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The Gauntlet

This article is compiled from the videos of GnomonkeyRS. It records what Gnomonkey said, with sources, not verified game fact. See About.

The Gauntlet

The Gauntlet
Type Activity
Release/Update 2019 (with Song of the Elves)1
Recommended levels 85+ Magic, Ranged and Defence2
Start equipment Crystal scepter, crystal hatchet, pickaxe and harpoon, pestle and mortar, teleport seed33
Boss Hunllef4
Speed record 3:45 (regular, combat achievement); his run 3:2656
Videos 5 (first 2019-07-26, latest 2026-07-23)
Main source Gauntlet Guide (How to Defeat The Crystaline Hunllef) OSRS

The Gauntlet is a 2019 boss activity in which the player enters with nothing, gathers resources for about 10 minutes, then uses the scraps to try to kill a boss21. Gnomonkey likens it to Dungeoneering as it was in RuneScape just before the Evolution of Combat, but considers the boss much harder than any Dungeoneering boss, requiring careful preparation22. He treats the normal and corrupted Gauntlet as one piece of content, with the normal version an easy mode that teaches the corrupted one safely7.

He rates it A tier, great content but not S, and places it at the top of A tier in his final order8. It has a lot of mechanical depth and was the hardest content of 2019; completions are not very difficult, but fast completions and speedruns require a lot of game knowledge1. It is not quite raid difficulty for the most part, but a good step up from other boss encounters9.

Contents

Requirements

For consistent completion he recommends 85+ Magic, Ranged and Defence, plus the highest possible Mining, Fishing, Farming and Woodcutting to collect resources faster2.

Preparation

The player starts with no armor and a crystal scepter equipped; the scepter opens new rooms, so dropping it means the player cannot advance3. Also given are a crystal hatchet, pickaxe and harpoon for the three main resources, a pestle and mortar to grind crystal shards for potions, and a teleport seed that returns the player to the starting room3. Items left on the ground do not despawn, unlike in Dungeoneering10.

Resources

Crystal shards from foraging and killing monsters let the player forge weapons, armor, teleport seeds and potions at the singing bowl in the first room11. Trees, ore veins and spools throughout the dungeon each give three resources before depleting permanently, and gathering can also yield shards10. Paddlefish can be fished from pools, four fish per pool before it depletes; they heal exactly as much as sharks and are the only healing method10.

Regular monsters are fairly standard beasts such as wolves, spiders and scorpions; higher combat monsters give more shards and are more likely to drop resources12.

Crafting

Item Cost
Vial 10 shards; fill at the pump, add a grimy leaf and 10 ground shards to make a potion11
Potion effect Same prayer points as a dose of prayer potion plus a stamina potion's effects, restoring 40 run energy13
Weapon (tier 1) 20 shards for a halberd, bow or staff, after getting a weapon mold from a monster13
Weapon tier 2 60 additional shards13
Weapon tier 3 Upgrade piece from a demiboss13
Armor tier 1 One each of bark, linen and ore plus 40 shards per piece14
Armor tier 2 2 of each resource and 60 shards14
Armor tier 3 3 of each resource and 80 shards14

The bow and staff need no arrows or runes, so he finds them more useful than the halberd13. Armor has equal defences against all attack styles and no negative attack bonuses14. He compares the weapon upgrades to going from a rune scimitar to a dragon scimitar and then a Ghrazi rapier, so they are very important14.

Demibosses

Three demibosses can spawn on the dungeon's outskirts. The bear drops an upgrade component for the halberd, the dragon for the staff and the dark beast for the bow. The bear uses melee, the dragon magic and the dark beast ranged, and they hit fairly hard, so the player should protect against the matching style1212. He hunts a dragon or dark beast as soon as possible because they drastically increase damage output12.

Standard run (2019)

He collects nine of each resource for a full tier 2 armor set, thinking tier 3 armor costs too much time and helps little over tier 215. He tries to get at least his bow or staff to tier 3, which raises DPS an insane amount, needs only two potions for the whole dungeon, and enters the boss with 25 food, a tier 2 and tier 3 weapon and full tier 2 armor15.

  1. Find basic enemies fast for two weapon molds, collect resources as encountered, make a bow as soon as possible and upgrade it to tier 2 if there are enough shards16.
  2. Once one weapon is tier 2, run to the outskirts to hunt a dragon or dark beast for the tier 3 upgrade, using a teleport seed since the outskirts are far from the start16.
  3. Make the two potions when low on energy and start building armor; kill enemies with the tier 3 weapon if shards run low, and have 25 fish before the timer runs out17.
  4. Before the boss, drop all tools, shards, leftover teleport seeds and the scepter, and decant the potions to about four doses. Spare time can go into tier 3 armor or starting the fight early17.

Fight and skill

He rates the Gauntlet 2/5 for inventory management (no switches, but tracking items during prep and supply usage), 5/5 for movement and 3/5 for prayer management9. Prep movement between skilling nodes and pathing matters, and movement ramps up in the Hunllef fight, where the player avoids ground tiles, tornadoes and walking under Hunllef4. Prayer management is mostly counting Hunllef's attacks, switching prayer and turning prayers back on when he disables them, though it can be hard to keep track4.

He says it has the lowest skill floor and the highest skill cap gap in the game, so players can start really bad and work up to very good, which he calls one of its best design features7. He dislikes that as players get faster they eventually have to chance it, working down the number of fish and dying if they do not hit hard enough, which makes the skill cap arbitrarily lower than necessary; a perfect 10 fish kill is where he says a kill is guaranteed18. For the same reason it is not his favourite content19.

Rewards

In 2019 he said rewards were unknown for lack of data: after six attempts he received two elite clue scrolls, and a new sword drop may come only from hard mode20.

Speed run (2026)

After the Summer Sweep-up the regular Gauntlet speed time combat achievement is 3:45 instead of 4:005. He thinks the new time is much harder than before and rough, even though the Corrupted Gauntlet time is easier5. His example run finished in 3:266.

  • Armor. None is made, since Hunllef's max hit without armor is only 1221.
  • Weapons. One tier three weapon plus one tier two weapon, using the five to one method21. A halberd and an extra weapon frame are needed for it, so if the edge demi-boss is a bear and he has no extra frame he usually resets22.
  • Prep goal. About four to eight fish, one potion, no armor, one tier three weapon and an extra weapon; the player resets constantly, for example if the first room has no monsters23. One herb and one vial suffice (two herbs only for two potions), and a second vial is a bonus for extra Redemptions24.
  • First room. He prefers the closest first room. He kills one mob for a weapon frame and at least 50 shards, makes a tier two staff, and with 70 shards also makes two vials; killing all three mobs is fine but he leaves once he has 70+ shards2325.
  • Route. Kill the demi-boss opposite the boss, pick up its item, teleport back, make the tier three weapon and extra weapon if needed, cook fish, make the potion and go in26.
  • Vengeance. He pre-venges before entering both speed runs and uses the vengeance on a demi-boss, since the venge damage carries into the Gauntlet for some bonus damage25.
  • Variance. Boss kills vary from about 1:30 to 2:30. With only tier one armor he is so inaccurate that it may take several tries, and he does not expect the speed time on a first attempt27.

Revision history

Date Video Change
2026-07-23 Gauntlet and Corrupted Gauntlet Speed CA Guide (OSRS) Added the 3:45 regular speed time (was 4:00) and the speed-run method.
2023-07-30 A Plea To Jagex (OSRS) Added view that it was 2019's hardest content and not his favourite.
2022-05-11 Getting Into PVM in Old School Runescape (OSRS) Added category ratings: inventory 2/5, movement 5/5, prayer 3/5.
2022-03-19 PVM Boss Tier List (ALL BOSSES) OSRS Added tier-list placement (top of A tier), skill floor and cap opinion.
2019-07-26 Gauntlet Guide (How to Defeat The Crystaline Hunllef) OSRS Page created: 2019 guide covering resources, crafting, demibosses and the standard run.
## See also

References

  1. A Plea To Jagex (OSRS), 2023-07-30. ▶ 5:36 ↩↩↩

  2. Gauntlet Guide (How to Defeat The Crystaline Hunllef) OSRS, 2019-07-26. ▶ 0:00 ↩↩↩↩↩

  3. Gauntlet Guide (How to Defeat The Crystaline Hunllef) OSRS, 2019-07-26. ▶ 0:33 ↩↩↩↩

  4. Getting Into PVM in Old School Runescape (OSRS), 2022-05-11. ▶ 10:05 ↩↩↩

  5. Gauntlet and Corrupted Gauntlet Speed CA Guide (OSRS), 2026-07-23. ▶ 0:00 ↩↩↩

  6. Gauntlet and Corrupted Gauntlet Speed CA Guide (OSRS), 2026-07-23. ▶ 9:55 ↩↩

  7. PVM Boss Tier List (ALL BOSSES) OSRS, 2022-03-19. ▶ 31:16 ↩↩

  8. PVM Boss Tier List (ALL BOSSES) OSRS, 2022-03-19. ▶ 32:17 ↩

  9. Getting Into PVM in Old School Runescape (OSRS), 2022-05-11. ▶ 9:48 ↩↩

  10. Gauntlet Guide (How to Defeat The Crystaline Hunllef) OSRS, 2019-07-26. ▶ 2:37 ↩↩↩

  11. Gauntlet Guide (How to Defeat The Crystaline Hunllef) OSRS, 2019-07-26. ▶ 1:07 ↩↩

  12. Gauntlet Guide (How to Defeat The Crystaline Hunllef) OSRS, 2019-07-26. ▶ 3:04 ↩↩↩↩

  13. Gauntlet Guide (How to Defeat The Crystaline Hunllef) OSRS, 2019-07-26. ▶ 1:35 ↩↩↩↩↩

  14. Gauntlet Guide (How to Defeat The Crystaline Hunllef) OSRS, 2019-07-26. ▶ 2:08 ↩↩↩↩↩

  15. Gauntlet Guide (How to Defeat The Crystaline Hunllef) OSRS, 2019-07-26. ▶ 5:05 ↩↩

  16. Gauntlet Guide (How to Defeat The Crystaline Hunllef) OSRS, 2019-07-26. ▶ 5:32 ↩↩

  17. Gauntlet Guide (How to Defeat The Crystaline Hunllef) OSRS, 2019-07-26. ▶ 6:00 ↩↩

  18. PVM Boss Tier List (ALL BOSSES) OSRS, 2022-03-19. ▶ 31:47 ↩

  19. A Plea To Jagex (OSRS), 2023-07-30. ▶ 6:03 ↩

  20. Gauntlet Guide (How to Defeat The Crystaline Hunllef) OSRS, 2019-07-26. ▶ 6:33 ↩

  21. Gauntlet and Corrupted Gauntlet Speed CA Guide (OSRS), 2026-07-23. ▶ 1:00 ↩↩

  22. Gauntlet and Corrupted Gauntlet Speed CA Guide (OSRS), 2026-07-23. ▶ 1:59 ↩

  23. Gauntlet and Corrupted Gauntlet Speed CA Guide (OSRS), 2026-07-23. ▶ 1:30 ↩↩

  24. Gauntlet and Corrupted Gauntlet Speed CA Guide (OSRS), 2026-07-23. ▶ 3:58 ↩

  25. Gauntlet and Corrupted Gauntlet Speed CA Guide (OSRS), 2026-07-23. ▶ 2:58 ↩↩

  26. Gauntlet and Corrupted Gauntlet Speed CA Guide (OSRS), 2026-07-23. ▶ 2:29 ↩

  27. Gauntlet and Corrupted Gauntlet Speed CA Guide (OSRS), 2026-07-23. ▶ 9:59 ↩

Activities

Inferno • Corrupted Gauntlet • Fortis Colosseum • Hallowed Sepulchre • TzHaar Fight Cave • Nightmare Zone • Deadman Mode • Guardians of the Rift • Volcanic Mine • The Gauntlet • Salvaging • Elf pickpocketing • Soul Wars • Drift net fishing • Trouble Brewing • Ourania Altar • RuneScape 3 Leagues • Sorceress's Garden • Chompy bird hunting • Fortis Colosseum speedrun • Gridmaster • Birdhouse run • Wilderness • Vyrewatch Sentinel • Barrows • Barracuda Trials • Chaos altar • Slayer point boosting • Black chinchompa • Blisterwood tree • Graveyard Agility Course • Kalphite • Deep sea trawling • Rogues' Den • Rooftop Agility courses • Castle Wars • 3-tick 4-granite • Knights of Ardougne • Mixology • God Wars Dungeon

Category: Activities