Game:

Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (1988)

Duration: 35:07

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10

I haven't seen an Ultima V pacifist run, so I wanted to make one. SPOILERS ahead.

Since my other Ultima V speedruns avoid unnecessary combat, they are almost pacifist runs already; however, I wanted to add some add some additional constraints to make the route different from previous runs and to add to the challenge. Additionally, you could nitpick that a True Pacifist Run is impossible, but more on that later.

These were my self-imposed rules for this run:
1. Do not kill any creatures.*
2. Do not needlessly inflict indirect damage on creatures (e.g., triggering lava in final battle room of Doom).
3. Do not recruit Saduj. He's definitely not a pacifist since he turns on you in battle.
4. Do not use the Attack command--as an extra challenge--even if you just want to use it to trigger a switch in a dungeon.5. Do not use the Fire command. Using a ship's cannon to kill creatures isn't pacifist behavior, but let's take it a step further and make sure you don't touch cannons on castle rooftops. This means you need skull keys for the door to Lord British's chambers.

That's a lot of don'ts. How about a positive one: Unequip all weapons when you start the game to avoid any temptation :-) One other thing, I should mention: It's okay if the Avatar "unintentionally" perishes during combat, but no "death warping" the party.

* Why is a "true Pacifist run" impossible? Well, there is one sandtrap that must be dealt with in Doom in order to reveal a ladder you must descend. The sandtrap blocks the ladder and cannot move due to the adjacent squares being soil instead of sand. I only know of two ways to "take care of" that sandtrap: (1) Kill it, or (2) Cast the unlisted Sixth circle spell Rel Xen Bet turning the sandtrap into a giant rat that can move out of the way.The second method would be ideal. Unfortunately, no recruitable characters are Level 6. (Even if you import your character, the highest you start is Level 5.) Leveling up requires experience, and experience is only gained by slaying creatures, so that defeats the purpose of a pacifist run.

I concede the the sandtrap must be killed to win the game, but I do so in the most-pacifistic way I can think of: casting the Lv-3 Wall of Fire spell which doesn't award any experience points.

The most difficult room in the Doom is the one with the reaper and mongbats which requires you to trigger three wall switches in order to exit. Time must be negated prior to entry so that the position of the mongbats allows you to pacifistically solve the room. You have just enough space to trigger the first wall switch with a magic missile. The problem is you have no path to a second switch. Fortunately, you can use a scroll to summon a daemon that can then push on the wall. Unfortunately, the scroll can fail or can summon a daemon in the bottom region of the room where you are standing, and that situation causes your negate time spell to run out faster. (It doesn't matter if you set active player; each moment when a character would normally have a turn counts against the An Tym timer.)

Here are a few of the timestamps:
0:20 Leave Iolo's Hut
1:22 Ride horse from Yew to Minoc
2:38 Awaken in Yew jail
3:15 Arrive at Britain / East Brittany / Lord British Castle
5:37 Take waterfall to Underworld
6:37 Get the Amulet
11:28 Carelessly have Avatar cast In Por (a mistake requiring buying more reagents later)
11:35 Exit the Underworld (and show off a moonstone/gate but)
12:38 Board the frigate
13:30 Enter Stonegate
14:36 Enter The Lycaeum
16:50 Enter Moonglow
17:53 Enter Sutek's Hut
18:27 Enter Blackthorn's Palace
20:21 Enter Hythloth (for mining the mother lode)
25:41 Exit Hythloth
26:00 Enter Serpent's Hold
27:33 Enter Empath Abbey
28:35 Enter Shame
30:08 Enter Doom [Rooms 30:48, 31:35, 31:52, 32:21, 32:40, 33:30, 33:58]
34:20 Mirror Room

This run was a bit of a grind, but I'm happy with the end result. Hope you enjoy!

In case you are curious, I was running "DOSBox 0.74, Cpu speed: 3000 cycles, Frameskip 0"--DOSBox defaults on my sixteen-year-old laptop (2.16 GHz Intel Core2 T7400) with 32-bit Windows 10. The GOG version of Ultima V runs at 5000 cycles, but that is a bit fast for my taste.

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