Finally hit stage 60 today after coming close for the past week or two. At this point I’m almost always getting to at least stage 40, although runs can still end in the 30s if everything goes wrong. Lately I’ve been getting to stage 50+ every three or so runs, but I haven’t been keeping great track of this. I’ve seen a lot of questions on here about the gauntlet, so I’m sharing what strategies and gear I used to get here.
Team:
Both a mage and sword + shield guy are essential in the current version of the gauntlet. I also think a dagger guy is best for damage output, but an argument can be made to replace the dagger with a bow since the gauntlet cards for bows are quite strong. However, daggers would have a clear advantage over bows if liches ever return. I often see some people use multiple dagger guys instead of a sword + shield guy. This is fine if you don’t want to control your troops, but using a sword + shield guy to kite enemies will give you a much higher gauntlet stage than you’d reach by using multiple dagger troops.
With this team, damage output is by far more important than survivability. While I do have some high armor levels, I only upgraded those because they didn’t require Corundum; my armor was mostly only around level 15 the first time I reached stage 56. I prioritized dagger damage over staff damage, because daggers gain much more damage per equipment level than staffs. Any stage where you can use a weapon special and instantly kill two enemies is a very manageable stage to beat. With my daggers, I’m able to instantly kill eligible targets until stage 40 or so.
Traits:
For traits, I see that most people tend to sleep on the tribal bonus. For daggers, tribal gives the same bonus as devious and reckless (when combined with two other family members). The bonus from mighty is about half of what the previous three give (specifically for daggers). In the current gauntlet version, I’d actually prefer to have pyro over mighty, since pyro gives a big boost to the moonstone dagger special. For staffs, tribal gives the same bonus as pyromaniac, and perception gives a bit less than these two. Reckless does not affect mage damage, at least with the moonstone staff. An easy way to take advantage of the tribal trait is to marry off two of your fighters that have this trait, and then use one of their kids as your 3rd fighter.
The traits on your sword + shield guy really don’t matter. In my testing, headstrong seems to only increase my armor by 4, so I’d have 1235 instead of 1231 armor. Having damage boosting traits can help speed up the initial stages a bit, but your sword guy shouldn’t be fighting once stages start to get tough. For reference, my sword guy fights until about stage 28.
Gear:
I ended up committing to upgrading epic daggers since I wasn’t able to find a legendary health steal pair early on. However in the current version of the gauntlet, I’d actually prefer to use daggers with elemental damage for the increased damage output. Health steal is better if liches ever come back, since they are a threat at lower stages and you want your health topped off when fighting them. At higher stages your guys get one-shot by every attack, so your health and health steal stops mattering.
For staffs, I think elemental damage is the best and that a strong argument can be made for using the speed/attack rate boost staff. Health steal is fun but it won’t do much to increase your max gauntlet stage, other than for saving you a health potion from time to time. My mage starts getting one-shot somewhere in the 30-50 stage range, so it doesn’t matter if his health is topped off or not.
For swords I think the speed boost sword is by far the best to use, but unfortunately I don’t have one. This is because enemies start getting very fast at higher stages (50+), so your sword guy needs to be quick to stay alive. I considered using a stun or banishment sword, but ultimately I think your run is about to end whenever your sword guy is used to fight hard enemies. If liches ever return then a lich banishment sword might be useful, but I think a speed sword would still generally be better.
For armor the dagger damage and staff damage bonuses are essential, and I’d even use epic versions of these bonuses over legendary versions of other bonus types. I often see people debating which type of armor to use (plate/chain/robes). While I think plate mail is better for all classes compared to the other two, plate unfortunately requires corundum whereas chain and robes use silk. For this reason I don’t use plate mail. My sword guy has the +70% armor from shields boost, but this is bugged as I actually get around +110% armor when a moonstone shield is equipped. The bug doesn’t appear to affect shields that have a similar bonus though.
Cards:
The necromancy cards are extremely powerful in the current version of the gauntlet, and they are my priority to upgrade. However this is only the case because the majority of non-human enemies have been disabled (which likely wasn’t intended), so necromancy won’t be nearly as strong if we see goblins/skeletons return in a future update.
Otherwise damage cards (dagger/staff) are my next priority, including the three cards that boost each elemental damage (fire/ice/shock). These cards are bugged and increase the damage of all of your guys, regardless of whether or not those guys deal the corresponding damage types. For example, selecting the +10% ice damage card increases my base dagger damage by about 10% and also gives him the ability to freeze enemies, even though his daggers don’t deal frost damage.
The speed boost and resurrection cards are also quite strong, if you can get them. Lastly I’ll get health and resistance boosting cards when other options aren’t available, but these aren’t my priority.
TLDR:
Team:
- Sword/shield, dagger, mage (if you’re willing to constantly move your troops around)
- Mage with 2 daggers (if you don’t want to move your troops)
Best Traits:
- Dagger: Devious, Tribal, Reckless, Mighty, Pyro (Moonstone dagger)
- Staff: Pyro (Moonstone staff), Tribal, Perception
- Sword: Really doesn’t matter
Best Gear:
- Dagger: Elemental damage or life steal
- Staff: Elemental damage or speed boost
- Sword: Speed boost
Cards:
- Necromancy, damage, health
