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

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

Main Quests

• 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 with Filanium mud (the mud is located in the Ice Caverns world, near the Yetis)
  • Bathe in the Filanium mud
  • Immerse the Avatar in lava to solidify the Filanium mud
  • Drink a potion of Iron Flesh (actually, casting the spell will do just fine, but it requires 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

Sub Quests

• Talk to Miranda about visiting another world - she mentions the servants are unhappy
  • Prerequisites: Obtain the Prison Tower gem
  • Triggers: Opens two more worlds: Killorn Keep and Ice Caverns

• Obtain the Jeweled Dagger - the only weapon that can kill "The Listener"
  • Prerequisites:
    • In Killorn Keep, talk to Kintara and Lobar to gather info
    • Talk to Mystell to convince her you are an ally of the Guardian
    • Talk to Altara about being an enemy of the Guardian
  • Triggers: Opens passage to "The Listener"

• Kill "The Listener" - an Imp hiding in the Castle Sewers
  • Prerequisites: Obtain Jeweled Dagger from Altara
  • Triggers: Lady Tory's murder

• Talk to Miranda to learn of Lady Tory's murder
  • Prerequisites: Kill "The Listener"
  • Triggers: Opens three more worlds: Talorus, Scintillius Academy and Pits of Carnage

• Assemble Altara'a Rod
  • Prerequisites:
    • Kill "The Listener"
    • Obtain the egg of a dread spider (from castle sewers)
    • Obtain the Amethyst Rod (from Talorus)
    • Obtain a Black Pearl (from Altara)
    • Talk to Altara and give her the three items above to make the rod
  • Triggers: Nothing, but allows the Avatar to cut the Guardian's "lines of power"

• Kill Patterson after he murders Nelson
  • Prerequisites:
    • Merge the small blackrock gem from Talorus with the large blackrock gem
    • Obtaine the small blackrock gem from Scintillus Academy
    • Talk with Zoranthus (from Pits of Carnage) about process of containing a Djinn
    • Talk to Miranda after all of the above
    • Talked to Nelson after talking to Miranda
  • Triggers: Opens final two worlds: Tomb of Praecor Loth and Ethereal Void

• Obtain the Horn of Praecor Loth
  • Prerequisites: Access to Tomb of Praecor Loth (Patterson must be dead)
  • Triggers: Nothing, but is one of the requirements 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 is 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 treated by Nystul and 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: Inform Nystul about Guardian's spell
  • Triggers: Nystul will now actually start the ceremony when you talk to him in the throne room

• Assist Nystul with the ceremony in the throne room
  • Prerequisites: Mors Gotha killed in Castle British - she is saved by the Guardian if you choose to attack her in Killorn Keep and doesn't actually die
  • Triggers: Endgame sequence

Tricks and Glitches

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 in the Castle Sewers
• Damaging single-use magic items (like potions and scrolls) by throwing them against walls (or shooting them with 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 or turns the Avatar 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, especially 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)
• When loading a game, there are a couple of useful glitchy things that happen:
  • The "item usage delay" is reset, allowing firing of attack spells in quick succession (save, fire attack spell, save, load, fire attack spell, etc)
  • The momentum currently applied to the Avatar at the point of loading the game carries over to the loaded game. This means you can jump to any height by doing the following:

1. Jump to max height, save at peak height
2. Jump again but immediately load game (at max upward momentum) - momentum carries over, giving an extra boost upwards immediately after loading game
3. To jump to any height, repeat steps 1-2

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 glitch out and 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 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.