Bushido Skill Training

Ultima Online: Bushido Skill Training Guide

MMORPG.com's V D provides us with this guide to Bushido Skill Training in the classic MMORPG, Ultima Online.

Bushido is the traditional code of the Japanese samurai which stresses courage, loyalty, self-discipline and simple living. It is not a complete skill, however. In order to be effective it should be combined with a weapon skill (Archery, Fencing, Macing, or Swordsmanship). Mostly, it is a melee combat supplement and to use the abilities you need the required skill and mana. This skill has its own spell book, but doesn’t require any reagents or tithing points.

This is another skill that you gain in by just doing it. Repetition is the key of learning, and the thing to remember is Bushido improves your chance to parry without a shield, so if you want to get that skill out of this and become a samurai you have to be ready to say goodbye to your shield completely. Even if you were to become Grand Master in both Parry and Bushido, there is a 29% chance to parry with a 2 handed weapon, 25% with a 1 handed weapon, and only mere 5% while holding a shield.

SKILL TRAINING

For training purposes, you don’t have to wait for any spell with duration to wear off, just recast it instantly for more gains:

Skill	What to Cast
0	Buy from NPC Samurai
25	Confidence
45	Counter Attack
50	Lightning Strike *
85	Lightening Strike, Momentum Strike **

*Note, if you are training with a golem: Using Lightning Strike will damage your Golem randomly, regardless of the weapon you are using. Watch your golem’s health because it just takes a couple of Lightening Strikes to kill him.

**Lightning Strike can, and will, take you to grandmaster status and beyond. Momentum Strike is more of a pain to set up because you always must have two targets adjacent to you every time- but you will find better gains.

In the table below I have added some details for all abilities, and what level is required:

Name	Mana	Skill	Ability info
Weapon Parry	-	-	Samurai are the best at parrying with a two handed weapon instead of a shield. You learn this skill automatically as you increase Bushido and Parry skills (see Parrying Mini Guide below)
Honorable Execution	0	25	Delivers a killing attack to your opponent, gaining a swing speed boost afterwards. Failure to slay your enemy results in massive resistance penalties for a short time.
Confidence	10	25	Puts your character in a defensive stance of confidence, which allows you to gain stamina and health each time you parry.
Counter Attack	5	40	Puts your character in a defensive stance that allows you to automatically counter attack the next time you successfully parry.
Lightning Strike	5	50	An impressive attack with a large bonus to your chance of a hit.
Evasion	10	60	Puts your character in an evasive stance for a short time, allowing you to parry magical attacks like dragon breath and energy bolt.
Momentum Strike	10	70	If you strike an opponent with this ability, you will automatically strike another nearby opponent. You will receive a damage bonus if you kill the first opponent.

PARRYING SKILL TRAINING

So now that you know what you need, let us look at what you have to do...

Every time you are in melee combat and holding a shield or a weapon, you can gain in parry. If you really wanted, you could just fight and fight and eventually you will get to GM without even having to focus on Parrying (when you hit 60, you should just work with a shield, because you will gain much faster). You will gain easier if other damage evasion skills are low as well, like tactics, evaluating intelligence, anatomy, wrestling, or the other melee skills.

You might not want to just wait to GM in Parry, because it really is a very handy skill to have for combat. It’s a very useful skill, so if you want to get to GM as quickly as possible you need to fight a variety of different creatures at once to increase your gains. Fighting about 9 creatures at once is a pretty good amount, and it also means you should have a healer nearby unless you want to be dying often. Find a friend who is trying to train their healing skills, and you’ll both be gaining together.

Here are the enemies you should be fighting (and where you can find them), around 9 of the same creature at once for optimal gains:

Skill	What to Fight	Where to Fight
0	Buy Skill from NPC	Smith, Armorer, Fighter
30	Sheep, cats, rabbits	Yew Sheep Pen, Jhelom
40	Chickens, goats, pigs, sheep	Jhelom, Delucia Farm
65	Unarmed NPC Fighters	Jhelom Pit

The higher you skill gets, the more enemies you have to fight. Since they are unarmed they can’t really damage you much so don’t bother wearing armor (it would wear out for really no reason). Make sure you have a ridiculous amount of extra shields with you because they will be disappearing fast. Attack the NPCs to make them attack you back, and then tab out (hit TAB few times) so that you don’t damage them back.