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Apocalypto's In-Depth Guide to The Gauntlet

What Is The Gauntlet?
The Gauntlet is a series of highly challenging towers and boss fights in the Towers of Time. It is made up of 30 stages, each with custom variables and modifiers. It also conceals some of the best skins and character augments in the game.

How do I get to it?
In the MK11 menu, head to Konquer, then Towers of Time. By completing the Tutorial for the ToT, you will unlock and complete the first stage of The Gauntlet. From there, each stage will be unlocked automatically after the previous stage is beaten.

Why should I do it?
Mainly for the skins, gear, augments, and konsumables it drops. Partly for bragging rights.

Requirements:
-At least one main character you know inside and out.
-Decent knowledge of the rest of the Roster's move sets and kits.
-At least some Tower Konsumables.
-A Noob Saibot and Sonya Blade AI setup, each with 30 Kombo and 30 Reversal AI attributes.

Optional But Highly Recommended:
-Decent to good character augments for your main(s).
-Progress in the Krypt to where you are now using the 'Restore Chests' function on walls.
-Frame data knowledge.
-In-depth knowledge of the rest of the Roster's move sets, kits, Fatalities, and Krushing Blows.
-Ability to play Scorpion and Sub Zero well. (Stage 12)

Tower Konsumables Needed:
-Orb of the Dragon King (Whole Tower - makes Fatal Blow available at the start of the match)
-Cleansing Stone (Whole Tower - disables all weather conditions for the match)
-AMS (Whole Tower - disables all rockets for the match)
-Distilled Magma (Whole Tower - increases damage from fire konsumables)
-Shard of Life (Healing - instantly regenerate 25% health)
-Krystal of Life (Healing - instantly regenerate 50% health)
-Soul Regenerator/Focused Soul Regenerator/Hyper Focused Soul Regenerator (Healing - regenerate 30/60/100% health over 10/15/20 seconds)
-Ethereal Armor (Defense - you gain armor for a short time)
-Red Dragon Beam Emitter (Energy Damage - Can be built at The Forge using Carbon Film Resistor and Circuitry Bundle)
-Reiko's Shuriken (Physical Damage - Can be built at The Forge using Bottled Thunder and Outworld Steel)
-Takeda's Kunai (Fire Damage - Can be built at The Forge using Handful of Flux and Synthetic Fiber)
-Spires of Hellfire (Fire Damage)
-Meteorite Core (Fire Damage)
-Napalm Missiles (Fire Damage)
-Fire Gauntlets (Fire Damage on hit)
-Li Mei's Sharpened Kunlun Dao (disables all Energy based modifiers)
-Demon's Book of Spells (disables all Dark based modifiers)
-Skarlet's Pure Blood Vial (disables all Blood based modifiers)
-Static Shield Generator (disables all Electric based modifiers)

Things to Note:
-Almost every enemy in The Gauntlet will have increased health, varying from 150%-500% increase. There are a few stages where they have reduced 50% health however.
-You can change your character and konsumables for a single fight (don't have to reset the tower) by changing characters in the pause menu. Note that this consumes the konsumables you had equipped prior to switching.
-If you are about to lose or have lost a fight, press the Menu button and restart the fight from the Menu options instead of waiting for the rematch prompt, it saves time.
-Restarting a fight does not use your equipped konsumables, but completing a fight, changing characters/towers, or exiting to the main menu will.
-Starting on Stage 21, the AI enemies will be a slightly higher difficulty (hard) compared to the rest of The Gauntlet.

The following will contain spoilers for what awaits you in the Gauntlet. The strategies listed are the ones I used or found effective, and may or may not fit your playstyle.

Stage 1
This stage is part of the ToT Tutorial, and walks you through how to use konsumables, and how enemy modifiers work. It is made up of 3 Kombat towers and 2 Boss towers. The enemies are not very difficult to defeat (medium difficulty) and I recommend not using any konsumables unless the game tells you to.

Stage 2
This stage is considered very difficult by most players, compared to Stage 1. It is made up of two Boss towers, the first being Cassie Cage and the second being Jacqui Briggs. In the first boss fight, Cassie has the modifiers of Jacqui assist, Kung Jin's Ancestral Arrow (stuns you) and Rocket Barrage (very high damage). In the second boss fight, Jacqui has the exact same modifiers, but trades her assist with Cassie assist. There are two ways to efficiently beat this fight.

The first way is using your Noob Saibot AI build. When choosing a fighter, scroll over your Noob build and press 1, then select it. This will have the AI fight for you. In addition, equip Red Dragon Beam Emitter (RDBE) and Reiko's Shuriken (RS). Takeda's Kunai (TK) can be optionally added. The AI will use these when being attacked/juggled to lessen pressure. This is going to be the strategy for a few of The Gauntlet's stages, so remember it.

The second way is by playing yourself. Equip RDBE, RS, and TK and simply block and spam these konsumables. This is going to be the strategy for many of The Gauntlet's stages, so remember it. I like to call it the Turtle Strategy. By attacking with this konsumables, it is Aggressive Turtle Strategy.

Stage 3
This stage is made up of 1 Boss Tower. Shao Kahn will have 2 phases - armored and buffed. While armored, he cannot be comboed or juggled. While buffed, he gains 1000% damage, but can be damaged regularly. This Stage can be accomplished using the AI Noob Saibot method. If playing yourself, it is recommended to use your consumables only when he is buffed.

Stage 4
This stage is made up of 1 Kombat tower and 1 Boss tower. The Kombat tower consists of 8 Johnny Cages in a row, each with the Johnny Assist and reduced damage pickup modifier. This tower is easily beaten using your AI Noob OR Sonya. The Boss tower is a single Johnny. Its modifiers are the increased damage pickup and doing less damage while near Johnny. This fight can be accomplished using the Turtle Strategy.

Stage 5
This stage is made up of 2 Kombat towers. The first tower consists of 4 enemies, each with a different floor based modifier. This tower can be beaten using your AI Noob or Sonya. The second tower has the same 4 enemies in order, but are each tag-teamed with Kotal Kahn. Both must be defeated for each fight. The same floor based modifiers are present, corresponding to each enemy. This fight can also be beaten using your AI Noob or Sonya.

Stage 6
DO NOT USE AI FOR THIS STAGE. This stage is made up of 1 Kombat Tower and 1 Boss tower. The first tower consists of 6 Baraka fights. Each fight has 7 tag-teamed Barakas, each with 50% health. With each successive fight, the Barakas will gain increased damage and AI difficulty. To successfully finish this tower, each fight must be fought the same way. The first 6 tagged Barakas can be defeated normally. The seventh Baraka MUST be defeated using a Brutality. Konsumables are not needed for this tower, but can be used for efficiency reasons. It is HIGHLY recommended to use a character you know well, a character with easy Brutalities, or a character that you've unlocked a lot of Brutalities for. If you defeat the seventh Baraka normally, Mercy him (hold Stance Shift and press Down 4 times at mid distance) and try for a Brutality again. If you fail to Brutality even one of the Barakas, the tower will not let you continue to the Boss tower. It should be noted you have one life for each of these fights.

For the Boss tower, you must fight one Baraka normally. Its modifiers are raining heads that deal damage on contact, Baraka's attacks are unblockable, and at low health, Baraka gains armor. He must also be finished with a Brutality. It is recommended to use the Turtle Strategy to bring down his health while keeping distance, then chip him until your Brutality input will do enough damage on contact to kill him.

Stage 7
This stage is one of the most difficult of the Gauntlet stages. It is made up of 4 Boss towers. The first two are against Scorpion and Sub Zero, and can be won using your AI characters. The third tower is the difficult one. In it are Scorpion and Sub Zero as a tag team, each with 50% health. They must both be defeated in one round as a Flawless Victory. The modifiers are disabled blocking for you, poison gas on the floor, and poison rockets that track you. The rocket can be dodged/jumped over, and the gas will not affect you unless you crouch. It should also be noted that on tag-in, the opponent will 90% of the time use a special, usually slide or teleport. It is recommended to jump as soon as they tag in.

There are two good ways this stage can be accomplished. All strategies can be done quicker/easier if you have Distilled Magma equipped.

Strategy 1 - Using the Turtle Strategy. This only works if you have a zoning character to keep the teleports and slides in check. Keep jumping/backing away and using the konsumables. Alternatively, you can also equip Broken Kytinn Wing (awarded earlier in this stage) to become immune to the gas and rockets. This will replace one of your damage konsumables.

Strategy 2 - Using Fire Gauntlets. Equip them with a ranged konsumable (RDBE, RS, TK). Use a character with a fast normal string, such as Erron Black's, Sonya, or Liu Kang. Use the ranged at the start of the match to stun your opponent, then activate Fire Gauntlets. Spam your string until the opponent tags or dies, then repeat. You must either dodge or jump over the rockets when using this method.

The final tower is another Scorpion/Sub Zero tag team, only this one is fought normally. It can be beaten easily using your AI Noob or Sonya, and equipping RDBE, RS, and Broken Kytinn Wing, as all the modifiers for this stage are poison.

Stage 8
This stage is made up of 1 Kombat tower and 1 Boss tower. The Kombat tower has 9 Kanos in a row, each with a different Tracking Rocket modifier. The boss tower has 1 normal Kano, but can spawn any and all of the rockets from the previous tower at any time. This stage is made trivial using the AI Noob and Sonya strategy, and with the AMS whole tower konsumable. The AMS disables all rocket based modifiers, effectively removing all modifiers for this stage. Note that the AMS must be used again for the Boss tower. If you do not have the AMS, Turtle Strategy will also work.

Stage 9
This stage is made up of 4 Kombat towers, each with 3 fights of the same character. The characters are Skarlet, Shao Kahn, Kotal Kahn, and Noob Saibot in order. There are two sets to the tower, each with similar modifiers. Skarlet and Kotal Kahn's modifiers are a damage over time blood rain, a gift or a curse, and a physical damage modifier. Shao Kahn and Noob Saibot's modifiers are a screen blackening cloud, a gift or a curse, and a physical damage modifier. This Stage is made much easier with the Cleansing Stone whole tower konsumable, as it disables the blood rain and darkening cloud modifiers, making the stage much easier. If you do not have enough of or any Cleansing Stones, then use the Turtle Strategy for the blood enemies. For the dark enemies, use a character that you know the combos for backwards and forwards, so you can do them without seeing anything. In addition, by raising the Gamma levels in your video settings, you will be able to faintly see the outlines of your and your enemy's characters, making inputs easier.

Stage 10
This stage is made up of 1 Boss fight, Geras. He has Fire Gauntlets that deal increased damage on hit and ignites you with damage over time. He can be beaten using any of the aforementioned strategies. It is recommended to be slightly more on the defense against this enemy.

Stage 11
This stage is made up of 2 Kombat towers and 2 Boss towers. The first Kombat tower has 8 fights, and can be easily beaten using your AI Noob or Sonya, as the only modifier is a Jade assist. The second Kombat tower has 3 fights, each with lasers that deal damage when touching you. These can be ignored by using Li Mei's Sharpened Kunlun Dao, disabling all Energy damage, and then defeated using regular attacks or the Turtle Strategy. With each successive fight the lasers' damage increases. The final fight is a tag team.

Stage 12
This stage is made up of 1 Kombat tower and 2 Boss towers. The first two towers can only be played with Scorpion. The last tower can only be played with Sub Zero. The Kombat tower has 7 fights, with one varying physical damage modifier each. It can be completed using Scorpion's AI the same as Noob's and Sonya's, with normal play, or with the Turtle Strategy.

The first boss fight is against Sub Zero, and has the freezing hail modifier, which will constantly freeze you. It can be negated using the Cleansing Stone, or ignored using the Turtle Strategy. This fight must end with a Fatality.

The second boss fight (Sub Zero only) is against Noob Saibot. It has the black screen modifier. The modifier can be disabled using the Demon's Book of Spells. The fight can also be completed by using the Turtle Strategy and spamming forward 2 4.

Stage 13
This stage is made up of 1 Kombat tower and 2 Boss towers. The Kombat tower has 9 fights, each with one varied buff for the enemy. It can be completed using your AI Noob or Sonya.

The first Boss tower is against Shao Kahn. All of his attacks are unblockable, he is immune to Electric damage, and his attacks will deal more damage as time goes on. It is recommended to use Turtle Strategy, but instead of blocking the whole time, be highly aggressive and don't let him attack.

The second Boss tower is against Scorpion. The modifiers are Sektor's homing missile, Cyrax's energy net, and Smoke's smoke bomb. This fight can be completed using the Turtle Strategy.

Stage 14
This is one of the more difficult stages. It is made up of 8 Kombat towers, 5 with 2 opponents and 3 with 3 opponents. For every fight in this stage, you MUST win with a Fatal Blow. In addition, each opponent has their Fatal Blow available at the start of the fight, they can use it infinite times, it doesn't have a cooldown, and it deals 300% more damage, which for most characters will be a one hit kill on you. It should be noted that you should study the move sets of the characters before fighting them, as some can open you up with mixups then cancel into their Fatal Blow, so you need to know how to block effectively. It should also be noted that all opponents have increased health, and that your Fatal Blow will not do as much damage to their bar as you're used to.

To accomplish this stage, you will use Turtle Strategy. Block at all times, and spam your damage konsumables to win the first round, then chip their health away to the point where you can kill them with your Fatal Blow in the second round. To gain your Fatal Blow, let them chip damage/throw you until you're below 30% health. By equipping the Orb of the Dragon King, you gain your Fatal Blow at the start of the fight, so you don't have to take chip damage in the second round, and can simply finish your opponent when their health is low enough.

Stage 15
This stage is made up of 1 Kombat tower and 1 Boss tower. The Kombat tower has 3 fights, each with Kabal, and has speed modifiers. The first fight has a speed gift, the second fight has a slow curse, and the third fight has both. The boss fight has Kabal constantly sped up, and you constantly slowed down. Simply use Turtle Strategy to complete this entire stage.

Stage 16
This stage is made up of 2 Kombat towers and 2 Boss towers. Each Kombat tower is followed by one Boss tower. The first Kombat tower has 6 fights, all with male characters, and each with a single buff/debuff placed on them. These can be completed using normal attacks combined with Turtle Strategy. The first Boss fight is a tag team of all the characters from the previous tower, each with their corresponding buff/debuff when tagged in. Each character has only 50% health. It is recommended to bring two damage and one health konsumables, and to attack as normal, as the fight is long. The next two towers are set up the exact same as the first two, only with female kombatants.

Stage 17
This stage is made up of 1 Kombat tower and 1 Boss tower. The Kombat tower is 10 Erron Blacks in a row, with each fight having 2 gift/curse pickups. This whole tower can be completed using AI Noob or Sonya. The boss fight can spawn any or all of the gifts/curses from the previous tower at any time. It is recommended to use an aggressive Turtle Strategy for this fight.

Stage 18
It is not recommended to use AI in this stage. This stage is made up of 3 Kombat towers, each with 5 opponents. For each tower, you must perform 5 Krushing Blows. When you do them is irrelevant. You can do all 5 in the first match if you wish. It is recommended you use a character you're familiar with, or a character with easy Krushing Blows, such as Geras, Kitana, Sub Zero, Scorpion, or Cassie. Each of the opponents will have a physical damage modifier, along with a rolling severed head. If the head hits you, you lose health and your opponent gains health. By using Ethereal Armor, you will take damage from the head, but your opponent will not gain any health. By using Skarlet's Pure Blood Vial, you can completely ignore the head. Using aggressive Turtle Strategy along with one of the above konsumables works best for this stage.

Stage 19
This stage is made up of 1 Kombat tower and 1 Boss tower. The Kombat tower has 4 Raidens in a row, each with a different Electric based damage modifier. By using Static Shield Generator, you can completely ignore these modifiers. Any standard strategy, including AI, can complete this tower. The boss fight has Raiden with all of the modifiers from the previous tower available to him. Again, Static Shield Generator makes this fight much easier. If you do not have a Static Shield Generator, then Turtle Strategy will also work.

Stage 20
This stage is made up of 1 Boss tower, Geras. He has the modifiers of Fire Gauntlets and a rocket that will drastically slow you if it hits. Use Turtle Strategy and constantly block low for this stage.

Stage 21
This stage is made up of 1 Boss tower, Johnny Cage. In addition, you can only play as Johnny Cage. The opponent Johnny has constant armor, and lasers sweep across the fightline. This stage has an odd but effective way of beating it. Equip all healing Konsumables and simply wait out the match timer. At the start of the fight, the opponent Johnny will instantly lose 20% of his health. All you have to do is make sure your health is higher than his when the match timer ends. Constantly block and avoid the lasers while healing.

Stage 22
This stage is made up of 1 Kombat tower and 1 Boss tower. This Kombat tower is 3 Frosts in a row, each with one Cyber Lin Kuei damage modifier. This tower can be completed using AI. The boss fight has Frost with all 3 Cyber modifiers, and she also gains armor when her health is low. Turtle Strategy will work for this fight.

Stage 23
This stage is made up of 2 Kombat towers and 2 Boss towers. Each Boss tower follows a Kombat tower. Each Kombat tower has 4 of the same opponent. The first two towers are all Raidens. Each Raiden in the Kombat tower will have one Electric or water based modifier, those being lightning strikes, increased electric damage on hit, a wet spot that causes you to slip, and a Rain bubble that will suspend you in the air. These can be completed using aggressive Turtle Strategy. The boss fight has all 4 of the previous tower's modifiers at once. It is highly recommended to use a Cleansing Stone to avoid the most damaging modifier, and to use Turtle Strategy after that. Also be on the defensive, as Raiden's hits (including his Fatal Blow) do immense amounts of damage.

The second set of towers are all Sub Zeros. Each Sub Zero in the Kombat tower will have on electric or water based modifier, those being a freezing hail storm, a freezing wave, punches that freeze, and a wet spot that causes you to slip. These can all be completed using the aggressive Turtle Strategy, however the hail storm fight benefits greatly from a Cleansing Stone. The boss fight has all 4 of the previous tower's modifiers at once. A Cleansing Stone is required to be able to efficiently complete this fight, so as to negate the freezing hail. From there, use Turtle Strategy and constantly block.

Stage 24
This stage is made up of 3 Boss towers, each one with Skarlet. Each fight will have Skarlet start at 50% of her total health, however she will constantly regain 5% health a second as the fight continues. The goal is to end the fight as soon as possible. A good combination is to use Distilled Magma with TK, and either Meteorite Core or Spires or Hellfire, along with Liu Kang. Activate your konsumables as soon as the fight starts (with some delay, so they don't cancel one another out), then use amplified flying kick to finish her. Another strategy is to use Orb of the Dragon King with a stun konsumable, such as Cyrax's Energy net, to stun Skarlet then Fatal Blow her right off the bat.

Stage 25
This stage is made up of 2 Kombat towers. The first tower has 4 opponents, each with a damage modifier. The first 2 opponents are grounded poison gas and landmines. The second two opponents are falling bombs and a tracking orbital strike. Each modifier is fairly easy to deal with while using most strategies. The orbital strike is the difficult one. To deal with this fight (Sonya), use Turtle Strategy. When the strike locks on with a target on the ground, it will turn from red to green. Once the target is green, the strike locks. As long as the target is warming up, it will follow your position. Only when it turns green will it stop moving. Stay still to lock the laser, then quickly jump/dash away as it fires. The laser will fire for a few seconds, and if you walk or are knocked into it, it will damage you for about 40% of your health. It is best to lock the laser while close to Sonya, so you can back away from it and not have to risk being knocked backwards into it.

The second tower is 2 tag team fights. The first fight has the same opponents as the first two fights of the previous tower, with both modifiers from those fights active. The same goes for the second fight, corresponding with the third and fourth fight of the previous tower. For the first fight, use Turtle Strategy and watch for mines. For the second fight, use the same strategy as for the fourth fight of the previous tower.

Stage 26
This stage is made up of 3 Boss towers, each of them fighting against Raiden. Every fight must be won using a Fatal Blow, and Raiden will have increased damage on his Fatal Blow, with all attributes being the same as Stage 14. To win, use the same strategies as in Stage 14, with defensive Turtle Strategy, chip damage, and patience. Again, the Orb of the Dragon King will make this stage easier, allowing you to ignore your self chip damage on round two. Alternatively, you can use a Cleansing Stone to negate the lightning strike modifiers present in each fight. The final Raiden will also have the Shinnok's Hand damage modifier.

Stage 27
This stage is made up of 4 Boss towers. Each opponent takes reduced damage from attacks, and all ranged attacks deal 300% more damage. This entire stage is easily completed using your AI Noob or Sonya. You don't even need konsumables.

Stage 28
This stage is another one of the harder stages to complete. It is made up of 1 Kombat tower and 1 Boss tower, all with only Kotal Kahn. In the Kombat tower, each Kotal will have a totem with a modifier built into it appear on the arena after about 10 seconds. No matter the modifier, the totem will absorb any attacks done while near it, including konsumables and ranged attacks. If either you or Kotal perform a Krushing or Fatal Blow, the totem is removed, and will reappear again after the same time period. It is recommended to play a character with easy/well known Krushing Blows to remove the totems when necessary.

Totem effects are:
-Fatal Krushing Blows.
-Damage over time.
-Push/pull you across the stage - hitting it reverses the direction.
-Creating a gas cloud when hit.
-Creates ice walls on either side of the arena, that when touched instantly freeze you. Hitting the totem moves the walls closer.
-Speeds or slows Kotal. Hitting the totem switches the effect.
-Creates a radius around itself, and summons a lightning strike. If within the radius, you are stunned.
-Darkens the screen, hitting it brings light back.
-Creates an insta killing fire nova after about 20 seconds.

Most of the totems are easily dealt with using strategies previously mentioned in this guide. The ice wall and fire nova totems, however, have their own strategies. For the ice wall, use Distilled Magma and the flame cloak to light yourself on fire. That way, even when frozen you are dealing damage to Kotal. For the fire nova, have a Krushing Blow ready when it appears. In addition, use Distilled Magma, Meteorite Core, and TK to kill Kotal as quickly as possible.

For the boss fight, Kotal has access to all the previous totems, and can call them at will, except for the fire nova one. Use the same strategy as the ice wall, along with Napalm Missiles. A bit of luck is needed with this one, as the goal is to get the ice walls close enough together so you're constantly frozen, and for the speed totem to show up so Kotal is super slow. Then simply burn him to death using your Konsumables.

Stage 29
This stage is made up of 1 Kombat tower and 1 Boss tower. The Kombat tower has 5 opponents, each with a single elemental based modifier. These include falling boulders, flame pillars, the push/pull totem from Stage 28, a water wave, and a health steal pickup. All the fights can be beaten using AI or the Turtle Strategy, however the push/pull totem might require user intervention.

The boss fight is against Cetrion, with a number of annoying modifiers. They include a flame tornado, an earthquake thump, high force winds, and freezing hail. These don't show up until about 15 seconds into the fight. The flame tornado will track you. The earthquake thump has an audible buildup, and will do 40% damage if you're on the ground when it hits. The winds will periodically change direction. If they are blowing you towards Cetrion, you deal increased damage and Cetrion deals decreased damage. If they are blowing you away from Cetrion, you deal decreased damage and Cetrion deals increased damage. An effective strategy is to use Distilled Magma, along with TK and Napalm Missile or Meteorite Core, along with the Hyper Focused Soul Regenerator. Deal as much damage as possible at the start of the fight, being sure to jump over the earthquake thump when necessary. Then time your damage konsumables with the wind direction to deal the most damage. Use the regenerator when your health is 50-70% depleted to give you more time.

Stage 30
This stage is the final stage of The Gauntlet, and is made up of 1 Boss tower, Geras. Geras has fire fists dealing increased damage on hit, homing rockets that slow you when they hit, and the ice wall totem from Stage 28. This stage is easily completed using Turtle Strategy, however swapping out RDBE and RS for Meteorite Core and adding Distilled Magma will make the fight trivial. Simply spam the damage konsumables until you have defeated Geras.

And that's it, you've done it! You've completed MK11's the Gauntlet! I hope this guide has been useful to you, and I'm eager to see all you Fire God Liu Kang's out there soon!
-TSD