Ultima 7 Journey

I'm quite new to the RPG world in general, but looking to get some more experience in the genre and thought I'd try my hand in the Ultima series. I talked with a diehard RPG friend of mine, and he recommended I start with 7. I'm chronicling my beginner's journey at GameShy, and I would absolutely love any general pointers or feedback I can get from Ultima enthusiasts lurking about. I'm not looking for spoilers, but it'd be nice to have general guiding suggestions as I play. Thanks in advance for any help!

Well, I don't think you should start with Ultima 7!

You should probably start with some earlier one… depending on how much oldschool you can handle.

It'll be a bit strange to start with the best RPG ever made I guess.. at least if you are intending to play some others after that

+ If you want to play it in the right order it helps a bit to understand the complete story… even if it is possible to play as a stand-alone.

I'm thinking my friend felt that U7 had the best chance of pulling me in; like I said, I'm somewhat of an RPG novice and would probably be a little lost in the real old-school interfaces. Hopefully my experience with 7 goes so well I have a burning desire to turn around play the whole series in order! I'm committed to getting through the game, but any tips I can get are appreciated. I'm still early in the game and already not exactly sure what I'm doing.

Once you leave the starting city, head north, talk to people and collect quests and hints. Eventually arrive in Britannia and talk to Lord British. After that, the game should really open up for you.

I saw somewhere recomendation that from 4 and since I started with 7 and had no idea what happened at start,who was who I started from 4 and it is quite enjoyable game except that it feels a little grindy for my taste and for some reason some of my guys didn't get the experience when I did a quest and when one levels up for 3 lvls while he is 3 and other is 1 and remains 1, you must start to grind to get the 1lvl to the 6 and is quite unenjoyable,also you can upgrade the graphics and hear the music , so far what I notiched after my upgrade in middle of game that all my weapons have changed the name to axe,luckily enough that they work as the previous ones.

Don't forget to talk to the fellowship in both Trinsic (starting city) & Britain. If you don't, then an important quest trigger won't happen (you need to talk to the ones in Trinsic first).


Ultima 7 is not the most beginners friendly game around, mainly because it does not give such good directions on where to go next. It is a great game, mind you, you just need to put some work into it.


And unlike the others here, I would not recommend starting with the earlier ones, if you are relatively new to CRPGs. Chances are that they will frustrate you to the point where you don't want to see a CRPG ever again. 4 & 5 are still worth a playthrough when you have some genre-experience though (I personally don't like 6, but I know that plenty of others do). Also, don't overlook the Ultima Underworld series (Ultima Underworld 2 takes place between Ultima 7 & Ultima 7: Serpent Isle)

I restarted U7 about two weeks ago. Loving it again. I think the thing that impressive me the most is how full the world is, yet doesn't seem cluttered. The towns are full, the buildings in the town are full, yet there is plenty of walking space, maneuverability, etc. It's really amazing.

Really appreciate all the advice, everyone. I'm enjoying the exploration/investigation aspects of the game, but having tons of trouble with combat. Not sure if it's because it's too early for my characters to defend themselves well or if I'm just awful (I am), but I'm finding myself avoiding any conflict at all costs. My brief wanderings through the forest have been absolutely disastrous. I'm currently in Britain trying to follow up on the Crown Jewel ship lead. It's going okay so far, but not really feeling like I'm totally getting it all yet.

Once you are done with the opening gameplay in Trinsic, head north to Paws and talk to everyone there and complete the quests you can in that town before moving further north to Britain. The path to paws goes through a swamp so it might be a good idea to buy and equip everyone with swamp boots before walking on that path (or buy some cure poison potions in Trinsic beforehand).

Once in Britain resolve to spending perhaps at least a few real-time hours there, fully exploring the city and talking to everyone. Explore lord British's castle slowly and methodically. Britain is quite large and the urge to just move on can be great if you're anxious to see the rest of the game world. But spending a lot of time in Britain at the beginning will pay off in spades in terms of being able to fully enjoy the rest of the game.

Keep a notepad handy while you play. Write down the names of NPCs and their locations who sell items you will need throughout your game (food, weapons, armor, spell, & reagent vendors etc.). Also keep track of trainers, their locations, and what they offer training in. If you come across NPCs willing to join your party, record their locations as well if you choose not to allow them to join your party at that time.

Inventory management in U7 is a bit of a pain compared with well designed modern PC UIs (although back in the day, inventory management in U7 was novel and people loved it). Choose people in your party who will carry certain items so that you can quickly find items. For example, keep all food in one of your NPCs inventory (and by the way, mutton is the best food item to buy). Keep gold (and the abacus in another PCs inventory. I always keep the in-game map, sextant, & deeds on my avatar. Keep reagents in yet another of your party's inventory. Once you have used a key on the lock, drop it in front of the lock (or put it inside the container the key unlocked) so that you don't clutter up your inventory with keys. When you buy a ship in the game, use the ship's hold as a central place to storing items and since ships are mobile you can move your central stash around.

Ultima VII can be very 'wordy.' Some people love this because the game tells a great story through NPC dialog. Others tend to get impatient with all the reading. But if you like reading U7 will be pure enjoyment.

Doesn't U7 have a key ring? That made using and storing keys MUCH easier. I still remember when first released it had a 'feature' of deleting keys when you rested. Unfortunately since it was not documented, several people including myself found that we could no longer unlock certain doors and progress the game.

The key ring isn't in The Black Gate (unless you use Exalt), it doesn't show up until The Silver Seed.

Originally Posted by Bruticis
The key ring isn't in The Black Gate (unless you use Exalt), it doesn't show up until The Silver Seed.

And that in itself is almost reason enough to use Exult instead of just running it through Dosbox.

Originally Posted by shendricks221
Really appreciate all the advice, everyone. I'm enjoying the exploration/investigation aspects of the game, but having tons of trouble with combat. Not sure if it's because it's too early for my characters to defend themselves well or if I'm just awful (I am), but I'm finding myself avoiding any conflict at all costs. My brief wanderings through the forest have been absolutely disastrous. I'm currently in Britain trying to follow up on the Crown Jewel ship lead. It's going okay so far, but not really feeling like I'm totally getting it all yet.

Don't worry about it. Combat is really the games weakest side, and you will relatively soon find yourself a bit overpowered compared to the enemies. Remember that you need to train skills & stats, which costs money and training points (you gain the later from leveling up). If you feel frustrated because you can't find the right trainer, then there is a list of them here. It is more fun to find them yourself though.
The expansion, Forge of Virtue, will make your main character very powerful, to the point where I would recommend waiting with it until you have gone through a large portion of the game, as to not remove all challenge from it.

This will sound really stupid, but how does the trainer part work? I've come across one trainer already and he worked with everyone but Iolo, who he for some reason refused to train. I tested to see if I could train one character multiple times and although the game let me, I had no idea if it helped or just wasted the gold. Should you generally just train once, or are there times it does actually work to use the same trainer repeatedly? What info on the character screens gives should I be paying attention to in order to determine the benefit of the training? I know this probably seems like common sense to most of you, but…

Originally Posted by shendricks221
This will sound really stupid, but how does the trainer part work? I've come across one trainer already and he worked with everyone but Iolo, who he for some reason refused to train. I tested to see if I could train one character multiple times and although the game let me, I had no idea if it helped or just wasted the gold. Should you generally just train once, or are there times it does actually work to use the same trainer repeatedly? What info on the character screens gives should I be paying attention to in order to determine the benefit of the training? I know this probably seems like common sense to most of you, but…

Each time you train your skills/stats with a trainer, your character gains the associated stats. Make sure to pick stats that are worthwhile to your party member (i.e. int is not all that useful for them, as they don't use magic).
You don't need to know the details about the stats in order to play Ultima 7. Just remember that both Str & Dex are important for combat (I'm not sure, but I think Dex only affects hit chance, while Str both increases damage & hit chance, though the later is affected to a lesser degree. Or rather Dex impacts your "combat" stat, which in turn impacts your hit chance). So all trainers that trains Str, Dex & Combat are good for your party members. Avoid those that also trains int, as you will waste training points that way.

Do you use Exult or are you playing a DosBox version?

Originally Posted by Gorath
Do you use Exult or are you playing a DosBox version?

I downloaded the Ultima 7 Complete Edition from GOG.com, so I'm playing the DosBox version.

Originally Posted by shendricks221
I downloaded the Ultima 7 Complete Edition from GOG.com, so I'm playing the DosBox version.

That version should still work with Exult, but any savegames you already have wouldn't be compatible.

I liked playing with Exult and all the useful things it provides. But I got hit with the missing item bug. So next time I have a serious playthrough with U7 I will be going the old fashioned way - DOS Box.

Yep, that's why I stuck with the DOSBox version. Fewer bugs (at least in theory).

For a completist there's nothing more upsetting to one's gaming than your game being killed by a bug that could have been avoided….

After spending several in-game days in Britain, I'm feeling a little frustrated. The only real lead to the main story I could find at all in the giant city was to go to Minoc and deliver a package on behalf of Batlin of The Fellowship. I of course don't want any spoilers, but I hope it's okay to travel elsewhere in the world when I feel I've exhausted all options in one area. I feel like I missed a lot in Britain, and I'm still not sure how to go about the training process even though my party is now five people and all of us do have a few points to spare. Hopefully not accomplishing everything in Britain isn't a deal breaker, because I don't feel like I did as much as I wanted there. Oh, well. Off to Minoc anyway and we'll see what happens.