Ultima III: Exodus/Tips and Advice

Progression Summary

 * 1) Find the Marks. - There are four marks (Mark of Kings, Force, Fire, and Snake). They are all found in dungeons. All four characters must have all four marks.
 * 2) "Pray" in the Circle of Light to get the word: EVOCARE. You need this to access Castle Death.
 * 3) "Dig" on Islands to get Exotic Armor and Weapons.
 * 4) Get the Cards from the Shrines on Ambrosia. Take a ship through the Whirlpool, and "Search" all of the Shrines.
 * 5) Go to the 8th level of the Dungeon of Time and talk to the Time Lord to get the Order of the Cards. (From Left to Right: Love, Sol, Moons, Death)
 * 6) Take a ship to the Silver Snake. "Yell" EVOCARE.
 * 7) Enter Castle Death and find Exodus (four boxes in the North side of the Castle).
 * 8) "Insert" the cards into Exodus in the order told by the Time Lord.

General Tips

 * Always use 4 players. Despite what the manual says, you can't recruit from the Game. There are no advantages to playing with less and many disadvantages.
 * Note the pluses and minuses of each player type. For instance, either a Bobbit or Fuzzy would be a good druid, because the druid's magical ability is based on half of the mental skill (wisdom/intelligence) you have more points on. Druids recover magic points twice as fast as other players, which is handy when you need several cure spells quickly. A Rangers advantage is the powerful weapons they can use and their limited ability to steal & disarm chests. Their weakness, is in their magic ability. A Dwarf or Elf would make a bad Ranger because either would have a maximum of only 25 magic points.
 * Manage resources carefully. Keep a close eye on gold and attribute points. Don't try to buy more attribute points then a player type is capable of having because you will lose the gold, but the attribute will not be increased. Don't use the oin gold command if your group has collectively more than 9999 pieces. The counter will just cycle around.
 * To get a leg up with new players, join all gold and materials from 4 new characters to a single player and save the game. Reboot. Disperse the party and delete the 3 players that now have nothing. Create 3 new ones to go with your fourth. The extra gold makes starting out a bit easier. Avoid starting a game with 4 brand new players whenever possible or learn to handle death.
 * If your party gets poisoned near Castle Britannia anyone with the clerical skills to cure and don't want to spend the gold at a healer, you will find a curing fountain almost immediately inside the Dungeon Fires of Hell, hidden in the alcove directly south of the towne of Britain.

Ships

 * Be advised that ships are very hard to come by. Since most of your travels will be on land, you will have to leave any boats you may have acquired from time to time. Because of their relative scarcity, you don't want them parked anywhere in the open, because they will be destroyed if the whirlpool comes along. The best way to leave them and be assured that you will be able to find them later is to park them on the other side of the silver snake and exit via the moon gate. If you wish, you can even fill up this entire waterway with boats and eventually be able to walk right into the castle Death from entrance at the moon gate.
 * In spite of the scarcity of ships, it will often be to your advantage to park one between the mainland of Sosaria and the island where the town of Death Gulch is located. Because of the convoluted water ways around here, you can often leave a boat at this location for a long time before it is swallowed by the whirlpool and it is very convenient to just walk across the boat and gain access to the place where all the gold is. It is also handy to have a boat waiting near castle Britannia. Even given this advantage though, it's not recommended to place one there unless you have at least one reserve boat parked in the safe area near the Castle of Exodus.

Improving your Party

 * The quickest way to gain experience is to kill first level enemies (goblins, orcs, skeletons, and ghouls) using the A Rank spells (Repond and Pondori) which will kill multiple enemies simultaneously. Make sure you choose professions for your characters that can cast magic (avoid Fighters, Thieves, and Barbarians). Increasing your levels will make more powerful monsters appear.  In most versions, you have no control over the moment you rise in levels, but in the NES version, you cannot level up until you speak with the king.  You can use this fact to control the rate at which more powerful enemies appear.
 * You will obtain hit points automatically when you talk to Lord British as your experience increases. You can get up to 550, unless you have the Mark of Kings, in which case you can get up to 2550.
 * Cast B Rank Cleric spell Appar Unem on the chests left behind by enemies and in the dungeons to avoid the traps. You can accumulate gold pretty quickly in some of the dungeons and from the Armory in Death Gulch. It's found on large island to the east of Sosaria, and is a treasure trove of wealth. If you have a thief with good dexterity and all of your players have the marks of Fire and Force you can clean up by stealing all the chests you find within it. If you have no powerful fighters, you may want to bring along a lot of powders to freeze time while you run outside to safety. Use the ther command to BRIBE guards to get out of your way. Enter without a key by going through the maze to the south of the town entrance.
 * You can buy some basic weapons from the many towns. More advanced weapons can only be found in the town of Dawn. Don't bother spending too much on armor, since the Exotic Armor is pretty easy to find and can be equipped by every profession.
 * Exotic Weapons are absolutely essential to fighting your way through the castle Death to reach Exodus but are not the most effective weapons elsewhere because they have no long distance ability. Outfit each player that is capable of wielding distance weapons with the best possible. Even a sling is better than an Exotic sword if you defeat your foe before he gets within striking range.
 * Attributes can be raised by donating gold to the shrines in Ambrosia, which can be reached by sailing your ship into the whirlpool that appears in a random spot in the overworld. Use ther to SEARCH each of the four shrines to get the cards. nter to raise attributes. 100 gold will raise the respective attribute by one.
 * All players need dexterity and Strength but Wisdom and Intelligence are only for magic users. Players that use prayer spells require Wisdom but not Intelligence. Sorcerers are the opposite. Exceptions are, Druids that use half of whatever mental skill you have more of (so max out your best), and Rangers, who use half of the lesser (max out your worst and match it with the other).

Mystic Weapon and Armor
In most versions of the game, you need only enter the "Other Command" dig in the right locations to find the Exotic Armor and Exotic Weapons. In the NES version, the word "Exotic" is replaced with "Mystic," the method is a little more difficult, and requires two different picks.
 * You can claim the Gold Pick by opening the left-most chest in the Guild Shop in Dawn from across the counter. If you're caught, cast Stop or use Sands to stop time and escape the town.
 * Use the Gold Pick on the small island east of Gray to find the Mystic Armor. Every member of your party should equip one of these.
 * To get the Silver Pick, descend to the bottom level of the Cave of Death north of the castle and open the chest in the southwest corner.
 * Use the Silver Pick on the small island southeast of Fawn to find the Mystic Weapon. You may prefer to keep some of your party members equiped with a Bow or Silver Bow, which, though not as powerful as the Mystic Weapon, will allow you a ranged attack.

Marks
Each member of your party will need to have four special Marks branded onto their bodies to complete the game. You get them by touching the hot metal rods that are found in the dungeons. Unlike the cards, all of your players should hold all four of the marks.
 * Mark of Kings - This mark will allow your party to reach levels above five and raise your hit points to a maximum of 2550
 * Mark of Fire - This mark will allow you to walk on lava without receiving damage, which may be necessary to get some of the hints
 * Mark of Force - This mark will prevent your party members from dying when crossing the force fields that are sometimes used to protect gold
 * Mark of Snake - This mark is required to get past the large snake that blocks the entrance to Exodus' Castle.

Time Lord

 * The Time Lord can provide you with vital information about your quest. You'll find him on the eighth floor of the Time Awaits. Strictly speaking, you don't actually need to talk to him to complete the game.

Exodus

 * You must yell the secret work (or blow the Silver Horn on the NES) in front of the big snake when you have the Mark of Snake to pass and enter Exodus’ Castle.
 * Make your way through the castle to the north end. Unfortunately, the Sands and the Stop spell won't work here.
 * In the room at the back of the castle, defeat the floor enemies. You can’t see them so you will have to deduce their location by which characters are being hit. Make sure all of your characters are equiped with the Mystic Weapon here, since that's the only weapon that's effective. You will have to fight two battles to make it through.
 * At the very north end of the room, use the use the ther command to INSERT (or on the NES, the 'Pray' command and then select) the cards in the following order to deactive Exodus: Love, Sun, Moons, and Death.
 * Only in the NES version is there an extra step to reach the ending. After you have entered all four cards in the correct order, you must make your way back out of the castle with the Ankh to finish the game.