New Player Guide

This Guide will walk you through the basics. For Ultima Online Veterans, please see our UO Veteran Guide for server specific differences.

Interface

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Controls & Interaction

Movement

Hold down the right mouse button and point in any direction to move.

• Hover your cursor close to your character while holding right-click and you'll walk in that direction.
• Move your cursor further away and your character breaks into a run.
• Running drains Stamina, and certain conditions can affect your movement speed such as Injuries and hobbling.

Alternatively, if you prefer more modern controls, navigate to Options > Experimental and enable WASD Movement.

• Because UO uses a classic isometric view with 8 directions, there are two WASD settings available so you can set your base directions to whichever feels natural, either cardinal or top/down/left/right.

Item Management & Interaction

UO is pretty freeform when it comes to managing items and interactions. Most things will respond to a click or a hover, if only to tell you what it is.

• Single-click or hover over anything to see its name, a quick way to get your bearings in an unfamiliar place.
• Double-click most things to use or activate them: tools, food, drink, doors, job items, and crafting stations. Double-clicking a character opens their paperdoll, or a menu if they're a special NPC.
• Hold ALT/span> to highlight interactable and noteworthy items in your immediate area, useful for a fast sweep of a room without clicking through everything.
• Click and drag to move items, reposition things in your backpack, hand something to another player which will open a trade menu, or drop it in the world.

Communication

In UO, what you say appears above your character's head in the game world and is simultaneously logged in your Journal, which keeps a running record of everything said and done around you. It's worth keeping an eye on, especially in busy scenes where text moves fast.

To speak, simply start typing and your text will appear in the shaded input area at the bottom of your screen. Hit Enter when you're done and it will appear in the world. NOTE: If you are using WASD movement, you will need to press Enter or click inside the text area first before typing, otherwise your keystrokes will be read as movement inputs.

Speech, emotes, shouts, etc. each display differently in the world, and you can customize the color of each type under Options > Speech to make them easier to read at a glance.

Roleplay

Everything your character expresses should be Diegetic, meaning it exists in the world. Spoken words, audible reactions, visible actions. Internal monologue, private thoughts, or anything another character couldn't reasonably hear or see has no place in open speech. Keep it grounded in what's actually happening in the scene.

Out of Character

Not everything can be handled in character, and for those times the simplest solution is Party Chat. Invite the players you need to speak with into a party and talk freely without it bleeding into the roleplay around you.

Additionally, wrapping [[ ]] in normal speech is also acceptable for brief moments.

Chat Commands At a Glance

Action	Chat Formatting	Range & Function
Talk	Your Message.	Nearby players will hear you, provided they're on the same screen as you and within Line of Sight.
Whisper	\your message	Speech will only be heard only by players directly adjacent to you, or those with Observant.
Shout	;your message	Shouting breaks line of sight, meaning your voice carries through walls, doors, and around corners.
Emote	*your action*	Observed by nearby players within line of sight to describe what your character is doing. Emotes are just as in-character as speech, and you're encouraged to use them.
Party	/your message	Anyone currently in your Party will see this regardless of where they are. Messages here are considered out of character.
OOC	[[Your Message]]	Out of character using normal talk, to only be used use in emergency/sparingly. Example: [[Brb]]

Discord

Icebound hosts a Discord server for out of character communication with staff and other players, as well as tools to help connect you with events, roleplay opportunities, and community resources. It's the best place to ask questions, get oriented, and stay plugged into what's happening on the shard.

Crafting

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Combat

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