caves of qud: chrome, concrete and primordial soup

has anyone here played Caves of Qud? i got back into it recently. i got it a couple years ago before 1.0 released and it floored me with its depth, art style and writing. i'm fascinated by the world and it really inspires me to create something with that pulpy, science-fantasy energy!

for those unfamiliar, Caves of Qud is a science fantasy roguelike inspired by a variety of things, like Gamma World, Ursula K. Le Guin's sci-fi works, the Dune books, and many more. it has a charming, retro art style made up of little sprites - in my opinion, evoking its ancestor, the original Rogue. the world is many layers deep - literally, as you might have guessed by "caves"! - and full of relics, ancient machines and paranormal(?) encounters.

i don't think my words can really do justice the amount of exploration that's in this game. part of that is down to the fact that many, many things in the game are procedurally generated. for example, i created a save recently in which one of the beds in the starting town, joppa, was extradimensional. examining it taught me about the dimension it came from. it flickered in and out of reality... and i was wowed! you can come across stuff like this completely by accident. the game rewards patience and exploration in a way i find satisfying.

there's also a very interesting battle system. fighting mostly just involves whacking something with whatever you've got, but you can gain mutations or cybernetics to give you weird and powerful abilities. my current build is growing arms to hold as many weapons as i can, meaning i can hit for massive amounts of damage with every swing. if you get psychically powerful enough, however... there may be consequences!

i figured that a community like this full of creative and quirky people who appreciate retro tech and such might find this game very interesting! has anyone played it? do you have any funny or interesting stories to share about things you've discovered?