Ultima IX Speedrunning
Ultima IX is a game that is well suited for speedruning due to its many glitches and exploits. At the same time, the frequency of crashes can test the players patience, when trying to complete the game as fast as possible. The any% speedrun made it into ESA Marathon 2019 (The European version of Awesome Games Done Quick).
History[edit]
Talk about beating Ultima IX in the shortest amount of time possible seems to have begun not long after the game's release. By 2003 it had been suggested, that the game could be beaten in about 5½ hours using the bread bridge method to cross the seas and cleansing only three shrines.[1]
It would, however, not be until 2018, when the first recorded full game speedrun of the game would be uploaded to the internet. Utilizing a much faster method for crossing the ocean than the traditional bread bridges as well as the Wizard's Eye trick to jump through walls, the game was beaten in 1 hour 27 minutes and 26 second.[2]
Over the following months several new discoveries were made, which allowed any% time to be lowered well below the one hour mark.[3] Firstly the Dagger of Valor could be collected twice, by first diving into the lava pool and grabbing the one used for the demon cutscene, and then obtaining the second one in the usual way, by helping slay the demon triumvirate. This meant that the Ankh of Spirituality could be skipped entirely and thus no shrines would have to be cleansed to beat the game. Secondly several methods were found to get out of bounds making it faster to traverse the map and complete dungeons.
The latest major breakthrough in Ultima IX speedrunning is the discovery of a way to duplicate sigils, when cleansing shrines.[4] This enables many new routing possibilities and has yet to be fully implemented in all speedrun categories.
World Record Progression[edit]
| Time | Runner | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 51m 28s | Squibbons | 2020-07-15 |
| 52m 10s | Cid | 2018-12-16 |
| 52m 30s | Cid | 2018-08-21 |
| 53m 23s | Cid | 2018-08-12 |
| 58m 01s | Cid | 2018-07-14 |
| 1h 01m 11s | Cid | 2018-06-28 |
| 1h 04m 32s | Cid | 2018-06-27 |
| 1h 10m 43s | Cid | 2018-06-25 |
| 1h 27m 26s | Cid | 2018-06-21 |
| Time | Runner | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 56m 51s | Cid | 2021-10-04 |
| 1h 10m 01s | Squibbons | 2020-07-06 |
| 1h 12m 25s | Cid | 2018-09-08 |
| 1h 15m 06s | Cid | 2018-09-02 |
| 1h 18m 14s | Cid | 2018-08-24 |
| 1h 27m 26s | Cid | 2018-08-23 |
| Time | Runner | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 3h 22m 39s | Squibbons | 2020-06-27 |
Categories[edit]
Speedruns have currently been completed in the following four categories:
- Any% (Complete the game as fast as possible)
- Any% No Debug Room (The teleporters in the avatars driveway are not allowed)
- No Major Glitches
- Kill Lord British
Movement Options[edit]
Jumping[edit]
The fastest movement option in Ultima IX, is jumping forwards while the Leggings of Sentri are equipped. As these can be obtained quickly through the Debug Room, the Any% category relies heavily on this type of movement and the current No Debug route picks up the Leggings early on, as the extra movement speed adds up to a lot of time save over the speedrun. Landing lag varies depending on how the jump is performed. If the jump is aimed too high off the ground, the Avatar will get stuck in midair, and fall straight downwards with extra landing lag afterwards. Shorter landing lag can also be achieved by Ledge Cancelling the jump. This is performed by landing on a steep ledge that the Avatar then slides down. Upon touching the ground after such a slide, there is less lag than when landing a normal jump. If the jump lands too far up a ledge, however, the time it takes to slide back down to the ground might be greater than the time the saved by the shorter lag.
Running Sideways[edit]
The second fastest movement option in the game is running sideways. As No Debug Room runs do not have early access to the Leggins of Sentri, this is the primary method for getting around until they are obtained. Moving in this way presents can be challenging, as the camera in Ultima IX remains oriented in the direction of a forwards run, when moving sideways. It can thus be challenging to see where you are going, when moving in this manner.
Swimming[edit]
Swimming is very slow in Ultima IX. Hence any routing of the game will likely try to minimize time spent in the water. ways of doing this include getting as close to the water's edge as possible and inputting a jump from there and crossing where the continents are the closest to one another. Because of the slowness of swimming taking a longer route, that cuts down on swim distance can often end up saving time.
Glitches & Exploits[edit]
Journal Paddling[edit]
By repeatedly opening and closing the journal, while swimming through deep water, the stamina meter ticks down a little more slowly, enabling the player to swim between the continents in the places, where they are close to one another. This trick works best in the GOG version of the game, which might be related to it capping the frame rate at 30fps resulting in fewer frames of oxygen depletion per second, though this has not been confirmed. The technique also works on other versions of the game, but require more intensive mashing of the journal, and may be impossible at some of the wider crossing locations. Methods of ocean travel without a boat have been known about for a long time, but took a significant amount of time to set up, making them less suitable for speedruns.
Invincibility Glitch[edit]
By saving and loading after drinking a purple potion, the Avatar may become permanently invincible. Once this glitch is performed, the ocean can now be crossed without the need of Journal Paddling and enemies and other hazards pose no risk of ending the run.
Wizard's Eye Glitch[edit]
A long documented glitch in the game allows the player to jump through walls on the next jump after casting Wizard's Eye. As most speedruns are short enough, that binding spells to the spellbook isn't worth it, the three instances of the Wizard's Eye scroll in the game must be used wisely to save the most possible time.
Inventory Glitch[edit]
The well know inventory glitch causes most enemies to not attack the Avatar, while moving around with the inventory open. This can be useful even after activating the invincibility glitch, as enemies will be less likely to get in your way.
Clipping Out of Bounds[edit]
Several methods exist for getting out of bounds in Ultima IX and the maps also contains several holes, that can simply be moved through. By jumping through a change level trigger, the game will spawn the player further forwards in the next map which may place the Avatar out of bounds. Change level triggers can also be bypassed by inputting a jump towards them followed by opening and closing the journal. In some maps this lets you get out of bounds, as the corridors are not always sealed off beyond the change level trigger.
Navigating specific dungeons as well as the main world map can often be faster out of bounds, but this presents the challenge of getting back into the map, which is not always a simple task.
Duplicating Sigils[edit]
When cleansing a shrine, sigils can be duplicated in the following way:
- Place the Glyph and Sigil on the shrine and input the wrong mantra
- Now move a specific distance horizontally away from the shrine. Likely until it is unloaded from memory.
- Approach the shrine once more and drag the sigil onto the Avatar.
- As the game seemingly doesn't distinguish between placing and removing items from a trigger, the shrine will now promt the player for the mantra once more.
- Input the correct mantra and a new sigil spawns out of thin air.
Debug room[edit]
As in other Ultima Games, a debug room was left in the final game by the developers as an easter egg, to let the player start the game with advanced equipment and in locations
Locate the fence with a closed gate behind the Avatar's house. Climb on the golden ankh or training dummy and jump over the fence. Find the lever hidden near a bush by the large tree. Pull the lever to make teleporters appear that will equip your character with armor and allow travel to various places in Britannia. Note: You can not return by teleporter once you leave.
- 1 To Stonegate, as per Moongate
- 2 To the Terfin Secret Entrance
- 3 To Buccaneer's Den
- 4 To Ambrosia
- 5 To Dungeon Despise
- 6 To Britain
- 7 To Valoria
- 8 To Cove
- 9 To Trinsic
- 10 To Skara Brae
- 11 To New Magincia
- 12 Equips Avatar with Artifact Armour
- 13 Equips Avatar with Wyrmguard Armour
- 14 Equips Avatar with Pirate Outfit
- 15 Equips Avatar with Bone Armour
- 16 Equips Avatar with Blackrock Armour
Note that teleporters unmarked either do nothing or transport the Avatar back a few paces to near the equipment generating Teleporters.
Teleporter 1 will start the Avatar as a mage unless he has spoken to the Gypsy to select his class, in which case that choice will be honored. It also resets the equipment carried to the proper starting set. The other teleporters to Britannia don't adjust the Avatar's stats, although they do transport the equipment carried, unlike the normal moongate.
Arriving in Britannia through the Debug Room, let's the player keep any equipment gathered on earth, such as the Two Handed Sword and Med Kit.
The current Any% route uses teleporter 12 to equip the artifact armor, and then teleporter 8 to teleport to Cove.