Voluntary Dismemberment

Please note that while “limb” is used in this article, body parts not traditionally considered limbs, such as your face, can be severed.

There are a variety of reasons a Caves of Qud Player may wish to dismember themselves, such as completing the To Thine Own Self Be True or You Are What You Eat achievements, or for an Esper who wishes to receive the Ego bonus for wearing a face without needing to deal with the reputation penalty. Either way, there are a few major techniques for achieving this:

You will need:

 * The Precognition Mutation (Or, if you are a True Kin, a lot of, though you are probably better off using the Regeneration Dismemberment method.)
 * A method of regenerating severed limbs, such as a spare, access to a or , or the Regeneration Mutation.
 * A
 * A few drams of
 * Enough Hitpoints to tank a single dismemberment from a and not die of blood loss while walking away from it
 * A few
 * A method of attacking at range, unless you are confident you can kill a Berserk in melee.

Steps:

 * 1) Find an isolated, ideally in a relatively small pool, surrounded by trees. Areas such as this can be found in plentiful quantity on the banks of the River Svy.
 * 2) Clear the rest of the map so that no hostile creatures can interfere.
 * 3) Make a small clearing around the  body of water by attacking nearby trees, if there is not one already. 3 squares of open land between the  and trees should suffice.
 * 4) Hide in the trees such that the  cannot see you and you cannot see it.
 * 5) Activate your Precognition and walk to the edge of the pool.
 * 6) Pour blood into the pool and wait for the  to swim through it. The  should now go Berserk and begin hacking your limbs off.
 * 7) Let the  rip exactly ONE of your limbs off. If the limb it dismembered was the one you wanted it to, proceed to step 8. If not, end your vision and wait in the trees until Precognition’s cooldown is up, then go back to step 5, repeating as necessary. When repeating, it is not necessary to pour more blood into the water.
 * 8) Immediately begin sprinting and move away from the edge of the pool, keeping in mind that there may now be a pool of blood under you which the  can swim through.
 * 9) Bandage up and kill the.
 * 10) Walk back to the edge of the pool and pick up your severed limb.
 * 11) Through your chosen method, regenerate your lost limb.

Regeneration Dismemberment
This method, while not requiring a method to look into the future, is either extremely costly or extremely slow if you do not have the Regeneration Mutation.

You will need:

 * A method of regenerating severed limbs, such as, access to a or , or the Regeneration Mutation.
 * A
 * A few drams of
 * Enough Hitpoints to tank a single dismemberment from a and not die of blood loss while walking away from it
 * A good deal of
 * A, if using the Regeneration Mutation (Technically optional, but will make the process much, much faster)
 * A method of attacking at range, unless you are confident you can kill a Berserk in melee.

Steps:

 * 1) Find an isolated, ideally in a relatively small pool, and surrounded by trees. These can be found plentiful quantity on the banks of the River Syv.
 * 2) Clear the rest of the map so that no hostile creatures can interfere.
 * 3) Make a small clearing around the  body of water by attacking nearby trees, if there is not one already. 3 squares of open land between the  and trees should suffice.
 * 4) Move into an adjacent map tile and clear it of enemies. (If you are using the Regeneration Mutation. Otherwise, skip to step 6)
 * 5) In this map tile, build a campfire and place down your  (if you have one).
 * 6) Go back into the  tile, walk up to the edge of its pool, and pour blood into the water.
 * 7) Wait for the  to swim through the bloody water. When it does, it should go Berserk and begin hacking your limbs off.
 * 8) Allow the  to rip exactly ONE of your limbs off, then sprint away from the pool, keeping in mind that there may now be a pool of blood under you which the Madpole can swim through.
 * 9) Apply enough bandages to stop the bleeding. If the  dismembered the limb you wanted it to, you may now kill the  and collect your severed limb before going on to step 10
 * 10) Regenerate your lost limb through your chosen method. If this method is the Regeneration Mutation, go to sub-step 1.
 * 11) Sleep in your  until your limb grows back. If you do not have a, use a combination of the wait 100 turns and wait until morning commands to pass time.
 * 12) If you have your desired severed limb, you are now done. Otherwise, repeat steps 6-11 as necessary. When repeating, it is not necessary to pour more blood into the water.