Hello new player. You’ve read the getting started guide, benefited from the protection of being [young] learned the basics skills from the pages Movement and Travel and how to safely log out when you conclude a play session. Where to go and what to do? Ultima online is a ‘sandbox’ game, there is no right or wrong way to play it, except within the rules. This guide offers suggestions as to where to direct your ‘baby steps’ in game. Finding your way around the two game clients may be aided by reading the pages in the Technical section of this wiki. If you are using a Endless Journey account you will be subjected to some restrictions.
Skill Selection
You will have selected your basic skills at character creation, now you can select further skills and begin training them. Some skills obviously go together but you can mix and match skills as you wish. Most people find that trying to squeeze in too many skills makes them something of a ‘jack of all trades and master of none’. It is wise to choose skills that complement each other, for example a mage character will need evaluate intelligence if his spells are to reach their maximum power. Inscription can also add power to some spells and meditation helps to restore the mana you need to cast. Likewise a tamer will need animal lore to be able to control the pet he tames, and usually veterinary to heal it, though sometimes a tamer is a mage too and the mage’s evaluate intelligence gives his healing spell enough power to dispense with veterinary. A blacksmith will need to decide how he will obtain his resources, will he mine for them? Also he or a tailor, tinker or carpenter will need to be aware of the effect of Arms Lore on any weapons or armor he crafts. A basic understanding of selecting and controlling skills and stats is found here and an introduction to the various spellcasting skills here.
Skill Training
Once you decide on your skills, you need to begin training them. Initial training, on skills not selected at character creation, can be ‘bought’ from an appropriate npc. Select the npc’s context menu by single clicking it to see what skills he/she will train, then click on the skill. the NPC will name his price for that training, in the example shown the skill selected was ‘armslore’ and the cost 333gp, this will take the character’s skill to 33.3%. You must drop the sum he asks for onto his head. If you have no gold in your pack, you will need to go to the bank and say to the banker or minter ‘withdraw [amount]’ the required gold will be placed in your backpack. For more information on how money is handled by the game please read the page ‘Money’. Most combat skills can be gained quickly by undertaking Accelerated Gain Quests. The NPC character ‘Sir Helper’ near Haven Bank will help you to locate the NPC you need. You may not purchase skill while engaged in one of these quests, so be sure to do that first. Other simple quests can be undertaken in the same area and your bank balance would probably benefit from taking a few escort quests. Those taken in Haven town are the simplest quests and involve escorting a non-player character to a location within the town.
Adventuring
The undead in Old Haven that you are sent to fight in some of the gain quests are not the only hostiles on Haven Island. You can find mongbats, greater mongbats and boglings close to the town, with Ettins south of the public moongate and Brigands to the far east of the town. Of these the Ettins and Brigands are the strongest, but none will attack you while you bear the [young] tag, unless of course you attack them. In the mountains south of the moongate is Haven Mine. Here you will find Earth Elementals, only when you have a modest amount of skill should these be attempted. The second level of the mine is inhabited by lizardmen and ogre lords. Avoid the ogre lords until at least ‘master’ level in your main skills and have armor that offers a good level of protection.
Should you wish to explore the wider world and still continue your training at a low level you might like to attempt a quest on the Tokuno island of Makoto-jima or some other simple monster slay quests in Ilshenar, Malas or Heartwood. To reach these areas enter the public moongate found just south of Haven bank, a dialogue box will appear listing the locations of similar moongates that you can be transported to. The facet maps will help you select the right location; the entrance to Heartwood is found at the center of the village of Yew in Trammel. You may, at this stage, wish to be more mobile, perhaps obtaining a mount and learning a little of Pet Ownership.
Further adventuring may be suggested by the Quests, Combat and World sections of this wiki.
Stuck
Very occasionally you may find yourself in a situation that you cannot get out of. An example of this would be dying when digging a treasure map on an island with no moongate and no wandering healers. Open your help menu and choose the option ‘My character is physically stuck’. After a short delay you will be offered a list of towns to choose from. Your character will be teleported to the town of your choice from which you can continue your game play, possibly having first visited the town’s healer shop.
Equipment
As you fight more difficult foes you will need improved armor and, if you are a warrior, weapons. There are a variety of ways you might do this. Loot from monsters you kill is an obvious one. Some suits of armor can be obtained from the ‘clean up‘ system. Artifact items are obtained in several different ways, players sometimes sell through global chat, which can also be used to elicit help or advice from fellow players, or you might purchase from player vendors. You will not wish to lose such items, to avoid this you will need insurance.
Conclusion
These few paragraphs and links will hopefully start you off on the great adventure that is Ultima Online. Many, many more pages are included in the wiki for your help and guidance and many of the players in the game will be more than willing to help you too. There’s also the ‘early settler’ method of assessing risk when facing a new monster. If it kills you, it was too hard, time to find a healer.
A small word of warning; Ultima Online is a world like any other. Some people lie, some people cheat and some people scam. Don’t step through a player gate unless you trust the caster, it may not go where you think it does. Scammers work exactly the same way as they do in real life, if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Be safe, be lucky and above all have fun!