# Caves of Qud

10 Hacker News commenters recommended Caves of Qud and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** A deep roguelike that people keep replaying and often compare to NetHack, with ASCII-style graphics that feel friendly to many players.

## Why people recommend it

- Captures NetHack-style feel without spoilers (2 comments): "games like Caves of Qud are probably better at evoking the feelings of Nethack without being so absolutely reliant on spoilers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47992236)) "fun game. Book of the New Sun meets Nethack meets Gamma World." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49211587))
- Widely called incredible, even by repeat players (2 comments): "Qud is legit incredible. ... I've finished Qud a few times. It is still a really deep game." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49211791)) "Still an incredible game though." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46718642))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [NetHack](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nethack.md): 60 recommend
- [Chess-Inspired Roguelike](https://hackerapproved.com/p/chess-inspired-roguelike.md): 33 recommend
- [Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dungeon-crawl-stone-soup.md): 16 recommend
- [Xs of Y](https://hackerapproved.com/p/xs-of-y.md): 14 recommend
- [Noita](https://hackerapproved.com/p/noita.md): 13 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://cavesofqud.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Caves of Qud", https://hackerapproved.com/p/caves-of-qud/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).