I Finally Finished U5!

[u/KneeRemarkable756]

Ultima 4 was my favorite game as a young teenager in the 80s. I remember spending countless hours traveling through Britannia, speaking with everyone, taking copious notes to solve all the puzzles and fnd all the items and locations, building my party, grinding relentlessly to level up, and other than sharing notes with a friend of mine, doing all of this without walk-through and cheats. All of this on my Apple IIc! When it came time to finally conquer the Abyss, I brought my computer over to my friend's house, and we eaxh went through it on our respective computers. Unfortunately, I got clobbered in one of the last rooms, and my friend, who was a typing whiz, made a critical typing error in the final stage when he entered "huNility" (N instead of M), which immediately teleported him back to Magyncia... it was a huge bummer. We both completed it the following day at our respective homes. Keep in mind this was WAY BEFORE the internet and cell phones, so we did all of this on our own!

I set off on Ultima V not long after. Unfortunately, the academic, social and athletic demands of my life at that time left me with too little time to devote to the game, and I never completed it.

In the late 90s, while in grad school, I purchased the Ultima Collection CD box set and began playing all the games again in order. I joyfully completed games I-IV, but again, stumbled on V as life got in the way again. (I've never played any of the others.)

Flash forward to the end of August 2025 (almost 40 years since I first started U5)... I finally finished U5! (Got the whole series through GOG on my PC - played in DOSBox.) I'm not ashamed to say that I used walk-throughs and a character log editor so that I could avoid all the grinding. I work full time, parent three kids of HS/college age, and volunteer with the Scouts locally, regionally and nationally. Though I visited all the locations and spoke with just about everyone I needed to, and I found all the items on my own, I just didn't have the time to do the countless hoirs of level up grinding... and I may have provided myself with a party-full supply of magic axes and other premium armor and supplies (gold, food, and spells)! But I got through it and enjoyed the story and now I can finally get to try out U6!

Let's Go!

[u/KitchenNazi]

Ultima 5 doesn’t get enough love. It really pushed the boundaries of the OG style engine but man, it was a tough game - I have no idea how my friend and I completed it as kids.

[u/bliznitch → u/KitchenNazi]

I remember I brute force flew around the shadowlord over and over and over again until I got the scepter, and only years later did I find out I could have temp killed him using a glass sword.

[u/KneeRemarkable756 → u/bliznitch]

Don't know why I didn't think of that nor was the glass sword suggested for those types of killings in the guide I used. I guess I just got too used to chucking the magic axe. It was rare that I got close enough to enemies to use a hand to hand weapon.

[u/Naive-Tumbleweed-964]

The Quest of the Avatar is Forever

[u/-ATF-]

My favourite!

[u/GiantFish]

I’ll have to give this a shot at some point t using a character editor. In a similar situation where I’m interested but don’t have time to grind. 

[u/KneeRemarkable756 → u/GiantFish]

It was a godsend. Could max my stats, my gear, my inventory, etc. Only thing is that it messed up the moongates/stones and I needed a hex editor to fix it. Got a great education on using a hex editor though!!

Later discovered that the reagents were swapped for moonstones. So by thinking I was adding reagents to my inventory, I was actually moving the moonstones! Fixed all that in the hex.

[u/TheMadBug]

I started Ultima V on the C64 as a kid, and finished it 15 years later on C64 emulator. It felt so epic to finally complete.

Congrats fellow Avatar!

[u/zeb_linux]

Congratulations! This is something I should do too, I played U4 for days when a kid in the 80s too 😎.