You're challenged to discover the secret of Minax, the evil apprentice of Mondain whom was defeated in Ultima I. Once again, you must create a player character who'll roam land, sea, air, and even outer space, battling strange creatures and increasing your character's attributes and possessions. However, in Ultima II, you must also unlock the mysteries of the Time Doors.
By allocating ninety points among six attributes and choosing race, profession, and gender, you may create a player character who is initially powerful or weak. For example, relatively high strength is the key to being able to wear certain armor; high agility will allow your character to wield certain weapons and steal more easily. The Origin Systems, Inc.al author had good luck with his Elf Thief ("Bugsy") who was able to steal plenty of food, weapons, and armor. However, the Dwarf Wizard ("Hirsutus") he created endured a long, slow battle to merely stay alive. Experiment with different combinations to find out which is more successful and enjoyable for you.
Clerics and Wizards, the spell casters, may purchase spells in Villages. However, spells are both very expensive and relatively useless. Spells can only be cast within Dungeons and Towers and, unfortunately, you can easily win the game without ever entering any of those places.
You start out with 400 hit points, 400 food units, and 400 pieces of gold. This may seem like plenty, but it isn't. Your food disappears quickly as you explore; your hit points diminish rapidly when you are attacked by creatures; and your gold pieces must be exchanged for supplies and equipment. However, you can always attempt to steal, and you can purchase additional hit points by transacting with a King.
Your first task is to obtain a weapon and armor. Walk west and south, from where you are when you boot the game diskette, into Towne Linda, which resembles a cloverleaf. You'll find both an armory and a weapons vendor there. After leaving Towne Linda, travel south until you reach Le Jester Village (it looks like 5 small circles). Villages are the only places where you can obtain additional food. Now you're ready to do some serious adventuring. But, before you begin your campaign in earnest, be sure to save the game. It's very easy to get killed, and you'll not want to have to repeat too much when that happens.
This game has an annoying "feature" involving the save game function. First of all, unlike Ultima I, Ultima II has no provision for two disk drives, so be prepared for frequent disk swaps. Secondly, if your character enters a Town, Village, Castle, Dungeon, or Tower (i.e., there has been interaction with the player diskette), and you're then gravely injured or, perhaps, have spent money on an item you're not allowed to use, and you then leave that location (i.e., another disk interaction), you'll not be able to turn off your machine and reboot to find your earlier (and healthier!) save game position. So when you realize that your character has lost a lot of hit points while within one of those locations, turn off your machine then and there. Since no writing to the diskette is involved, you can then reboot and recover your earlier position. Hopefully you'll not have to do this too often!
In order to gain experience points, valuable items, and gold, you must slay many creatures. The universe of Ultima II is populated by Orcs, Devils, Daemons, Thieves, Fighters, Clerics, Wizards, Balrons, Sea Serpents, Guards, Merchants, Jesters, Seers, Oracles, Kings, Queens, and, finally, Minax. Some you must simply kill; others you must not kill, but must transact with.
Transact with everyone you find in Towns, Villages, and Castles. Clues to solving the game will be revealed to you (occasionally, however, you have to offer gold to purchase a particularly valuable hint or item). In one Town, you'll discover that offering gold results in significant increases to your character's attributes. As mentioned earlier, you can obtain more hit points by transacting with a King (he pockets some of your gold as payment for this service). Be aware, however, that after level 99, your attributes will roll over to 0! Rollovers will also occur when any of your possessions total more than 99 and when your hit points, experience points, food, or gold climb above 9,999). Don't be too greedy!
Frequently utilize the "Z" (status) command, especially after you've slain a creature. You'll notice that there are certain items in your inventory which were not there before the battle. You'll learn what each of these items is for (e.g., magical boots save you from a paralysis spell and tools allow you to escape from traps in Towers or Dungeons), and will discover which creatures are more likely to possess something you need.
There are a total of twenty objects for you to find, including: Torches, Keys, Tools, Quick Swords, Wands, Staffs, Boots, Cloaks, Helms, Gems, Ankhs, Red Gems, Skull Keys, Green Gems, Brass Buttons, Blue Tassels, Strange Coins, Green Idols, Tri- Lithiums, and Rings. Once you've obtained a particularly precious item (such as blue tassels which you'll need to board a frigate or strange coins which allow you to stop time), be sure to save the game state. Thieves just love to steal from you, and you may want to recover your earlier position. You'll encounter an individual who claims to own "one of everything". Offer him gold and find out!
You may buy a horse in a Town in order to conserve food as you travel by land. However, frigates and planes are needed to traverse the oceans. You'll need a rocket ship to enter space.
Frigates may be boarded (as they pass by you on a coastline) if you already possess a set of blue tassels. However, planes and rockets must be stolen. Planes are only available in one Town, and you'll need brass buttons and skull keys in order to fly a plane. Once you have a plane, you can "walk" it through a Time Door.
Rockets are found only in one Town and you'll need a number of items in order to blast off (if you need extra Tri-Lithiums, you can find hordes of the stuff on the highest level of a Tower or the lowest level of a Dungeon). Once in space, explore and transact until you discover the mysterious Planet X and the kindly Father Antos. Note that landing is the trickiest part of this task. Be extremely careful that you land on the grass, otherwise you'll be killed.
Use your galactic map to plot the coordinates for space travel. You'll know you've reached the planet you're seeking when you find Towne Basko and Castle Barataria. Be prepared to fight! The inhabitants are belligerent and the thieves tend to steal from you. Remember also to take extreme care in landing your rocket as instant death results from one careless move. There're no Time Doors in space.
Ah, yes, the dread enchantress! She rules time and the universe, ever so confidently, from her chambers within her Castle on Legends. Do not attempt to destroy her until you have spent many, many hours developing your character's abilities and have obtained weapons, armor, and valuable items. One item in particular, a ring, must be in your possession if you wish to pass unscathed through Minax's force fields. She's unwilling to die easily and leads you on a not-so-merry chase from chamber to chamber while her minions attempt to kill you. You can deal with her lackeys by stopping time, but only if you have sufficient quantities of strange coins. Persist in your attack and she'll ultimately succumb and she and all her works will be destroyed!
The cloth map and the pamphlet that come with the game are very helpful. Study both and make your own notes as you continue your quest. The map shows the world as it appears in the A.D. time period with symbols representing the 20 Time Doors that exist. Note that Dates and Time Door locations may differ in various versions of Ultima II. The Time Doors take you from one time period to another, and there are five such periods: B.C. (1423 B.C.); A.D. (1990 A.D.); Pangea (9 million B.C.); Aftermath (2112 A.D.); and Legends (no time). Once you obtain a magical helm, you'll be able to "V"iew your exact location (note, however, that your helm disappears when you "V").
You'll visit Legends often in an attempt to break through Minax's armies and into her sanctum. Her Castle in located in the center of the continent; besides numerous creatures, there's only a Signpost on Legends.
There are four Time Doors in a row south of the Signpost. Starting from the west:
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