Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar revolutionized the role-playing game genre with its more complex gameplay and narrative-driven experience. The game is part of one of the most iconic role-playing game series of all time, the Ultima series. Released in 1985, it shifted from the traditional hack-and-slash format to a more role-playing focus approach with a deeper story. This game is part of the Age of Enlightenment trilogy within the larger Ultima series. The game series, and Ultima IV in particular, set new standards in the gaming world with a more expansive world and interactive gameplay. Let’s take a look at what the Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar is all about, and what sort of cheats are available for the game.
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar Premise
Ultima IV departed from the run-of-the-mill RPG of the time with a focus on a battle between good and evil. Instead, it centers on the morals and choices of the player’s character, not unlike the massively successful modern Baldur’s Gate 3. After defeating the Triad of Evil in earlier games, the game’s world, Sosaria, goes through immense changes and is renamed Britannia under Lord British’s rule. The game’s world takes inspiration from fantasy writings and the real-world Middle Ages.
In the game, players become an Avatar, a spiritual leader and the embodiment of the Eight Virtues. Players embark on a journey to master these Virtues, obtain artifacts, and ultimately gain access to the Codex of Ultimate Wisdom in the Stygian Abyss.
This installment of the Ultima series introduces a dynamic character creation system based on ethical dilemmas posed by a gypsy fortune-teller. The player’s responses to these questions determine their character’s profession and the Virtue they represent. The game’s world is open, allowing quests to be completed in various orders, and features a real-time element where time passes and actions have consequences. The interaction with NPCs is enhanced from previous titles through a more complex conversation system. In this title, the game world of Britannia is also fully introduced, ready to be reintroduced in most of the later games in the series.
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar Characters
In Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, characters play a crucial role in the narrative-driven experience. The game enhances interactions with NPCs compared to its predecessors with richer dialog and a more meaningful storyline. Many characters the player meets throughout the game represent different Virtues and expand the game’s core theme of moral and ethical development. These characters guide the player through their journey and the relationships developed with them are integral to the player’s quest to become the Avatar.
NPCs that represent different Virtues
- Mariah the Mage: She represents the Virtue of Honesty. Mariah is a key character who teaches players about honesty, especially in transactions with blind merchants.
- Shamino the Ranger: Shamino embodies Spirituality. His Virtue focuses on meditation at shrines and enlightenment in other Virtues.
- Katrina the Shepherd: Katrina represents Humility. She teaches the importance of humble responses in conversations.
- Geoffrey the Fighter: He symbolizes Valor. Geoffrey’s role is to encourage bravery and courage in battles.
- Jaana the Druid: Jaana the Druid represents the Virtue of Justice. It works to balance the act of defending oneself while avoiding unnecessary harm to others.
- Iolo the Bard: Iolo’s Virtue is Compassion. He guides players in demonstrating kindness, especially through giving alms to beggars.
- Julia the Tinker: Julia is all about the Virtue of Sacrifice. This teaches players to demonstrate the importance of selflessness, including the act of blood donation for healing.
- Dupre the Paladin: Dupre the Paladin represents Honor. This Virtue guides players in exploring dungeons and finding sacred items.
Games in the Series
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar is a pivotal game in the Ultima series, known as one of the most influential role-playing video games in the history of gaming. The game series is often touted as the pre-eminent title that dragged the genre into modernity. Amazing modern RPG titles from Baldur’s Gate to Skyrim and World of Warcraft are only here because of the Ultima series. This particular title is known for its ethical gameplay and rich storytelling. However, the series began as a fairly traditional RPG but evolved into more complex and story-driven titles. The series includes:
- Akalabeth: World of Doom (1979)
- Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness (1981)
- Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress (1982)
- Ultima III: Exodus (1983)
- Ultima: Escape from Mt. Drash (1983)
- Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar (1985)
- Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (1988)
- Worlds of Ultima: The Savage Empire (1990)
- Ultima VI: The False Prophet (1990)
- Ultima: Worlds of Adventure 2: Martian Dreams (1991)
- Ultima: Runes of Virtue (1991)
- Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (1992)
- Ultima VII: The Black Gate (1992)
- Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle (1993)
- Ultima Underworld II: Labyrinth of Worlds (1993)
- Ultima: Runes of Virtue II (1993)
- Ultima VIII: Pagan (1994)
- Ultima Online (1997)
- Ultima IX: Ascension (1999)
- Lord of Ultima (2010)
- Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar (2014)
- Underworld Ascendant (2018)
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar Cheats
In Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, players can exploit several unique cheats to navigate the game’s challenges more easily. These cheats involve clever use of the game’s mechanics, which in some cases requires understanding a little bit about the underlying system. Fortunately, exploiting these tricks is pretty straightforward once you know what to do.
Status Protection
One handy trick is to utilize the game’s limitation of handling only one status ailment per character. Characters already afflicted with a status like poison are immune to being put to sleep by enemies like reapers. Players can intentionally poison their characters before facing enemies, which makes dealing with sleep spells much easier. Of course, after the battle, a Cure spell is needed to remove the poison.
Exploiting Chest Mechanics
Chests dropped by monsters remain on the overworld map until opened. Players can use this cheat to their advantage in Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar. For instance, by leaving chests on swamp patches to create safe paths or mark locations for harvesting important herbs.
Arms Trafficking for Profit
Players can exploit the game’s method of calculating the cost of buying multiple weapons. By purchasing weapons in large quantities, they can get the items for much cheaper. Thanks to the exploitable code, for example, purchasing 88 Magic Axes in Minoc costs only 928 Gold, a fraction of the standard price for a single axe. This tactic applies to various weapons and armors in different locations.
Mystic Armour and Arms
Players can adopt a strategy from Ultima III by finding Mystic Armour and Mystic Arms and selling them repeatedly for gold. To do this, though, players need to achieve 8-part Avatar status first.
Efficient Moon Phase Passage
Players can pause the game to save food and avoid conflicts while waiting for the right moon phase to open a moongate. Opening the stats screen stops time, yet allows the moon phases to continue changing.
Harvesting Nightshade and Mandrake Root
Players can harvest these rare ingredients when both moons are new. By reloading the game, players reset the moon phase, allowing them to collect these reagents, save, exit, and then continue harvesting after reloading with only a tiny delay.
Quick Stat Boosting
Players can use an Xit spell to quickly increase character stats. By entering and immediately exiting the Hythloth dungeon via Castle Britannia’s ladder, they gain access to a magic orb that enhances all three stats. This orb regenerates with each dungeon visit, enabling players to swiftly maximize their stats. However, characters below level 7 will die upon touching the orb, so be careful when exploiting the bug!
Altering Energy Fields
Players have the ability to modify existing energy fields by casting a different type of field spell over them. For instance, they can transform a sleep field into a poison field. This technique may not work for all combinations and there’s a compatibility issue with this exploit on certain ports.
FAQ
Can I play as non-human races in Ultima IV?
No, Ultima IV requires players to play as a human, unlike its predecessors which offered a variety of races. Later Ultima games did bring back other races.
When did Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar come out?
Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar was released in 1985 for Apple II. Since its initial release, the game was also ported to various other platforms, including DOS, Amiga, Atari ST, and Commodore 64.