Grok Gauntlet

An original top-down dungeon crawl for one hero, or two heroes sharing one keyboard. Choose the Warrior, the Wizard or the Archer, fight through ever-deeper dungeons, smash the monster dens, find the key and reach the exit.

How to play

1. Type a name and press Register once if you want your scores on the leaderboard. Without a name you play practice games.
2. In Choices pick your Hero, the number of Players and, for two players, Player 2's hero. Then press Start game.
3. Move with W A S D (or the arrows when playing alone), attack with Space and use magic with K or E. Attacks go the way you last moved, in 8 directions.
4. Each level has one key. Pick it up and walk onto the golden EXIT stairs to go deeper.
5. Your health drains slowly all the time, so eat the food you find.

The heroes

• Warrior: the most health and armour; a powerful close-range sword swing. Stands firm while swinging.
• Wizard: the least health, but magic bolts pass through several monsters, and the Wizard's magic potions clear the whole level.
• Archer: the fastest hero, with quick long-range arrows and light armour.

Monsters and dens

• Monster dens keep producing monsters while a hero is near. Shoot them until their number reaches zero.
• Grunts club you up close. Ghosts fly at you and vanish when they hit. Demons and Lobbers (deeper down) throw fireballs.
• Level 1 has only Grunts; Ghosts, Demons and Lobbers join as you go deeper, and there are more dens on each level.

Two players

Player 1 uses W A S D, Space (attack) and E (magic). Player 2 uses the arrows, / or Right Ctrl (attack) and Right Shift or . (magic). Monsters chase the nearest hero. If one hero falls, they return with some health on the next level as long as the other one gets there. The team shares one score and the game ends when both have fallen.

Scoring

Grunts and Ghosts score 10, Demons 20, Lobbers 30, monster dens 50 and treasure chests 100. Every exit scores 500 times the level number plus an eighth of each living hero's health.

Fair scores

The game records only your controls. When a game ends, the server rebuilds the same dungeons, replays them on its own copy of the rules and posts the score it computes, so every score on the board is real.

Autosave

If you close or reload the page in the middle of a game, it comes back paused exactly where you left it.

Leaderboards and chat

The High scores tab shows each player's best verified score and the level reached, and Overall shows the site-wide totals. Grok Chat pops up from the corner. Use Share on X at the top to tell your friends.