Hello and welcome!

We begin this guide with Masterwork, a pretty nice item mod all things considered! The extra critical chance it provides you with can be the difference between living and dying against certain enemies, plus it's just a DPS boost on average so why not!

It also has some synergy with the silly gloves that boost %-based effects, making multiple crits in a row a much more common occurrence, which is very good for murder!

Also, just know that Masterwork works very well with single weapon fighting which is *cough* ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ broken as ♥♥♥♥ *cough*.

Overall this is a solid item mod! Not a bad choice for the average earlygame tinker.

High Capacity isn't really all that useful when other mods like Jacked or even just higher tiered cells exist. There aren't too many reasons to mod a cell with this, you are better off just setting a biodynamic cell to autocollect red goo instead.

Unless you are doing something funky with things like solar or fidget cells, I would recommend steering clear of this one.

Items getting broken or cracked isn't really a big deal when you can just wait it out. Plus, the AV penalty you will suffer for getting your armor busted up will likely not affect things all that much, you may take a little more damage in the worst case scenario.

That said, it's not like there's a reason to avoid sturdy gear, it just takes up a potential modding slot and doesn't do all that much in return.

Grenades have the potential to be the most broken thing in the game, and Airfoil makes them... slightly stronger? Being able to throw them at greater distance is nice, but you already have access to a skill that can do just that. Plus, having to mod each and every grenade can really take big bites out of your scrap reserve.

If you really love hurling plasma grenades but hate accidentally getting a bit of the fart cloud on yourself, maybe give this a try? Can't recommend it too much though.

Having extra gun range is nice, and it gets even more nice if you slap this mod on a weapon with ♥♥♥♥♥♥ accuracy, like the chain pistol for example. Giving a rapid fire, low accuracy weapon extra accuracy will crank that thing's damage up to 11 real quick, plus it's fun to snipe losers with a sick ass choppa from 10 miles away in the salt desert.

On high accuracy weapons? It's a bit overkill, but it is still a nice bonus.

And yeah, you can put it on a sniper rifle for the full sniper cosplay, but you are already going to be hitting most of your shots regardless, so it's not that big of a deal.

This item mod gives all weapons besides cudgels +1 penetration. And it's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ great.

Now, you might be thinking to yourself; "One? According to my preschool education, one is a low number! That mod sounds like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥ Dave! Please let me see my family again!"

Don't underestimate the power of an extra one penetration, as if you are a huge mega-nerd like me and like learning about damage rolls in this game, you will come to realize that a +1 penetration roll can make all the difference. I'm talking big DPS upgrades people, its good.

Sucks that cudgels can't be sharp though.

Visored gives whatever helmet you are wearing an extra one DV. To put it simply, it objectively makes whatever helmet you are wearing better for free. This is good! Not sharp good, but it's still good!

Though you are missing out on some pretty nice mods in exchange for what is really just a very slight buff to your survivability. Helmets have some super amazing mods, and you are missing out on at least one of them if you use visored. It isn't bad though, free DV is still free DV.

Fitted with Cleats is... ok? Maybe? There isn't anything bad about it, having extra saves against movement can be super useful, but isn't it just a little... boring?

Yeah, it's cool and all to avoid being torn to shreds by the occasional madpole, and slams won't send you nearly as far, but are you really going to waste a mod slot on this? It just doesn't really do enough to make it worth using in most cases, it's just meh.

Unless you are going for a full-esper build (why) and chose to completely dump strength into the nearest trash bin, there is no reason to mod things to be slender. On most runs, you won't really be managing item weight, let alone be at a disadvantage because of it.

Plus, it makes spheres of negative weight useless, because that makes sense I guess!

Pass.

This is just the same thing as Slender, but better I guess? Again, there's no real need to mod things to be Willowy or Slender unless you are playing a hyper-specific esper build. Even if you are playing full esper, there are more convenient ways to mitigate weight penalties, like negative weight spheres.

Speaking of which, Willowy makes spheres of negative weight even less than useless, cool!

Avoid Willowy and Slender, they are just scrap dumps that will eat into your resources for middling benefits.

As somebody who believes the item durability system in this game is stupid, moronic, and quite frankly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ baffling, this mod makes me a very happy man!

Acid and lava no longer ♥♥♥♥ over your gear (for the most part) and rust becomes a thing of the past. If you are going into the rust wells and cherish a specific item, you should probably mod it to be Lacquered.

It doesn't really do anything for you offensively or defensively, but it makes certain stupid aspects of the game more tolerable, and I like that!

Please ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ remove the durability system from the game devs! I'm going to lose my mind if my boots get melted from touching a puddle of lava another time!

Still love you though!

Did you know, this mod used to do absolutely nothing whatsoever? Yeah, it was bugged! It isn't anymore though, and it's quite nice!

Not getting stunned nearly as much breathes life into my veins and waters my crops, no feeling brings me more joy than ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ over a galgal's charge.

However, It isn't a 100% chance, so don't go waltzing into stunlocks thinking you are completely safe, exercise some caution buddy.

Even though cancelling stuns is super useful for such an easy to find mod, it is competing with some really powerful ♥♥♥♥, so it falls behind pretty hard.

At least it ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ works now though!

Bird reputation isn't really valuable at all, since you already start out on good terms with them. It can be good if you are looking to get a specific skill or secret from one though, but that's about it.

There's much better options out there, pass on this one.

Knowing how much charge you have in a cell sounds useful, until you realize that it doesn't matter if you can just find a way to get infinite charge and completely remove the need to check energy levels. Biodynamic cells can do this quite easily, and with pretty good consistency, so there is no real need to have this extra information unless you really love looking at numbers.

Pass, even High Capacity is better than this.

Unlike bird reputation, unshelled reptile reputation is a super useful thing to stock up on! There are so many awful little scalies just waiting to rip your face off, and preventing that from happening entirely by pretending to be one of them works really well!

Even if you are on super bad terms with reptiles, just wearing two pieces of Scaled armor should make them neutral to you.

However, Scaled does become completely useless if you are already chill with the lizards, so keep that in mind.

Heat resistance is pretty unimportant in qud, but Cold resistance is really nice for not dying horribly. Stack this mod multiple times with other pieces of armor and you should be pretty well off against most common elemental threats. Again though, it is competing with some pretty good stuff down the line.

Plus, Carapace exists, and that mutation is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ broken in every way shape and form! And I wouldn't have it any other way!

Movement speed for free is HUGE. Even just putting on one pair of spring loaded shoes will give you a noticable edge against most enemies. The amount of speed you get being randomized from 5-10 does suck though, but there always is the chance you could roll that fat ten.

it's one of the better foot mods, would recommend for most players and builds.

Missing attacks in this game sucks ass! Counterweighted helps with that a whole lot!

Depending on the weapon it is applied to, Counterweighted grants 1-3 bonus to-hit per attack roll, which in non-loser terms roughly translates to "really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good". Enemies with super high DV like crypt ferrets and most arachnids get utterly ♥♥♥♥♥♥ by this mod, along with every other enemy in the game because hitting things more is just good dude!

If you aren't interested in elemental mods, you should really consider both this one and sharp.

One extra AV is... good I guess? It's similar to Visored, but generally worse due to AV being a much more common resource to find in Qud. Most armors give you heavy bonuses to AV already, and the neutron flux cheese still exists (somehow) so there isn't much use for this one.

Only consider this one if you are really desperate for AV, or just want to be a flesh tank.

Most gases aren't that big of a deal, but the ones that are REALLY are. Sleep gas and stun gas in particular can go suck a fat one, they are consistent run enders that will leave you scrambling and trapped in eternal stun hell. Fitted with Filters has the potential to stop this, but you need to invest pretty hard in it.

It's effects get better the higher tiered the item it is put on is, capping out at a +10 save bonus on things like zetachrome apexes. Though with so many good helmet mods being available, it feels a bit wasteful to put something like this on such a high-tier item.

Still isn't a bad choice though, if you struggle with gas this mod is for you.

Lowering the DV penalty on armor is really good, and can help balance your AV and DV pretty easily. It's usefulness kinda falls towards the very late game, but that's only once you get zetachrome gear, and even then having some extra DV is always nice.

Flexiweaved also makes those completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ useless heavy armors actually usable, carbide and fullerite armor no longer screw you over (you are still better off finding other armors though).

It's good, give it a shot if you haven't.

Unless you are in the super-earlygame, Lanterned has no purpose whatsoever. Just get a floating glowsphere, or anything else that provides light really.

Nothing else to say, this one is just ♥♥♥♥.

Having a massive 20% extra clip size is not only as strong as it sounds, but also really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fun. Pairing this one with chainguns and going for the 0% ammo efficiency build kicks ass.

That's not even considering the fact that pistols benefit greatly from this mod, since most of the pistol skills involve quickness and firing as many shots left as you have in the clip. Bigger clip equals more shots.

♥♥♥♥ yeah.

You aren't really going to be freezing many things with this mod, but you will be doing extra damage! And here in Qud, we just love extra damage!

It's pretty similar to Flaming, since they don't really have much effect outside of the scaling bonus damage you get. Sure the temperature changes scale too, but not nearly as much as you would think.

It's just free damage, take it.

It's freezing, but instead it sets things on fire sometimes!

It's worse than freezing due to fire just not being as useful as ice, but it's still just extra free damage, no reason not to snag this one for most builds.

Plus you get a sick-ass flaming weapon, and that's pretty neat!

Electrified is one of the other two elemental mods, but it's elemental effect actually triggers in most situations!

Sure, it isn't the most reliable effect, but it's just free damage with a chance to hit nearby enemies, so why not! Plus, robots get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ extra hard by this mod! Remember that they all have a major weakness to electric damage!

Call that ♥♥♥♥ bonus-bonus damage, amirite? Haha, we have fun here.

Also, I should mention the fact that prayer rod in conjuction with the elemental mods is one of the highest damage dealing weapons in the game, just thought I should go over that.

Somewhat immunity against specifically flashbang grenades...

No.

Turning your body into a water-generator is nice! Plus it pairs very well with the Liquid-cooled mod, one I will discuss shortly.

The water generation is slow as balls though, and the need for water diminishes the later in the game you get, making this mod still pretty situational.

It isn't the worst option, but unless you got a metric ton of water-cooled guns, you probably should avoid this one.

Liquid-Cooled is one of the more interesting mods, sacrificing convenience for raw damage output. Having to always be filling your guns up sucks big time, but things like the previously mentioned Recycling mod can help to alleviate this, especially if it is set to auto-collect.

Overall, if you are the type of person who can deal with a lot of micromanaging, you are going to love this mod.

But for simpletons like me and many others, I don't want to be caught with my pants down against a girsh nephilim with a watergun that's completely out of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ water.

This one is really just up to playstyle.

Two-Faced is in the running for best mod in the game, and I will tell you why.

Think of all the broken face-slot items in this game, imagine how ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stupid it would be if you could wear two of them at no cost. Severed faces, dazzle cheeks, dream rondures, all of these become twice as broken for free.

This isn't even mentioning the fact that you can now pair sultan masks with another one of these aforementioned face slot items, and since stat boosts don't get halved when there are multiple limbs, this gets stupid real quick!

This one is really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good, don't ignore it.

BOO!

Haha, did I get you? Anyways.

Reducing the cooldown of some really underwhelming skills at the cost of your ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ FACE SLOT is a trade so awful that I take offense that the game even offers it to begin with.

The real terrifying thing here isn't the visage, it's how ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ garbage this mod is!

For mutants, you aren't going to bat an eye at this one, maybe you could get some use out of it if you are the type of player to use shields often, but even then it's just meh.

For true-kin, even hearing the word "spiked" should immediately cause an instant tsunami-level orgasm. Being able to punch the ♥♥♥♥ out of things while racking up nutty bleed damage makes my day and rocks my one big sock off.

It really just depends on what you are playing as for this.

Plus one Agility is like plus one DV, but even better! You get all the bonuses of a free stat upgrade in a convenient package that is relatively easy to find! Sure, it doesn't scale with item value, but it's still a really great filler mod!

Plus, it makes the text on your gloves green, and I like the color green!

Granted, Willpower is always good to have, but trading a face slot for one Willpower and a slight buff to meditate of all things is still a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥ deal.

Avoid it, trash it, burn it.

Having some bonus navigation skills is nice, plus it actually stacks with compass bracelets! Though keep in mind that it doesn't stack with itself, which stinks.

Most of the items that can be modded with Nav kinda suck, but they can be put on night-sight interpolators, which is the only item you should even consider putting Nav on to begin with.

It's good, but if you have full wayfaring skills, it's useless.

Dismembering opponents with long blades.

Higher dismember chance with axes.

A chance to decapitate even if you don't have the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ skill.

Yes.

♥♥♥♥ yes.

This one is tricky. Scaling free strength is really good, but disabling a floating slot is really bad. Unless you have something like Light Manipulation or Night Vision, you are going to be struggling a lot.

However, if you are both willing and prepared to deal with the downsides of Gesticulating, you get a sizable strength buff at no real cost.

It's alright, though newer players should be advised to take this one with a grain of salt, strength (mostly) isn't everything in Qud.

Now we are getting to the big boy mods, the real meaty ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Jacked, combined with either Electrical Generation or Biodynamic power plant grants whatever item you put it on, infinite charge. Just think for a moment, the amount of things you can do with this. Phase Cannons can recharge over time, Chain Lasers can almost always be firing.

It would take me hours to list off all the items that become borderline broken with Jacked, that's how good this mod is.

Also, you can disarm turrets for free jacked guns, so that's cool too!

It's like Jacked, but it only really works on the surface and doesn't require either of the aforementioned skills or cybernetics. This is both good and bad, since it just gives you free charge while you are on the surface, regardless of if it is night or day (suck it solar cells) but you kinda get ♥♥♥♥♥♥ if you want to go spelunking.

Though since 90% of this game takes place on the surface, this isn't a really big deal to most players.

You can pretty much go wild with this one, have fun!

Protection from an EMP is good I guess? Though unless you chose Electromagnetic Impulse as your defect, you aren't going to be encountering things that can EMP you that often.

Sure, getting your gear turned off can be a run ender, but usually players will have backup tools in case of emergency.

Not much need for this one, pass.

Chance to refract light-based attacks.

♥♥♥♥ you.

Overloaded kinda sucks if you don't know what you are doing. Having your items break is a constant threat with this mod, plus you really aren't getting that much out of it all things considered. This is until you realize that temporal fugue is a thing that does in fact exist!

Your clones can break their powerful tools all they want, it won't matter to you unless you break your own gear yourself. You can just spawn a bunch of clones, let them do the shooting, and you get to sit back and watch.

But, what else can you do with Overloaded? Seems kinda gimmicky to me! I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hate you Dave, you suck at this! Let me see my family again!

Shut up, this is where the Sturdy mod comes into play.

Modding a weapon/item with both Sturdy and Overloading prevents your ♥♥♥♥ from crumbling to dust every few minutes. In fact, it prevents it from EVER breaking, regardless of circumstance. Sounds, as the kids would say, "peak" right?

Well, it is, and isn't.

Modding a weapon with Sturdy just to protect it from shattering under the effects of Overloading eats up two of your modding slots. With things like guns, this especially sucks. You now have to choose between Nanon and Beamsplitter, which is just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cruel. With items though? There's a bit more leeway. Pretty much anything worn on the arm or back is just free, and ♥♥♥♥ like Dazzle Cheek is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ NASTY.

So, in the end, you gotta pick your poison. Have some extra damage on your guns in exchange for some other spicy mods; or risk having all the sex-worthy mods on one gun with a chance for it to blast into teeny-tiny little pieces!

Sturdy and Overloaded on most items is just broken though, so mod those whenever you have the chance.

Displacer would be good if it teleported enemies more than four ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tiles away on a hit, then it could be used as a panic tool. As it stands now, it just serves to annoy you and make enemies harder to hit by ever so slightly pushing them away from you.

It's also a very energy hungry mod, making it hard to use for extended periods of time so I don't even really know what the devs were thinking with this one.

Made a bit of an error for the original description of this one, whoopsies!

As it turns out, nulling does not null you, if you put the mod on a weapon that is. This is... still just kinda ok? I mean, you can break down forcefields, so that's pretty nice, but you won't really be doing much else.

You could try to run in and get a few hits on a high-level esper with a nulling weapon, but if you are fighting high-level espers, you likely have a ton of high-level mental mutations yourself. It just makes more sense to fight espers from a distance anyways, so this mod is still pretty limited in use. It isn't ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ though!

If you don't have any sources of Phasing, this mod is completely useless.

If you do have a way to phase out, this mod can potentially be completely broken.

That's it.

It's Phase-Harmonic, but with just grenades.

Again, if you have Phasing or shade tonics, it can be overpowered.

If you don't it sucks ass.

That's it.

Free Intelligence is nice, and even though mutants don't benefit from compute power, It's a solid option to slap on any old helmet.

However, for True-Kins, Co-Processor should be treated as one of the most powerful tools in the game. Having all of your cybernetics buffed for free kicks ass, especially considering the fact that the cybernetics that are affected by compute power tend to be the best.

It's good both ways, a really good pick.

Yeah, yeah, you can temporarily clone yourself with this mod if you put it on a space inverter, big whoop.

But I like this mod for a different reason.

Lower penetration sucks ass, but consider the fact that you are firing THREE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ shots at once. Spacer rifles become shotguns, laser pistols become bullet hoses, and combined with mods like nanon, any energy weapon becomes a limb shredding machine.

Plus, it's just fun to see all the bullets flying everywhere!

Putting this mod on a good laser weapon is like snorting a dozen lines of crack, you will shred everything to bits from miles away. Imagine if axes could be used at any range? Imagine if some axes could penetrate through multiple targets at any range?

Nanon is so absolutely broken it's unreal. If you get it early you can pretty much make it to the reef with a laser rifle alone.

It also has a chance to decapitate enemies. And of course you don't even need the skill for it to do this.

Good ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ lord.

Making items weightless at the cost of energy has one, and I mean ONE use.

Swarm rack.

If you somehow managed to get a swarm rack, you can hold it without any problems with this mod, but other than this extremely specific scenario, this mod has little to no other use cases.

I see people talking about how this mod is arguably the best one in the game, and I can see where they are coming from. Stunning an entire faction of enemy is both fun and powerful, and can be the difference between life and death in the most extreme of circumstances.

Though the main issue I have with this mod is that very aspect of it; stunning a faction of enemy. Unless you are in a historical site where only one faction of enemy can spawn or you just happen upon a group of snapjaws having wet sloppy sex, you aren't really going to be stunning that many enemies all things considered.

It's still a very good mod, but I think it is a little overrated, and it absolutely isn't the best mod in the game.