Equipment
There is a variety of equipment available in Caves of Qud, which are items that can be applied to an equipment slot for varying character effects.
Mechanics
All entities have several slots relevant to key body parts, such as Feet, which can be used to equip relevant items from their inventory, such as 
croccasins. Technically speaking, slots contain both the equipped item and the body part it represents: suffering Left Arm dismemberment will cause the victim to drop [Name]'s Left Arm, drop any items equipped in the Left Arm and Left Hand slots, will block using Left Missile Weapon, and the only way to restore the lost slots is to find a way to reoccupy the [Name]'s Left Arm slot (e.g. by using a 
ubernostrum injector).
While hands can be used to equip any item, only weapons and shields provide effects in these slots. Armors and other utility items will not provide bonuses in a hand slot.
Clothing and Armor
Clothing and armor items alter the AV 
and DV 
stats when equipped. High DV increases the likelihood of dodging an attack and high AV decreases the damage taken from a successful attack. Heavier armor provides high AV and low to negative DV, while clothing and certain lighter armors provide high DV and minimal AV. Certain abilities can degrade armor values: for example, being struck by Cleave will cause an equipped item to become cracked, which causes a temporary -1 penalty to the item.
An unmutated human body possesses seven slots capable of wearing typical clothing and armor:
- Head
- Face
- Back
- Body
- Left Arm
- Right Arm
- Feet
If a player possesses multiple body parts of the same type, such as a left and right arm, the AV and DV stats of the items on those slots will be averaged and the resulting value will be rounded to the nearest whole number, with half values rounding towards 0. For example, if an unmutated human equipped a 
leather bracer 1 0 on one arm and a 
snakeskin armlet 0 2 on the other, they would gain 0 1 from those items. However, all other benefits of an item are unaffected: if a two-headed player equips two 
elastyne skull caps, they will gain 25 cold resistance from each skull cap for a total of 50 cold resistance.
Shields
Shields detract their DV malus and apply their AV bonus on a successful block as determined by the Shield skill. Without the shield skill, a player has a 25% chance to block any given attack, and can block only one attack per round. Bucklers can be wielded on both the arm and hand slots, and other shields can only be wielded on hand slots. An unmutated human body possesses four slots capable of wielding typical shields:
- Left Arm
- Left Hand
- Right Arm
- Right Hand
When equipped in a non-hand slot, the DV malus of shields will be affected by the averaging rule outlined in Clothing and Armor. For example, equipping a 
steel buckler to your left arm and no item to your right arm will not detract DV, as -.5 rounds to 0. The AV bonus when blocking, however, is unaffected by this mechanic.
Weapons
Weapons are tied to the Agility and PV stats: high agility increases the likelihood of hitting a target with a melee or ranged attack, and high PV increases the amount of damage done against the target on a successful hit. PV scales with Strength for most melee and thrown weapons and is a static, weapon-dependent value for most ranged weapons. An attack where PV equals the AV of the target will deal roughly 1.5 times the dice of the weapon, and every point of PV above that will add roughly half the dice of the weapon. Particularly high penetration values can lead to attacks dealing ten or more times their dice value. Weapons can suffer negative status effects similarly to worn equipment: for example, attacks by Qudzu may cause metal items to become rusted, rendering them unusable and dividing their commerce value by 100 until they are repaired.
An unmutated human body possesses five slots capable of holding typical melee, ranged, and thrown weapons:
- Left Hand
- Right Hand
- Left Missile Weapon
- Right Missile Weapon
- Thrown Weapon
Miscellaneous
Certain utility items such as Floating glowspheres can be equipped in the Floating Nearby slot. This slot can also hold magnetized metallic weapons, shields, and armor.
- Floating Nearby