Mastering Ranged Attacks in Caves of Qud: A Guide

The Caves of Qud tutorial covers combat basics, but primarily focuses on close-quarters fighting. To navigate the expansive, dynamic world of this game and stay alive, you’ll need to master more than just charging at enemies.

Ranged combat in Caves of Qud is straightforward, yet it isn’t clearly explained to players. This can leave you feeling stuck when you want to throw a grenade or shoot a bow. Here’s a simple guide to understanding ranged attacks in Caves of Qud.

How to Use a Bow, Pistol, or Rifle in Caves of Qud

Before you can fire a ranged weapon, you must equip and load it. Equipping the weapon is straightforward: just go to your inventory and move the weapon to the ranged weapon slot located in the lower-right corner.

You have one ranged weapon slot for each hand you have. Rifles and bows require two hands, while pistols only need one. If you have several ranged weapons equipped, they will alternate fire with each attack, unless you possess the Akimbo skill, which allows them to fire at the same time.

Weapons start off unloaded, so you’ll need to reload a newly-equipped weapon by pressing the R key. Bows use arrows, while firearms utilize bullets or shells. You load ammo directly from your inventory; there’s no need to equip the ammo itself.

As long as your ranged weapon has at least one shot left, you can make a ranged attack by pressing the F key (for Fire). You can click on the target you wish to shoot or use the arrow keys or numpad to cycle through available targets, then hit spacebar to confirm your choice.

How to Throw Grenades and Objects in Caves of Qud

Your equipment screen has a slot for thrown weapons in the lower-left corner. You can have one object in this slot at a time, but if you have duplicates in your inventory, they will automatically reload after being thrown.

Throwing items functions similarly to firing a ranged weapon; just press T instead of F to initiate a throw.