Caves of Qud has a lovely mental mutation in it called Domination, which allows you to control most enemies. While at first glance it is of middling usefulness (mostly because it gives the exp you gain while to your normally temporary puppet) it holds far more potential than it appears. If the player's original body dies while dominating a target then the player still gets to keep playing the game! So simply let the monster punch you in the face, dominate it, and kill yourself (or give it a gun). If you find that you're living through this, then drop all your fresh water and get your character close to death with damage from thirst. This is most easily done with neutral monsters, or those which have been turned into a follower. Via this method we are effectively capable of turning our character into a psychic parasite which has permanent control over his poor poor host!

While there are more complicated methods to achieve this I have found they are far less consistent and much more difficult and needlessly complicated to pull off in comparison to this.

With a bit of work this can be you!

In Qud every monster has their own statline, level, reputation modifiers, inherent AV and DV values regardless of their equipment, skills (well not always), and often (including those not available to the player) mutations. These can enable you to achieve builds never possible on silly normal characters. Furthermore when you control them you can level up and progress them just like a normal character complete with mutation points!

However, this not free. Quickly you will realize the drawbacks of not having the inherent player character abilities you likely have taken for granted in the past. Primarily, monsters cannot sprint, but can they reacquire the ability. If you do not like this however you have two options. You can either take tactics, which will restore the skill, or you can cheat and wish for the acrobatics skill (which strangely will give you sprinting even though taking it normally will not). Furthermore, creatures also do not get to start with the "Make Camp" skill for free. While they can still cook, even if they do not have hands, they need to find an object in the world to do so. However, like sprinting you can reacquire the skill by taking it, yet some monsters with very low INT scores may find this very difficult. Many monsters also lack any skills as well, and those who do have them often have very rudimentary ones. In addition, the inherent level to monsters may make them weaker than you may expect for player options, as unless they start as level 1 you are effectively "losing" potential levels. Monsters also have HIDDEN reputation modifiers which impact your reputations with factions. Generally they'll have a small handful of groups which like them, while everyone else gets -100 reputation with them. This is hard to notice at first, but if you're not careful (or unlucky due to their random nature) legendary wardens may end up hostile. If this happens, get them off screen of the town and stuck off screen, as if you kill them you'll hurt your reputation with that town.

On the other hand, playing as (good) monsters often comes with very powerful defenses thanks to your inherent armor, come with natural weapons (though these cannot be improved sorta like beak), and many can simply walk into ruins and take anything they want without a care.

Rest assured there are far more options than this, but these are my personal favorites in order of most to least and a brief analysis of why they're good. Keep in mind that monsters have varying stat lines which make each one a bit unique, often they'll go up or down about 2 points in any stat randomly. Note their extra limbs act like chimeric limbs , not limbs from extra limb mutations (unless they have the normal multiple limb mutations), so they will not give speed for legs, and additional arms will act like normal arms.

Hulking Baboon: Best of the baboon options early on, shrewd has some better mental stats but its not huge or worth the str loss.
Very high str, 30ish
Reasonable agility
Night Vision +3 (yes this is not normally possible, it gives extra tiles of sight!)
Inherent shortblade bite, 1d2.
3 inherent AV
HAS HANDS!
Starts at level 1
14ish toughness
Notably bad mental stats, not worse i've seen though
- 100 reputation with everyone else
+300 with baboons
Due to their insane str and their inherent natural attack they can literally gnaw even green security doors apart given enough time and a food supply!
In case you missed it I love these guys and they alone inspired this guide.

Hindren Scout
22 in average in all physical and 17 in all mental is an amazing statline!
No inherent AV or DV
Unique mutation: Heightened Hearing 1, quite strong lets you see nearly the whole floor’s enemies through walls but sometimes it will only identify them as ? for a few turns.
Multiple legs 3, Horns 3, and Thick fur!
Starts at level 1
Starts with jump as a skill
+100 reputation with the Hindren of Bey Lah, but its not that useful since you cant use this as water ritual currency, still lacking the common -100 with most factions is good in of itself
These guys play the closest to vanilla, and I would recommend them for when you're first trying out playing as a monster. Effectively they play as a mutant player with a really strong start and a unique mutation in exchange for no sprint, and poor starting skills. Starting with an escape option in the form of multiple legs is very nice. The additional mutations are really good though and these guys are really easy to track down! I recommend using precognition to shop around in Bey Lah for a good one.
Sidenote, avoid the Bey Lah quest chain. For some reason there is a glitch with this if you're a hindren where if you progress to the point where you track down the thief you'll for some reason be unable to chat with NPCs. The only way I've found to fix this is use the quest debug menu through wishes to complete the quest chain forcibly.

Snapjaw Warlord:
2 Inherent AV and 3 DV. That gives him 1 more inherent AV than Brutes and Warriors, Brutes have 5 more inherent hp but that is not that stellar
Unique mutation: Heightened Smell 5, same as Heightened Hearing but with different flavor, starting at 5 though does make it stronger!
Swarmer is mostly useless.
1d4 bite, axe (you probably already knew that :3)
All snapjaws have roughly 17 in each stat, but weak snapjaws are VERY BAD AS THEY HAVE NEXT TO NO HP
Non-beasts: -100 reputation, loved by snapjaws at least though
Sorta like a weird truekin in my experiance. They do not start the powerful mutations of the Hindren Scout and their stats are weaker, but the inherent AV and DV is very powerful itself.
Warning, these guys will let you talk to snapjaws and you might fall in love with how cute they are and feel bad about bashing them for lunch money from then on...

Albino Apes:
Good statline, not insane anywhere though. Still 23 str is respectable.
2d2 fists (cudgels) are quite nice
5 AV inherent!
HAS HANDS!
Night Vision 3
NEUTRAL WITH ROBOTS, cats, and snapjaws, everyone else -100
Cudgel and Bludgeon inherent
Surprisingly, no inherent elemental resists
Their biggest issue is they start at level 12, only 29 hp is low for the level too. This can also make capturing them early difficult as their level adds to their save against domination.

Beetlebum:
19ish in all stats but mental are all 4
45hp at level 8 is not bad
6 AV inherent
1d7 natural bite attack, you won't be getting more attacks any time soon but at least its a dam good one.
Many many legs (stack Sandals of the River-Wives early on to get going faster than 4 legged mutants)
ROBOTS, cats, snapjaws, insects, all neutral, loved by grazing hedonists (strangely), -100 everyone else
Endurance by default
Night Vision 6
They automatically pick up EVERYTHING which is rather annoying, especially when it comes to corpses.
Auto pickup is active in combat, this can easily get you killed if you step on a corpse with a bunch of items mid combat.
NO HANDS
A very strange option, if you're looking play as the most animal like option I'd recommend these guys they're shockingly good and you can easily mind control one in Red Rock at level 1 no problem. The main issue honestly is they autopick up everything, which happens even in combat, I have not found any way to turn this off unfortunately. Oh and if you were worried that they'd destroy stuff they pick up, they don't.

Goat:
Very good natural weapon, 1d3+2AV shield w/o DV penalty
6 inherent AV, and 3 DV!
Block and Shake it Off
Reasonable physical stats, bad mental
Starts level 1
*NO HANDS*
You also get an achievement for dominating one!
Overall not bad, I'd say beetlebum is better, but if you want to start at level 1 and be a full blown animal these guys are decent, and you do not have to worry about your body pick up trash (which is 5lbs by the way).

Goatfolk:
Hard to capture, Level 15 and 5 MA, may have to do some leveling first to get them
All the same, choose your favorite, but i like the savage myself, it's also probably the easiest to nab
7 inherent AV, very high
HAS HANDS!
Night Vision 6+goat’s shield horns
Block and Endurance skills to start
28ish str, 19 agility and will, 22 toughness, 16 int and ego, very good statline
ROBOTS NEUTRAL, along with cats, and snapjaws, -100 everyone else
Very good but you are losing a lot of levels for it
These guys are where I'm cutting the guide off for what constitutes as "early" since you can manage it with some levels and a lot of ego, plus they're neat so I wanted to include them.

Worshipper of Oroqoru:
21 willish, can be an issue, 17 in other stats but 10 str
No inherent AV or DV
Same reputation mods as albino apes
Level 1
It might seem strange including these guys, but sometimes you can get a good one, and the ape's faction alignments are really dam good.

Scrap Clad Hermit:
Same reputation bonuses of Albino ape, except for they're loved by hermits rather than apes.
4 inherent AV, and 2 DV
17 average for every stat
Starts at level 4
Hide Sheathed Hermits are very similiar, but they start at level 8, have 2 more inherent AV but 2 less inherent DV, 1 more in every stat on average, and 10 resistance in non-acid resistances. Overall the scraps are better due to their lower starting level.
These guys are so low on the list mostly because they're sorta boring imao since they play basically as a normal character whose friends with robots. Still their inherent defenses are very strong and they have little downsides outside of their -100 repuation with most factions.

Creatures in Qud in addition to their other oddities can have additional modifiers, if you've ever played a table top rpg they're basically templates. The most well known of these is the "legendary" modifier, but I'll go into that in a small bit. Modifiers change your hidden reputation modifiers you get from being a monster, and also can give you other hidden abilities. Won't go too far into details, but there's a few I want to address.

The most common modifier players actually encounter are the "villagers" everything from the most basic goat which wandered into town to the local queen are strange bois with unique properties! Think of this as a spectrum of "legendariness," the most basic of town goat will have bonus attributes and likely will have mutations as well, while the fanciest villagers will have notable stat bonuses, extra hp, extra levels, and mutations as well.

You may be wondering, can I stack these. While the answer is yes, it is very rare to find one of these, however let me show you what happens when you do as I actually found a quest giver town official/legendary hulking baboon (which is no longer possible due to the most recent patch ;-;).



There are additional modifiers, but for the sake of no spoilers and keeping this early game focused I'll only discuss the "qudzu symbiote" modifiers. These creatures can often be found in the Rust Wells, and showcase modifiers quite smoothly. While it does not show you anywhere, this makes the monster neutral with vines, and actually gives you the hidden ability that you bleed sap funnily enough. These rare bois can let do strange things and wander your stupid ass into even more ruins without consequence, or in the case of the qudzu symbiote, actually be able to touch the stupid auto explore button!

As for legendaries, as lame as it may sound I actually do not recomend these guys because they can very well break the game and make you far too op. It depends on what you nab, but legendaries have double hp, and as shown above seems to stack multiplicatively with additional legendary modifiers if you can find them. Still, since monsters do not always stack up to starting players a legendary snapjaw may not be that op, but ultimately its up to preference. Legendaries in general also have bonus stats, weird relationship modifiers, and additional mutations so there is fun to be had with them, just be careful or you might get bored with your own power. If you want to know the details I recommend reading this (https://cavesofqud.gamepedia.com/Legendary_creature).

I recommend that you start at the village which teaches wayfaring, this will both help your new body eat food, and also the town likes to spawn monster townsfolk! Not only does this make it easier to get the body you want, townsfolk as addressed above often come with cool bonuses (try tinkers for a spin if you can).

Another neat detail, due to the reputation mods, if you're cloned by something then you end up friends with your new you!

Despite being mutants, Putus templar will not be hostile! I guess they only hate mutant humans.

This method is perfectly usable in vanilla, but I do recommend the QudUX mod. In addition to the UI changes which I love, it lets you change your character tile. While your tile changes when you dominate a creature, it can get confusing as unlike normal your tile isn't flipped and you now look like all the other monsters of your type. Just uh be careful with wandering eyes while doing this to avoid minor spoilers if that concerns you.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1804499742

If you want a "capture build" for this you can use mine (which is designed to do this asap) or make your own. The only thing I would say is make sure your toughness is low by default to make it easier to kill yourself, and crank ego as high as you can. Oh, and remember to do shopping at the merchant before yeeting your own mortal vessel.


This was my first guide I've written so hopefully I did not ramble too much and it was readable. Feel free to share it around if you want or not idgaf, I wrote this largely so I could keep this all in one spot as well as the fact I wanted more people to know about this and what you could do with this.

1/19/21: Fixed DV values, added additional advice to pull off the body swap, added Hindren Scout!
1/22/21: Minor refinements.
1/23/21: Note about bugged Bey Lay quest for the Hindren Scout. Updated modifiers section in response to the latest patch. Added details about Putus Templar interaction.
1/25/21: I found a way to legitimately acquire sprint as a monster! See the "Unique Upsides and Drawbacks" section for details.