Gauntlet/Gameplay

Controls
Joystick: 8-way directional control. If you push your character against compatible enemies, you will engage your melee attack.

Button 1: Fires your shot. Has built-in auto-fire. Only one instance of your character's shot may be on the screen at once. You can take advantage of this by getting close to the enemy, and holding down the fire button for rapid fire. Note that holding this button will immobilize your character.

Button 2: Uses a Potion, if in stock. This is a smart-bomb style magic attack - it is stronger depending on the magic skills of the character who uses it.

Gameplay & Goal
You are plopped down in a maze with nothing but your weapon and wits to defend yourself. You wander through the mazes, killing monsters, collecting treasure, and trying to find food to stay alive.

Players often get the mistaken impression that the goal of the game is to "clear every maze". This is not true, as the game loops infinitely - there is no "end" to the game. The goal of the game is to score as many points as possible and, by extension, survive for as long as possible.

Enemies can be found lying in wait around the mazes, but are mostly spawned from generators. Destroying a single Ghost or Grunt is simple enough... but trying to bypass a stream of literally hundreds of them pouring out of a generator, WITHOUT taking damage, is no easy task. One of the core gameplay elements of Gauntlet is trying to figure out how to eliminate generators without getting pounded into a pulp.

There are treasures to boost your score, and powerups to make the game more survivable. Potions are a near necessity for clearing out some sections. You must seek these things out for the best success possible.

Basics

 * You start with 700 health. Hits from monsters deplete from it. Health also ticks away steadily at 1 per second (you can use this as a timer to gauge events). This generates an urgency to find food items to replenish your health (although monster hits are far more deadly).


 * Monsters are scattered about, but are mostly made from generators. These generators are your primary concern. You must use a variety of techniques to destroy them without losing too much health.


 * Potions are live-saving smartbomb weapons. Aside from helping by clearing out rooms of enemies, they are the only way to destroy Death.


 * Melee attacks generally aren't as powerful as point-blank shots, although there are some niche uses for them. They have a wider attack range to the sides of your character.


 * Keep an eye out for the yellow text between levels "Find the Hidden Potion". That means there is an upgrade potion somewhere in the level.


 * If you hear a high pitched musical tone (different than the "protip" jingle for help messages), a Thief has entered the level from the starting point. Try to get ahead to a choke-point, turn around, and keep firing. If the Thief touches you, he will steal one of your upgrade potions.


 * Don't take too many keys. Potions can be cleared out by usage, but keys can only be used up on doors. 4 or 5 keys is good enough in general.

Read before attempting Gauntlet Arcade
There are two things a Gauntlet apprentice player should understand before playing, lest they quit in frustration.


 * Gauntlet is not a game where you make rapid progress. You must take your time with eliminating enemies and generators. If you try to barrel through the level, running through every enemy, you will take hundreds of health points in damage in just a few seconds. Many players do this, and are either killed within the first few levels, or are compelled to drop more credits into the game.


 * "Credit Feeding" is about the same thing as putting cheats on the game. You may have done so, and reached level 300 before quitting out of boredom. Try playing with just one credit, and see how well you do then! Beginners will likely have trouble clearing 8, intermediates should be able to clear at least 15, and very adept players might be able to make it to 60 or higher before the ranking system removes too much food. Gauntlet is not meant to be credit fed (it ruins your score, anyway).

Notes on different versions of Gauntlet Arcade
There are over 20 revisions of Gauntlet Arcade. Most of them have minor differences, bug fixes, or changes to the default level order. They can be divided into 3 groups:

First releases: These versions do not have the "Exit stall trick". They lack the ranking system.

Second releases: These versions have the "Exit stall trick". They lack the ranking system.

Final releases: These versions have the "Exit stall trick", and implement the ranking system.

This guide will focus mostly on the final releases. The other releases are much easier, due to the lack of the ranking system which diminishes the amount of food placed in the game.

The Xbox 360 version uses the latest final release.