Ultima Underworld II

Aim of the Game

You control the Avatar of Britannia who, along with many of the realm's heroes, has been trapped inside Castle British by a giant sphere of blackrock, put in place by the evil Guardian. The main objective is to find a way to escape the castle by breaking the blackrock sphere. In the process the Avatar needs to visit eight alternate dimensions to discover clues on how to break the Guardian's spell:

• World 1: Prison Tower
• World 2: Killorn Keep
• World 3: Ice Caverns
• World 4: Talorus
• World 5: Scintillius Academy
• World 6: Pits of Carnage
• World 7: Tomb of Praecor Loth
• World 8: Ethereal Void

Objectives

Listed here are the bare minimum quests that must be completed to finish the game. There are many more optional quests along the way that aren't mentioned - for more info on those, find a walkthrough.

There are three main quest streams that need to be completed before the endgame can be triggered:

• Find eight small blackrock gems (one from each alternate dimension), have the gems "treated" by Nystul (the castle's resident mage) and merge each small gem with the giant blackrock gem in the lower level of the castle sewers
• Cut the Guardian's "lines of power" to the eight alternate dimensions by first assembling Altara's Rod and using it in each dimension in a place where the Guardian draws power
• Trap an air daemon in the Avatar's body:
  • Mix Basilisk Oil (clear potion) with Filanium mud (the mud is located in the Ice Caverns world, near the Yetis)
  • Bathe in the mud
  • Immerse the Avatar in lava to solidify the mud
  • Drink a potion of Iron Flesh (actually casting the spell will do, but it needs quite a high level)
  • Take a Djinn Bottle to the "Sigil of Binding" in the Ethereal Void and break the bottle in the centre. There are two ways to obtain a Djinn Bottle - from Zoranthus (after doing his quest) or from the purple room in the Ethereal Void

Along the way there are some other smaller quests which trigger events:

• Talk to Miranda about visiting another world - she mentions the servants are unhappy
  • Prerequisites: Obtain the Prison Tower gem
  • Triggers: Opens worlds 2 and 3

• Kill "The Listener" (an imp hiding in the Castle Sewers)
  • Prerequisites: In Killorn Keep, talk to Kintara and Lobar to gather info then talk to Mystell to convince her you are an ally of the Guardian, then talk to Altara to obtain Jeweled Dagger
  • Triggers: Lady Tory's murder

• Talk to Miranda to learn of Lady Tory's murder
  • Prerequisites: Kill "The Listener"
  • Triggers: Opens worlds 4, 5 and 6

• Assemble Altara'a Rod
  • Pre-requisites: Kill "The Listener", obtain the egg of a dread spider (from castle sewers) and the Amethyst Rod (from Talorus) then get Altara to make the rod
  • Triggers: Nothing

• Kill Patterson after he murders Nelson
  • Prerequisites:
    • Merged the blackrock gem from Talorus with the large blackrock gem
    • Obtained the blackrock gem from Scintillus Academy
    • Talked with Zoranthus (from Pits of Carnage)
    • Talked to Miranda after all of the above
    • Talked to Nelson after Miranda
  • Triggers: Opens worlds 7 and 8

• Obtain the Horn of Praecor Loth
  • Prerequisites: Access to world 7 (Patterson is dead)
  • Triggers: Nothing, but required for Nystul to prompt for details about Guardian's spell

• Steal Mors Gotha's Spellbook from her room in Killorn Keep and give it to Nystul
  • Prerequisites: Air daemon trapped in Avatar's body
  • Triggers: Nothing, but one of the requirements for Nystul to prompt for details about Guardian's spell

• Inform Nystul of the time and place of the original casting of the Guardian's spell
  • Prerequisites:
    • All 8 small blackrock gems merged with large blackrock gem
    • All 8 of Guardian's "lines of power" cut using Altara's rod
    • Supplied Nystul with Mors Gotha's Spellbook
  • Triggers: Mors Gotha storms the castle, Nystul moves to throne room

• Kill Mors Gotha when she storms Castle British
  • Prerequisites: Informed Nystul about Guardian's spell
  • Triggers: Nystul will now actually start the ceremony when you talk to him

• Assist Nystul with the ceremony in the throne room
  • Prerequisites: Mors Gotha killed
  • Triggers: Endgame sequence

Useful Tricks and Glitches

• Dying while in an alternate dimension (i.e. through the big blackrock gem) makes the Avatar respawn in the gem room
• Damaging single-use magic items (like potions and scrolls) by throwing them against walls (or casting the Fireball spell) turns them into debris which has the same enchantment as the original item but can be used unlimited times
• Using "Easy Move" keys (SHIFT+WASDX) moves the player in discrete amounts rather than the normal smooth motion. It also has the following useful effects:
  • It is faster than normal movement in many situations - especially when swimming
  • It causes time to pass more quickly and makes the "item usage delay" time out faster, allowing scrolls and potions (and debris) to be used more frequently
  • It causes monsters to move and attack faster. This is useful in a lot of situations to commit suicide
• Projectiles are frozen in mid-air when Freeze Time is active. Running into the projectile is a fast way to commit suicide (to respawn in the gem room)

Bad Glitches

• Avoid talking to the servants - if you are not super-nice they start a strike and this takes time to resolve. In early versions of the game there was also a chance that the strike would never end, making the game unwinnable.
• When Mors Gotha storms the castle, if there is a female guard wearing green in the corridor outside Nystul's room, MG fails to appear in the castle making the game unwinnable. To prevent this, either push the guard down the hall towards the throne room, or go down a level and back up to reset her location.
• Sometimes the Vorz in the Ethereal Void purple room can bump into the Djinn Bottle and make it disappear