Quickstart Guide Regular
Contents
Quickstart Guide
It's pretty easy to get started in EUO.
If you've played Ultima 4 or 5, you should know exactly what to expect. While this is not exactly a clone, it is heavily influenced by these two games: from the backstory to the unique, retro graphics and minimal interface.
If you haven't played any of the Ultima games, be prepared for:
- chunky, 2d, top down graphics
- keyboard controls - there is no mouse!
To get started, download the installer, install, create an account and run euo.exe.
This game is rather fast paced and even a little twitchy. Unlike other MORPG's, you generally fight more than one monster at a time, and battles are usually pretty quick. It helps to know where your spells and items are and what they do. It also helps to have a guide early on in the game. There are many players who will happily take a well mannered newbie through their first romp of the Nordhaven Jail.
So having said that, here are some pro-tips for playing the game.
Character Generation
Your first character: advice on which skills to choose
It's probably not a bad idea to pick either one of the weapon skills as your primary, or maybe even sorcery (a combat orientated school of magic) if you are feeling adventurous and want to immediately work on a mage. As for your secondary skill, you can pick just about anything. It must be emphasised that the starting skills are not crucial to your character development: they just give you a head start in a couple of areas.
Starting Equipment
The equipment your new character starts with varies depending on which two skills were picked during creation.
Weapons and Armour:
Provisions:
- Torches: press i to ignite a torch
- Food: press e to eat some food
Potions:
Press p to use potions...
- Red potions cure poison
- Yellow potions restore health points
- Blue potions restore mana points
Scrolls:
- Town Portal - press R (shift-r) to Read scrolls
Tomes:
If you picked any of the schools of magic as starting skills, then you will get a small sample of spell-tomes that you can study and learn, to allow you to then cast those spells. Press Shift+c to study and learn any tomes that you have in your inventory. It would be wise to study your new tomes before leaving town for your first adventure. Spells only need to be learned once.
Binding items and spells to keys
For fast and easy use of items you may bind them to the number keys. During use, view, ready, etc, press a number from 1 to 0 to bind the currently selected item to that key. Then pressing a number key with a bind will use the bound item. The same can be done with spells: press shift-F-key to bind, then press the F-key to cast the bound spell.
Entering Nordhaven
Everybody starts in Nordhaven. You'll probably have everything you need to start your adventure. You might want to ready your weapon & armour (assuming you picked a weapon skill), and learn your spells (with C, assuming you picked a mage skill). Wander around town and say hello.
To say something to another player (they will have a white name above their heads with a blue health bar), hit ENTER and type your message, then hit ENTER again.
Talk to NPCs
Just as players have white names and blue bars above their heads, characters with blue names and health bars are good aligned NPC's, while characters with gray bars above their heads are neutral aligned NPC's. Make a point of talking to any NPC with a blue name - you'll more than likely be sent on a quest.
To talk to an NPC, stand next to them, press t, then select the direction of the NPC. If you see a druid called Max, walk up to him and do exactly that. Then ask him his job (press enter, type job, then press enter again), or his name, or even the time. If you've played Ultima 4 or 5 before you will know exactly what to do.
Exiting Town and entering other maps
When you're done looking around town, you might as well head down to the Jail. Exit town by walking south past the guards (Harold and Stirling), then head due east, until you see a cave entrance - that would be the Nordhaven Jail, a.k.a. the Newbie dungeon. Stand on the entrance to the cave and press Space.
All of the areas in EUO are divided up into distinct maps. Towns exist as separate maps from the overworld, as do dungeons, caves, shrines, castles and keeps. To enter a town or dungeon, move toward the entrance and press Space (this differs from Ultima here, since e is used to eat in EUO). The entrance to a town is represented on the overworld as the town tile: just stand on top of it and press Space to enter. Inside dungeons, it is usually ladders that are used to move between levels. Again, just move on top of the ladder and press Space.
Nordhaven Jail: your First Dungeon Romp
The newbie dungeon is a place where you can go kill some rats and other low level monsters to get aquainted with the game. Collect all the treasure, sell the stuff you don't need, then spend the money on equipment. When you're feeling tougher and better armed, you can head down to levels 2, 3 & 4 of the newbie dungeon. Beware - opponents get tough pretty quickly though, it would be wise to have some decent armour and plenty of healing potions at the ready.
How to Attack
To attack with your equipped weapon (or with your bare hands if you don't have a weapon) stand next to your opponent, hold down CTRL and press the arrow key corresponding to the direction you want to attack. Eg, to attack north, it's CTRL+UP.
- CTRL+direction you wish to attack
How to Cast Offensively
If you picked Sorcery as a starting skill, then you should have learned the spell An Mani by now (if not, press shift+c, and select the An Mani tome to learn it). An Mani (or Negate Life, or Harm) deals damage to an adjacent target. Stand next to one of those rats, press c, then a then m then enter, then the arrow key for the direction you want to cast.
This is a bit of work, so you can bind the spell such that you can cast it with Shift+direction. Press Shift+F1, then type a then m then enter. An Mani is now bound to the F1 key. The F1 key is unique in that using Shift+direction will cast the spell bound to F1 in the direction of the arrow key pressed.
So you can now cast An Mani on rats with Shift+direction just as you would attack rats with a weapon with CTRL+direction.
- bind An Mani to F1 with Shift+F1
- SHIFT+direction to cast An Mani on enemies to harm them
Pro tip
- you can bind another spell to F2 and cast it with Shift+CTRL+direction
Healing Techniques for Newbies
There are quite a number of ways to heal yourself, however for the new character these can be limited. Here's a list of what you can do to heal yourself.
- drink a yellow potion (press p)
- meditate (press m)
- if you picked piety as a starting skill, you can cast the Mani spell (press c then m then Enter)
- if you picked healing as a starting skill, you can use a bandage: press ` (backquote/tilde: the key left of 1 on most english keyboards)
- you can drink from a fountain (can be hazardous, but can also be rewarding): look at the fountain with l
Pro tip
- use (u) empty flasks on fountains to create clear potions, which will usually have an effect not unlike a yellow potion
Leveling up
You should increase your strength if you want more hit points (HP) and power with fighter weapons, increase dexterity if you want to move faster and power with rogue weapons, and increase intelligence if you want more mana, magic resistance and increased power with spells.
A rough guide for stat point distribution while progressing through the levels might be:
- Fighter - increase strength until you get 80-100 STR, then increase dexterity until you get to 100 DEX
- Rogue - increase strength until you get to 60 STR, then increase dexterity until you get to 150 DEX
- Mage - increase strength until you get to 60 STR, then increase intelligence until you get to 100 INT and then increase strength again until you get to 100 STR
You don't have to follow this guide, however it will give you strength (and thus more hit points) early on to help make your adventures go smoothly.
Shrines
To locate a shrine, either study the map of New Sosaria online, or look in your EUO folder for the "MAP-Shrines.jpg" file.
Meditating (after you get the You feel experienced message) at the different shrines have the following effects:
Compassion: Dexterity +6 Valor: Strength +6 Honesty: Intelligence +6 Sacrifice: Strength +3, Dexterity +3 Justice: Dexterity +3, Intelligence +3 Honor: Intelligence +3, Strength +3 Spirituality: Dexterity +2, Intelligence +2, Strength +2 Humility: Nothing
Humility does not add any stats but will increase your level if you meditate there. Unless you are actually feeling humble, it's best not to level up at the Humility shrine!
Humilty does have a use however - meditating there reduces your criminal status time more quickly than normal.
Finally, shrines are used to cure resurrection sickness, which is a debilitating condition you'll often get after dying and resurrecting.
Dying
Everyone has to die eventually, and it's not a big deal. Just hit ! (shift + 1) to respawn in the town to which you are bound (the default town is Nordhaven). Doing this will give you resurrection sickness however, which requires you to meditate at a shrine to cure. Alternatively if you're playing with other people, they might be able to resurrect you with a scroll or spell on the spot. If you are in a party with the person who resurrects you, you will not get resurrection sickness.
Sometimes you cannot respawn with ! ... it is most likely because you are on a no-casting zone tile. If this happens simply move a step or two away and try again.
The Goal
The goal is to have a bit of fun. Talk to the other players. By all means ask questions, but this manual isn't that hard to read. Try and read it all first before asking "How to I sell stuff" or "Where do I hunt?". Get out there and find out for yourself - that's all part of the adventure!
