Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar/Dungeons

Gathering information

The seahorse thread (Codex Chamber)

A short thread in Cove (talk to Allen, then Blissful, then the Ankh) allows to learn all the requirements to complete the game. If you followed this walkthrough, you already accomplished two (8-parts Avatarhood and the Word of Passage), and the next two are the Key of Three Parts and the Pure Axiom.

The unfinished thread (Pure Axiom)

The ending of the NES remake reveals the One Pure Axiom, instead of asking for it.

Several clues are scattered through Britannia. First, Joshua and Juliet in Castle Britannia tell "the riddle" and give a hint to its answer. In Cove, four mages around a camp fire (Spellbind, Shaman, Charm, Circe) give more clues.

There is actually an unfinished thread towards the solution: talk to Dyka in Vesper, then to Francesca in Paws, and eventually to Smith, the talking horse in the same corral. It is a well known joke that the developers forgot to put the riddle answer in the game, so they put it in the next title.

Smith's late clue from Ultima 5

"Hello, Avatar... You know what? Way back... Way, way back... I forgot to tell you something! Yea... The answer... It was... 'INFINITY'!"

Chuckles' thread (Key of Three Parts)

Zajac of the Lycaeum starts a new quest: he directs the Stranger to Chuckles of Castle Britannia, who in turn says to talk to the Water that can be found in a secret room in the same stronghold. The elemental spirit starts revealing where and how to obtain the Key of Three Parts: there are three Altar Rooms that connect the several dungeons; in each altar room the appropriate colored stones should be used. The passage guards in Empath Abbey repeat part of that information.

In the Lycaeum, an injured fighter adds that each altar room connects to four dungeons, and Tymus reveals that each altar room needs four stones. In Jhelom, Bengrod says that an altar room needs the stones found in the connecting dungeons.

The three altar rooms correspond to the three principles of Love, Truth and Courage. The eight colored stones correspond to the eight virtues.

• Altar of Courage: Shyra of Serpent's Hold says to use the red (Valor), Purple (Honor), Orange (Sacrifice) and White (Spirituality) stones.
• Altar of Love: in the Oak Grove in Empath Abbey, four characters reveal the virtues that spring from Love: Compassion (yellow stone), sacrifice (orange stone), justice (green stone), and spirituality (white stone).
• Altar of Truth: the information about the last altar is more scattered; Quix & Skitle of Trinsic reveal that the purple stone (Honor) should be used on the altars of Love and Courage; Browning of Moonglow reveals that Honesty (blues stone) derives from Truth; Deirdre and Lastro of Empath Abbey reveal that Justice (green stone) is made of Truth and Love, whereas Spirituality (white stone) is made of the three principles.

Since the white stone of spirituality will be needed in all three altar rooms, it would be best to retrieve it first.

Thevel's thread (magic orbs)

Thevel of Britain directs the Stranger to the beggar Roderick of Serpent's Hold. The latter reveals that magic orbs can raise the attributes. These items are found in the dungeons.

Dungeon	Attributes raised	Damage
Hythloth	Dex, Str, Int	800 (kills any character)
Covetous	Dex, Str	400
Wrong	Dex, Int	400
Shame	Str, Int	400
Despise	Dex	200
Destard	Str	200
Deceit	Int	200

Altar room stone combinations

Altar	Stones	Virtue	Linked dungeons
Truth	Blue Purple Green White	Honesty Honor Justice Spirituality	Deceit Shame Wrong Hythloth
Courage	Red Purple Orange White	Valor Honor Sacrifice Spirituality	Destard Shame Covetous Hythloth
Love	Yellow Orange Green White	Compassion Sacrifice Justice Spirituality	Despise Covetous Wrong Hythloth

General strategy

Enter the dungeons from their mainland entrance, go through the Altar Room and emerge from a different dungeon with oversea entrance. From there, either backtrack or use the Gate spell.

Mainland dungeons: Dungeon Despise (40 chests) Dungeon Destard (88 chests) Dungeon Wrong (22 chests) Dungeon Hythloth (44 chests +6 in some versions)

Waterfront dungeons: Dungeon Deceit (93 chests) Dungeon Shame (45 chests) Dungeon Covetous (39 chests)

For example:

1. Enter dungeon Destard, emerge from dungeon Shame (133 chests; 74 in the NES remake)
2. Enter dungeon Wrong, emerge from dungeon Deceit (115 chests; 78 in the NES remake)
3. Enter dungeon Despise, emerge from dungeon Covetous (79 chests; 55 in the NES remake)