Cheating in Ultima Underworld II

Ultima Underworld II has no built-in cheat system, however, it is still possible to exploit weaknesses in the game engine.

In-Game Cheats

Embezzling Gold

Find NPCs with whom you can barter. If they have any money, they will give all their gold for one gold piece. They will always accept the trade.

Infinite Potions

Junk performing as inexhaustible potion

Breaking a potion, by either throwing it repeatedly against a wall or attacking it, turns it into a pile of garbage. However, said garbage still has the properties of the potion and will never run out of charges! Especially useful with healing and mana potions. This exploit can also be done with single-use spell scrolls. Be careful though! A pile of debris can be dropped gently on the ground. But if it is thrown it will most likely disappear.

Also, it is possible you first have to identify the pile of garbage with either the Lore skill or the spell Name Enchantment.

Unlocking Doors

There are two ways to open door that clearly were not intended this way by the programmers.

Locked doors can be unlocked with Dispel Rune. Despite an error message, all locks are removed. Due to being a 3rd level spell, this also works in Britannia.

In Britannia, spells above level 4 cannot be cast, meaning there is no way to use the Open spell to unlock doors. However, casting the spell in another world and then running back to the door in Britannia while holding the spell on the cursor is allowed. Care has to be taken that the route does not require the player to interact with anything.

Inhibit Sliding

Sliding is a feature of the game and a handicap to the player. To stop it, jump straight up as soon as entering the ice. This will cancel the sliding mechanism (limitation of the engine) and allow you to walk over the ice normally, although sometimes a little slower. Especially useful on Anodunos to get the blackrock gem and in the test of the academy.

Speeding Up Time

The running mechanic (shift + movement with keys) has the effect of increasing the rate certain timing mechanisms. This can be exploited to reduce spell-delay times, waiting for effects to wear off or waiting for mana to regenerate, much faster than normal. Note however that the enemies will also operate at a higher speed.

Find Hidden Doors

Using the get action on walls instead of the look action allows for quick discovery of secret doors, regardless of search skill. If it says "Nothing to get." then there is nothing there. If it says "You cannot pick that up." then there may be a secret door there, continue with the look action or a reveal spell.

For a detailed technical explaination of this, see Ultima Underworld Engine Quirks.

Prevent Enemy Magic

If you've ever tried playing as a ranger or a mage, you've noticed that you can't fire missile weapons or cast projectile spells at point blank range. However, this engine limitation means your enemies can't, either. If you encounter an enemy with a devastating magic attack (imps, gazers, mages, fire elementals, etc) then charge them, get right up in their face, and don't let them get any space between you. They'll be forced to use their weaker melee attacks, making the game a lot easlier.

That is what makes it so deadly against mages in the Pits of Carnage (like when goading Zaria) to use the arena of earth.

File Manipulation

Permanent Light

The way the game manages light has a weakness. To eliminate all darkness, just remove the file SHADES.DAT from the data-directory, making light sources obsolete.

Freezer-Cheating

Using a freezer, the following codes can be used:

Code	Effect
UW27F2307FF	Infinite health
UW26E270BFF	Infinite mana
UW26E2808FF	All runes
UW26E2809FF	All runes
UW26E280AFF	All runes

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Cheats
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