Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle Tricks and Cheats guide by Ed the Moogle Version 1.0 Copyright 2001 Ed the Moogle Not official in any way. Don't copy or alter this FAQ without permission. If you wish to copy this FAQ, you may not change it from electronic TXT format, and it must not be used in any kind of money- making scheme, including but not limited to: Appearing with ad-banners, pop-up windows, within frames, or within any kind of publication. I am not to be held responsible for any damages done with this file or it's contents. Latest version is at http://www.gamefaqs.com. Check the latest version before you e-mail me with questions or comments, or before telling me I'm an idiot because I made a mistake. Failure to do this will result in your e-mail being ignored. Domains that CAN use this FAQ http://www.gamefaqs.com (e-mail me at edmoogle@hotmail.com or brunerp@juno.com to be added to the list) Domains that can NEVER use this FAQ (I have had some bad run-ins with these domain/domains before. They have either somehow been making money off my FAQs by the use of ad banners or otherwise). http://faqs.simplenet.com http://www.gamesdomain.com http://vgstrategies.about.com http://www.gamewinners.com If you see this FAQ on any of these sites, or any other site that uses my files without complying to the conditions in the disclaimer, report it to me immediately and I will put an end to it (edmoogle@hotmail.com or brunerp@juno.com) I credit several of these tricks to Dan Simpson and his great Ultima VII guide, as well as the web site "A Fistful of Ultima VII," seen at http://lightning.prohosting.com/~jpmorris . Many thanks to both of them. I haven't found nearly as many fun tricks in this game as I have in Ultima VII, mainly due to the game's less-glitchy code and strict regimen of events. Note: This guide contains minor spoilers. Read at your own risk. Serpent Madness? If you click into Combat mode near Monitor's armorer or Vasel in Erstam's lab, your buddies will suddenly scream "TO ARMS!" and kill said people on a berserk, murderous impulse. The first event is only a nuisance, the second can be a major problem if you wish to continue in the game, as you must speak to Vasel for a bit before you can complete the events on Erstam's isle and move on. Chaos Hierophant is funny You may have already stumbled across this one by accident. If you talk to the ghost in the burned-out building on the way to the Bank from sleeping bull, you will find yourself talking to the Hierophant of Chaos, something that you're not supposed to do until quite late in the game. This will mess up the plot, as well as possibly causing problems at certain points in the game. In short, ignore that ghost until you need to find Mr. Chaos. Iolo's a tad trigger-happy If one clicks into combat against an enemy in a town or another place, your characters may unexpectly turn on any nearby bystanders, even if they had no active part in the battle. I discovered this when confronting Lydia in the bar about poisoning me, and killed her, but then my allies suddenly turned on Lucilla, who was nearby serving some customers. Despite the fact that their waitress was being brutally murdered before their eyes, they didn't even lift a finger! Just remember to click off Combat mode IMMEDIATELY after you defeat your opressor, otherwise you may unexpectly kill an important person! Bring back Dupre Yes, it is indeed possible to bring back the noble knight Dupre. After Dupre makes the sacrifice, return to Spinebreaker, more specifically the double-doors that lead into the chamber where Batlin opens the Wall of Lights. Now double-click the Hourglass of Fate, and Thoxa will comment about how some of your characters are missing, and will revive them for you, and presto! Dupre returns to you for the rest of the game. Yes, this does mess up the plot a bit (especially since you're probably carrying around his ashes in a jar at this point), but at least you'll get to make use of his skills for the rest of the game. Selina returns Using a trick similar to the one mentioned above, you can resurrect Selina as well. At least, for a little while. Pick up her corpse in Spinebreaker, take her outside, and use the Hourglass of Fate. Thoxa will appear and offer to revive her. Do so, and talk to your revived comrade. Selina will ask if you are ready to resume the quest to the mint (!). Say yes, and she'll join you. Shortly after joining, though, she'll blurt out her "dying" lines from Spinebreaker, then fall over dead once again. Note: Reviving and talking to her in Spinebreaker will hang the game in a rather annoying way. Dreams do come true! There's all sorts of fun stuff in the dream world when you visit, but unfortunately there's no way to take it out of there- without the use of a fun little bug, anyway. Before you venture into Gorlab Swamp and fall asleep, cast Serpent Bond. When you fall asleep and appear in the dream world, your snake form will wear off shortly, and your allies will appear in the dream world with you (!). Now cruise around the dream world and pick up all the swag you want (the Magic gear in Castle Britannia is a nice start), and give all of it to your allies. Now complete the events here, and you'll reappear outside the dream world. Provided you gave all the stuff to your allies and did not have it on you upon the quest's completion, all the stuff that you collected will now be with you in the real world! Immortality in the Silver Seed (take that Aram-Dol!) This is a bug which allows you to become immortal as long as you are within the Silver Seed (which is quite helpful against the Fiend and that blasted Aram-Dol. To do this trick, kill the Surok in the fortress where you begin. Now just get killed yourself,either by the hazards in the dungeons or by Isstanar in the fort (he's pretty dang tough). Now, you should be revived back in the room where Surok normally would have talked to you. But since he's gone, the glitch has taken effect, and your character is now immortal until you leave the Silver Seed! Note: You aren't immune to injury when this cheat is activated. You will take damage from enemy attacks (and the screen will flicker when hit and the like), but your character's HP will never drop below 1. This glitch has no effect on your allies. More Silver Seed wierdness For some unknown reason, if you touch (double-click) any of the black pillars in the room with Isstanar, you will be warped to the Test of Purity in Furnace. Normally this wouldn't be that great of a discovery, but there is one side effect- since you haven't "officially" left the Silver Seed (through the Serpent Gate), you can carry over the immortality glitch to Serpent Isle! Fun with Mortegro the Death Mage In the Shrine of Tolerance after the release of the Banes, you'll find Mortegro, the Moonshade mage who uses death magic, trapped on all sides by a few feet of water. If you free him he will offer to sell you spells for half-price (you should have them all by now, but if you still need them go ahead and buy 'em) and will also make an offer to join you. Allow him to do so. Why, you ask? Look in his backpack and you'll see- he's got a Death Bolt spell item!! To get ahold of this, take his sword, then click into combat mode so that he wields it. Now take the Death Bolt from his hand and put it in your backpack. Give him back his sword if you wish. If you've played the game before, you probably know that Mortegro will be killed as soon as you exit the temple. Well, there's a way around this, too. Unequip any "warm" gear he has (cloak, boots, hat) so that he dies of the cold whilst inside the temple. Now pick his corpse up, teleport to Monk Isle or another suitable location, and have him resurrected. Presto, Mortegro is now a permanent part of your team. Best of all, his abnormal presence doesn't mess up the plot! (Not that I've noticed, anyway.) Note: You can perform a similar trick with Sethys, but it will mess up the plot a bit. Plus, Sethys isn't nearly as cool looking as Mortegro. Dances with wolves If you take the Claw and the Urn from the Knight's test, then use the claw on yourself and then the urn, you can summon another wolf. Repeat to make another, and another, and another, and another... Wierd stuff At one point in the game, I got a message along the lines of "Warning! $tempflag1 is set! Report at what point of the game you are in!" . The game continued playing as if nothing was wrong, despite this error message of impending doom. It could have been caused by any number of things (from the existence of two Lucillas in Monitor when I cheated her back to life, possibly. Or when I talked to the Chaos Hierophant ghost near the bank near the end of the game...). Does this message cause any problems in the game? Is it triggered by any strange events? Does anyone know what triggers this message? If you can provide any help on this subject, please email me. Character list Here's a list of fun characters to recruit in the game. Petra- She's better than an average automaton... Boydon- If you don't feel like Dr. Frankenstein now, you never will. Just don't let him die. Number 4 (The murderer in Logic)- There's just something kind of cool about having a murderous machine on your team. Number 7 (The murder victim in Logic)- If you really want to have fun, recruit him along with his murderer... Mortegro- He's a death mage, but he has no Mana? Well, he's cool looking and he has Death Bolt. I guess that makes up for it. The evil software pirate, Captain Stokes! If you search around in the woods north of Monitor (near the Goblin's hideout), you'll find a house with a guy and a computer, who happens to be a software pirate who's illegally copying Ultima 8! This guy is mentioned elsewhere (in a book) by Gannt the bard. Click into combat mode and he will attack you (he has a Lightning whip, which you can take once he's dispatched). The key to this tower can be found in a cave between Gorlab swamp and the (cold) north. Cheats Cheat menu specifics Coming next revision! Dodge the teleport storms If you use the Hackmover or the Teleport Map in the cheat menu, it is possible to skip over the otherwise impassable teleport storm at the beginning of the game. Despite having all of your items and allies due to missing it, you can still pick up the items that were "Teleported" all around Serpent Isle by the storm (the gear that you were supposed to lose in the storm), because the items are not actually teleported to those places, but are rather destroyed. So you can get two Magebanes, magic bows, etc. Dead Cat's Life II, AKA Claw AKA Cat's Isle On a small island between Moonshade and Fawn is this dungeon, from all the way back in Ultima 1. There aren't monsters here anymore, though- now it's filled with a bunch of cool items (some plot items, too) and a bunch of traps. To get here, turn on the Cheat menu and press F3 to bring up the Teleport Map, then teleport to the large mountainous island between the two continents. You should be on a small island with lots of trees and a few cats running around. There's a small cave here stocked up with a bunch of oddments, including some magical weapons, four sets of magic armor, and a few plot items. Read the plaque near the liche statue for a good laugh (this plaque also appears in Erstam's Retreat and the house of the dead). Is there a non-cheat-menu way of reaching this island? Erstam's Retreat or "There's gold in them thar' hills!" The mountains on Mad Mage isle hide quite a secret, says I. To get here, go to the northmost part of Moonshade, where there is a stump outside one of the low-rent houses. Climb up on this stump by stacking objects to be teleported to a small island with a teleporter in the middle. Don't step on the teleporter; instead walk out onto the water on the northeast part of the island (you'll have to look around a bit for it). Take the invisible walkway right into the mountains to find Erstam's Retreat, a place with lots of naked women (their description reads "Avatar" for some reason), one of every armor and shield, many plot items, and a room stocked with magical weapons (that there doesn't seem to be a way into, aside from Hack Mover), among other things. Alternately, you could get here by using the Hackmover in the cheat menu, and pulling away a bit of the mountain on Mad Mage isle to make your way in. Albino Avatar? When you use the cheat menu and select the Avatar (#0) under "Modify NPC," you have the option to change his race/skin color, just as you would at the beginning of the game. Well, there's four options here. 0- WH (white), 1- BR (brown/asian) 2- BL (black) 3- AL (Albino?). In any case, choosing the fourth option will cause the game to boot back to DOS with the error message "Not supported yet!" And no, I don't think this feature will ever be supported (not officially anyway). More than 6 people? At one point, I used the Cheat menu to add a sixth member to my team. But upon pressing the "L" key to change the combat strategies of my party, I was booted back to DOS with the error message "Whoops, more than six people!" This is strange, mainly because the game only allows you to recruit five people at any given time. If you have five and try to recruit any more, the potential recruit will turn you down. Is there a way to get six people that I may have missed (other than the cheat menu)? House of the dead, part II (it's better than the original!) Like in the first Ultima VII game, there is a place where all the "Dead" NPCs teleport to when they are killed (leaving a Corpse item behind that acts as a container). To find this place, just look up the number ID of a person your character slain during the game, such as Lydia (#72) or Schmed (#75), or find a living person and make them dead yourself. Now bring up the cheat menu, and choose "Teleport to NPC." Now choose "NPC number" and type in the number of the slain character. Presto, you're now in the house of the dead, a wooden building filled with all the game's non-temporary NPCs. Just because someone is here, though, does not necessarily mean that they are considered "dead." In the case of characters like Ale the parrot and the Banes, they are simply sent here when their task is accomplished to get them out of the way. The map of Serpent Isle If you teleport to just about any place in the open ocean on Serpent Isle's Teleport Map, you may unexpectedly teleport into a dungeon such as the Silver Seed (lower-left portion of the map) or another locale! This is because, despite the presented illusion that the places are in a place that is "off the map," such as the Test of Purity or Ethicality, it is, in reality, in a hidden area within the map's ocean. Just don't walk off the edge of the map by mistake with the hack mover or by flying... Walking off the edge of the map Again, doing this is not recommended. Usually the game will allow you to walk a short way into a black void, and then lock up for the night and the day after. One time, though, when I walked off the north-east (upper right-hand) section of the map, I found myself in a "checkerboard land" with a flickering purple and white checkerboard pattern that extended on forever in seemingly every direction. It was pretty wierd. The building of mystery Remember at the beginning of the game, when you saw Batlin fighting Cantra in the crystal ball? Well, you may have recognized that building as a place that never appears in the normal course of the game. However, I have stumbled upon the coordinates to teleport there! Simply teleport to the hex coordinates 9A, 94, 6. This building is wierd and a bit glitchy, as you start on the upper floor, and the stairs lead nowhere. If you move yourself downstairs with the hack mover, though, you'll find a small cooridor (again, leading to nowhere, but I suppose it was supposed to go to those stairs) lined with tons of traps. This place is considered to be in the "north" part of the map, so your characters will complain of cold as long as you are here, and possibly even when you leave (I've teleported back to a "warm" area and still had them complain of cold on several occasions). Skullcrusher's golden doors There are some double doors in the easternmost part of this dungeon that, despite your best efforts, are unopenable. Should you attempt to go here anyway (by cheating), you will find several dead bodies, a book that may be unreadable otherwise (cast Translation to read it), and a stairway that leads to the middle of the ocean. I guess they were going to put something more behind these doors, but took it out before the game's completion. The headless Serpentonians! Whenever you recruit someone that normally does not join your team, they will have no head in the inventory screen. Scary! The only exception to this rule is Gwenno, since she must technically be "on your team" to be revived by the monks, if only for a moment... And on that note... Fun characters to cheat onto your team Nameless nude woman (#287)- Butt-head: Whoooaaaa.... Beavis: Heh, heh, this game is cool! Lord British (#280)- "The Avatar has gone mad! We are truly doomed!" Selina - Cheat her onto your team and she won't keep dying. Miscellaneous I was looking through the file "Usecode," which stores most of the game's conversations, when I stumbled across these. Anyone know how to access these little oddities of conversation? --- I wager that would work much better if thou wouldst put some liquid in it... Perhaps some BEER for instance. Or mayhaps some WINE.... last stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff stuff ale beer wine blood water Zounds, I wager that was right good.... mmmm... I wager that would cure a body's thirst. Why dost thou not wait until dinner to drink that , --- w thine hand and hit someone with it... Someone else, that is. --- error, somebody stepped on the worm!- --- . ~~ ~~THE BLACK COMPENDIUM ~~ ~~Written by Mondain, with annotations by the enchantress Minax and magical formulae by the hellspawn Exodus.* To extend one's life is a complicated procedure, taking years to complete. However, there is an additional side effect: invulnerability. I have broken this work down into chapters based on each individual ritual. It is very important that these steps be performed in the order presented.* First, thou must procure five stones of the dust of crushed rubies. This must be mixed thoroughly with the ooze of a slime, enough to make the rubies into a thick paste. After thou hast created the paste, set it in an ivory jar and place the entire container in a bucket of olive oil for three years.* The next step is to procure 10 newborn babes, none more than six days old. With a knife cut from the bone of a harpy, thou must remove the blood from each newborn. To be kept fresh, the blood must be stored in an onyx flask, though mixing of each baby's blood is quite permissible.* Now thou shalt seek out... ~~ Questions, comments and corrections can be addressed to either brunerp@juno.com or edmoogle@hotmail.com . Put "Serpent Isle Tricks FAQ" in the subject to insure that I read your email.