>_

I should be working on the next chapter of my fanfic, but I've been addicted to Caves of Qud instead...

I don't know how to describe it to people who haven't heard of it. It's a roguelike, but to most people "roguelike" refers to a genre modifier rather than a genre in itself, and CoQ is very specifically a "roguelike as genre" game inspired by old ASCII dungeon crawlers...

I love the tantalizing ambiguity of old, low-res spritework. As a fan of the Mother series, I think people don't appreciate enough how Mother 1 has a lonely, eerie feeling that's enhanced by its technical limitations. It is frustrating in those limitations in a way that hurts it, sometimes, but the large expanses of empty wilderness between settlements, the lethality of even ordinary wildlife like bears amidst the aliens and robots, the strangeness of the pink seashell world of Magicant, the inability to fully parse out exactly what some objects and creatures even are. Qud has so much quality of life improvement over genuinely old games while still leaning into the sense of danger and mystery that very old RPGs are good at.

The CassBeast AP Ramp Thief

Move	Type	Category	Power	Accuracy	Use Cost
Custom Starter	Typeless	Miscellaneous	—	100.00%	Passive
Dual Wield	Typeless	Miscellaneous	—	100.00%	2 AP
AP Steal	Poison	Miscellaneous	—	70.00%	0 AP
Pity AP	Typeless	Miscellaneous	—	100.00%	Passive
Two Heads	Typeless	Status Effect	—	100.00%	2 AP

This is a combination of moves only known by 3 monsters: Mardiusa, Anathema, and Pawper/Pawprince. These are the only three monsters that have access to Dual Wield, AP Steal, and Two Heads simultaneously. Removing Two Heads opens the build up to more monsters.

( explaining the build )

So let's review the steps.

At the start of turn 0, all monsters start with 2 AP. By the end of turn 0, the Custom Starter/Dual Wield/AP Steal combo adds 2 more AP at no cost, and the Multistrike buff is applied. During turn 1, the player uses AP Steal twice in a row at no cost thanks to Multistrike, adding 2 more AP. At the end of turn 1, all monsters gain 2 AP. This leads to a total of 8 AP by the start of turn 2. Multi strike-affected Dual Wield -> AP Steal has a net AP gain of 0, but one can use this quadruple application of AP steal to severely hinder the opponent's AP economy in a single turn if one likes, preventing them from using powerful and expensive moves like Nurse, Headshot, or Ritual.

And because a Cassette Beast has eight move-sticker slots (barring stickers that have the affect of +1 slot), you have three spaces left to put whatever moves or passives you want. :)