The Gauntlet

Deep below the mantle of Hyrule lies a wicked dungeon known as the Cubicles of Futaba. The curse of this place is such that its chambers are unnavigably random. After 5612 years, the malison within has begun seeping out onto the surface world. Your only chance at survival is fighting your way through as many floors as you can and hoping it works out.

Unlike standard Legend of Zelda games and hacks thereof, The Gauntlet has no fixed dungeons. Each room is random, as are the enemies and items within. Your plunge begins with only the fighter sword, but you will find more equipment as you progress. At the same time, the number and strength of the enemies you face will increase as you fight your way deeper.

Your crawl ends when you die or reach the final room, after which, you may begin a new game that will be completely different from the last.

Download

This hack is currently in public beta. It may be downloaded by clicking here. The patch should be applied over a JP1.0 ROM file.

Options

The standard file select screen is replaced with an options screen where you can customize the nature of your next attempt.

• Difficulty - how difficult the game is and how quickly it ramps up
• Floor count - how many cubicles must be cleared before the game is completed
• Events - choose whether boss fights and merchant rooms can appear between regular cubicles

Details of note

Some things had to be changed to improve the general experience of the game, but these are mostly minor.

Sprites

• Blobs, geldmen, and stalfos knights no longer fully conceal themselves.
• Some enemies will exit their dormancy sooner than they normally would.
• More enemies can walk on shallow water. Oh, and beware of hydroplaning!
• Some enemies are clamped to stay within the room's boundaries.
• Blue antifaeries are never required to clear a room. A red antifaerie always is.
• Keese are required to clear a room.
• Stunned enemies no longer drop a green rupee.
• The message prompts for catching bees and faeries have been replaced with sound effects.
• Freezors will not leave behind a wall when they wake. They also won't stutter.
• Kodongos are less meticulous about when they breathe fire.
• Agahnim never fires blue balls, but he always has access to lightning.

Items

• Potion refills are rendered as cauldrons.
• Bee and fairy refills are rendered as the respective entity.
• Some cubicles contain difficult-to-reach chests before every enemy is defeated. These are bonus chests that contain nice and sometimes rare items; but, they will never hold an item considered progression.

New items

• 4-leaf clover - guarantees good drop luck for a short period
• Blue heart container - fully restores health
• Blue heart piece - partially restores health
• Golden bomb - allows more bombs to be carried
• Golden arrow - allows more arrows to be carried
• Decanter of Wanontu - cuts magic consumption in half