Spoony Plays Ultima VI: The False Prophet, Part 3

We free the last two shrines then set out to get the Book of Prophecies translated.



And to get you caught up on what I was doing off-camera:

The quickest way I've found to earn gold (without massive Karma losses) is to venture into the dungeon beneath LB's castle.  You can get there via the ladder near Nystul's room and unlock the door via the "A" key found elsewhere in the castle.

Down here, you can kill swarms of Headlesses and Cyclopes to earn spears, leather armor and gold, as well as the occasional iron helmet or bow.  These things can be sold at Britannia's provisioner for a good bit of cash (especially spears, since enemies tend to carry several of them).

Once the Avatar reaches Level 6, you can then purchase the Animate and Clone spells from Xiao, who lives north of the Lycaeum.  These two spells are the key to completely breaking the game's economy.

(Be sure to grab Dispel Field too, as you'll need it later)

For you see, the Animate spell lets you bring life to any inanimate piece of equipment.  Since it's now considered "alive" by the game, you can then cast Clone on it to create duplicates.  Said duplicates can then be "killed" and will turn back into a normal item, which you can then sell.

Doing this, you can buy a single Magic Armor or Magic Helmet, then duplicate it to completely deck out your party.  Any spares you create can then be sold off for a mountain of cash.  If you ever need more money, just clone a few more armors!

I also went ahead and recruited three more party members, namely Seggallion and Sentri in Serpent's Hold (two very powerful fighters) and Gwenno in Minoc (has good dexterity and is quite deadly with a bow).  Having her close at hand also means we don't have to go searching for her later...

Be sure to keep at least one spare Magic Armor, Magic Helmet and weapon around, and keep at least one party slot open.  We'll need those for a particular party member we'll pick up in our travels.  I would also recommend buying some swamp boots for every member of your party from Utomo in Yew so that you don't have to waste reagents dealing with the many poisonous patches throughout the land and in the dungeons...

Spoony Plays Soul Blazer, Part 3

The underwater city of St. Elles is delivered from evil.



As it turns out, the lair you can't reach from the last area is the same lair I skipped over in the area with the current; they're both on the same map.  It just makes some foliage disappear on the other section of the map...

Spoony Plays Ultima VI: The False Prophet, Part 2

We do some more traveling and free some more shrines to weaken the Gargoyles' hold on Britannia.



I may do a bit of grinding off-camera to get my party better equipped, because those gargoyles are pretty brutal.  To say nothing of when I get to go venturing around the world and through dungeons later...

Spoony Plays Soul Blazer, Part 2

We restore Greenwood to its former glory by smiting evil.



Ah yes, and I didn't show it on camera, but there was one layer I missed and spent an inordinate amount of time searching for.  Turns out it was the last room in the first temple:

Two of these statues are actually teleporting statue enemies and can be killed.  I missed it because the darkness of the room makes it difficult to tell them apart from the inanimate ones...

This easily-missed lair is essential to restoring the third mole hole and getting both the Ice Armor and the Shield Bracelet (the latter of which is one of the best items in the game), so be sure not to miss it!

Spoony Plays Ultima VI: The False Prophet, Part 1

Our journey begins as we set out to liberate the eight Shrines (and make a note to visit the Lycaeum later in order to decipher the Gargoyles' holy text).



Also note that, bafflingly, the game's sound is disabled by default.  More bafflingly, the music from the title screen and introductory segments plays regardless of whether it is currently toggled on or off.  Press CTRL+Z in-game to enable it.

Ah yes, and here's how you level up your characters:

Once you've freed a shrine and taken its moonstone (by using the proper Rune and Mantra), return to it and Talk to it.  If you have enough experience, you'll advance a level and gain stat points depending upon the shrine you visit:

Honesty	Int +3
Compassion	Dex +3
Valor	Str +3
Justice	Int/Dex +1
Sacrifice	Dex/Str +1
Honor	Int/Str +1
Spirituality	Int/Dex/Str +1+1
Humility	Nothing