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Soulstone FAQ, Revised August 2016

Basara

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Since T'Amon is no longer a mod or UO player, it's about time to get this into a form that a current MOD can edit....

This is fairly long, but consolidates a thread of many messages into one concise document. As far as I can tell ATM, this answer 99% of anything regarding soulstones or fragments.

T'Amon
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Edited & Reposted June 2010 by Basara. Minor edit by Basara August 2016.


1. What are Soulstones?

Soulstones are items that one can use to remove a skill from a character for storage, deletion, or Transfer to another character on the SAME ACCOUNT. With the exception of the single-use CRAFTED soulstones, they only can be traded between accounts while in Token form. Once in Stone form, they are permanently bound to that account that claimed the soulstone from the Token/Reward menu.


2. When were Soulstones made available?
Unless otherwise noted, full-sized soulstones and fragments work exactly the same way. The use of “soulstone” also applies to fragments for ease of writing this.

a. Green full-sized soulstone – UO Samurai Empire pre-order gift, fall 2005 (that went horribly wrong - many stores mismanaged the stickers that had the code, that were to be given to buyers). Was available from the "Legacy Token" purchasable from uogamecodes.com (UO's official online store). Comes in token form. A SE-era code MAY still work, according to Developer posts in 2006. Now part of the new in-game store that uses the "sovereign" in-game store currency (that has to be purchased from the EA store). Not sure if it still comes in token form.

b. Blue full-sized soulstone – UO 8th Anniversary Edition. Comes in Token form. This Code no longer gives a soulstone, as the Token was part of the package only prior to a certain cut-off date. However, a Token already claimed from the code will still work. Tokens for the Blue Soulstone are indistinguishable from the Green Soulstone's token until used.

c. Red full-sized soulstone – 1st year Veteran Reward introduced around the time of the 2006 (9th) Anniversary; comes already in Stone form, so it cannot be traded to other accounts.

d. Soulstone fragment – gift via token on holidays (Christmas twice), and for a few other special occasions (at least one shard got some as a bonus after an extended tech-related downtime). Come in the same 3 colors as the full soulstones, and were actually the first thing that indicated that Red Soulstones would exist, eventually (red fragments were available for a year before the full red soulstones).

e. Crafted Soulstone Fragment - Requires 2009's Stygian Abyss Expansion.
Crafted with Glassblowing skill (which is gained GM-skill level Alchemists via reading a special book). Crafted Fragments have but a single use, and can be traded prior to use. Resources required: 2 Void Essence, 2 Crystal Granules.


3. How do these things work?
To place a skill on a stone:
1. Set the skill on your scroll to down.
2. Double-click an empty soulstone.
3. Activate the stone and choose the skill from the list presented.
4. Confirm the activation and your skill is now zero on the scroll, but all points are on the stone.


To “pull” a skill:
1. Insure the character you want has enough REAL skill points to absorb 100% of the skill on the stone, with only ONE skill set down. If two or more skills set down, and not enough space unused to take the entire new skill, the stone will often not allow transfer, as it doesn't know which skill you wish to lower the most.
2. Set the skill lock to the up position for the skill you are pulling off the stone.
3. Double-click the stone and select the “Activate” option.
4. If everything is as required, the stone is now empty and the skill is on the character.


To flush (permanently dump) a skill:
1. Double-click a stone that has the skill on it – the stone has a flashing glow.
2. Select the option to “Remove the skill” from the stone.
3. Confirm the removal and the skill is gone.
4. Note that if you are going to replace multiple smaller skills with one big skill from another soulstone, you'll want to move the skills you want to get rid of completely to a soulstone and flush them, to where you only have to deal with one skill turned down with points in it, when adding the new skill. See section 18 below.


Notes: A fragment will use a charge when pulling a skill.
Originally, Soulstones could only have one skill pulled off in a 24-hour period, and would not take a new skill off a character until that time elapsed. That limitation was removed with the release of Stygian Abyss in Fall 2009.



4. I found a copy of UOSE and the promo code has not been used!! Is it still good?
For a Soulstone, NO. The code had to be redeemed by a certain date to include the Soulstone.
But, for everything else, yes, the code is still good.
Any existing blue soulstone TOKENS will work indefinitely as well - but are not identifiable as such by sight.



5. I see the term “flush” when talking about soulstones. What does that mean?
Soulstones can store a skill. Flushing the stone means that you double-click it and elect to use the “remove the skill from the stone” option, rather than reclaiming the skill to a character. Note: Fragment charges are NOT used in a flush.
5.a. Can you overwrite a soulstone? I just want to purge myself of focus quickly. Once the stone has it can another character overwrite the stone with another skill?
Yes. Once you move it to the stone you have the option of removing it from the stone as above, or simply just pulling another skill onto the stone to overwrite it. Unfortunately you can't just trade them out with a single stone.


6. How many skills can I store in a Soulstone or fragment?
Soulstones can only hold 1 skill at a time. If you have multiple soulstones then 1 skill each.


7. A fragment has charges ... can they be recharged?
Fragments cannot be recharged. Once the charges are gone, it's decoration. A charge is NOT used if you dump a skill into it and then flush the skill off.


8. My soulstone disappeared when I customized my house!
Open your house sign and check the moving crate. Even when locked and secured in a house, customization dumps the soulstones into the crate.


9. Can I trade a soulstone to another player? Why can’t I sell/trade soulstones to others?
IF you have no need of the soulstone and the other player wants it for decoration, then yes, you can sell or give someone a stone that they can't personally use.
IF the intent is for the other player to be able to fully utilize the soulstone, then no.
Some people actually keep soulstones that are not theirs, found at house collapses, in case the original owner returns (in which case they may give it back, or charge the person gold to return it).


10. Is there a difference between a green, blue or red soulstone?
Not in functionality - they work the same. You cannot tell whether a token will produce a green or blue stone.


11. Can I use more than one soulstone one after another?
Yes, but be careful of skill caps and that a new version of a skill ALWAYS replaces the old version (see below).


12. Couldn't someone use a soulstone to easily gm a skill. Gain 50 pt, put on stone. Gain 50 more , add together? What about points from equipment?
No - the skill pulled from the stone is full replacement for whatever is already in the skill scroll. If a char has 45 Resisting Spells and pulls 55 from a stone, they will have 55 not 100. And, if they had 55, and pulled 45 off the stone, they'd now have 45 skill.
Only REAL skill points are pulled onto the stone. So, if you have 103 Swords skill, but only 80 of it is real points (the other 23 from jewelry), the soulstone will absorb 80 points.
If you then put the stone onto a character whose jewelry takes the skill (which fits normally) over the skill cap, only the capped amount will display, and part of the bonus from equipment would be truncated. (the jewelry and the soulstone above are handed to a character that hasn't read a Powerscroll for Swordsmanship. After the 80 points are absorbed and the jewelry put on (in either order), that person's skill will display only 100, unless a PS is read, or a jewelry piece removed (removing a +10 ring would take it from the truncated 100 display down to 93).



13. I own two accounts, can I use the soulstone to move skills between my own characters on different accounts?
No, the soulstone is account specific and you cannot move skills between two accounts even if you own both of them.
13.a. Is there a soulstone that will work between two accounts?
No, there is not.


14. I read that you can use soulstones to make your character a blacksmith one day and a warrior the next (ie. switch back and forth between two professions), how do I flip-flop between two skills with a soulstone?
This is a somewhat misleading statement that was originally put out with soulstones. A soulstone only holds one skill at a time, so to flip-flop between two skills there are two possible methods:

Method one - The Two Soulstone Method:
Say you want your character to be a smith one day and a fisherman the next, but do not have room for both skills at the same time (if you had room you wouldn't need a soulstone!). You would store blacksmith on one stone and fishing on the other, to go from fisherman to smith you would store fishing on stone A and add smithing from stone B. To switch back, put smithing back on stone B add fishing from stone A.

Method two - The Two Character Method:
This assumes you have only one soulstone and you have another character with room to hold BOTH skills at once. This was a LOT more difficult when the soulstones still had 24-hour timers, but is now very easy without the timer.

Remove fishing from character A, store it on the soulstone. Log in character B (the one with room to hold skills) and move fishing to character B. Then, move smithing from character B to the soulstone, log in character A, take the smithing skill from the soulstone to character A.

To switch back, remove smithing from A to the soulstone. Move smithing from soulstone to B. Move fishing from B to the soulstone, then fishing from soulstone to A.


15. I only have one soulstone and none of my characters have room to store skills, what the heck good is this thing?
The main use for soulstones, if you haven't got any room for skill storage on other characters and only have one soulstone is to give you a backup for trying new skills.

Say that I have a mage with the wrestling skill, and all her skill points used. I want to try swords on her instead of wrestling, but just in case I don't like it, I don't want to have to work wrestling all the way back up again. I can store wrestling and pick up swords. If I like swords I can flush the stone to use it for something else. If I don't like swords after all I can set it to drop, use the soulstone, and be right back to where I was before without having to redo wrestling.


16. I didn't pre-order either of the editions with the soulstones, how do I get one now?
If you have unclaimed veteran rewards, you can now get the red soulstones with those choices.

If you don't have any available veteran rewards, you can buy one in the in-game store with the new currency established for the shop.

Lastly, it is fairly common to find players selling the tokens (Legacy, or rarely, the orginal Soulstone tokens) either at popular banks or on player vendors. They tend to be expensive when bought in-game because of their being a means of someone to buy with real cash to trade for in-game gold, or are leftovers from the expansions.

ALWAYS make sure you know what you are buying - don't pay full soulstone token prices for soulstone fragment tokens, for example. And, if a deal sounds too good, beware - it's possible that they might try a bait & switch, or the Legacy Token might have been bought with a stolen credit card, and could disappear. And remember that only the tokens will create soulstones you can use. An actual soulstone or soulstone fragment is account specific and if traded would only be decoration and not usable.


17. Someone gave/traded me a token for a soulstone but I can't use it!
Now that all accounts have been upgraded to the Mondain's Legacy level of access, this should not be a problem with Soulstone Tokens or Soulstone Fragment Tokens. However, to use one of the CRAFTED single-use soulstones, one must be fully upgraded to the Stygian Abyss expansion.


18. I have a character with all skill points used. I want to move a skill to her with the soulstone, and take points from several different areas, how do I do it?
Say you have a character with all skill points used, you want to move a skill to her. But instead of dropping all of one current skill you want to take 10 points from skill A, 15 from skill B, 10 from skill C, etc. to make room for the new skill. As a soulstone is "remove all" or "Nothing" for skills, one has to play around a bit.

So, to take points from multiple areas you will need to make room. The easiest way is to do it one skill at a time beforehand. The method below DOES NOT WORK ON SHARDS THAT DO NOT ALLOW THE BUYING OF SKILLS OFF NPCS (Siege Perilous, for example).

Set skill A to go down, go find an npc (preferably one in New Haven, that can train a skill you don't need as high as 40 skill) to train you in something you don't have, make sure the skill they train is set to go up. Use the menu on the npc to select "train ____", give them 10 gold for every 0.1 skill point you wish to lower. 100 gp gets you 10 skill points in whatever the npc is training you in. Low, lock the skill you just lowered.

Now, Set skill B to go down, repeat this process with the NPC with the same or different skill (preferably the same skill). IF you have to do a 3rd or 4th skill this way, do so as well. When that skill you don't want (that is taking away points from the ones you want lowered) hits 40, you'll have to switch to a different skill, and continue the process.

This next step requires that you have an empty soulstone, even if only a fragment. Set the skills you just trained up to go down, use the soulstone, and remove these unwanted skills, one at a time. Each will then drop back to 0, leaving you with the old skills dropped appropriately.

Now that you have the room needed for the skill you are moving onto the character, get the soulstone it sits on, and absorb it. If you were doing this with only one Soulstone, you would have left this skill on a different character, clearing the other skills with the stone, before absorbing it for the move.

On a shard like Siege Perilous, what you would instead do is train some unwanted skill (say, focus or meditation), with one of the skills to be lowered set down. When it gets reduced enough, lock it, and switch to the next. If you only have one soulstone, you wait until ALL of the points to be replaced are in that one skill, then claim the new skill from the Soulstone. If one has an empty soulstone to go with the full one, it's a bit easier, so you just remove and flush unwanted skills until you get down to the one to be replaced.


19. Can I store a skill at over GM? Can I reclaim those points with a different character?
Yes, a skill that is over 100 points but the character you attempt to reclaim those points with must have used a Power Scroll to bring their cap to at least the level that is on the stone.

If you are not able to get the scroll for the other character, or unable to put the skills back on the original character, the only way to use the Soul Stone again would be to flush away the hard-earned points that were stored there to begin with...

In short, be very careful...


20. Does using a soulstone remove what is on it if not flushed, or is a soulstone with GM magery for example permanent until flushed?
If you load Magery on a soulstone (or fragment) any of your characters on that account may pull that skill off the stone (emptying it). A skill remains on the stone until flushed - or pulled onto a character.


21. I have a second account that has rewards left. I see that one of the choices is a Red Soulstone. I assume that they (a) do not have a limited amount of charges and (b) that when I select it I will get a token that I can transfer to my primary account? Is that correct?
a) The first part is correct. The red Vet Reward Soulstone is a full soulstone, the same as green or blue ones.
b) On the other hand, the Veteran Reward Soulstone comes to you AS A SOULSTONE – not a token. So, no, you will NOT be able to claim these to give to your main account or sell to others.



22. The soulstone is in my backpack and says it's blessed. How do I access it with other characters on the same account? Can it be locked down in a house?
The best way to share a soulstone with other character is to lock it down in the house or keep it in a secure container accessible to owners only (character on same account as house owner are automatically owners too).


23. My question is, if you use a soulstone, and the character is decked out to the nines with recipes, for say carpentry, or tailoring, don't you lose those when you dump the skill on the soulstone?

A character that has recipes and crafting books he "ate" will RETAIN those items if the skill soulstoned off, but won't be able to use any ability requiring the missing skill until he gets it back to required level, either by reabsorbing the skill or retraining it.

Should that skill actually be used on another character temporarily, the new owner of the skill will not be able to craft anything but the basic items, unless they too have read the recipes for said items.

Similarly, a character whose Magery was soulstoned off cannot enter Wind, and I can't remember exactly what bad things might happen to a character that soulstones off Magery WHILE in Wind. Tamers should avoid at all costs removing Taming or Animal Lore, if they have a pet out (even as a mount) that requires a set amount of Taming & Lore to control.

On the other hand, if a Treasure Hunter is the FIRST person to decode a specific Treasure map, they can then remove the Cartography skill, and replace it with another (such as lockpicking), and still be able to find and dig up the chest. But, it is only the ORIGINAL decoder that can do so. IF someone else decoded the map first, then the Treasure Hunter MUST have both Cartography to dig the chest and then Lockpicking to get into it (MIGHT be able to dig the chest with only Cart, switch to LP to pick, but may not be able to loot unless they put Cart back on after the lock is picked - not fully tested).


24. I have moved shards and want to move GM magery from a character on Shard A to another character on Shard B (same account). I do not have a soulstone yet (but I can get one or two using vet rewards). Is this possible, and if so, how do I do it?
You could ask someone VERY trustworthy to carry the stone for you.
Acquire stone on shard A, put magery on it, hand it to someone who is going to transfer to shard B, receive stone on shard B and unload skill on that shard. If you ask me, it's not worth the hassle. I'd train magery again instead - after all, you'd still have to get a new Powerscroll to take magery over 100 on the new character, and that's expensive enough as it is. This isn't as big an issue now that shard shield tokens exist, but still it's complicated.



25. Can i use soulstones to get a Guaranteed Gain System skill gain multiple times in a play session by moving a skill from one character to another? What about BODs?
No, you cannot get gains this way. The GGS system has a timer, based on the total amount of skill on a character, and the current value of the skill, which is why this seems possible, at first. HOWEVER, the way that the skill addition and removal is coded, adding a skill off a soulstone is treated as an INSTANT GAIN of that amount, resetting the GGS timer as if you just got a gain at the final value.
On the other hand, it might be theoretically possible to move crafting skills from character to character this way every 6 hours to get BODs on each at the pull value for the crafting skill, with the skill only trained once (and all the characters having used powerscrolls for the skill to not be partially lost). However, with the changes 2005-current with BODs, it wouldn't be worth the hassle to do that, either (you're better off putting 0.1 on all the other characters, pulling 1 junk BOD per skill every hour, then turning them all in with that crafter with the high skill, claiming a new BOD at his pull level after each turn-in).

26. Are there any other limits to Soulstone use?
Well, if you are a PvP type, you can't use a soulstone while your "Heat of Battle" timer is active from a PvP fight. That typically lasts 2 minutes after you last swung at a foe. It's the same timer that keeps you from recalling out, etc. There's probably a number of reasons why this is so, ranging from screwy template games, to the possibility that a character's skill set could get screwed up if the person dies in the middle of soulstone use.
 
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Basara

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Pauldarian:

This is a FAQ about what they ARE capable of, not what what people WISH them to be capable of. As such, I had to remove your post, to keep it from confusing people.

The Devs have given very good reasons as to why they are not, and likely never will be, tradable, once in soulstone form. The best we can hope for is some kind of trade-in for orphaned stones in the future, as we'll never be allowed to use them as-is - let alone claim the skills off them.
 
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