How to install Pre-Slayer Gauntlet; differences between Classic and Slayer Editions

Overview

This guide will try to tell you about the differences between the old, True Gauntlet (the one I have pre-ordered) and the new, “better” Slayer version.I will not lie. I don’t like the Slayer Edition very much. What irks me the most is lack of any meaning to Masteries.I didn’t like the Slayer Edition because I had to play it and I had no choice in the matter. Once I have been able to switch between versions and got a bunch of new Gauntlet- friends, I started playing both versions with a gusto. I can’t play Thor in Classic (I keep dying), while in Slayer I’m kinda-beginning-to-be-ok-ish with him ;). The same goes for Elf and Valkyrie, actually…I don’t didn’t like the Slayer Edition even more because there was no way to play the old, True Gauntlet up to a few months before. I am going to write a guide on how to run the old version soon (I have contacted ArrowHead concerning the legal and ethical stuff about the whole “old-version” thing).UPDATE: Sadly, ArrowHead cannot give me permission to release the way to get the pre-Slayer Edition. It might also violate Warner Bros. TOS and probably could get me sued by them. “The development is over, we will not pursue this or be involved”. :(They have reconsidered and contacted the WB on my behalf and I got green light from everyone “If it doesn’t break Steam TOS”. I haven’t find anything about the procedure that would violate the terms, so I will either do a separate guide on getting the pre-Slayer version, or include the info in this one in due time. Done :)!So unless someone else comes and posts the way (to which I would then provide a link), I am not going with this further.Edits were made on 2017 10 02 (though the info came earlier; someone just poked me about it :)).Further edits were made on 2018 03 07 (added the section on downloading Classic version and switching versions; minor fixes in other chapters).Edit @ 2021 03 25: A friendly reader has pointed me to an unofficial method of circumventing the Missing Manifest error (which came to be because of changes Valve made in Feb 2020) – I will try to update this guide with that knowledge so that switching back and forth between versions would be possible again.

WARNINGS AND CAVEATS

If you do read this section, I am still not responsible or liable in any way whatsoever for whatever may happen to you, your Gauntlet game, Steam account, life, etc. etc.
You do everything at your own discretion and at your own risk and expense.
I cannot make you do anything, nor can I make you not do something.

I still haven’t tested if the multiplayer works in the Classic version, but there is no reason why it shouldn’t (at least for private games with invitations). Multiplayer works for lobbies (private and open) and quickjoin. For people using the same version, of course.

Switching back and forth between versions of Gauntlet (I will use the name “Classic” for the “pre-Slayer Edition”, it’s not such a mouthful) is as quick and easy as renaming four folders.

• The relics are transferred 1:1 between versions. I think. I will have to check it again, just to be sure.

The good:

• You also keep the level count for Endless (though you lose the actual in-game achievement for levels; unlock 50 floors for gold and ignore it’s empty). After playing the Classic version, I’ve been able to go to 73rd floor in SE in Endless, as I had it unlocked.

The bad:

• I tested it with cloud save feature turned off. I have no idea will it work with cloud saves on (it may e.g. crash every time or WIPE your savegame). If you turn the cloud saves off – you’re on your own with backups, but version switching should work. If you keep cloud saves on – all bets are off and nobody I know can help you.
• Some of the relics were renamed to “Talismans”. Relics in the Classic version always used up a potion (both slots), but were much more powerful.
• “Relics” in SE are usually shadows of their own, former, selves.
• The gold amount does not transfer properly. I think (didn’t check) there are separate gold counters for both versions of the game, which leads us to…

The ugly:

• You lose your talismans and weapons (except for the default, first-slot stuff) and you have to unlock them again if you want to use them…*.
• … for the coins you probably don’t have any more, since you’ve spent them on the same unlocks before. If you have millions of coins laying around, that is surely less of a problem, but if you don’t, it might sting a bit.
• I never cared for Capes (except for my pre-order bonus Wizard cape The Spawn of Kerthuul ;)) and therefore did not have them nor paid attention to them. I have no idea if the capes stay put when switching between versions. Once again, if you’re a fan of capes and not a fan of backups, this is probably not for you. With backups as well, I wouldn’t be too careful.

  *but only when switching from Slayer to Classic and back to Slayer again.

  All that said, it is clear for me now – I will just play the classic version and ignore the Slayer Edition, unless I want to play the Endless mode with friends I will turn off the cloud save and keep two separate copies of savegames for two editions (I’ve just double-checked, it works).

Savegame separation methods

As of now, I know about two ways around losing progress in Slayer Edition.

The leaderboards were – in Classic – for the Colosseum. In SE they are for each of the levels themselves and for Endless mode.

1. Separate the savegames from both versions. I am switching back and forth between the Classic and Slayer editions and both have their own saves.

Pros of the method:
• Not losing progress or weapon/talisman unlocks in Slayer Edition

Cons of the method:
• Your kill counts and money will get separated as well, so it’s like having a common start, but from then on playing two different games. Which is not a problem if you have most of the stuff unlocked in the Slayer Edition. Relics transfer 1:1 between versions.

2. Playing both versions with a single savegame and “merging” the progress once you want to switch between Classic and Slayer Edition.
It requires you to write down what talismans and weapon sets you had in the Slayer Edition and then editing them back in via external program as money to re-buy the stuff you had.

Pros of the method:
• Your kill counters are perfectly synchronised between versions because you’re basically using only one savegame
• You only have to adjust it when you’re switching from Classic to SE
• Full continuity
• It’s the only way to re-gain your SE stuff if you have mixed it up already and lost the unlocks (like I did when I have had only found the method of playing Classic)

Cons of the method:
• I couldn’t check it yet, but I think you will still lose 1 (per hero, admittedly) progress of in-game achievement – “We need to go deeper” – get to 10/?/50 levels deep in the Endless Mode, though

• Slighty less convenient than method 1
• Requires external program to cheat your money back in which may be ethically or morally dubious for some people.

Preparations for method 1

I am not allowed to give you specific instructions on obtaining the pre-Slayer edition of Gauntlet.
Working on it.

I can, though, give you the basic knowledge on what to do not to lose stuff if you ever manage to get it. I lost my stuff and had to do some pretty funny business to get it back and I wouldn’t wish that for anyone.

To have either both versions or only the Classic installed, you will have to have the Slayer Edition Gauntlet installed first.

If you were to drop the Slayer Edition altogether (but there is no need for that, since you can have separate, working savegames for them now), you will have to just substitute the contents of the “Gauntlet” folder with the contents of the Classic version and that will be it.

If you want both versions, you will have to do some copy-pasting and renaming each time you want to switch versions. I am also not sure if it is possible to switch versions and have separate savegame files for two versions if you are using the cloud save feature. I haven’t been able to pursue this topic yet, but I’m not overly optimistic with it.

Non-cloud saves are located here:

I will assume that you already have both versions and both folders are residing in

One of them named “Gauntlet Classic” and the other “Gauntlet Slayer”, according to the versions inside.

My procedure for safely changing versions is as follows:

1. Remember which version have you played most recently – for this example it will be the Classic version.
2. Go to
   %AppData%ArrowheadGauntletsaves

   and copy every file inside to a safe location with appropriate name e.g.

   another_hdd:savesGauntletClassicYYYYMMDD_HHMM
3. Optionally, 7-zip the whole “savesGauntlet” folder (7-zip is free, unlike… other programs) and send it to yourself via e-mail to never lose it
4. Decide which version to play and rename the appropriate folder to simple “Gauntlet” (no trailing spaces!). For the sake of this example, we’ll choose the Slayer Edition.
5. Copy appropriate save from the safe savegame location
   another_hdd:savesGauntletSlayermost_recent_folder

   to the

   %AppData%ArrowheadGauntletsaves

   and overwrite

6. Launch the game, have fun
7. After playing, rename the game folder back to what it was (“Gauntlet Slayer”)
8. Go to
   %AppData%ArrowheadGauntletsaves

   and copy every file inside to a safe location with appropriate name, e.g.

   another_hdd:savesGauntletSlayer20170706_2359
9. Write down somewhere which version you were playing last so not to mix it up in the future

If you’re a mediocre-talented programmer or a script-kiddie, you could actually write a program to do it for you. As I am a mediocre-talented starting-out junior programmer, I will certainly try to write such a program for myself and will probably give it away for free too, but that’s in the far future for now (as of July 2017).

Downloading the Classic Gauntlet version and switching versions

All credits go to https://www.reddit.com/user/GMMan_BZFlag, who described

Guide: How to download older versions of a game on Steam from Steam

which I adapted for Gauntlet specifically. Kudos, man. I still remember the day I found and tested it and I still remember.

Simplified and verbose procedure of downloading the Classic Gauntlet version:

1. Remember to back up saves before starting.

   And make a copy (I’d rename it to Slayer Edition saves YYYYMMDD_HHMM or something similar).

   I cannot stress this enough. Make proper backups.

   (No, making a copy of the folder and placing it next to the old one is not a backup.)

   7-zip it and send it to yourself via e-mail. And upload to a cloud service like Dropbox. And copy to a different physical device. Then you have a backup.

2. Save location is %AppData%ArrowheadGauntletsaves – now you don’t have an excuse not to make the backup
3. Don’t bother continuing if you haven’t backed up properly.
4. You must have Gauntlet: Slayer Edition installed.
5. Make sure you have at least 1.62GB of free space on the partition of your main Steam installation (i.e. partition with your “Steam” folder, not any of “Steamlibrary” folders). Remember, you have to have 1.62 free with Slayer Edition installed.
6. Open [url]the Steam Console – steam://open/console

[/url]. Hopefully it will work just by clicking the link in the previous sentence. In your main Steam window, you should have those big buttons/tabs near the top – for me they are STORE, LIBRARY, COMMUNITY, and MR. N (but you should see your steam nickname here instead). If the operation was successful, you should see another button/tab there – CONSOLE.

7. Paste this:
   download_depot 258970 258971 2110979887084049898

   and hit enter

8. Steam will then semi-silently download one of the subfolders of Gauntlet classic. To check if it’s finished, go to Library/Downloads tab and watch the usage statistics near the top (console downloads are not shown in the queue and “downloading now” sections).
9. Once it’s finished (16MB, shouldn’t be too long), go back to console, paste this:
   download_depot 258970 258972 2950106636512614349

   and hit enter

10. This time it will be 1.60GB download, so give it a minute
11. Once it’s finished, go to your steamapps/common/ folder and rename Gauntlet to Gauntlet Slayer
12. Also in steamapps/common/ folder, create a new empty folder and name it Gauntlet
13. Go to your main Steam install partition. In the steamapps folder there you will find another folder that wasn’t there before – content Enter the folder.
14. Inside, you’ll find some numbered folders. Those numbers should look kind of familiar…
15. Inside those folders, at some level down the rabbit hole, you should find binaries and contents folders. Cut or copy them to your steamapps/common/Gauntlet folder.
16. If you followed the guide (including making backups!), you’re ready to go.
17. The game will crash two or three times when trying to switch from Slayer to Classic and running a game/joining. This is normal and expected. Your common-ancestor savegame file for Classic, based on Slayer Edition, has lots of stuff that wasn’t in the Classic Edition (e.g. you’ll notice that characters are not holding items in their hands in the lobby). Those crashes are game’s way of reverting the changes to default, Classic-version-approved values.
18. You can now run the game via Steam normally.
19. Enjoy! Multiplayer works if you manage to find people playing the exact same version.

Simple procedure of changing back from Classic to Slayer Edition Gauntlet:

1. Rename the current save folder accordingly (e.g. “Classic 20180307_2030”). Make a 7-zip of all backup folders, upload it to your cloud, send it to yourself via e-mail, etc.
2. Copy the most recent Slayer Edition savegame backup folder and rename the copy as saves
3. Rename the steamapps/common/Gauntlet folder to Gauntlet Classic
4. Rename the steamapps/common/Gauntlet Slayer folder to Gauntlet
5. Enjoy! And remember your highest-Endless-level progress was saved, but the achievement will be locked (as if untouched). Not a big thing, though.

Simple procedure of changing back from Slayer Edition to Classic Gauntlet:

1. Rename the current save folder accordingly (e.g. “Slayer 20180307_2030”). Make a 7-zip of all backup folders, upload it to your cloud, send it to yourself via e-mail, etc.
2. Copy the most recent Classic Edition savegame backup folder and rename the copy saves
3. Rename the steamapps/common/Gauntlet folder to Gauntlet Slayer
4. Rename the steamapps/common/Gauntlet Classic folder to Gauntlet
5. Enjoy! And remember it will crash a few times because of the items that didn’t exist in Classic but did in Slayer and you had them equipped.

Main Menu

The music has changed. It is matter of personal taste/preference, of course, but for me it was for worse. I used to open the game just to have that cool track play in the background.

Old menu music (I have not uploaded that one, the uploader is solo1870 – all credits for upload go to him, all credits for music go to its respective owners [hard to tell who is that now, but I can guess that’s WB at the moment]):

The main menu visuals have changed. While overall effect is a bit nicer… it is no longer animated. The old main menu was a gate which you visually entered to start the game.

Lobby

Lobby was a bit different:

There was no choosing weapons (because there was only one set per hero) or cosmetics other than capes.

Masteries

Old Masteries had actual meaning. The new ones are all “do X, get Y gold coins”.

The new ones are just pointless grind. You have to kill thousands of monsters… for nothing but a “gold badge”.

The old ones actually affected gameplay.

I have a screenshot collection of those, but it would take huge amount of guide space (50+ screenshots), so I’ll have to go with the text version:

Elf-specific:

• Kill ?/6000/? Monsters with a Bomb/Bomb shot to get 5/10/15% Bomb/Bomb shot cooldown reduction.
• Take ?/6000/? Cumulative Damage as the Elf for “When you die, you are turned into a spirit for 3 seconds. You are then revived with 1 health (120/110/100? second cooldown)”.

Necromancer-specific:

• Raise ?/?/1200 skeleton fighters to get ?/20/30% increased soul power gain from killing enemies.
• Take ?/6000/? Cumulative Damage as the Necromancer for “When you die, you are revived with 1 health, summoning skeletons around you (120/110/100? second cooldown)”.

Valkyrie-specific:

• Kill 2000/?/? Monsters with Shield Throw for Shield Throw cooldown reduction by 5/10?/15? %.
• Take ?/?/12000 Cumulative Damage as the Valkyrie for “When below 30% health – All damage taken reduced by ?/65/80%”

Warrior-specific:

• Kill 2000/?/? Monsters with Spin Attack to get Spin Attack cooldown reduced by 5/10?/15? %
• Take 5000/?/? Cumulative Damage as the Warrior for “The Warrior replenishes health every second when below 20/25?/30? % health”.

Wizard-specific:

• Take ?/?/10000 Cumulative Damage as the Wizard for “When you have not taken damage for 20/18/16 seconds – the next instance of damage towards you will be negated” (also known as the Bubble.
• Kill ?/?/8000 Monsters with Fire spells – reduces cooldown on Flaming Serpents by 5?/10?/15%
• Kill ?/?/8000 Monsters while they are Frozen or Chilled – reduces cooldown on Freezing Wave by 5?/10?/15%
• Kill ?/?/8000 Monsters with Lightning spells – reduces cooldown on Storm Barrier by 5?/10?/15%

All-classes Loot and Food Masteries:

• Destroy ?/?/800 Props – ?/?/7% chance to find gold in destroyed Props
• Destroy ?/?/5000 Props – Gold amount from destroyed Props increased by up to ?/?/100%
• Drop the Crown ?/?/200 Times – +?/?/8% Move Speed and Attack Speed for 3 seconds after dropping the Crown
• Destroy the Food 100/?/500 Times – Replenish 10?/15/20% of food’s Heal Value when destroying food
• Eat food equal to ?/3000/6000 health in total – Replenish ?/8/10% Health every second for 10 seconds after eating Food

All-classes Death Masteries:

• Kill ?/?/50000 Monsters – 1?/2?/3% increased damage
• Die ?/?/100 times – Any time you revive, your hero will be in Etheral form for ?/?/5 seconds.
• Die from Area Damage – ?/15% reduced damage from Area Damage
• Die by taking damage from a Spike Trap – ?/35% reduced damage from Spike Traps
• Die while Frozen – 1 Second reduced Frozen duration
• Die ?/8 Times in one session on a single Floor – Gold dropped on death reduced by ?/10%
• Die by taking Area Damage from an Explosive Barrel that you are Carrying – 15% reduced damage from Area Damage
• Die by taking damage from a Blade Trap – ?/35% reduced damage from Blade Traps

All-classes Level Masteries:

• Kill the Boss of the Crypts – Gold dropped on death reduced by 5% while in Crypts
• Kill the Boss of the Caves – Gold dropped on death reduced by 5% while in Caves
• Kill the Boss of the Temple – Gold dropped on death reduced by 5% while in Temple
• Complete 1 of the first 3 Crypts Chapters without dying or using Retry on Normal?/Hard/Unfair – ?/8/10% Increased Move Speed while in Crypts
• Complete 1 of the first 3 Caves Chapters without dying or using Retry on Normal?/Hard/Unfair – ?/8/10% Increased Move Speed while in Caves
• Complete 1 of the first 3 Temple Chapters without dying or using Retry on Normal?/Hard/Unfair – ?/8/10% Increased Move Speed while in Temple

All-classes “Kill X of monster Y”:

• Kill 2000/8000/15000 Mummies for 1/2/3% Increased Damage VS Mummies & Mummy Spawners
• Kill 2000/8000/15000 Skeletons for 1/2/3% Increased Damage VS Skeletons & Skeleton Spawners
• Kill 2000/8000/15000 Liches for 1/2/3% Increased Damage VS Liches
• Kill 2000/8000/15000 Grunts for 1/2/3% Increased Damage VS Grunts & Grunt Spawners
• Kill 2000/8000/15000 Orcs for 1/2/3% Increased Damage VS Orcs & Orc Spawners
• Kill 2000/8000/15000 Spider Queens for 1/2/3% Increased Damage VS Spider Queens
• Kill 2000/8000/15000 Cultists for 1/2/3% Increased Damage VS Cultists & Cultist Spawners
• Kill 2000/8000/15000 Demons for 1/2/3% Increased Damage VS Demons & Demon Spawners

Basic Class Masteries you haven’t seen since the Slayer Edition came out:

Relics

In the True, Classic, non-Slayer Gauntlet, using Relics costs a potion.

There was no possibility of endless spamming them, since there is a limited amount of potions at any level. Moreover, if you wanted to hoard the potions for big fights, you still had to grind through lesser fights with your skills only.

Most Relics worked differently than in Slayer edition. Most simply used to be more powerful.

Every hero could buy the same relics (e.g. 4 Rings of Mirrors and 4 Siren Lutes in a team).

Since gold was NOT given for achievements, you had to actually pick it up on your way. The now-defunct masteries gave you a small chance (7%, if I recall correctly?) for getting a gold drop from a destroyed prop instead – people were going through the levels smashing things, not rushing that much.

Relics used to be sold and equipped in the HUB shop.

A handful of screenshots so you know what are you missing.

Note that the healing stuff was not as OP as you might think – the potions were limited and there were many battles to be had… and you couldn’t bring potions to boss battles. Oh, and remember, there were no free respawn coins, you had to kill in combos (5 enemies in a single second to start the counter and then hold the combo by killing one enemy roughly each 2 seconds) for the revive bar to start filling up ;).

Hub/Map

There used to be a World Hub instead of the 2D map.

It had some advantages and disadvantages over the 2D map.

Here are some screenshots of the World Hub:

Pros:

• It looked nice and polished. You can tell someone spent a lot of time for it to be this pretty.
• There was a shop.
• Doors to new levels opened as you finished the ones before them; this gave a nice sense of accomplishment.

Cons:

• Every door except for the last of its group was a three-level run. You had to have time (or really good taxi friends) to actually advance in the game.
• You could not skip any level (but there were fewer of them, no fillers)

Difficulties

The difficulties used to be widely different.

It has been stated that the cut “Unfair” difficulty is there and it was “Easy” that got cut (i.e. old Unfair -> new Hard; old easy -> <nothing>)… and yet, I remember a lot of spawners on the Unfair difficulty that are not appearing on the “new Unfair”…

Mechanics and enemies

A lot of game mechanics have changed, even when ignoring the missing Masteries.

From the top of my head:

• There were no respawn coins to be found. At all.
• You had to earn the respawn points by doing and sustaining combo kills.
• Guys who turned into Liches had 1hp. In Slayer Edition the fights with them are needlessly stretched for no reason.
• Wizard’s ice beam had really short range, started very weak and grew more powerful if held longer
• Lots of spawners that were there are now just missing.
• No silly half-spawners
• There were skeleton archer enemies.
• There were no “skeleton commanders”.
• “Skeleton warriors” or however they are called did not have the “rage mode”. They just kept using their shield until they died. Still had some run attacks and could slash you fast.
• This may be just a feeling, but Wizard’s Chain Lightning felt like it bounced between more targets before it disappeared. And dealt a bit more damage.
• Various changes to relics which may be described in more depth later in another section of this guide

About combos:
If I recall correctly, a combo would start if you killed 5 or more enemies during a one-second period. It would usually start with a big attack/bomb or kiting to get a packed crowd before shooting it up. After starting combo, you had a window (about 3 seconds, I guess?) to kill another monster to reset the window timer and to keep the combo up. I remember games where everyone except for me died and I had to kite around level and spawners just to amass enough enemies (who would kill me in one shot, as it was usually Temple and I play almost exclusively as Wizard) to be able to sustain combo long enough to get others back. It ended sweetly glorious or bitterly, but it was fun, engaging and required a lot of skill. People who knew they couldn’t handle it didn’t respawn even if the respawn points were ready – you waited until the better players dug you up.

If anyone can remember more differences in the True Gauntlet and Slayer editions, please, let me know.

Gamemodes

There was no Endless Mode.

I think that this is the only good change/addition from the Slayer Edition.

Weapon sets and cosmetics

There was only one set of weapons for each hero. There were different skins, but everything was functionally identical.

Cosmetics (except for capes) were unlocked (i.e. you could buy them) only after passing a level on an appropriate difficulty.

E.g. you could buy Wizard’s Sinister Sentience after completing the 4th level Temple on Unfair difficulty.

You could tell if someone has been an experienced player just by looking at the cosmetic stuff they had equipped.