The Ultima 6 Project Walkthrough

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

This Walkthough for the Ultima 6 Project tries to give a complete overview of all the aspects of the game, including tips on various topics like the party and equipment, a detailled main story walkthrough and solutions for all side-quests.

Party Members
The choice of party members is important, and party members have certain restictions, according to their class. Fighters and Tinkers are forbidden from using magic weapons and armour, Bards and Rangers can't use heavy weapons or armour (but magical is allowed), Druids can only use blunt weapons (and no magic swords) and only leather armour (but are allowed to use magic armour).

Your first three companions will never leave. Surprisingly, the choice of characters is easier than you can think, since all the characters that can join while you are stuck on the mainland (minus Blaine) are really good characters and make your party well-rounded. In contrast, the later NPCs are worse and also behind the rest due to having less experience at that point. However, you should only have a seven-man party since you on occassion need the eigth slot for some character and much later, Beh Lem fills it permanently.

The party therefore should consist of the Avatar, Iolo, Shamino and Dupre as set characters. Jaana is an excellent addition, since she is the strongest NPC spellcaster in the game. Gwenno is basically the same as Iolo and therefore has his exact strengths. Julia as a Tinker is strong in battle (but has no magic) and therefore can be a frontliner. Late in the game, Beh Lem can dish out as well (and you need to have him).

Weapons and Armour
With concerns to weapons and armour there is the general rule: magic stuff rules it all All your characters should strive to have the following equipment, with the exceptions listed below:


 * Swamp Boots in order to stop the annoying poisoning in swmps (of which there are a lot of). They can be bought from Utomo in Yew.


 * Magic Armour and Helmets, since these are the best available. They can be bought from Brandon in Trinsic. The Mgaic Shield however can only be found at various locations.


 * Spiked Collars, which give extra protection, which can be bought once from various blacksmiths.


 * Protections Rings, which give extra armour. These are strewn all over Britannia and have to be found.


 * The best melee weapon is the Magic Sword, of there can be found numerous in the arious dungeons (and one on the overword west of Lost Lake).


 * The best distance weapon is the Magic Bow, which can be bought in Britain from Gwenneth.

There are several exceptions to these rules:


 * Avatar

The Avatar should get the Mystic Armour and Mystic Sword from the Lycaeum. Later, switch to use Enilno, which you find in the dungeon Hythloth. Additionally, the Storm Cloak is to be used when dealing with enemy magic, which you get from Mariah at the Lycaeum.


 * Julia

As a Tinker, Julia is resticted to use non-magical weapons and armour, with exception of the magic bow. The best possible equipment for her is plate armour, a great helm and a halberd as a weapon, which can be bought at Serpent's Hold.


 * Jaana

Jaana as a Druid is resticted in her weapons usage, as she is not allowed to use bladed wepons, only blunt ones. Since there are no magical hammers, the best she can use is the Two-Handed Hammer, which can be bought in Trinsic.


 * Beh Lem

As a gargoyle, Beh Lem faces severe restrictions, therefore here the best you can do for him. He can use a magic sword and keep his boomerang as a distance weapon. He can wear a spiked collar and give him four protection rings to ramp up his armour rating.

Magic
Magic is surprisingly complicated issue.

For the part of the game where you are trapped on the main land, you have not much need of magic (since you are too weak to survive dangeons anyway) and the only spells you have need of are healing and cure spells as well as the magic unlock spell. You however should use the time time to already collect as many reagents as you can (more in the next section) in order to fill your stores.

This situation changes dramatically once the world opens up to you.

Generally, all characters that can do magic should have a spellbook in order to cast the most basic spells (heal, cure, unlock, light) so that they free up your main spellcasters, who can save their mana for more important spells. Besides the Avatar, Jaana is the main spellcaster, as she is allowed usage of all spells, while other characters have limitations up to which circle they can learn spells. These two should learn all spells possible. The eigth circle spells from Xiao only become available once you are that level and fulfill her quest (see side-quests).

Generally, the following spells are a must-have, the rest is up to you:


 * Awaken - to counter these annoying sleep spells.
 * Cure - absolutely essential, since poison is everywhere.
 * Dispel Magic - since posession is really annoying to deal with.
 * Light - at least until you get the better spell, so that you are not in the dark in dungeons.
 * Heal - should be self-explandatory.
 * Telekinesis - creates some good shortcuts.
 * Unlock Magic - absolutely needed, alo opens up lots of nice loot.
 * Untrap - since traps are everywhere.
 * Dispel Field - considering the sheer number of magic fields, you do need this.
 * Fetch - nice to get some tucked away items.
 * Great Light - this light spell is much more useful in dungeons and lasts longer as well.
 * Peer - very nice to replace peer gems and lights up dungeons even more.
 * Pickpocket - needed to solve the Phoenix quest, also nice to get good stuff.
 * Reveal - since some enemies (Liches) love to go invisible, having this is a must.
 * Seance - needed to solve the Skara Brae quest.
 * Kill - the ultimate spell to kill single enemies with one blast.
 * Death Wind - THE ultimate spell. One casting destroys huge groups of enemies.

Reagents
Finding reagents is essential in the first half of the game to conserve your money and get what you need for spellcasting. Generally, there are numerous places where harvesting regents is especially easy and all reagents re-grow after a day, so that they can be harvested again. Note that there are many more places where reagents can be found, which should all be written down into the compendium so that they can be found again, but these are simply the most plentiful and also quite easy to reach for harvesting the reagents.
 * Cove Area

The Cove area is very rich in Ginseng and Garlic. Ginsing can be foun around the Ettin camp east of Rudyom's house and Garlic at the coast below a little west of the Swamp Cave. More Ginseng and Garlic can be found a little north on the plateau that runs parallel to the pass that leads from Cove to Minoc, you just need to get ris of some Headless.


 * East of Yew

Just a little outside the eastern gate of Yew there is a respectable patch of Blood Moss on the forest floor, ready to be harvested.


 * Spider Cave

Of course, the Spider Cave south of Empath Abbey holds a huge amount of Spider Silk, just don't expect the Giant Spiders to give it up without a fight. Killing the spider queen nets you 500 of the reagent.


 * Beach North of Skara Brae

The long, big beach north of Skara Brae houses numerous oysters with Black Pearls, that only wait to be picked up.


 * Beach West of Trinsic

The big beach far west of Trinsic holds an even bigger cache of Black Pearls and is even easier to reach.


 * A Bit West of Trinsic

Just a bit west of Trinisc and and up one mountain level, a huge cache of Blood Moss and Ginsing can be found (you need to look aroud a bit to find all of it). This one can be easily missed because of the confusing terrain and you can reach it by first looking north from the lake to find the small path that leads deeper into the mountain/forest.


 * Spektran

Spektran is the big haul. After you've gotten rid of the initial inhabitants of Hydrae, the island is completely safe and houses an obscene amount of Black Pearls, Nightshade and Mandrake Roots. For the latter two reagents, you never need another source for harvesting again (although do so when the opportunity arises), just remember to only harvest from 23:00 - 1:00, when the plants are glowing blue (otherwise they are worthless).


 * Terfin

Terfin is littered with caches of Sulfurous Ash, just be careful with the nasties there.


 * Volkania

The lone volcanic island Volkania south-east of the Isle of the Avatar holds the biggest amout of Sulfurous Ash, but you have to deal with its inhabitants of Drakes first.

Making Money
One of your biggest concerns will be, to make money. After all, the stuff you need to buy will cost you a fortune. There are several ways to fill your coffers.

The straightforward way of course is through fighting, since enemies, especially the humanoid ones, often have gold with them and it quickly adds up. Fighting also gives you the gear of the enemies (when humanoid), which you can sell at the next blacksmith. Just be sure that you don't pick up broken equipment - with brown tags - as these aren't worth anything. Indeed, this is a great tactic later in the game. Go to Jhelom and enter the Heftimus Cave. The waves of evil fighters you can mow down there with the right equipment leave behind tons of gold and especially good equipment which you can sell for ungodly amounts of money at the next blacksmith.

Besides finding money, the other big way to get gold is to sell stuff to the right people. The mint in Britain is pobably your best friend, as you can sell them all your Gold Bars, Gold Nuggets and Gems, which will quickly add up to a considerable sum. Another profitable deal is - surprisingly - to sell peer gems to provisioners, since the price for one alone is quite high. The wine vendors in Empath Abbey and Skara Brae also buy each other's specialty wines for considerable sums.

There are also two one-time ways to make money:


 * Play Nim with Dr. Cat in Paws. The trick to the game is, that you can only win when you are the one to take the first stone, meaning that you should bet the maximum when you have the first turn, and the minimum when Dr. Cat the first turn. The corect number of stones you should take at each turn is always the same and is 3 - 1 - 2. After you've won several thousand gold pieces, Dr. Cat will admit defeat.


 * After you've reached the Lycaeum, talk to Xiao about the eigth level of spells, then get the "Book of Lost Mantras" from the library and go to Spiritwood. Talk to the Xorinite Wisp there and exchange the information in the book for gold, which you can exchange at the mint (the information is useless). That's worth several thousand gold pieces.

Battle Tactics
Simply charing into battle is suicide, you need tactics for certain monsters, or you'll be dead meat faster that you think. While most of the weaker monsters can be simply beaten down in melee combat, others need more refined techniques to survive the encounter with them.

Reapers, Daemons and Liches: These monsters are especially annoying thanks to their magical abilities that can toast you from afar or possess you (which is especially annyoing). You need to avoid these like the plague until you got the Storm Cloak from mariah, which short-circuits their magic. However, that still leaves their powerful physical attacks. Never attack these monsters in melee. Instead, arm your party with magic bows and mow the foes down from afar before they can reach you.

Drakes and Dragons: These thankfully don't do magic, so the cloak isn't needed. However, they have very strong physical attacks, so avoid a melee battle like the plague and use concentrated bow fire. Still, their fire breath does hurt. Once you do have the right level, avoid battles altogether and just kill them outright with Kill and Death Wind to avoid severe injury. And then of course there are the Elder Wyrm Dragons. These DO magic, so wear the cloak. Their hide is so thick, that phsical attacks are useless, so use Kill spells, and even then you need numerous to kill these beasts.

Corpsers: Corspers are very mean monsters, since they surprise you all of a sudden and do massive damage with their attacks. Thankfully, once you do know where they are, you can just stay out of their range and easily kill them with bows. No melee, that would probably cause deaths in the party.

Slimes and Acid Slugs: Probably the most annoying monsters in the game. While the former can poison, the latter destroy non-magical equipment. They also split after being killed the first time, rising their annyoance factor even more. Their sheer numbers in encouters forbid melee. For most of the game, they can only be defeated the slow way; destroying them one by one with bow fire. If an invisibility ring is at hand, place a Powder Keg in the middle of the foes and ignite it with bow fire. Later, the double usage of Death Wind can wipe out even the biggest groups.

Gazers: One of the most dangerous enemies in the game. You need to wear the Storm Cloak to negate their magic, but this helps little sinc ethey then will zoom towards you and hurt you with powerful physical attacks. The best course of action is to weaken them with both fire and then destroy them in melee. Later, use Kill to quickly get rid of them. You should pray you don't meet bigger groups of these.

Gargoyles: You only meet these as enemies in the first third of the game, but that makes things even worse. They guard the shrines and as soon as you come too close, they'll swarm you and rip you to pieces. To prevent that from happening, equip your party with bows and carefully lure the gargoyles away fro mthe shrine so that you can can kill them one by one. The winged ones also cast spells, yet only attack them when you are sure you won't get swarmed by wingless ones.

The Main Quest Walkthrough
This walkthrough goes through all steps needed for the main quest, but not side-quests, which are listed seperately. Note that everything is in a linear fashior here, which in the real game, you often work on multiple objectives at the same time.

Compassion
For a map with labels, see:Cove - Ultima 6 Project Map

You go right into battle after being rescued from the gargoyles, but the battle isn't too hard, since everyone in the throne room helps you. After that is done, talk with Lord British about all topics and also let him heal you. Talk to Nystul next, who will tell you to show the Book of Prophecies to Mariah at the Lycaeum to get more information. Also on his insistance show the Orb of the Moons to Lord British to be able to use it. After all this is doen, get your equipment from you room in the castle and then take all useful equipment from the castle itself (you are freeto do so) and also pick all chests to take all you need. Once you are ready, talk to Geoffrey in the throne room to get teleported to Cove, site of the most recent battle.

You arrive in a carnage and the Shrine of Compassion is surrounded by a force field. Quickly help the citizen to get the wonded survivors to the healer. Once that is done, the women that take care of the Temple of Virtue warn you that the gargoyles have invaded the temple. Talk to the wounded soldiers first before you deal with the problem. Each character should have the best possible equipment and lots of yellow potions at hand before you go into the temple itself. You of course get ambushed inside and the doors get locked. The battle against the gargoyles is not easy, but with enough potions at hand it should be managable.

Just as you win, a winged gargoyle appears and tries to get you, but the arrival of the guards chases him away. Talk with your companions about the orb that the gargoyle used. Cove is safe for now, so return by foot to Britain and talk to the guard at the drawbridge of the castle to lower it, so that you can now enter and leave it as you please.

For a map with labels, see:Britain - Ultima 6 Project Map

Your mission for the time being is to free all of the eight shrines of virtue from the gargoyles. To do so, you need the mantra and the rune for the shrine, which can be found in the city that embodies said virtue. Once you have these two things, it's easy to free the shrine. You actually need to free the five shrines on the mainland, since Arty the shipwright will tell you, that you can't get a ship (they are all used by the government) until the situation on the mainland has de-escalated.

Since you start in Britain, the city of Compassion, and Lord British has told you that the mayor knows more about the situation, go into the town hall and talk to Lord Tholden about it. He tells you that the bards at the conservatory have both, rune and mantra. The conservatory thankfully is just across the street, so talk to the bards Kenneth and Nan, and they will gladly tell you the mantra "MU" and explain, that their young student Ariana has the rune. The young girl however won'tgive it to you until you got permissin from her mother. So visit Anya in the Blue Boar Tavern and get her permission, which will make Ariana release the rune.

Now return to Cove and use the rune near the shrine to free it. Take the moonstone you find on it and use it on the damaged moongate of Britain to repair it (keep the stone!). Then give Lord British a report of your success.

Justice
For a map with labels, see:Yew - Ultima 6 Project Map

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Spirituality
For a map with labels, see:Skara Brae - Ultima 6 Project Map

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Sacrifice
For a map with labels, see:Minoc - Ultima 6 Project Map

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Honor
For a map with labels, see:Paws - Ultima 6 Project Map

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For a map with labels, see:Trinsic - Ultima 6 Project Map

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Valor
For a map with labels, see:Jhelom - Ultima 6 Project Map

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Honesty
For a map with labels, see:Moonglow - Ultima 6 Project Map

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Humility
For a map with labels, see:New Magincia - Ultima 6 Project Map

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The Silver Tablet
For a map with labels, see:Buccaneer's Den - Ultima 6 Project Map

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Finding the Map Pieces
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The Pirate Treasure
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The False Prophet
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The Balloon
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The Sacred Quest
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Restoring the Peace
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Side-Quests
These side-quests are not sorted by city, but by region of Britannia in which they occur in.

Central Britannia
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Northern Britannia
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Eastern Britannia
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Western Britannia
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Southern Britannia
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Islands of Britannia
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