Heroes of the Gauntlet

This is the first of six chapters in Book of Alaric. This chapter involves anything that is not specific to any one hero, and it contains virtually everything you'd ever need to know for playing Endless mode in even the most difficult levels. If you've ever seen a top-level player do something amazing or maybe just strange and you wondered how or why they did it, this book intends to cover it in one of its chapters. Be warned that this is not a quick read by any means—it is quite literally a book in all but the physical sense and should be considered as such in regards to the amount of time that will be required in order to read it. That said, I will also be sacrificing brevity in exchange for clarity where necessary so as to not leave anyone lost.


This series is intended to provide exhaustive and in-depth insight for playing characters at a high level and to reveal nuances that may be understood by only a few top players but are rarely discussed, if at all. This is not a general overview of any character's equipment.

It is an amalgamation of things I have learned through many hours of studying other players, receiving advice from mentors, and of course, much trial and error, practice and discovery. I hope to help others come to learn what I know without them having to spend any unnecessary hours pursuing it. This is not to say, however, that much practice will not be required on your part to reach proficiency—it most certainly will—but I hope to demystify any secrets I can and to give you a substantial advantage in your journey nonetheless.

I have also taken the liberty to coin a few terms for the purpose of describing certain phenomena, patterns, and series of moves (whether I invented them or not) in memorable and succinct ways as a means of referencing them more easily. In the case of attacks or moves that have no known official names, I will be assigning names to them for the same reason. Feel free to think of these things in your own way if that helps.

Heroes of the Gauntlet is the precursor to each of the other chapters in the series that focus on individual heroes. The information found here is general knowledge that pertains to all heroes or some combination of heroes. This chapter largely focuses on the players and team cohesion, and it is recommended that you read this chapter (particularly the fundamentals) either before or alongside any chapter dedicated to a hero you may be interested in.

This book, including this chapter, will assume that you desire to ultimately become a proficient player on high-level floors in Endless (the most challenging aspect of Gauntlet by far) with your hero of choice. It will also account for the possibility that you are currently a beginner to the game, though it would be wise to have a few hours of experience so you have a way of relating to some of the material found in this book.

My personal recommendation is having first completed both Campaign on the "Hard" difficulty and the first 36 floors in Endless (a checkpoint awaits you at the beginning of the 37th floor) before absorbing the content ahead. This will give you a solid foundation for understanding the basics of Gauntlet and various situations that we will learn to overcome. It is not necessary that you do so, of course, but if you are not determined enough for even this, then this book will likely be of little use to you.

If you are ready, let us begin.

Fundamentals

This section focuses on the individual. The material found here is either essential or advantageous for any player to know, regardless of what hero they play or whether they are in a party or going it alone.

I highly recommend reading this portion before reading other chapters; you will be given an opportunity to skip to any hero's chapter you wish once this portion is complete. Afterwards, we will explore ways to correlate your efforts with teammates to form a highly cohesive group.

Picking the Right Hero

Let's start with the initial stage of choosing the hero to play. Find the hero that most suits your desired style of play and capitalize on their abilities. There is a matter that is fortunately not a very common issue but I see around from time to time and feel it worthwhile to address. What I'm talking about is this: if you want to play Wizard, play Wizard, however, if you want to play Elf, don't play Wizard only to treat him as a second-class Elf. Simply play Elf. I've seen sometimes where someone will play Wizard and the only spell they'll ever use is a basic fireball. In that case, just play Elf. He's better suited for what you're trying to accomplish. This is just an example, but there are other cases of this (Warrior and Valkyrie to mention another).

⠀⤷ Terms & Techniques

Let's go over some terms and basic concepts that will be useful to reference later.

Tagging

"Tagging" is a term I use to refer to the act of hitting an enemy with a quick attack for the purpose of stunning them or disrupting their current action rather for the sake of dealing damage. For example, when a Cultist Sorcerer is casting a hex, you do not have to kill him to stop him, you simply have to stun him in some way. All heroes apart from Elf can use tagging through their standard attack set.

Tagging can be useful for buying very small amounts of time. For example, if you intend to use an ability that has a small vulnerability period before activating, you may want to tag any enemies close to you before using the ability. Another common way to employ tagging is to simply use it before passing by an enemy. Stun them before walking past to ensure that you are not attacked.

Stun Lock

"Stun locking" is a ubiquitous term used in many games to describe the phenomenon of being unable to maneuver due to being attacked several times in succession by one or more opponents without any alleviation between attacks. In Gauntlet, stun locking can be applied to heroes and enemies alike.

Animation Cancelling

Animation canceling is a common phenomenon in games where an animation is intentionally cut short by the player, usually by starting another animation to override the first. In general, this is often done to reap certain benefits of an animation without having to suffer the downsides (or at least in full) that would otherwise occur (such as a character being immobilized while he catches his breath after doing some intense attack). There are several applications for this among the various heroes in Gauntlet that we will cover in the coming chapters.

Minions

When I say "minions", I am referring to any units that are not heroes but act on behalf of heroes. For instance, this would include illusions (from the Ring of Mirrors relic), mind-controlled enemies, gargoyles (from Demonic Effigy relic), Valkyries (Summon Valkyries potion), anything summoned by one of Necromancer's weapons, or even the particularly strange case, Necromancer's hammer (enemies see it as its own entity and will attempt to attack it—this becomes important to know later when playing Necromancer).

Floor

A floor, also known as a "level", "mission", or "stage", is any one of the many underground stories in the Gauntlet. Floors can basically be thought of as the combination of rooms and paths (sometimes entirely one without the other).

Room

Rooms are areas within floors that have defined boundaries and have the potential to become active. When a room becomes active, it will typically spawn enemies and spawners, and block the entrance and exit to prevent escape (though this is not always the case). This active state can only be invoked when all alive heroes are in a room simultaneously. When a room has been cleared, any physical barriers that were brought about by the room's active state will subside.

Path

A path or pathway, also referred to as a "hall" or "road" (not to be confused with the Campaign levels by the names "Tunnels" and "Pathway", which are the names of entire floors unto themselves), is essentially any area of a floor that is not a room. Pathways do not spawn enemies in the way that rooms do, but rather enemies may be found already roaming them.

⠀⠀⠀⤷ Enemies

Note:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The only thing capable of protecting you from Death Incarnate is invisibility (how you invoke invisibility is of no consequence, which includes Elf's Dryad's Song potion). If all heroes are invisible, Death Incarnate will subside.

Note:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Ghosts are the only enemy that can see you while you are invisible.

Note:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Mind-controlled enemies do not suffer the effects of incineration nor of tornadoes (e.g. Tempest Locket relic).

Note:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
The health of bosses, mini-bosses, and spawners all scale with the number of heroes present (whether these heroes are alive or not). Other enemies do not not see this scaling with the number of heroes, but they will, of course, have changes based on difficulty, as is also the case with the aforementioned group.

⠀⠀⠀⤷ Movement

Movement, when it comes to any hero, is the foundation on which all other techniques and styles are built. It is essentially your footwork, and without it, little else matters for very long. Having mastery control over your movement is just as valuable, if not more so, than any one trick I could possibly show you. In my estimation, it is the single biggest factor that separates the best players from the rest when playing any particular hero, yet unfortunately, also one of the more seemingly neglected aspects by many.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Eye of the Storm

Killing Cultist Zealots (especially when in great numbers) can cause large bullet storms that are difficult to navigate. Just remember that with a little bit of timing, the eye of the storm is sometimes the safest place to be once the explosions start.

Kiting

Even if you're unfamiliar with the terming "kiting", you're undoubtedly familiar with the concept if you play Gauntlet. Kiting is basically the act of manipulating enemies' movement with your own by getting their attention and leading them to where you'd like them to go—the idea being that the way enemies follow you is akin to how a kite would.

There's two particularly good uses for kiting. For one, you can use it to group up enemies for the purpose of attacking as many of them as you can at one time (e.g. round up a group, then use your special through all of them at once). The second use is moving them out of the way of where you eventually want to go.

Weaving

Weaving is another phenomenon based on movement. It serves a different purpose than that of kiting but it can easily transition into kiting. While kiting is to tug groups of enemies in a particular direction, weaving is to navigate through crowds via tight gaps.

This is important to know for every hero but especially for Valkyrie, Wizard, and Elf. Warrior's and Necromancer's abilities allow for them to fight and blast their way through crowds with sheer force more easily than other heroes, but regardless, it can improve your survival rate substantially during fights.

One of the biggest benefits of becoming proficient at weaving is that it allows you to move further through crowds while keeping the use of your resources to a minimum. To put it another way, why use your special, for example, to get through a crowd that you could just walk through with weaving? If you saved it, now you still have your special that you can use when you truly need it, like when you reach a dead end.

Another way to employ weaving is to get within an enemy's proximity, allow them to attempt an attack, then quickly move out of the way before they make contact. This allows you to take advantage of the downtime they suffer after having attempted the attack.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Hypergravity

When going up stairs, dash abilities are slower than simply running. This includes Warrior's Rush, Valkyrie's Spear Thrust, Wizard's Fire Serpents and Rift Jump, Elf's Tumble and Necromancer's Ghostwalk.

Dead End

Reaching a dead end occurs when you become surrounded or otherwise can no longer use kiting or weaving to advance and must resort to other options. This can be either as a matter of circumstance or even done intentionally. Making use of dead ends before activating attacks is a one way to gather as many enemies as possible into the range of an attack.

For example, a Valkyrie player may intentionally reach a dead end for the purpose of killing as many as possible with a single use of Extreme Prejudice, a sweeping sword attack that slashes enemies on all sides. In the case of Elf, it is often beneficial to gather as many enemies to yourself as possible before rolling away. This gives enemies as much time as possible to clear out of the area of where you would like to roll to, which of course reduces the chances of you being attacked when coming out of the roll.

⠀⤷ Endless

Over the course of my time playing and interacting with the community, I've noticed that many people seem daunted by the idea of playing Endless. They seem to regard it as a mode reserved only for the most "hardcore" of Gauntlet players; they either avoid Endless altogether and only play Campaign, or if they do play Endless, they only stay in the lowest floors and never venture beyond that unless carried by stronger players. It's understandable, but we're here to help change that for anyone who wishes to.

While it is true that Endless can be very challenging, I believe the source of this lack of confidence is usually the sense of feeling overwhelmed and helplessly outmatched by the challenges thrown at the player—but it doesn't have to be that way. Simply being equipped with the right knowledge can be a huge head start. Here, I'll even start us off with a quick tip.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Save Necromancers For Last

Prioritize killing Necromancers (the enemy, not hero) last. When they die, they transform into Liches, but during their transformation, they do not count as being an enemy at all. If you've killed all other enemies before killing a Necromancer, the room will see it as you having killed all enemies while the Necromancer is transforming and will unlock the room without you having to defeat the Lich.

Difficulty

Floors 1-18 use the Normal difficulty, floors 19-36 use Hard, and all floors beyond that use Unfair. Floors continue to become more difficult, but only by way of increasing enemy numbers. At this point, you may also be thinking that if things get progressively more difficult as you go deeper, it eventually becomes virtually impossible to continue. Worry not, there is a cap where the difficulty plateaus and all levels afterwards are essentially the same.



Where this cap happens precisely is unknown, but it occurs somewhere between floors 50 and 150. If you've ever jumped into someone's game and saw that the floors were in the thousands, just know that it's not inherently different than playing on, say, floor 200.

Structure

The realms in Endless follow a distinct pattern of 18 floors, and the cycle is as follows: 6 crypt floors, 6 cave floors, and 6 lava floors. Each of these realms can be subcategorized even further. The first 3 levels of the crypts have brick floors while the latter 3 have sand floors. The first 3 of cave floors are tunnels with spider webs everywhere, and the latter 3 are mines with wooden boards and rocks as the ground. Lava floors are comprised of 3 temple floors followed by 3 volcano floors. At the end of each realm (every 6 floors) Death Incarnate will make an appearance, and the first floor of each cycle (every 18 floors) contains a portal. As a point of trivia, rooms are unique to their own subcategories—that is to say, a room that you may find within the first 3 floors of the crypts cannot be found within the 3 floors of the crypts, etc.

Even though I spoke about floors ceasing to increase in difficulty after a certain point, there is, however, a secret element of randomness that determines the difficulty of any set of 18 floors. This random factor is irrespective of the floor number (assuming we're only talking about floors higher than 150), and seems to persist for the entire set of 18 floors once determined (some sets are just a lot harder than other sets). This means you can have an extremely difficult floor at 200 while having a relatively easy time at floor 2,000.

Portals

Portals are essentially checkpoints that can be used to resume your progress at a later time. Unfortunately, you cannot instantly resume at your latest unlocked portal. Instead, you must use portals to skip floors in sets of 18 until reaching your deepest floor again. For example, if your deepest floor is 37, you would have to go through 2 portals. You would start on floor 1, use the portal to teleport to floor 19 which would have a portal you could enter to teleport to floor 37.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Co-op Portals

It is possible for guest players (i.e. anyone not playing on the host's account) to unlock portals along with the host, but there are a few stipulations for doing so.

• Any guest player who wishes to unlock portals must be present from the character selection screen (this player must choose a hero at this point—merely being a spectator is not valid).
  
• The guest player must not leave the room until the portal is unlocked.
  
• The portal played must be the guest's highest portal. For example, if I am the host and you are the guest and we suppose that your highest portal is on floor 37, the only way you will unlock a portal is if the portal we play together is the portal that begins at 37. This does not have to be the only portal we play however. We could start playing at floor 1, but you simply would not start receiving credit for portal unlocks until we eventually reach floor 37.
  
• Player 1 must not choose the "Drop out" option (Player 2, etc. may though).

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀“Drop out” Negates Portal Unlocks

Do not choose the "Drop out" option at any time during Endless (this option will only show up if you have more than one local players); if you do, any subsequent portals reached will not be saved. Additional local players may "drop out" but Player 1 may not. This also applies for any guests players attempting to unlock co-op portals.

For example, if I am the host and have a local guest with me, and you, while on your own account, are in my room with a local guest of your own, my local guest may choose "Drop out" without having any adverse effects as may your local guest. However, if I choose "Drop out", portals will no longer save for me for the remainder of the session—likewise for you if you (not your local guest) choose "Drop out".

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For gamepad players, the message that informs you a gamepad connection has been lost does not count as you "dropping out". Simply plug your controller back in and continue.

Leaderboards

One of the biggest mysteries within Gauntlet is the leaderboards. All that is known for certain is that they are hardly accurate by any metric or stretch of the imagination. There are several hypotheses surrounding why this is (which I won't go into much detail here), but the main point here is for you to know that the leaderboards simply do not work and the ranks mean nothing. They used to work at one time but they are now, for all intents and purposes, scrambled and pointless.

Many players have gone beyond floor "8192", despite this being the highest displayed floor on the leaderboards. In addition, being credited with having reached this floor is also meaningless, as this does not reflect any form of dedication or the like. Anyone who has completed floor 8192 or beyond for any reason whatsoever will be credited in this way. This includes joining a public lobby. If you join a random game that happens to be above that floor and you complete that floor, you too will be credited with having reached that floor.

⠀⠀⠀⤷ Shop

At the start of each floor in Endless, barring floors containing portals, resides a shop where four items may be purchased. The potential items that may be sold are hams, turkeys, potions, and Skull Coins, however, which items will be made available for purchase on any given floor is random—you may be offered one of each type of item, four of a single type, or any other assortment.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Potions Over Skull Coins

Despite being sold for the same price, potions are generally considered to be more valuable than Skull Coins. This is because potions, when used wisely, can save multiple lives or quickly build a new Skull Coin when needed.

⠀⤷ Skull Coins

Skull Coins are "extra lives" in Gauntlet and are displayed in the top right corner of the screen. The two important things to note about Skull Coins are that they are shared across all players on a team (if all heroes are dead and there is only one Skull Coin left, only one hero can respawn) and that Skull Coins are easiest to build when their count is at zero and increasingly become more difficult to build. For a bit of trivia, the maximum number of Skull Coins that can be held at one time is 1,024.

Healing with Skull Coins

In Endless, you will always start a new floor with at least one Skull Coin even if you would have otherwise had none. Also, all previously dead heroes will automatically be brought back to life at the cost of Skull Coins when beginning a new floor. Given these two facts, players may choose to manipulate this system to their advantage to gain full health under certain circumstances. When at the end of a floor, simply count the number of dead heroes and subtract that from the Skull Coin count. If the difference is equal to one (or less than one), it would be advantageous to die and respawn (assuming you have less than full health) before going to the next floor since you will be guaranteed at least one Skull Coin. This will not be to any advantage if the difference would already be greater than one. Keep in mind that if everyone dies while the Skull Coin count is at zero, the game will be lost.

⠀⤷ Combat

Probably the best piece of advice that I can give to new players when it comes to combat is: remember to make use of all your gear. One of the biggest obstacles for many beginners is simply forgetting to use all of their abilities. They'll struggle while having a relic and plenty of potions available but simply forget to use them.

In fact, this is where even some players with hundreds of hours fall short (especially when playing Wizard). Don't get me wrong; I'm not berating anyone for this. I understand it takes time to build those habits, but hopefully by me bringing it to your attention it will help you remain conscientious of it.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Form the Habit

Relics have cooldowns and therefore have a minimum waiting period between each use. Instead of glancing down to first see if your relic is available before hitting the button, make a habit of hitting the relic button anytime you find yourself needing it, regardless of the cooldown. You have nothing to lose if your relic is unavailable anyway, but it minimizes any would-be deaths that would result from you forgetting to use your relic.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Don't Overthink Your Relic

Avoid neglecting your relic in pursuit of that "perfect moment" to finally use it; this can easily become a psychological trap that causes you to miss good opportunities. If you need your relic's help, don't be afraid to use it. It can be all too tempting to talk yourself out of using it because you think you'll "need it later"—only to die or reach the floor's exit before the opportunity arrives. Don't worry too much about the cooldowns; they'll be over before very long.

Summoning Stones

There's two tiers of summoning stones. The high tier ones are capable of summoning both light and heavy enemy units while the low tier ones are only capable of summoning light enemy units.



High tier summoning stones also have slightly more health than their low tier counterparts, and the color of the gem in the center of a summoning stone corresponds with the type of enemies it spawns (Skeletons, Mummies, Grunts, Orcs, Cultists, or Demons).

Difficulty

The difficulties in Gauntlet are Easy, Normal, Hard and Unfair. Unfair is a difficulty that used to exist in Campaign, but it was removed in the Slayer Edition update to the game. It can still be found in Endless mode, however.

What separates these difficulties are what are called "modifiers". There are two types of difficulty modifiers: hero modifiers and enemy modifiers. These modifiers determine various elements of game play, such as the amount of damage taken by either enemies or heroes. Keep in mind that minions also use hero modifiers—not just the heroes themselves.

Difficulty	Hero Modifier	Enemy Modifier
Easy	100% damage taken	200% damage taken
Normal	100% damage taken	100% damage taken
Hard	150% damage taken	70% damage taken
Unfair	150% damage taken	70% damage taken

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A common misconception is that enemies inherently lose health or become weaker when mind-controlled. This is not so. What actually happens is that mind-controlled enemies temporarily adopt the hero modifier instead of the their usual enemy modifier. This incidentally causes mind-controled enemies to take more damage in certain difficulties, but not all difficulties. For example, in Easy mode, enemies become more resilient when mind-controlled than they would be otherwise.

⠀ Do Not Mind-Control Cultist Sorcerers Before Entering Rooms!

This causes a glitch where Cultist Sorcerers will be able to see you in the room even when they become locked outside of it—and if they can see you, they will try to attack you (which can mean by way of a hex). This can be extremely dangerous since it is often very difficult to deal with them while you are trying to engage with the enemies inside the room as well. If you do happen to do this, be sure to kill them before entering a room.

Keep this in mind when using the Siren's Lute relic or Necromancer's weapon, Scepter of the Vampire King.

Cohesion

Here we will cover elements pertaining to synergy among members on a single team.

If you want to skip to a hero's chapter to better familiarize yourself with them before focusing on teamwork, now would be a good time to do that, as I will forgo explanations better suited for particular heroes. For example, in this chapter I may simply advise that other players on a team allow a Warrior player to handle a particular situation, whereas in Warrior's chapter, I would go into more detail as to how that player might go about handling said situation.

If you would rather continue reading this chapter, please do so. You will not necessarily be advantaged or disadvantaged either way. The option is simply here for your convenience.

Share Gold

Endless is generally not an exceptionally good place to make money for unlocking gear if the purpose of playing Endless is also to unlock portals. Don't get upset if someone takes "your" gold when you die; that's not really how gold in Endless works. Gold is constantly changing hands, getting lost or being spent. Having the mindset of thinking you have any sort of "claim" over any amount of gold, other than what you are expressly holding, is not likely to do you any favors.

Teams often need to be able to keep things moving. If someone dies, someone else sometimes needs to pick up the gold and keep going. During Endless, you will need to share gold as everyone will frequently need to buy food and potions at some point.

Be Open to Learning From Others

A vast percentage of whatever I may know about this game is thanks to watching others or listening to their advice. Some people know things or see things that maybe you don't—take full advantage of it when you can. Don't generally deter people from sharing useful knowledge with you by establishing yourself as someone that fundamentally can't hear advice (doing it is another matter, but at least hear it without inherently taking great offense).

If someone tells you that you should use your relic more, for example, maybe hear them out at least. They could have a point, and you might improve your playing as a result. This has happened to me on many occasions and I like to think I've been better for it. This doesn't mean you'll necessarily agree with them or that it's even good advice, but you gave it a chance. In regards to Gauntlet, I've been given advice I've disagreed with or discarded, and I'm sure I've given some that was regarded likewise, and that's perfectly fine.

To give an example, I'll share an anecdote of mine. There was a time I was playing with an acquaintance, and this person was someone whom I played with somewhat frequently. The thing was, he had this habit of doing something that was detrimental to the team as a whole. There were many people who were aware of this habit of his but only spoke of it when not in his presence. One day I decided to mentioned it to him in hopes of getting him to realize it, but he took great offense to it—denying it ever happened in the first place, despite even those besides myself asserting otherwise.

I tried to be as nice or at least neutral about it as possible—he just couldn't hear something unpleasant. The point here is not about who was "right" or "wrong" in my particular case, but it's a good example of what I mean. The point is, if someone makes mention with a suggestion regarding a habit or yours, you might consider it. Again, you don't have to do it or agree with it, but consider it, and throw it out if you choose. I say this as someone who has been on both sides.

If you're reading this in the first place, this might not be much of an issue for you, but it's something to keep in mind. This wouldn't be worth mentioning if it were only one person, but in general, I've witnessed far too many people where this is applicable, as you may have too.

⠀⤷ Endless

Becoming a Teammate

First off, don't jump into someone else's Endless game without having some minimal idea of what you're doing. You don't have to be a highly skilled player, but you should at least be comfortable with your character enough to know what their attacks are and know your way around your own button configuration—very basic things like that. In other words, don't wait to learn the extreme basics until getting into someone else's Endless session. Either do that beforehand or host your own session. I've seen so many times where someone who presumably has less than 3 hours worth of experience just jumps into a public online game. Of course, they get frustrated and quit before too long since the difficulty is far beyond their current understanding.

There are a few things to keep in mind when you join someone else's Endless session; I'll summarize them for you now.



These are the rudimentary basics of playing Endless in someone else's game. If you're a beginner or are otherwise worried about being a burden to the team, just keep these in mind and you'll generally be fine. This will minimize the chances of your game unnecessarily becoming a chaotic disaster. As you become more confident in your skill, you will naturally start to feel more comfortable about deviating from these rules.

Caution:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
If you ever get locked outside of a room while other players are locked inside of the room, this is a glitch and a very dangerous one at that. What can potentially happen is that all of the players that are in the room die while you remain alive outside of the room. This means that any respawning players will respawn where you are standing and the team will be unable to progress.

When locked outside of a room, leave (and rejoin) the game immediately. Dying also works, but this is riskier since you may fail to do it before other players die. If the host is locked out, dying becomes the only option as quitting the game also ends it for everyone anyway.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Staying Dead is Sometimes the Best Option

Simply being dead and realizing that there's Skull Coins available is not a good reason to respawn (even if there's more than one coin). Only respawn if you know you can improve the situation with your presence by helping out in some way. If the team is traveling between rooms and you know you're likely to die or pull the camera by falling behind, stay dead until the team reaches the next room.

Respawning on Pathways

I'm going to say this once more to reiterate, if you consider yourself a beginner (or in many cases, even if you don't), do not respawn on pathways. While there can be great synergistic benefits to respawning on pathways, it's a very delicate situation. You can very easily make matters much worse than they would have been if you had simply done nothing if you do not know exactly what you are doing.

Again, only respawn on pathways if you know that by doing so you will improve the situation. Pay attention to their resources. I typically let them get as far as they can on their own, that way I know I won't be messing up their momentum or pull the screen against them or anything like that. Once I see they've used their relic and special attack and there's still trouble ahead of them, that's when I'll jump in and use my resources (Ghost Orb, Tempest Locket, etc.) to lend them a hand. If I'm playing Valkyrie and am dead while other teammates are alive, sometimes I'll even respawn just to immediately use Divine Aegis if that's what they need.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Northern Winds

When first respawning, it is possible to use your relic while still in your ethereal state. A tornado summoned with a Tempest Locket will always go south from wherever you are. Sometimes this is not what you want; sometimes it's exactly what you want. Just know that that's how it works.

Keeping track of Wizard's resources in particular is difficult when you're the one playing as him, but if you really want to take it to the next level, it's even possible to keep track of his resources when watching a teammate playing as him. This is useful for recognizing the perfect moment to jump in if Wizard is the only one alive.

Keeping in mind, if you respawn to assist a teammate, move at their pace. This can either mean not going too fast or going too slow. Don't respawn only to pull the screen—that's not improving the situation. If you're a Warrior and can blast through crowds faster than a Wizard, don't respawn to 'help' the Wizard only to blame Wizard for not keeping up with you. That's your fault, not theirs. If they were alive before you respawned, remember that they're the leader, and you're the assistant.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Secure the Homestretch

One relatively safe way to be of substantial help to a teammate on the run is to respawn at the very end of the level and offer some additional protection. If there is only one Skull Coin left, however, this is typically unnecessary (if they die, they get respawn with the one coin, then immediately gain that coin back on the next floor), depending on how your team likes to play.

Crash Floors

For some unknown reason, certain floors in Endless are prone to crashing the game for certain players when playing online. As infrequent as this flaw is, it can happen to anyone at any time when a new floor is loading. The only player exempt from this is the host (so if you're playing by yourself, don't worry, you're safe). It is also particular from player to player. For instance, if you and I are playing in the same game together, a floor may crash for me but not for you.

If you encounter a crash floor, you will not be able to rejoin for the duration of the entire floor. Even if you start up your game again and attempt to rejoin before that floor is completed, your game will simply crash again. If you're playing with a friend online when this happens, have them inform you when floor is completed then attempt to rejoin. In extremely rare cases, you may have two crash floors back to back and will have to wait yet another floor.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Restart Your Lobby

You may not realize, but your lobby itself has health that is very slowly deteriorating from the moment you start. For most players, this is of absolutely no consequence. However, if you are are hosting a lobby for about five or six hours (yes, some of us really enjoy playing Gauntlet), you may start to see the effects of its aging. This will come in the forms of disconnections and lag at a rate that is unusual. Bear in mind that this has nothing to do with your internet connection. It's simply the way the game is.

Caution:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Frequent use of Wizard's potion ability, Polymorph, can make a game deteriorate much more rapidly.

⠀⠀⠀⤷ Skipping Rooms

Many rooms, though not all, can be skipped. That is to say, it is possible to progress beyond a room without clearing all of the enemies within it. There are two kinds of skips for bypassing rooms, "soft skips" and "hard skips".

Soft Skip

A soft skip is a form of room skipping that can be accomplished either before or after the room has become active. It can also be done by a single player. These rooms typically have exits that consist of jump pads, open doorways, or gates that can be unlocked using keys with nothing actually preventing players from simply choosing to collect the keys and leave before killing all enemies within the room.

There is also an infrequent glitch that allows for a soft skip simply by the room failing to enclose properly. Barring the occurrence of this glitch, no rooms in lava levels can be skipped in Endless.

Hard Skip

Hard skips are room skips that can only been done by taking advantage of the fact rooms do not become active until all players are within the room at the same time. These skips require more coordination than soft skips since they must have at least two players present in order to do successfully. This skip can only be done before the room becomes active, otherwise you will be locked inside.



To do a hard skip, there must always be at least one player outside of the room at all times while other players pass through the room. For instance, one player would stand outside the room's entrance being sure not to enter the room; since the room will not enclose as long as this player stands outside of it, all other players would be eligible to pass through the room and its exit. Once at least one player stands outside of the exit, the player that was standing at the entrance would then be able to pass through the room.

Sometimes a room may be too large for the camera to encompass both the entrance and the exit at the same time. Fortunately there's still a way to perform skips in these rooms (and make skipping other rooms easier). This is thanks to the fact that room borders are technically drawn slightly within the room. To take advantage of this, if a player stands next to a wall, the game will think they are technically still outside of it. During this time, all other players may pass through the room without it locking everyone in.



Of course, in game, these borders are not visible to the players and are only understood by the game. That said, in some oddly-shaped rooms, it can be difficult to determine where the border really is, but with experience you can discover them before too long if you know to look for them (you can also watch other players online so see which walls they stand against). Some rooms won't even lock you in, but it can still be nice to use a hard skip to prevent enemies from spawning while your team crosses the room.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Teamwork is Key

Even though skipping rooms by unlocking gates with keys is a form of soft skipping, it can be beneficial to stand outside of the room while your teammates gather keys in the room (or vice versa). This prevents the room from activating and causing more enemies to spawn, thus making it more difficult to gather keys.

⠀⤷ Potions

Share the Burden

Specifically, help teammates save potions by using yours when needed. I realize this may sound like a strange point to make, so I'll try to give an example of what I mean.

Suppose Valkyrie and Elf on a team together and they each are holding potions (and assume they are using Divine Aegis and Dryad's Song respectively). If their team were about to attempt to travel through a very large and difficult crowd of enemies, Elf's potion might be better suited for the task than Valkyrie's. However, if Elf fails to play his part, Valkyrie may be forced to pick up the slack and use one of her potions or even two. Valkyrie might now be depleted of potions and can't protect the team from an upcoming Cultist Sorcerer's hex (a much more ideal use of her potions) since Elf didn't play his role to its potential.

To put it another way, a teammate's potion may be good at getting a team out of bad situations, but your potion may be good at preventing those bad situations from occurring in the first place. If your teammate is low on potions while you have plenty, use your potions to prevent those bad situations from happening so your teammate can save theirs for when it is truly necessary.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Do Not Use Minions and Dryad's Song Together

There is a bit of a popular myth that surrounds Dryad's Song. Some believe that using minions negates Dryad's Song entirely, but this isn't exactly what happens. The fact of the matter is, Dryad's Song only hides heroes, meaning it does not hide minions—enemies will still see them and try to attack them. This isn't me simply being pedantic; it's good to know so you can factor it into your decision when choosing to use your minions or not.

Knowing that enemies will attempt to attack minions, there are a few circumstances where using minions during Dryad's Song is exceptionally dangerous: when a boss or mini-boss is present, or when a Cultist Sorcerer is present. The reasoning behind bosses and mini-bosses is probably obvious (they become active and launch large-scale attacks), but less so for Cultist Sorcerers. Cultist Sorcerers will often attempt to attack your minions with a hex, but the problem here is, hexes reach everyone on the heroes' team—including heroes themselves, whether they're invisible or not. Ironically, hexes don't work on minions (though this doesn't stop Cultist Sorcerers from trying).

Aside from these situations, using minions during the song can actually be advantageous for drawing all mobile enemies to a single location. You can even use minions when Cultist Sorcerers are present, so long as you know you can easily kill any Cultist Sorcerer that may become a problem.

Caution:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Just to remind you, Necromancer's hammer attack ("Skeleton Smash") also counts as a minion.

Security is not a Waste

Here is a point of philosophical disagreement I've had with a few players over the course of my time playing.

On several occasions where I've been in risky, high-tense situations, I've used a potion only to come to find out afterwards that I would have been fine even if I hadn't used the potion. Of course, various onlookers then feel the need to point out how I "wasted the potion". But I'm here to say, no, I didn't. Just because I didn't need to use a potion does not mean it was a waste. I'm sure that initially sounds like a contradiction to most people on the surface, so allow me to explain.

Security is not a waste. In fact, we seem to understand this even in the real world as there are countless lucrative businesses that operate on this very notion. If you have insurance for something you'll technically never need (but, of course, you wouldn't get to know the future), is that a waste? If there are security measures taken at a bank, are they a waste every day that the bank doesn't get robbed? Knowing you'd be secure or prepared in a situation—that's not meaningless. It's worth something.

So where am I going with all of this? Well, to take us back to Gauntlet, if you spawn, say with the last coin, you you may have built up a Skull Coin while killing enemies, then used a potion for further protection, realize the situation and thought, "I didn't need to use that potion after all". The thing is, however, you don't always have time to check the number of Skull Coins and make sure you have enough. Taking your eyes off of your character in order to check the Skull Coin count for even an instant is all it takes to get killed sometiimes. Instead, the wiser move overall might just be to play it safe in those high-risk situations.

I don't recall a single time I've failed a mission and thought to myself, "If only I hadn't used that one potion back there" when reflecting on it. On the other hand, I can think of several times where I've botched a mission when I was a newer player while sitting on a handful of potions (maximum capacity in some cases, funnily enough) ...but at least I didn't "waste a potion", I guess.

Besides, if we took the "Oh, but you wasted it" rationale further, many other potions are a "waste" by the same metric. Used a potion in a difficult room? Well, maybe you could have gotten through the room without it. People "waste" potions all the time, depending on what constitutes as a "waste".

The point is, when people say this to you, my advice is to not let it bother you. If you made a play and were confident in your decision and satisfied with the outcome, stand by it. Don't talk yourself into regret that you wouldn't have otherwise felt.

⠀⠀⠀⤷ Collecting Potions

Potion Hierarchy

Not all potions are equal in value when considering a team's chances of survival. There are some potions that are substantially more valuable to the team than others. There is a trinity—three potions in particular that sit above the rest in this regard: Warrior's "More of Thor", Elf's "Dryad's Song", and Valkyrie's "Divine Aegis". None of the three are what I would consider inherently more valuable than the other two, but rather have their value ever changing in relativity to each other as the situation of the team dictates.

Prioritize these potions within your team. It is to your benefit, regardless of whether you yourself are playing as one of these heroes, to make sure that whomever is equipped with these abilities has an ample supply of potions.

For example, if you are playing as Elf and are equipped with Dryad's Song, leaving a potion for Necromancer instead of taking it for yourself may be done out of generosity, but it is highly unlikely to be the strongest move in the interest of the team.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Consider the Human Element

Do not be afraid to break away from the "potion hierarchy" when required. If you're confident that a potion would be better in your hands than a Warrior, Elf or Valkyrie in your room, by all means, take the potion.

Potions are tools, and like any other tool, the skill of the person using it is a contributing factor to the tool's overall value in any given situation. Players can change the value of potions with their skill. For example, a potion in the hands of a very skillful Wizard can be worth more than a potion in the hands of a poor Elf (especially if they never use them), even though Elf generally has the better potion ability.

I would say that this is only a significant matter where the skill gap between players on a team is quite considerable (very beginner player and seasoned player), so if you think of yourself as even an intermediate player, do not use this as an excuse to delegate jobs to teammates that you are best suited for.

Rationing Potions

If you are to consider a team that includes all three of the aforementioned heroes (and given that they are equipped with the relevant abilities), you may be wondering which to prioritize out of the three, particularly if none these heroes have potions already. A lot of it has to do with which of the three can simply get to a potion the quickest, safest, and easiest. It's usually just that simple, without need to expend too much thought on the matter.

Assuming you're traveling through Endless mode, Valkyrie's potions are not likely to be necessary until the lava levels (at which point they will become extremely important), or occasionally in cave levels. Between Warrior and Elf, get both of them potions as soon as possible. Once they both have about two or three potions, continue stacking potions (or enough gold to buy potions) up on Elf. His potion will usually be the most frequently used outside of lava levels (and maybe even then), and Warrior's potion will sometimes be needed to save the team when it's down to the final Skull Coin.

Free Potions

Throughout the course of your adventures, your party will eventually come across free potions that are just waiting to be picked up with only problem being that all members are already at their max capacity for holding potions. Should this be the case, let Elf use one of his potions (Dryad's Song) and take the free potion. This will heal the party slightly and grant the team invisibility for a few moments as you travel (or fight as the case may be).



If Elf's Dryad's Song is unavailable, allow Valkyrie's Divine Aegis to be the next choice as this also heals the team and affords protection. If this too is unavailable, either give to whomever is most suited (e.g. Warrior might use it to clear enemies ahead, or Necromancer might be low on health and could make good use of a potion) or leave it alone.

Leaving it alone may initially seem like a waste, but this is actually to prevent it from being wasted. Sometimes what will happen here is that Warrior may take this potion for the sake of clearing potential threats ahead, only to find none and the party arrives at the next room where a potion would have been much more useful. If there is no good reason to take a potion, leave it, and if your team is coordinated enough, you can go back to pick up the potion and replace any that might be used later.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Some Potions Are Not Worth the Trouble

A rare situation, but there come times when free potions are simply not worth the trouble. If you must venture out of your way into extremely dangerous territory in order to acquire a potion, consider the cost and benefits of the potion and decide if it's actually worth getting. Sometimes players lose lives simply to obtain a single potion they would've been better off without.

⠀⤷ Skull Coins

“Last Coin”

The last Skull Coin is precious—more so than any other coin. For any beginners or anyone otherwise new to Endless, do not take this coin. In other words, if you are dead and the Skull Coin count is at "1", do not respawn.

Don't simply brush this off as "no big deal" either; such players (or "coin gobblers" as I call them) find themselves getting kicked from many lobbies that way. Some hosts don't place as much of a significance on it as others, but this is a very big deal in many lobbies. Some players spend a long time (hours in some rare cases) reaching their deepest floor, so a 'game over' is more significant for them than some other players.

You are generally at liberty to take any other Skull Coin, but save the last one. Save it for the host or more experienced players in the room. If you respect this rule you'll generally be fine; even being an unskillful player usually doesn't matter too much so long as you keep this in mind.

If you are the host, then, of course, you can do whatever you want. It's your game after all.

Note:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
If you ever stumble across a public lobby in Endless and you are asked, "Do you know about 'last coin'?" this is what they are alluding to.

Taking the Last Coin

The reason "Last Coin" is so precious is for the fact that even though Skull Coins build the fastest when the meter is at zero, the last coin is also the riskiest coin to spawn with. That said, the rule of thumb for taking the last coin is to be sure that you can build another Skull Coin before your next death. In most cases this means leaving the coin for Warrior (assuming he has potions available), though in Lich rooms, this could also mean Valkyrie. An exception to this is sometimes made if there is a significant enough skill gap between players on a team or if they are waiting for the host to delegate the coin's use to someone.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Build Coin when at Zero!

If you take the last coin and are playing as Warrior, for example, and you use a potion, be sure to kill enemies and build the next Skull Coin as quickly as possible. I've seen Warrior players respawn with the last coin, use a potion, then forget to build up a Skull Coin by killing enemies. They simply take advantage of the invincibility to walk through crowds (provided they're not in a room, but rather a path that connects rooms). This is still risky since you will be vulnerable and have no Skull Coins left when you lose your invincibility.

Caution:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Mind-controlled enemies and enemies turned to gold or food do not build Skull Coins!

⠀⤷ Combat

Remember, the whole advantage of fighting as a team is that you don't have to fight alone. When possible, attack the same targets and, when feasible, take them out completely before moving to the next. Weakened spawners still spawn enemies and are still a threat; dead spawners do not. If each member of the team is in their own corner and fighting their own battles, you've already lost the greatest advantage of being on a team.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Back to Back

If you're getting overwhelmed, get closer to your teammates. This helps take pressure off of you and usually them as well. Don't necessarily crowd them (this can lead to you blocking their way and indirectly causing them injury, but being in their general vicinity has its advantages over being isolated.

Establish an Internal Boundary

When playing solo, sharing the screen is not a factor, but when playing on a team, it becomes a critical one. In your mind, create a buffer around the inner edge of the screen and don't go beyond that. Not only does this help eliminate unnecessary risk for you, but it also gives members of your team leeway for non-verbal communication. If someone pulls the screen, return to within your internal boundary and grant them the room they need. Sometimes it's not by choice or with malicious intent; your teammate might simply be stuck.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Never Fight Off-Screen Battles

What I consider an off-screen battle is any fight that would require you to exceed this limit. Those are fights to be avoided (when fighting mini-bosses especially).

Don't volunteer yourself to be slaughtered when your teammates are pulling the screen. If someone on the team isn't moving and they're keeping you from reaching a target, still stay within your limit. The teammate can move with you; no need to get yourself killed for no reason.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Pay Attention to Emotes

Specifically, pay attention to "Help!" and "Move!" emotes. Typically when teammates stand at the edge of the screen and use either of these emotes, they are trying to communicate to you that they would like for you to move in that direction.

⠀⠀⠀⤷ Vs. Lich

Let's assume that we are talking about 5-Lich rooms since they're the most difficult when it comes to fighting Liches. Usually my preference here would be to have Warrior use More of Thor as soon as possible while Elf holds off on using Dryad's Song. During this time, other members of the team would also use any Ring of Mirrors relics they have available. Once both the illusions have faded and More of Thor has worn off (and assuming Warrior didn't immediately use another potion), Elf would use Dryad's Song if necessary.

There's a few reasons why I suggest doing it this way. For one, it allows cooldowns to recharge during the song, and for another, it makes use of the song when it's most needed (by this point there will likely be many Ghosts and Skeleton Soldiers, and the song will give you a chance to clear them out).

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Save Last Coin for Valkyrie

Valkyrie is the safest hero to have on your team when fighting Liches as she can stand in corners with her shield up indefinitely. If Valkyrie is already alive and standing in a corner while there's a coin available, don't be hasty to take that coin just yet. She may die and need to revive with it.

I've found that a decent way to gauge how "safe" it is to respawn is to compare Valkyrie's health meter to the Skull Coin meter. If Valkyrie's health is about 40% full, then the Skull Coin meter needs to be at least 60% full before you respawn. If she only has about 5% of her life left, respawn only if the Skull Coin meter is 95% full. If she ends up dying, it will be on you to make sure you build another Skull Coin for her to revive; this system allows you to help without overcommitting yourself to a task you may not be able to handle.

For an added layer of security, you could also avoid respawning if the Skull Coin meter is below 50% before even considering Valkyrie's health.

Fighting the Same Fight

Don't fight multiple battles on a single field at the same time—fight a single battle on a shared field together. Your first major foothold in a multi-Lich fight occurs when the first Lich dies. From there, it becomes exponentially easier to clear the room. Defeating the first Lich makes defeating the second one easier and so on. This is a key point that almost every player I encounter seems to fail to realize.





Dealing damage to multiple Liches without defeating any of them can make the battle linger on and give a feeling of fruitless labor. It'll feel as if you've been fighting for a long time yet are still seeing the same number of Liches, many Ghosts, Skeleton Soldiers, etc.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Let the Enemy Help You

When the Skeleton Soldiers in the room are becoming numerous, let the Liches help you out. When you see a orange circle on the ground indicating that a Lich is about to go underground and respawn there, lead those Skeleton Soldiers into the orange circle and let the Lich help you out a little bit by killing them for you. Just remember to get away or use invincibility with good timing to avoid being one of the Lich's victims.

Until a Lich dies outright, you really haven't gained any advantage over the Liches in the room regardless of how much damage you've dealt to each Lich; there's still the same number of Liches throwing around ice beams, summoning Ghosts (which can make the situation extremely hazardous), and generally making things difficult. The trick here is to take advantage of the low chaos very early on in the fight. The longer a Lich lives, the more time it is given to spawn enemies, which makes it even harder to focus on a single Lich since now your time will be divided among attacking and evading.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Focus on Smaller Enemies During Dryad's Song

When a Lich room becomes overrun with smaller enemies, it makes it very difficult to accomplish anything worthwhile (as you're evading the small enemies and killing the ones that you can, Liches are just undoing your efforts by making more of them). When the room is getting hectic, use Dryad's Song to eliminate summoning stones and enemies other than Liches.

If you are attacking Liches as a correlated team, defeating a single Lich without the help of Dryad's Song should still be quite feasible when the room is not overrun by smaller enemies, so use the song's help to place your team in a better position to fight Liches when the song is over. The Liches will be wandering around during this time, so focusing on them will be made more difficult anyway.

When Warrior uses More of Thor, let him lead the charge and attack whatever targets he attacks (when possible, of course). The exceptions to this would be if Wizard and Elf are on "Ghost patrol" and are needed to keep the Ghost numbers down.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Unfreeze Teammates

Teammates hit with a Lich's ice beam will become frozen and vulnerable to attack. You can free any frozen teammates by attacking them. Just remember, the Empire will not compensate you if they die.

Ghosts

It is important to kill Ghosts before they live too long. When Ghosts are alive long enough, they start to fly more vertically. This makes it harder for you to kill them but also easier for them to kill you due to the fact that they can start dipping well below the floor level only to return to hit you out of seemingly nowhere.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Open Sesame!

Sometimes when the fight with a Lich is over, there will still be some residual Ghosts lingering about and preventing the door from opening. To help speed things along, you can stand near the edge of the room to make it more likely that the Ghosts will fly out of the room and therefore cause the door to open.

Caution:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Standing near the edge of a room can make it harder to see Ghosts that are flying back into the room. I suggest first killing off the Ghosts that you easily can, then use this tip for the few that remain.

⠀⠀⠀⤷ Vs. Spider Queen

Spider Queen battles are about as simple as it gets when it comes to fighting mini-bosses. Clear the room of all other enemies and attack the Spider Queen last.

Fortunately, all of the heroes are good at fighting Spider Queens, though Warrior or Valkyrie can become inconvenienced by an abundance of Spider Spawns. When a Spider Queen throws egg sacs, have Wizard or Elf take them out and protect the others on the team from Spider Spawns. This allows Warrior, Valkyrie or Necromancer to continue fighting the Spider Queen unencumbered, since they are the bulk of attack power within a team. Because Wizard and Elf are also ranged units, they can still assist in the assault against the Spider Queen even from a distance as they destroy egg sacs.

⠀⠀⠀⤷ Vs. Demon Horror

Although Demon Horrors remain stationary once spawning within a room, they can be a tremendous nuisance. As is the case with Spider Queens, Demon Horrors should usually be saved for last (with one possible exception we'll review later).

Sometimes rooms will produce two Demon Horrors instead of just the usual one. This will assuredly be a difficult room, especially in the case of Death Incarnate also being present. Two Demon Horrors accompanied by Death Incarnate is perhaps the most difficult type of room this entire game can possibly throw at you.

When Dryad's Song is used, this is an opportunity to destroy any summoning stone nearest to a Demon Horror without any reprisals.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Demon Horrors have a limited sight range, and as long as you stay outside of it, they won't attack you. The reach of Wizard's Ice Beam is very similar in length to the extent of a Demon Horror's sight range, leaving only a little bit of extra room. This means Wizard can stand just outside of a Demon Horror's range and attack it from a distance that it cannot see.

Caution:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Minions (e.g. Necromancer's Skeletal Archers) can be seen by Demon Horrors so long as they are within its range.

When fighting in rooms with two Demon Horrors, try to keep your entire team within the range of only one Demon Horror at a time when possible. Clear any summoning stones or large threats (such as Demon Imps) in the area before moving into the second Demon Horror's range.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Distract Gorgoth

If your hero can't attack a Demon Horror from out of its range, run circles around Death Incarnate to protect your teammates attacking a Demon Horror.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Help Each Other Find the Right Distance

When Elf and Wizard start attacking Demon Horrors from a distance, take turns finding the range. For example, if you're playing as Elf and shooting at the Demon Horror from out of its range, stop attacking it for a moment so Wizard can see if he too is attacking it. Sometimes it may look like you're attacking it when it's actually just your teammate that's making its health decrease. Once both players have confirmed that they are lined up properly, then resume.

Another method (though not as convenient) for determining if both players are attacking is to pay close attention to the rate at which its health decreases. If it decreases at a steady rate or pattern, only one player is attacking it, but if there's a fluctuation in the health decrease, you'll know both players are attacking effectively.

If the Demon Horror is off-screen, you can attempt to find it with audio (they make a distinct sound when attacked).

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Free Skull Coin

When the Skull Coin count is at zero, Demon Horrors fill the meter enough to give you an entire Skull Coin when they die (but again, only if the meter is at zero—the more Skull Coins you have, the less enemies fill up the meter).

To take advantage of this, if you are dead while a teammate is killing a Demon Horror from out of its range, respawn with the last coin (dropping the Skull Coin count to zero) just before it dies. You will then be revived while essentially having kept one Skull Coin available.

I don't advise this to players who are new to Endless, especially if you feel you'll just end up wasting the Skull Coin. In which case, letting the meter build towards a second coin might be the better option.

Also, only do this when the Demon Horror is on the brink of death. This ensures that you can kill the Demon Horror in close quarters and by yourself should something go wrong such as the player attacking from a distance happens to die before delivering the final blow.

Stunning Demon Horrors

There are two ways to be within Demon Horrors' range without them being able to see you. The first way, of course, is by using invisibility, but the second way is to keep them stunned.

I'm going to introduce you to what I can only imagine is a glitch. If a host player attacks a Demon Horror from out of its range, that Demon Horror will be stunned. It will be unable to retaliate to any guest players within its range from that point on, so long as the host keeps attacking it. I'll mark up a screenshot here as a visual aid.



Again, remember that this only works if the host player is attacking the Demon Horror from out of its range.

Note:⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
There is one strange caveat to stunning Demon Horrors. If there are multiple host players (i.e. multiple players playing from a single account) and one of them is stunning the Demon Horror, it will attack one time upon another host player entering its range. After this one attack, it will return to being stunned.

Closing

Practice

Although it probably goes without saying, practice anything you care to improve at. You may have learned something here, but it will take time to build habits around that knowledge, break old habits you'd like to be rid of, and to develop a certain feel for things such as timing and assessing situations and making good judgement calls.

Knowing all the tricks in the world doesn't make you skillful—it just makes you knowledgeable. Being able to apply what you know when you need it is what makes you skillful, which is the one part I can't teach you with words and pictures. That only comes with practice and discipline. It's on you to develop your own style and habits.

Play Multiple Characters

Having one hero that you're comfortable playing is a good start. Having two is even better. Three should be your eventual minimum, but I recommend at least four. Four is great as you'll never have to worry about the possibility of all the heroes you're comfortable with being unavailable. All five, of course, is ideal.

Being able to play all five heroes comfortably and proficiently is one of the biggest factors that makes someone a true master of Gauntlet in my eyes. Not only does this enable you to fill any role as required, you also understand even the nuanced strengths and weaknesses of roles of your teammates, which can help you play to them more optimally.

It's not without a price, of course. It takes time to learn five characters and certainly to that degree. That's also five times you will feel like a beginner in the game all over again and make silly mistakes as you learn (I speak from plenty of experience in this regard). It's easy to stay within a comfort zone as most people do, but you'll only become a master by risking making embarrassing mistakes or doing things you're not used to in the pursuit of improvement. It is largely what separates the best from the average. (Besides, when you get better, people seem to forget how bad you used to be anyway.)

Further Reading

• Gauntlet Wiki[gauntlet.gamepedia.com]
  
• Gauntlet: Slayer Edition Speedrun Guide (NG+ Solo, Easy Difficulty)[docs.google.com] by Hoyt

⠀⤷ Credits (Book of Alaric)

(includes both active and passive assistance)


⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Lein


⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Lein


⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Hoyt
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Lein


⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Hoyt
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Lein
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Solinarius
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Venuminostrates


⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Lein


⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Dan
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Hoyt


⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Greylock


⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Arrowhead

⬅ Last Chapter⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Next Chapter ➡

Lilith the Necromancer⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Thor the Warrior

[Mr. n]

Since someone necroed, I've given it another award as a reminder that we love it and cannot wait for the completion! ;)

[TEKHNOIR]

WOW !

[Mr. n]

Here, have another handful of awards.

[dimi]

What a sexy guide.

[[•›››] Crackpot]

People still love these guides years after. Even if the other guides never come out, I am thankful to have these to refer to!

[Sleet]

Lein, you really outdid yourself here. Best guide I've ever seen, not just for Gauntlet but for any game.

[mintiefresh]

This is an amazing guide. Thank you for your hard work. I'm new to the game and all of these have helped!

Hoping you'll release a wizard one some day ... :)

[theseedist]

Excellent, excellent work. You share solid wisdom with profound humility. For this alone I would be so bold as to say you are giving some of the greatest resources available for "Gauntlet".

[Mr. n]

Fantastic to hear, waiting for those :)! Stay safe.

[Lein]

Thanks guys, and also for the concern. I am doing alright. Honestly I've just been busy with other stuff, but they will get here eventually (and the fixes to the current guides will too—I know Steam has messed a few things up).