Main Activities

The Gauntlet

The Gauntlet is an endless, push-your-luck combat run. You fight floor after floor of escalating enemies, building a growing pot of cash and loot as you climb — but your health carries between floors, and a single loss forfeits everything you haven't banked. How deep you dare to push is the whole game.

The Run

Entering is free. Instead of a fight cost, each step you take in a room costs 1 Energy (drawn from the same pool as the Arena and Street) — but fighting through the guarded door is free, and bumping a wall costs nothing. Only one run is active at a time.

Every floor starts in a room you walk through — move your character around to grab pickups (see below), then reach the exit. The exit is guarded by that floor's foe, so to leave you have to fight your way out.

Win a floor — its cash is added to your pot, you earn EXP and Reputation (heroes gain rep, villains lose it — their infamy), you get a chance at a loot drop, and you pick one of three random boons before moving on.
Your health persists — damage carries from floor to floor. Nothing refills it but the boons you choose, so attrition is what eventually ends most runs.
Lose a fight — the run is over and the entire un-banked pot is gone. Your deepest floor still counts for the leaderboard.
Bank & Walk — at any time between fights, cash out safely. The pot's cash lands in your wallet and every pooled item drops into your inventory.

Your Opposition

Who you face depends on your alignment, and it's always the other side of the law:

Villains cut a path through the city's protectors — beat cops, SWAT, vigilantes, and the heroes who come to stop you.
Heroes hold the line against an escalating crime wave — dealers, enforcers, lieutenants, and the kingpins who run them.

Every opponent's stats scale off your own power times a floor factor, so the Gauntlet stays a real challenge whether you're a fresh recruit or a maxed-out veteran — nobody trivializes it, nobody gets one-shot on floor one.

Rooms

Before each fight you walk the floor's room — move with the arrow keys, WASD, or the on-screen pad. You see a section of the room around you (like the Explore map), and it scrolls as you move; a 🚪 arrow points the way to the guarded exit while it's off-screen. Along the way you'll find cash into the pot, a small heal, a minor short-lived buff, a pawnable item (shown by name when grabbed), a little energy back, food that drops into your Lunchbox if it has room, and wandering runts (see below). What you can't see are the traps — some tiles are rigged, and stepping on one costs HP (a room can never knock you out; it floors you at 1 HP). Walls make every room a different shape, and every room's size, layout, and contents are randomized.

Growing Stronger — Runts, Temp Boosts & Permanent Gains

The Gauntlet is a real progression path. Every fight — and every runt you cross — grows your character:

Runts — little wandering critters (three per side, each tied to a stat: speed, power, or strength). One-shot them for a sliver of EXP, a small run-long boost to their stat, and a tiny permanent stat gain (about a quarter of a Gym train). Some bite back for a little HP. No rep.
Door fights — beating a floor's guard grants EXP, a run-long boost to one combat stat, and about half a Gym train permanently to one stat, plus rep.
Bosses — a bigger EXP payout, a run-long boost to all combat stats, a full Gym train permanently to each stat, and extra rep.

The run-long boosts stack in the buff bar at the top of the page and compound as you go, making deep runs hit harder and harder. The permanent gains stick to your character forever, like the Gym — so climbing the Gauntlet makes you permanently stronger.

Bosses

Every 5th floor a named boss stands in your way — tougher, tankier, and worth a much bigger pot spike. Every 15th floor is an elite nemesis, the marquee threat of your side's roster. Bosses always drop loot.

Boons & Tempt Fate

After each cleared floor you choose one of three boons — a heal, a run-long boost to a combat stat (Speed, Power, or Strength), a cash multiplier, a permanent loot-chance boost, or a one-time Second Wind that survives a lethal blow at 1 HP. Or skip the safe pick and Tempt Fate: a powerful stat boon shackled to a curse. High risk, high reward — every run plays out differently.

Rewards

Cash — the pot escalates hard with depth; pushing deep is the whole temptation.
Loot — pawnable items, with better rarity odds the deeper you go. Bosses are guaranteed drops.
Achievements — for reaching deep floors, slaying bosses, and banking big.
Leaderboard — your deepest floor ever is ranked on the Hall of Fame.

Tips

Banking is always free and always safe — the hard question is never whether you can win the next floor, but whether the pot you'd lose is worth the risk.
Save your heals and Second Wind for the run into a boss floor.
A naive "always push" run tends to wall around the floor-10 boss. Banking earlier and coming back is usually the smarter play.
Your active Pet fights alongside you here, same as in the Arena.