Ultima V Damageless Run in Only Seven Segments

I've been wanting to complete an Ultima V Damageless Run ever since I posted my Pacifist Run over a year ago. SPOILERS ahead.

Combat aside, Ultima V has a myriad of ways to deal you damage. Some ways, such as trapped treasure chests, are easy to bypass. Some are accidental--have you ever mixed reagents incorrectly or ventured into rough seas without a frigate? Still others, like falling while mountain climbing or experiencing earthquakes in the Underworld, are almost as inevitable as they are random. Damage might even be self-inflicted as you seek secrets beyond fireplaces. I dare say there's at least one way to take damage that requires you to deliberately go out of your way to achieve: https://wiki.ultimacodex.com/wiki/Use...

The FIRST STEP in completing a damageless run is to define what I mean by "damageless."

Since Ultima V is a turn-based game, I decided on the following definition: At the end of each turn, all members of your party have HP no lower than they had at the start of the turn. (HP will be the same OR possibly higher due to leveling up or due to healing Shamino [or Mariah] who starts with low health.) Getting possessed or poisoned (if no drop in HP) or getting grazed in combat wouldn't be damage. A decrease in frigate hull strength won't count as damage. Consumption of magic points (MP) isn't damage. Loss of karma (emotional damage??) isn't damage. We only care about Hit Points. One addendum to the rule to cover loopholes: Instantaneous death of your entire party followed by Lord British's resurrection isn't allowed either! There are two such "insta-death" opportunities I am aware of: One is falling down the trap door in the Shadowlord's Stonegate keep. The other is drowning due to being on board a frigate that hits zero hull strength when no skiffs are onboard AND you don't have the magic carpet in your inventory. (The first time I experienced that, I remember thinking THAT'S probably the main reason the game warns you when no skiffs are on board. For years I thought it was just because it makes it harder for you to return to dry land.) But I digress.

Now that we've settled on a definition, you might feel it's overly complicated. It is. I was hoping to gloss over the fact that game requires you to take damage to reach the final dungeon (cave), Doom. Doom is on an island surrounded by impassible mountains. The only way in is to step on lava, and lava randomly deals between 1 and 8 points of damage. But I'm not going to let that get in my way of my damageless destiny. A ring of regeneration restores 1 HP at some random interval. If you are lucky enough to take only 1 "damage" from the lava AND have the ring do its thing on the same turn, then you'll hardly notice the fluctuation in HP ~ 49:26. You'll literally miss it if you blink--and I'm not talking about In Por!!

What are the odds of the lava dealing 1 "damage" and the ring regenerating you on the same turn? I'm not exactly sure--maybe 2% AT BEST. Presuming a uniform lava damage distribution, you have 1/8 odds (12.5%). In my limited testing with a ring of regeneration on Shamino, it took 113 presses of the space bar for his health to increase 20 points. The average (mean) number of turns between regeneration was a little over 5. The median was 3, the mode was 2. However, the biggest gap between regenerations was 42. I favored passing four turns and hoping for the best. It took 162 attempts in my run--failed attempts NOT included in the video--for me to be successful. (When I was testing out my regen. ring idea for the very first time, it only took me 20 or so tries for the stars to align.) Needless to say, this "damageless run" is segmented.

The SECOND STEP in completing a damageless run is to decide on my level of pain tolerance.

My (secondary) goal is to minimize the number of segments. The longer a segment goes, the riskier it becomes. If you mess up, then you have to repeat a much longer chunk. It would be super easy to abuse save scumming and to Quit & Save after every couple of moves in the Underworld. However, I wanted to come up with a plan. I think I like the planning aspect of Ultima speedrunning more than the actual gameplay, but actually seeing the plan work is what makes it all worth it. Typically with my speedruns/challenge runs, I figure out what's needed to get through Doom, then I work my way backward.

I'm running of room to write here, so I will add more details to a comment in my video.