8x8 is the skill gain method we've all come to know and love, because it raises skills very quickly compared to regular game play. That being said, to ease understanding of how it works, it might be a good idea to explain why it's called 8x8 in the first place. The world we live in, Sosaria, is divided into 1000's of little squares, called tiles. A tile is, basically, a step. Each time you take a step, you've moved a tile. Skill gains work somewhat on this basis thanks to the anti macro code implemented just prior to UO Renaissance (many years ago), but instead of dividing the world into tiles, it divides it into squares. Each "gain square" is 8 tiles by 8 tiles (64 tiles total), and thus came the name 8x8. It's also important to note that due to this, your skill gains do not depend entirely on landing on one exact tile, but that you have 64 to choose from with the exact same outcome.

So, how do you 8x8?

Well, it's pretty simple actually. You attempt to get a gain in whichever method you can, and once you do, you move 8 tiles north (upper right corner) or south (lower left corner) (depending on shards: most shards are north bound, with exception of Europa, Drachenfels and Lake Austin). There, that wasn't too hard, was it? You just need to move 8 steps to get a second gain.

Why are people having trouble with this you ask? Cause it's most commonly applied on boats. Boats are horrid, annoying things that never do as you want them to. However, with a vast ocean to move around in, it's pretty clear to see why its a good place to do it; you won't run into a pesky dungeon wall, a mountain or the sea itself. The thing is, it's very easy to miss a gain square cause of the way boats move. So, this is how you prevent missing squares. Sail around slowly (slow forward, slow left, etcetera), and then pretype "stop" and do your skill gain thing (whichever it might be for whichever skill it is). The very second you see a skill gain pop up in your lower left corner, you hit enter. The boat is now stopped.

And that is where it gets tricky. Don't despair however! Moving 8 tiles precisely on a boat isn't at all hard, you just have to know how to do it. You use the same commands as always, but you apply "one" on the end (e.g., backwards one), and you've moved one tile. So, simple deduction is that you say "[direction] one" 8 times, and voila, you're where you should be for your next gain. There really isn't more to it than that. Eventually your run will run out (it might even happen after the very first gain; but do yourself a favor and try the skill a few times before giving up), and you'll have to start over looking for a new run.

Utilizing this method, you can see skill gains ranging from 0.1 up to 20.0 (or more!) per run. So, it's easy to see why this method is used. It's very nice sitting there watching your skill level increase.