No, you're not forced to pay a dime, however we encourage to donate to help build the shard and pay the monthly bills.

Learn more about donating here.

Can I use UOAssist here?

Unfortunately UOAssist only work on OSI shards, however there is a very good clone and somewhat more advanced facility called Razor which does everything UOAssist does and lots more, you can find it at www.runuo.com

What programs I need?

You will need a UO client (doesnt matter which one as long as its freshly patched).
You will need UOGateway (www.uogateway.com).
Look for Defiance shard in UOGateway and select us (Dont worry, this will not mess up with OSI, you can still play their servers too).
Fill in your desired username/password. 2 accounts are auto accepted per ip#. If you play with more players on 1 ip# you will need to contact LiGhT or X Lord X.

Note: Do not forget your username/password!
Futhermore it is adviced not to use the same account login/pass as your OSI account(s).

What is the ip# of the shard?

213.228.232.22 / dfi.defianceuo.com