Gauntlet Legends

Gauntlet Legends is a 3D Action/RPG game based on the classic Gauntlet series. You have a choice between four basic characters: Warrior, Valkyrie, Archer ("Elf") and Wizard. There are also several bonus characters. The game is broken up into 5 "worlds" with several levels in each world. Your goal is to find obelisks and rune stone use to restore the power of Sumner so he can defeat the evil demon Skone. You gain levels by killing enemies, and with each level your stats improve. The game's success led to an expansion of sorts, Gauntlet Dark Legacy, which included new characters and worlds as well as those from Gauntlet Legends.

General

 * 1) USE YOUR TURBOS!!!  I can’t stress this enough.  Many, many people only use their turbos when they’re overwhelmed.  You have as many as you want, all you have to do is let them recharge.  Looking up a blind ramp?  Fire off a L3.  The L3’s penetrate walls for quite a distance, so you can clear out areas behind gates _before_ you unlock them.  (If you want an idea how far they reach, fire one at the beginning of a level, toward where you know the rest of the level is, and listen as it destroys stuff.)
 * 2) Shoot relentlessly.  It never hurts to fire a couple blind shots every now and then.  Also, if you see enemies keep popping up from a particular spot off the screen: unleash on that spot.  There’s probably a generator just out of sight, and you can pick it off before it’s a problem.  Also, shooting up a ramp as you’re ascending can take care of any pesky suicide bombers that may be coming down to "greet" you.
 * 3) Pressing the ATTACK button repeatedly will result in faster attacks than holding down the button (from David(Hurkyl@msn.com) for this one)
 * 4) Fight according to your character.  If you’re the Wizard or the Archer, keep your distance, take them out from across the screen.  If you’re the Valkyrie or Warrior, run right into the middle of things swinging like mad.  Remember to adopt the correct fighting style if you switch to a bonus character.
 * 5) Don’t forget your potions.  If you’re being swarmed use TURBO+MAGIC to create a shield out of a potion.  Then just walk out, the shield will take care of the enemies.  This tactic also works if you want to run in and strike at a generator or two.  Also, using ATTACK+MAGIC if you have to clear out a distant group and are out of Turbos.  The Shields also work the same way, except more plow-shaped.
 * 6) A little trick that works will for those bridges that only appear when you’re on the switch:  Usually you’d use Turbo, or the speed boost, but sometimes it’s still tough.  All you need to do is lure an enemy onto the bridge while you’re standing on the switch.  Then you can get off the switch, and the bridge will stay as long as there’s something on it.

Leveling Up

 * 1) For easy level ups, find a spot where the enemies bottleneck, and are forces to come through a small gate/portal.  Also, it helps if there's a couple of generators nearby.  Then just keep shooting from a distance, picking them off.  When the flood dies down, just run to where the generators are, hit them once, and run back out.  This will restart the stream of enemies, and you can keep going.
 * 2) You can always go back.  If you think you’re a bit soft for a new level, head back to an easy one you’ve already beat.  You can grab more experience, and even stock up on goodies.

Stats

 * Strength - better melee damage
 * Speed - faster movement
 * Magic - increased potion strength, radius and ranged attack damage
 * Armor - decreased damage from attacks
 * Health - more health (duh!)

(Thanks to David (Hurkyl@msn.com) for pointing out the oversight in the damages)


 * 1) Go back through easy levels, or use Cheap Trick #1 below, to collect a whole bunch of item (Mountain Cavern is good), then sell the to Sumner and buy stats.
 * 2) Leveling up increases your stats.

Bosses

 * 1) HAVE THE LEGEND WEAPON, it makes things a whole lot easier
 * 2) * Mountain Dragon - Ice Axe from Castle Treasury
 * 3) * Castle Chimera - Scimitar from Mountain Cavern
 * 4) * Ice Yeti - Fire Scroll from Town Spire
 * 5) * Town Plague - Javelin from Ice Fissure
 * 6) * Skorne - Soul Saver from Battlefield Fortress
 * 7)  Multishots, Reflect Shields, Speed Boots, and Rapid Fire make them almost simple.

Cheap Tricks
E Enemies perceive item as barriers, and will not walk past them. You can trap them on the far side of an item, and just pick them off, they’ll never get close enough. (I’m reminded of the sandbag trick from Command & Conquer)
 * Ok, the cheapest of the cheap to be sure. Make sure you have 10-20 seconds of Freeze Time or Shrink Enemies, then go into a boss fight.  When you're almost dead, activate it, then let the boss kill you.  Select "Continue" after you're dead.  When you restart, any level you go into will have either no enemies (Freeze Time), or shrunken enemies(Shrink Enemies).  This is a good way to go through levels and collect missed rune stone, and collect items to sell for stats.  The frozen time/shrunken enemies will last until you use the corresponding item, or quit and restart.

FAQ

 * What does "Outed" mean?: Outed is actually how I heard "is it." After consulting somebody with better hearing than me, I changed it.  It means all the enemies will go after your first.  Useless in 1 player, but can be used as a strategy device in multi (make everything attack the warrior instead of the archer)
 * How do I get the nude Valkyrie/Archer?: To the extent of my knowledge, you can’t. I’ve seen many codes for this, but none of them seem to work, so for now I’m saying it isn’t possible.  (I’ve also looked through the code for the game, and I can’t find anything that gives you access to any other skins aside from the publicly known playable characters.)

Star Wars Sighting
It occurred to me as I was playing the game, there was a large number of Star Wars references. Here’s the list so far:
 * The tentacle things from the Castle Courtyard remind me of the creature from the garbage compactor on the Death Star.
 * The Ricochet noise sounds like the blasters.
 * The Ice Yeti looks alot like the Hoth Ice Creature
 * The scream of the suicide sounds like the Tie Fighter fly-by, lowered in pitch.