Player Guide

Getting started

What you need

• Your own copy of Ultima VII: The Black Gate. The game files are never included. Any version works, including the one sold on GOG.com (Ultima 7 Complete).
• The download for your computer: Windows, or Mac (Apple Silicon).

Windows

1. Unzip the download anywhere you like, for example Documents\Exult. Chrome may warn that the zip "isn't commonly downloaded". Choose Download suspicious file: our builds aren't signed yet.
2. Make a folder called blackgate next to Exult.exe, and copy everything from your Black Gate folder into it, so that its STATIC folder ends up at Exult\blackgate\STATIC. (Exult only reads STATIC; the rest does no harm.)
3. Run Exult.exe. The first time, Windows says it protected your PC: click More info, then Run anyway.

Mac

1. Open the disk image and drag Exult to Applications.
2. Copy everything from your Black Gate folder into ~/Library/Application Support/Exult/blackgate, so that its STATIC folder ends up at .../Exult/blackgate/STATIC. (In Finder: Go → Go to Folder, paste ~/Library/Application Support, then make the Exult and blackgate folders if they aren't there. Exult only reads STATIC; the rest does no harm.)
3. The first time, right-click Exult and choose Open, or allow it under System Settings → Privacy & Security. The build isn't notarized yet.

New to Exult?

Exult starts with its own menu: choose Ultima VII: The Black Gate. From the title menu, Journey Onward starts or continues a game on your own, and Co-Op Mode hosts or joins one with friends. In the game, Escape opens the game menu: save and load, the options pages (Game Input, Game Display, Target System, Class System, Controller), the Keys page and Co-Op Mode.

Everyday changes

These work in every game, alone or together.

• Enemy health bars: Game menu → Game Display → Enemy health bars (off by default).
• Corner minimap: Game menu → Game Display → Corner minimap (on by default, small or large). In co-op it has a dot for each player.
• Doors open when you walk into them.
• Tidy packs: things you take land in a neat grid, and containers have a Take all button.
• Running is kept between games, per computer.

Co-Op Mode

One player hosts and plays the Avatar. Everyone else joins and plays a companion in the Avatar's party. Everyone needs the same version.

Hosting

1. Title menu → Co-Op Mode → Host Game.
2. Choose the type:
   • Lobby code (easiest): you get a short code, such as YEW-8890, once the game starts. Friends type it in and connect directly. No router setup.
   • IP address: friends connect to your address on port 1992 (your home network, Tailscale, or a forwarded port).
3. Set a password if you want one. It's never saved.
4. Journey Onward loads your game, open to Co-Op. The code (or "Open on port 1992") shows at the top of the screen.

Already playing alone? Escape → Co-Op Mode → Hosting: On opens your running game. The same page shows the code or your addresses with a Copy button, lets you close the game to New players, change the password, or turn hosting off.

Joining

1. Title menu → Co-Op Mode → Join Game.
2. Fill in Your Name, the Code/IP and the Password (if there is one), then Join Game.
3. Pick a companion to play, or Spectate.

How it works

• The Avatar leads. The host starts story conversations, makes quest choices and casts the Avatar's spells. Guests play their own companion: its pack, equipment and fighting. People a guest talks to say "The Avatar must do this", except merchants and trainers, who serve guests too.
• The host is the game master: they can open any party member's inventory and give items to anyone. A guest opens only their own.
• Conversations are shared. Guests see every portrait, line and choice, and the slider when the Avatar picks a number. A guest can suggest a reply: highlight it (E / Shift+E, or a click) and press Space. It lights up in their colour on every screen; the Avatar still decides.
• The leash: companions must stay near the Avatar. Stray too far and an arrow points you back.
• Saving: the host saves for everyone. Co-op autosaves every 5 minutes into its own slots, never over your saves.
• Dropped? Rejoin within 3 minutes with the same name and you get your companion back.

Chat and emotes

Players, companions and spectating

Leading the party (host and single player)

Target System

Pick a person or a thing with two keys, then act on it with one. On by default; Game menu → Target System turns it off or chooses what E offers (containers and bodies always; loot, usable things like levers and winches, and signs by default; decor and furniture if you turn them on).

A small arrow marks your pick, white or red in combat, and the top of the screen says what Space will do.

So E, Space, Shift+Space opens a chest and empties it. Taking what isn't yours asks first ("Steal? Space again").

Class System

Every companion has three skills from their Ultima IV class, unlocked at levels 1, 4 and 7. The companion you play shows a skill bar: click a skill or press Ctrl+1–3. A skill aimed at one foe uses your Q pick.

Companions nobody plays use their skills on their own. Their combat AI checks the party's health and sizes up every foe:

• Dupre finds the companion who most needs protecting before he uses Shield Ally.
• Iolo moves in to put enemies to sleep.
• Jaana and Dupre heal whoever needs it.
• Shamino and Tseramed keep their distance and aim their offensive skills at the strongest enemy.

The Avatar gets a spell bar instead: drag a spell from the spellbook onto a slot, then cast it with a click or Ctrl+1–3 at your pick.

Game menu → Class System: on or off (the host decides for everyone), where the bar sits, whether ranges show, and how skills pick a foe.

Controller

Xbox, PlayStation and most other pads work. Plug it in and play; Game menu → Controller has its options and lists every button. Each button below shows the Xbox name first, then the PlayStation one.

A or bottom B or right X or left Y or top

In the game

• The triggers are Shift and Alt, so LT + A is Shift+Space (take all) and LT + LB goes back through people.
• The pointer appears when you move the right stick and hides after a few seconds. While it shows, LB / RB pick whatever is nearest it first. Use it for what targeting doesn't reach: dragging an item, window buttons.
• Rings: hold X or Y, push the left stick toward an entry, let go to use it. Skills: the skill or spell bar. Utilities: eat, watch, map, journal, lockpick, keys, spellbook.

In conversations and menus

Nintendo-style pads (Switch Pro, 8BitDo SN30 Pro and the like) have A and B, and X and Y, printed the other way round. The game goes by where a button sits, so on those pads read this guide's A as the bottom button (labelled B) and B as the right one (labelled A). The game's own Controller page uses your pad's labels. Its Swap A and B option trades the bottom and right buttons if you'd rather confirm with the right one.

Keys we changed from Exult

With WASD or the Target System turned off, W, A, S, D, E and Space go back to what they do in Exult.