Throughout its history, much of Ultima has centered around a philosophy known as the Virtues. Ultima X: Odyssey carries on this tradition by allowing players to learn about and use the Ultima Virtues to gain new special abilities, enhance items with Virtue, and eventually reach the elite status of "Avatar," a process which we'll explain more fully in a future update.

The philosophy of the Ultima Virtues starts with the three Principles of Truth, Love, and Courage, which can then be combined in different ways to form the following eight Virtues:

Honesty	Compassion	Valor
Justice	Sacrifice	Honor

Spirituality

Humility

Gaining Virtue

You'll be able to fight monsters to gain experience, which will raise the level of their character. But in addition to that, you can also choose to raise your Virtue levels, which is a completely separate form of character advancement from normal combat experience.

To gain points in the Virtues, you will embark on quests, where you will be presented with choices on how to proceed. This is similar in some ways to previous Ultima games, where players answered ethical questions to determine which Virtue they wished to follow. But in UXO, you aren't just answering hypothetical questions - you'll actually be able to act on your decisions!

For example, you may be asked to help a hungry family dispose of a lizardman that's been stealing their food. When you corner the lizardman, you could find that the lizardman's own food source has been poisoned by a roving band of mongbats. Do you choose to uphold Justice by punishing the lizardman for stealing? Or choose instead to show Compassion by helping to restore the lizardman's own food source? Either way, in a quest based on the Virtues, there are no right or wrong answers - they simply reflect different ways of playing your character, which provides a substantial role-playing element to UXO. Whether you choose the route of Justice or the route of Compassion, you are rewarded for your deeds not with experience, but with points in whichever Virtue you chose to follow.

As you complete quests in UXO, you'll gain levels (called "circles") in the different Virtues based on your actions and decisions in the Virtue quests. Note that these circles are related to your level in each Virtue, and are completely separate from your character level! Through questing, you'll be able to obtain up to 30 circles in any given Virtue, although there will be a cap, or a limit, on how many Virtue circles you can have in total.

Spending Virtue Points

Once you've earned points in any given Virtue, you can then spend those points to learn unique special abilities based on that Virtue. There are three abilities associated with each Virtue, and the level of these abilities can be raised in much the same way as the abilities you can learn based on your chosen Path.

Unlike Path-based abilities, however, Virtue abilities will be open to players of all Paths. By allowing all players to freely follow the Virtues, we can prevent anyone from being fenced into certain roles. For example, in many online games, only one class of character is adept at healing, which means that any players who choose that role are often forced to play as a support character each and every time they play, with no exceptions. Not in this game! In UXO, healing is an ability gained by following the Virtue of Compassion, which means that any character of any Path may elect to fill that role without sacrificing their Path-based combat abilities.

Virtue Items and Imbuing

In addition to learning special Virtue abilities, you can also choose to spend your Virtue points by enhancing, or "imbuing" certain items, adding special properties to the item that can't be obtained through any other means. Not all items can be imbued with Virtue points, but some magical weapons, armor and jewelry have "Virtue slots," which means you can choose to spend Virtue points to add new properties to that item.

For example, a player who pursues the Virtue of Honesty might choose to use some of his Virtue points to imbue his armor. When the player is struck in battle, his Honesty-imbued armor might have a chance to flash brightly with the glare of blinding truth, thereby confusing all attackers.

Virtue-enhanced items can be used by other players as well as sold on the open market, which means that an industrious player could make quite a healthy living completing Virtue quests and using those points to enhance items for others!

Saving the World, One Virtue at a Time

More than once throughout Ultima history, the Virtues have given the Avatar the edge he needed to overpower his nemesis, the Guardian. But in Ultima X:Odyssey, the struggle takes on a whole new meaning, as the Guardian's corruption threatens the very existence of Alucinor. This time, you can help the Avatar as he works to inspire the people of Alucinor to follow the Virtues themselves.

Remember, the philosophy of the Virtues in Ultima X:Odyssey is more than just a basis for the fiction - it's woven into every aspect of the game, from character advancement to item customization. It serves as a foundation for role-playing, and creates the framework by which players will ascend to a level of power far beyond their wildest expectations.