caves of Qud. Each creature in Qud, including the player character, are favored or disliked by each individual faction. The particular reasons for faction feelings are randomly generated (described in more detail on the faction relationship reasons page). Depending on the reputation with a faction, the members of that faction will be out of three different feelings:

Hostile- Actively trying to attack the player. Cannot be spoken to for water rituals or conversations.
Neutral- Has no major feeling either way. Will become hostile if purposefully struck.
Friendly- If the creature that the faction is friendly to is attacked, all members will turn hostile towards the attacker.

Reputation	In-Game Description	Feeling			Other
Reputation	In-Game Description	Docile Demeanor	Neutral Demeanor	Aggressive Demeanor	Other
≤ -600	Faction Members despise you. Even docile ones will attack you. You aren't welcome in their holy places.	Hostile	Hostile	Hostile
-599 to -250	Faction Members dislike you, but docile ones won't attack you. You aren't welcome in their holy places.	Neutral	Hostile	Hostile
-249 to 249	Faction Members don't care about you, but aggressive ones will attack you. You aren't welcome in their holy places.	Neutral	Neutral	Hostile	Neutral demeanors will also be hostile in Holy Places
250 to 599	Faction Members favor you. Aggressive ones won't attack you. You are welcome in their holy places.	Friendly	Friendly	Friendly	Creatures that can be pet will be allowed to be pet
≥ 600	Faction Members revere you and consider you one of their own. You are welcome in their holy places.	Friendly	Friendly	Friendly

^[1]

Gaining and Losing Reputation

Reputation is used as a sort of currency that can be traded, gained and lost depending on the player character's actions.

Gaining reputation

Reputation with a faction can be gained by:

+100	+50
Water Ritualing a Legendary creature loved by that faction In water ritual, give gossip that the faction is interested in Kill a legendary hated by that faction	Water Ritualing a Legendary creature liked by that faction In water ritual, give a secret that the faction is interested in Kill a legendary disliked by that faction

180-200 reputation can also be gained by using a Schrodinger page from the Annals of Qud.

Unconventional reputation gains

Depending on the faction, reputation can be gained in unique ways.

Donating an artifact to the sacred well will grant variable reputation with the Mechanimists based on the artifact's commerce value.
Completing quests will grant reputation with a certain faction
The council during the The Earl of Omonporch will alter faction reputation wildly in either direction

Losing Reputation

-100	-50
Water Ritualing a Legendary creature hated by that faction Kill a legendary loved by that faction	Water Ritualing a Legendary creature disliked by that faction In water ritual, ask for a secret Kill a legendary liked by that faction

Unconventional reputation losses

There are certain ways to lose reputation due to more specific actions, some specific to one faction.

Barathrumites can teach the player tinkering recipes for reputation
Merchants' Guild and the Consortium of Phyta will trade their most valuable item in their inventory/equipment for reputation
Factions based in villages will teach a recipe and/or a signature skill for reputation.
Using precognition to equip the amaranthine prism and cancelling the vision to unequip it will decrease the player's reputation with Highly entropic beings by -100
Killing any creature that the player has previously performed the water ritual with in that game will violate its covenant, decreasing the player's reputation with all factions by -90 to -110. ^[2]
The council during the The Earl of Omonporch will alter faction reputation wildly in either direction

Reputation from worn items and body slots

Some items and item mods grant and subtract reputation with certain factions while the player is wearing them. Examples (non-exhaustive) include:

The mod Feathered grants +250 reputation with Birds
The mod Jewel-encrusted grants +100 reputation with Water Barons
The mod Scaled grants +250 reputation with Unshelled reptiles
Items Painted or Engraved with an event from the life of a Sultan will grant the player varying amounts of reputation with the relevant Sultan cult
The pistol Ruin of House Isner gives -400 reputation with Water Barons
Sultan masks will grant the player +200 reputation with that sultan's favored factions and -200 with that sultan's hated factions.
Items made from ape or ogre ape fur, including ape fur hats and ogre fur hats, ape fur cloaks and ogre fur cloaks, and ape fur gloves and ogre fur gloves, will each give the player -100 reputation with Apes.

Reputation granted by items stacks. Wearing a hat, cloak, and gloves made out of ape fur will give the player -300 total reputation with Apes.

Fungal infections and reputation

A fungal infection on any body slot will grant the player +200 reputation with Fungi and -200 reputation with the Consortium of Phyta faction.

Reputation gains and losses from each fungal infection stack. Players who gain many fungal infections can find it very difficult to trade with members of the Consortium, who appear in many plot-related settlements in the game.

Wearing a face on your face

Wearing a face in a face body slot gives you an Ego boost dependent on the level of the source creature, but also gives -500 reputation with the primary faction(s) that the creature was allied with. Characters may wear their own face in order to gain an Ego boost which does not affect reputation with any faction.

Reputation's Effect on Trade Prices

This section is an excerpt from Commerce#Reputation Effect on Trade Prices.

Reputation with the merchant also affects trade prices, acting essentially as a bonus or penalty to the player's ego modifier.

Reputation with merchant	Bonus applied to Ego Modifier for Trade
600 or more	+3 bonus
250 to 599	+1 bonus
-249 to 249	0
-599 to -250	-1 penalty
-600 or less	-3 penalty

Initial Player Reputation

Upon game creation, the player character will have an initial starting reputation based on this table:

Faction	Reputation
antelopes	0
apes	0
arachnids	-475
baboons	-300
baetyls	0
Barathrumites	0
bears	-475
birds	0
cannibals	-500
cats	-300
Chavvah	0
Children of Mamon	-600
Consortium of Phyta	-10
crabs	-475
cragmensch	-500
Cult of the Coiled Lamb	0
Daughters of Exile	0
denizens of the Yd Freehold	0
dogs	300
dromad merchants	0
equines	0
Farmers' Guild	0
Fellowship of Wardens	-150
fish	-400
flowers	0
frogs	-475
fungi	0
Girsh	-800
Glow-Wights	-650
goatfolk	-475
grazing hedonists	0
Gyre wights	0
hermits	-100
highly entropic beings	0
hindren of Bey Lah	-200
insects	-475
Issachari tribe	-475
Mechanimists	0
Merchants' Guild	0
mollusks	-475
mopango	-150
mysterious strangers	0
Naphtaali tribe	-350
newly sentient beings	0
oozes	-550
pariahs	0
Putus Templar	-700
robots	-475
roots	-475
Seekers of the Sightless Way	-500
snapjaws	-475
succulents	0
Sultan cult	-500
svardym	-475
swine	-475
tortoises	0
trees	-300
trolls	-475
unshelled reptiles	-475
urchins	-500
villagers of Ezra	0
villagers of Joppa	-140
villagers of Kyakukya	0
vines	-475
water barons	0
winged mammals	0
worms	-475

Additionally, certain options chosen during Character Creation affect starting reputation:

Chosen Trait	Factions Affected	Effect
True Kin	Putus Templar	+600 (resulting in -100)
Beak	Birds	+200
Carapace	Tortoises	+400
Horns	Antelopes & Goatfolk	+100
Photosynthetic Skin	Roots, Trees, Vines & Consortium of Phyta	+200
Spinnerets	Arachnids	+300
Stinger (any)	Arachnids	+200
Thick Fur	Apes, Baboons, Bears & Grazing hedonists	+100
Wings	Birds & Winged mammals	+400
Amphibious (D)	Frogs	+100
Cold Blooded (D)	Unshelled reptiles	+100
Burgeoning	Consortium of Phyta	+200
Mass Mind	Seekers of the Sightless Way	-200
Space-Time Vortex	Highly entropic beings	+200
Greybeard	Bears	+100
Gunslinger	Mysterious strangers	+200
Nomad	Issachari tribe	+200
Tinker	Barathrumites	+100
Warden	Fellowship of Wardens	+300
Water Merchant	Water barons	+200
Watervine Farmer	Villagers of Joppa	+100
Start in salt marsh	Insects & Fish	+50
Start in salt dunes	Unshelled reptiles	+100
Start in desert canyons	Equines, Tortoises & Vines	+50
Start in hills	Hermits	+100