Ultima Online Skills Guide

Animal Taming allows players to control wild creatures and powerful beasts. It is a core skill for pet-based gameplay and is used for both PvM and PvP. Taming becomes increasingly powerful with high skill and synergy with Animal Lore and Veterinary.

Archery is a ranged weapon skill that uses bows and crossbows. It shines in PvM for safe damage at range and in PvP for burst with special moves. Archers rely on stamina for swing speed and benefit from high Hit Chance Increase (HCI) and Damage Increase (DI).

Healing is one of the most essential support skills in Ultima Online for any melee or dexterity-based character. It allows the use of bandages to restore hit points, cure poison, and resurrect allies. Combined with Anatomy, it becomes a powerful tool for solo and group survival.

Swordsmanship is one of the primary melee combat skills in Ultima Online. It governs the use of bladed weapons such as swords and axes, and is one of the most versatile and powerful melee skills.

Stealth allows you to move while hidden. It requires the Hiding skill and is used heavily in thief, assassin, and archer templates.

Stealing allows players to take items from other players, NPCs, and containers. It is the core skill for thieves in Ultima Online. Success depends on skill level, weight of the item, and whether the target is in a thieves guild (for PvP stealing).

Spirit Speak is a Necromancy-linked skill that allows players to communicate with ghosts and draw power from corpses. It restores mana and HP depending on the shard.

Snooping allows thieves to open and view the contents of containers in another player’s backpack. It is essential for stealing in PvP or roleplay thief builds.

Resisting Spells is a defensive skill that reduces the duration and effectiveness of harmful magical effects. It is vital in PvP and useful in PvM against casters.

Remove Trap disarms traps on containers and treasure chests. It is essential for modern Treasure Hunting and complements Lockpicking and Cartography. On some shards, different trap types (dart, poison, explosion, magical) scale in difficulty.

Provocation (Provo) is a bard skill that causes two creatures to fight each other. It’s one of the strongest crowd-control and damage amplification tools in PvM, especially when paired with Discordance and high Musicianship.

Poisoning lets you apply poison to weapons or food and increases the potency of poison delivered by certain specials (e.g., Infectious Strike). It’s popular for PvP dexxers and stealth builds and pairs well with fast weapons and Fencing.

Peacemaking is a bard skill that can calm creatures or entire areas, reducing aggression. It is powerful for crowd control in PvM but less common in PvP. Combined with Musicianship, it offers both survival and utility options.

Parrying increases your chance to block attacks when using a shield or (with Bushido) a two-handed weapon. It is vital for defensive builds and works best when combined with high Dexterity and defensive skills.

Ninjitsu is a stealth-based combat skill introduced in the Samurai Empire expansion. It allows players to use ninja abilities such as animal forms, mirror images, and special stealth attacks. It is primarily a PvP skill but can also be used in PvM for mobility and survivability.

Necromancy is a dark magic skill that uses the Book of Necromancy. It allows players to cast curses, debuffs, and transform into undead forms. It is a key part of PvP builds and PvM farming templates like the popular "Necro Mage" or "Sampire."

Mysticism is a magical skill introduced with the Stygian Abyss expansion. It offers unique spells for damage, summons, buffs, and debuffs. Its power scales with either Imbuing or Focus, making it flexible for hybrids.

Musicianship is the foundation for all bard skills in Ultima Online. It determines your ability to play instruments successfully, which directly affects Discordance, Provocation, and Peacemaking. Without high Musicianship, bard skills will often fail.

Mining is a resource-gathering skill that allows players to dig up ore and smelt it into ingots for Blacksmithy and Tinkering. It also improves your ability to find treasure chests if paired with Cartography.

Meditation improves your mana regeneration rate and is essential for all caster-based builds. It is a passive skill that works better with meditation-friendly armor.

Lumberjacking is a resource-gathering skill used to harvest logs and boards from trees. It also passively increases axe damage in combat when paired with melee weapon skills.

Lockpicking is essential for opening locked treasure chests, dungeon containers, and high-level treasure maps. It is commonly used in Treasure Hunting templates and by rogues and PvM looters.

Item Identification is a legacy skill in Ultima Online that was originally used to determine magical properties of items. In modern gameplay, it is largely obsolete due to automatic item property displays. Some custom shards may still give it niche use.

Inscription allows players to craft spell scrolls, spellbooks, runebooks, and talismans. It also gives a PvP spell damage bonus when combined with Magery, making it useful for mage templates.

Imbuing allows you to add magical properties to items, making it one of the most powerful crafting skills in Ultima Online. It was introduced with the Stygian Abyss expansion and is required for high-end custom gear builds.

Hiding allows your character to become invisible when not in combat. It's a vital skill for thieves, assassins, stealth archers, and scouts. It's also used defensively in PvP and to escape dangerous PvM encounters.

Forensic Evaluation is a legacy investigative skill in Ultima Online. It allows players to examine corpses for signs of who or what killed the target, and may reveal if an item has been tampered with (on certain shards). Though not used often in PvM or PvP, it has unique utility on roleplay or custom servers.

Focus is a passive regeneration skill in Ultima Online that governs both stamina and mana regeneration rates. It is especially useful for characters who do not use Meditation (such as warriors or mystics), and it passively boosts recovery during combat and travel.

Fishing is a wilderness and resource-gathering skill in Ultima Online used to catch fish, rare items, treasure maps, and SOS bottles. It is a slow but rewarding skill for ocean adventurers, especially when paired with Treasure Hunting and Cooking.

Evaluating Intelligence (Eval Int) is a Magery-based skill in Ultima Online that increases spell damage and can be used to assess the intelligence stat of other players or creatures. It is essential for PvP mages and PvM casters alike.

Discordance (also known as Enticement in older versions) is a bard skill used to reduce the stats and resistances of creatures and players. It is one of the most powerful debuff tools in PvM and PvP, making it essential for bard support builds.

Detect Hidden allows players to reveal hidden or stealthed characters, trapped containers, and secret doors. While it sees limited PvM use, it's critical in PvP (especially against stealthers or thieves) and treasure hunting for uncovering trap-laden chests.

Cooking is a crafting skill in Ultima Online used to create food items that restore stamina and can be used in various events or roleplay scenarios. On some shards, cooking can also be used in quests, special food buffs, or holiday items.

Cartography is the skill used to decode treasure maps and craft world maps. It is essential for Treasure Hunters and plays a support role for Fishing (SOS maps). While often overlooked, it's a necessary skill for high-level loot hunting.

Carpentry is a core crafting skill in Ultima Online used to build wooden items like furniture, weapons, armor (for elves), and even house add-ons. It’s vital for crafting house decorations, runebooks (with Tinkering), and BOD systems on crafting shards.

Camping is a legacy survival skill in Ultima Online. It allows players to create campfires, log out safely in the wilderness, and — on some shards — may offer bonuses or roleplay value. While not essential, it can be a fun flavor skill for adventurers and RP characters.

Bushido is a warrior-oriented skill introduced in the Samurai Empire expansion. It enhances two-handed melee combat, improves parry mechanics, and grants access to powerful special abilities. It’s a core part of the popular “Sampire” (Samurai Vampire) PvM build.

Bowcraft & Fletching is the crafting skill used to create bows, crossbows, and arrows/bolts. It’s essential for archers and for producing weapons for sale or Bulk Order Deeds. It pairs well with Lumberjacking for gathering materials and Tinkering for tool support.

Blacksmithy is a core crafting skill in Ultima Online, used to create metal weapons, armor, and tools. It’s essential for crafters who want to make gear, enhance items, or fill Bulk Order Deeds (BODs) for rewards. It works best when paired with Mining and Arms Lore.

Begging is a social and roleplay skill in Ultima Online that allows players to request gold or items from NPCs. It has niche uses on some shards (e.g., special events or for earning holiday gifts). While not essential for gameplay, it can be fun and thematic for certain character builds.

Arms Lore is a utility skill in Ultima Online that serves two primary functions: improving crafted weapons and armor when used with Blacksmithy or Tailoring, and giving a small passive damage bonus when paired with combat skills. Though often overlooked, it is valuable for crafters and some PvP builds.

Animal Lore allows players to examine creatures and gain detailed information about their stats, skills, loyalty, and more. It is essential for any Tamer and useful for Veterinary. At higher levels, it’s required to command and train high-slot pets.

Anatomy is a core skill in Ultima Online that provides two key benefits: it increases the damage of physical attacks and enables the use of the Healing skill to cure and resurrect. It is essential for warriors, dexers, and tamers who use Veterinary.

Alchemy is a crafting skill in Ultima Online used to create potions. It is essential for PvM, PvP, and support playstyles, enabling players to produce healing, curing, stat-boosting, and utility potions.

Chivalry is the Paladin magic school powered by Tithing Points and Karma. It provides healing, cleansing, damage boosts, and mobility. It is a staple on melee templates and popular with archers.

Tracking lets you locate nearby creatures or players and follow their trail. It’s a key anti-stealth tool in PvP and useful in PvM to find specific monsters, champ spawns, or quest targets.

Tinkering crafts tools, jewelry, traps, golem parts, house add-ons, and repair deeds. It supports every other crafting profession and is vital for Lockpicks, Tools, and many utility items. It also participates in the BOD system with unique rewards.

Tailoring crafts cloth and leather armor, clothing, quivers, and many decorative items. It is central to the Bulk Order Deed (BOD) reward loop, producing Runic Sewing Kits and recipe items. Materials: cloth and leather tiers (Spined, Horned, Barbed).

Tactics is the universal melee/ranged damage multiplier in Ultima Online. It increases your weapon special move damage and overall DPS for Swordsmanship, Fencing, Mace Fighting, Wrestling, Archery, and Throwing. It is mandatory on virtually every weapon template.

Throwing is a Gargoyle-only weapon skill (Stygian Abyss) that uses thrown weapons like Soul Glaives and Boomerangs. It has a unique “sweet spot” range mechanic that affects hit chance and damage. Excellent for mobile, kiting playstyles.

Veterinary allows you to heal, cure, and resurrect pets using bandages. It’s mandatory for tamers and very helpful for any build that relies on controlled or summoned creatures.

Herding lets you command animals to follow a location or target using a shepherd’s crook. It’s primarily a utility/role‑play skill but can help position tameables for training or events.