Ultima III Walkthrough

This is a walkthrough for Ultima III, which will go into the needed things to win the game and also give some gameplay tips. However, it will not go into all details of gameplay.

Useful Links

 * Character Attributes in Ultima III
 * Dungeon Solution for Ultima III
 * Ultima III Locations Map

Character Creation
You first off need to decide what kind of party you want. A party of pure spellcasters or fighters has low survival chances, so you need to create a proper mix. A good party would be:


 * A dwarven Paladin
 * An elven Thief
 * A bobbit Cleric
 * A fuzzy Wizard

This party can dish out in combat, has both kinds of magic available (very important) and can get loads of gold quickly. Once the character creation is done, you should right away use the little gold you have to get basic equipment from the nearest town and equip it.

An even better party would be made of four healers, all with starting Wisdom = 20: This party can heal up extremely quickly, because every character can cast the "Sanctu" spell since the game start. This greatly increases their chances if they meet multiple groups of strong enemies. The Paladin and the Ranger are strong attackers who can equip bows. The Illusionist replaces the Thief. In the dungeons, an Illusionist with high dexterity will dodge most traps, a Paladin with high Wisdom will cast durable "Sominae" light spells (saving Gold on torches), leaving the Cleric with the sole duty of casting "Vieda" mapping spells (saving Gold on gems).
 * A dwarven Cleric
 * A fuzzy Illusionist (WIS + DEX)
 * A bobbit Paladin (WIS + STR)
 * A human Ranger (INT + WIS + DEX)

Starting off
Your first problem is that your party are weak like kittens and badly equipped. Thankfully, higher level enemies only appear after you level up yourself, so you have time to train properly. Start hunting down overworld enemies to get experience and gold, while you constantly load up on food and equipment as well as slightly better weapons and armour. Equipped ranged weapons, as they give a tactical advantage against the enemies.

This way you can grind until you've reached level 5, after which Lord British refuses to advance you further.

Gathering information
After this is done, it is time to get some important things done. With you at level five, pirate ships now spawn and you should board one as quick as possible.

Visit all the towns in Sosaria and gather information. You will learn that you need three things to beat Exodus:
 * 1) Four Marks: they are found deep in the dungeons, but right now the heroes are still too weak to brave them; how can they improve their attributes?
 * 2) Exotic Arms: details about their location can be learned in magic town of Dawn, but first you still have to learn about the location of such town!
 * 3) Four Cards: they are found searching the Shrines of Truth, but where are such shrines?

One more character claims to have been beyond the Whirlpool. This is a thing the party can do, too.

Ambrosia and the Cards


The next station of the journey is Ambrosia, but first some things need to be done.

Before you visit Ambrosia, you need your coffers full with gold, since the shrines are the only way to raise your attributes, but demand gold for the job. That means you need to get the maximum gold for every character. There are several ways to do so. One is tirelessly fight enemies on the surface. A very efficient method is to repeatedly loot the first level of the Dungeon of the Snake, where there are 18 chests, but enemies are still weak. In the NES port, you can also give blood to the healers in Britain Castle and Moon, then heal and repeat; you get 30 G per 100 HP donated.

Besides looting dungeons, one attractive solution is to visit the city of Death Gulch, bribe away the guards and then loot the chests in the city, then leave the city and re-enter it to repeat. Still, this method is less efficient than looting the Dungeon of the Snake: because of the bribes, it grants less gold, and because of the strong guards, it can be done safely only by an advanced party.

Once you have the needed gold, steer your ship into the whirlpool and you'll arrive in Ambrosia.

Ambrosia is a quite dangerous place, since enemies like Balrons and Devils are quite plentiful on it, but they are usually locked behind doors. You also need a map of the place, as the layout is confusing and can easily mislead the unwary one. Your main goal in Ambrosia is to find the four shrines, as searching the shrines gives your the Four Cards, which are very important for the final battle. Offering gold at the shrines raises the attribute the shrine stands for. The more gold, the higher the gain, so donate huge sums (just be sure you won't be completely bankrupt) to quickly raise your attributes.

In the NES port, you can also get flowers. Many Sosarians said that Sherry (Noriko Hidaka) loves them.

Once that is done, you can leave Ambrosia with the ship you have found, by again steering it into the whirlpool.

You will need more visits to Ambrosia in order to max out at least two attributes per character. Simply gather more gold in the Dungeon of the Snake and then repeat the journey for more shrine donations.

Bring the Ambrosian flowers to Sherry (Noriko Hidaka) in Britain, and she will exchange them for Compass Hearts.

The Exotics and the Marks
Once each character has two attributes maxed out, the party is strong enough to explore the Dungeons down to the bottom. Start from the Mines of Morinia, where you can easily get to the 8th level and obtain the following two Marks:
 * The Mark of Kings allows the characters to be promoted up to level 25 (i.e. 2550 HP).
 * The Mark of Fire allows the characters to walk through lava without getting damaged.

As soon as you find the Mark of Fire, you can talk to the Jester in Lava (Castle Britannia). He reveals the location of the town of Dawn. In the magic town, you can get the final clues to locate the Exotic Arms. In the NES port, a character adds a further clue: "Search the island!"

In the NES port, the command is replaced by two tools: the Gold Pick and the Silver Pick. The golden one is in one chest in the Guild Shop in Dawn; the silver one is at the bottom of the Cave of Death (Dardin's Pit).

After visiting Dawn, sail to the islands with the Exotic Armour and Exotic Weapons and dig them up. The Exotic Armour is the best in the game and also has no class restrictions, so wear them right away. The weapons are a bit different, since they are melee. Equip only your magic users with them for now and let your fighters use missile weapons, which are more effective against the monsters.

Next on your list is getting all four of the marks and the Time Lord, since you can't win without them. Note that each character needs all four Marks.
 * The Mark of the Snake of course is only found in the Dungeon of the Snake, which can be reached by the crescent waxing moon (1) moongate. The mark is gained on level 8 and allows passage of the Great Earth Serpent with the right password.
 * The Mark of Force is easiest found in the Dungeon of Doom on level 8. The mark allows the party to walk through force fields without taking any damage.
 * The Time Lord can only be met at the bottom of the Dungeon of Time (only accessible via moongate). He teaches you the right order of the cards.

Once you have acquired the marks, it is time to face the next problem at hand.

Fighting Exodus


Some final preparations need to be done.

Pray in the Circle of Light in Yew in order to get the password "Evocare". Equip everyone with the Exotics, then sail to the Isle of Fire and the Great Earth Serpent. Yell the password to access the Isle of Fire.

Now, quickly enter the castle, or you'll be attacked by hostile greenery. Once inside, you have no time to lose, as random explosions happen inside the castle, that hurt quite a bit. The northern way is a decoy, instead take either the western or eastern way. Regardless which one, you'll get confronted by one horde of Balrons and no less than four waves of Dragons, which also can shoot you outside of combat, so better confront them right away. Making your way north and then through the force fields, you sooner or later should see water, meaning you are almost there.

There however is one last obstacle: living Floor! Yes, you can't see them and they can hurt a lot. And there are four waves of them. Your best bet is to line up your men at the bottom of the screen and let the floor come to you in order to destroy it. You should hope you have enough health left for this fight. Should you prevail, you can finally get your hands onto Exodus' main frame and need to sabotage it in order to stop the monster once and for all.

Insert the cards from left to right in the order that you learned from the Time Lord. If you have done it right, Exodus explodes and is done for. If you did it wrong, he'll kill you.