Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Ultima IV: Wrong


No introduction or preparations this time. My party's full and well optimized, I've got plenty of supplies except for Zdowns and the ingredients needed to make more of them, not much cash, and I don't feel like farming gold when I'm likely to find some in a new dungeon I'm pretty sure I can survive.

Wrong, the dungeon of anti-Justice, lies deep in the High Steppes mountain range north of the Serpent's Spine where Despise's entrance is hidden, and can only be spotted by trudging slowly around the north coast. I go there next.

I have Geoffrey, who lags behind the party by two levels, do as much of the killing as possible. With no access to magic spells, he can't conjure any big wipeouts like Tremor or Jinx, but at least he hits real hard with a magic sword, able to kill just about anything within three hits, and isn't too shabby with a crossbow either. And the spellcasters can support with Sleep, Negate, Heal, and if things get bad enough, Protect. Quickness seems like overkill and the manual suggests there are aging side effects but doesn't elaborate.

 

Level 1


Yep, that's a swastika mosaic. Zelda might have had its manji dungeon, but there's no mistaking this clockwise one for something else.

Nothing to do here but take the secret exit down - I image you probably wouldn't find it without a peering gem.


Level 2


I'm right next to two ladders going down, but first I explore the spider-filled, slime-dripping passage. Geoffrey is allowed most of the kills; unfortunately he can't use any magic at all, so it's crossbows while cowering behind Julia's plate and Katrina's crook.

The passage winds around past two fountains, both of them healing, before returning to the start. I take the north ladder first.

The black room before it has a fixed encounter.

Level 3a

 

Magic death ball on this floor, behind a false wall! I test in on myself - it deals 400 damage and improves dexterity/intelligence, or it would if I weren't already maxed out on my stats.

We can make a logical, but possibly pointless insight here. Despise, the antithesis of Compassion - Love's virtue - has dexterity-boosting orbs. Wrong, which opposes Justice, a combination of Truth and Love, boosts dexterity and intelligence. Hylothe's orbs boost strength, dexterity, and intelligence, and opposes Spirituality, which is composed of Truth, Love, and Courage. Therefore, dexterity must be aligned with Love, intelligence with Truth, and strength with Courage.

There's two ladders down - I take the southern one first.


Level 4a

 

Just a straight shot in a cash-filled corridor to the ladder back up.

3a's other ladder down leads to...

 

Level 4b

 

The ladder down here is surrounded by four fixed encounter rooms.

North - Geoffrey holds a chokepoint; the trolls are too stupid to walk around it.

 

Level 5


Ah, what a dumb level. Every tile you can step on blows out your torch - just find a ladder going down, any ladder will do.
 

Level 6

 

What seems like a dead-end passage has four secret sub-passages going south, each one blocked by magic fields. The center two have healing fountains and damaging orbs - they also have fixed encounter squares that must be fought going both ways.

The leftmost and rightmost passages have ladders going down. I take the left one first.

No, moving my whole party through this winding, narrow passage wasn't annoying at all!


Level 7a

 

Not much to say here. There's a straight path to the ladder down, and a long windy path to an effectless fountain and a stat orb. Spellcasting, immobile reapers like to spawn here.

The right wall conceals a passage. You might not realize that without a peering gem.

 

Level 8


Four fixed encounter rooms wait between the ladder and the stone room.

This fight is insultingly easy

I deploy a rare tactical energy field here - the trolls funnel themselves right in

This fight is even more insultingly easy... but it's a one-way trip.

Check the gem - the stone room is west, not south! Dispel the fields to find the passage.


The south path from the Zorn room is a linear corridor to the Altar room of Truth, from where you could exit south to Hylothe and leave, or you could just turn back to Wrong and Xit out. Instead, though, I use Yup to backtrack and explore the roads less traveled.

Yupping back to level 6, I try the rightmost passage.

Oh. That's a lot of thieves.

Level 7b


Money! Hold your excitement - it was just over $300 worth.

Level 5 can't be Yupped to, so I walk there, and then Yup back to 4b, and take the left-side ladder up.


Level 3b


Just the negative space of 3a. A linear, Z-shaped path to the ladder back to level 2.

I Xit out and Gate back to Britain.

For my pains, Geoffrey gains two levels!

 

Four stones found, four to go.

Sunday, December 8, 2024

Ultima IV: Blatant powergaming

 

It seems I'm settling into a pattern - spend cash, buy stuff, farm reagents, visit a dungeon, check in with Lord British, repeat. This pattern makes perfect sense for this session; I'm full on cash, low on some supplies I want to use, and I know where I want to use them.

To my surprise, I'm actually running quite low on peering gems - I thought for sure that the initial 80 or so I bought last time I went to Vesper would last the entire game. These can only be bought at Vesper - I Gate to Minoc and walk there, buy all the gems I can carry, and all the torches and keys too for good measure. I still have $8,439 after this.

Next I Gate to Skara Brae, buy thousands of rations, and all the reagents I can craft into spells, from both the seller here and the seller at Paws. I don't skimp on the exotic spells this time; I can always farm more mandrake and nightshade, and I can do it rather efficiently. This leaves me with $4,115, but gets me a good supply of powerful magic - more Gates, lots of Kills, Negate, and Tremor. That exhausts my supply of mandrake and nightshade.

Moonglow comes next, and I weave its cheap spider silk into some staples - Blink, Heal, Xit, Yup. I max out on all, and still have $3,414.

What I really want, though, is resurrects, and I need more mandrake for that. So I farm 99 of it, and 99 nightshade too. And craft them and other exotic spells.

I repeat this loop. More mandrake. More ash and ginseng. More crafting. More ash and moss. More garlic and pearls. More silk. By now the money is starting to run low, but Mandrake is free. So, more mandrake. More crafting.

 

Once I can't craft any more because I'm out of mundane ingredients, I refill on both mandrake and nightshade and Gate to Skara Brae and spend almost my last penny. And craft some more.


Waste of a perfectly good Saturday morning? Perhaps. But I rationalize that all this magic could come in handy, and if it doesn't, then I never have to do all this again.

 

Now then, I have some unfinished business in Hylothe - first I refill on gold in the Balron's basement, and then I farm the NDE orbs, using my Resurrect stockpile so that I can revive their victims as I collect them. Within about a half hour, everyone's stats are completely maxed at 50/50/50.

The most immediately obvious benefit from this is that my spellcasters have more MP than ever. Ahab, the mage, gets 99, Jaana the druid 75, 50 for Iolo Dupre and Shamino, 25 for Julia, and not a drop of mana for Katrina. They also rarely miss in combat, and I assume they do more damage too but this is difficult to confirm.

 

There's one more part of this pattern - the checkin and free healing.


Sweet - finally at level 8!

Geoffrey awaits in Jhelom's inn. After weeks of play, my party is complete at last.


While I'm here and full of cash, I visit the armory.


Magic plate runs $7,000, and I can only carry $9,999. Dupre the paladin is the only character allowed to wear it - even Geoffrey the fighter cannot - the best he can do is Dupre's old magic chain. So I spend another $2,000 on standard plate mail, which can be worn by Dupre, Julia, or Geoffrey. Julia, who cannot wear magic armor of any kind, gets it, and Geoffrey gets Dupre's magic chain hand-me-down, plus a crossbow sold at the weapons shop across the street. That leaves me with $399 - exactly enough to buy 57 black pearls at Paws, which I craft along with some leftover mandrake into 57 iceballs.

One last thing I gotta do.

Most popular posts