Comparison

Gauntlet vs Return to Dark Tower Assistant

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Gauntlet

This app helps Magic: The Gathering players track game lives, build and customize decks, and record game history. It offers detailed stats for players and decks, supports multiple players, and includes a powerful hand simulator.

Highlights
  • Life tracking for up to 6 players
  • Deck building and importing
  • Game history and stats
  • Hand simulator
  • Deck customization with card art
  • Deck organization with folders
Features
Read full description

Gauntlet is the most feature packed Magic: The Gathering utility app available. It’s a life tracker, deck builder and record keeper of your games. THE BEST LIFE TRACKER: • Select your deck and the decks your opponents are playing. Player tiles will be updated with the cover art of each deck. • Save the results when the game is over. Select a winner, and each player will have their career and deck stats updated immediately. • Full support for up to 6 players with custom life totals, and a turn randomizer to determine who plays first. • Other features include 21 unique tile colours, 15 unique counters, rolling D6, and a game timer. THE BEST MOBILE DECK BUILDER: • Brew on the go or import your decks from other deck building sites. • Customize your deck with art from any card in the multiverse. • Pick a format and your deck screen adapts to show things like your commander or your signature spell. • Bling out the cards in your deck with foils. • Shuffle up and draw an opening 7 with a powerful hand simulator. • Stay ahead of your competition with deck list data. View your mana curve, pip breakdown, and more. • Export your deck lists as text, or share a link to your profile on social media. • Keep your decks organized with folders, and sort them by name, games played, wins, and format. YOUR GAME HISTORY IN DETAIL: • Every game is saved making it easy to go through previous games and see who played, who won, and which decks came to battle. • Track wins and losses for each deck, and see how your career wins and losses change over time. • Follow your friends to stay up-to-date with their latest brews, deck performance, and game history.

About

Return to Dark Tower Assistant

This app helps manage your "Return to Dark Tower" board game experience by tracking phases, actions, and hero board elements. It calculates advantages and supports various expansions and heroes.

Highlights
  • Phase tracking
  • Hero board management
  • Action display
  • Advantages calculator
  • Expansion support
  • Multiple hero support
Features
Read full description

The all-in-one assistant for the "Return to Dark Tower" board game that tracks your phases, actions, cards, and Advantages. - Keep track of phases; never forget if you've already reinforced or cleansed this turn - Recreate your hero board including virtues, corruptions, treasures, companions, potions, gear, quest items, spells, and invocations - View all of the available actions from your cards whilst in a specific phase (i.e. "After you Cleanse, remove 1 skull from any building" if you have the Generous virtue) - Advantages calculator: easily see how many Advantages you have based on the cards on your hero board - Includes support for the Alliances Expansion and it's Guild mechanic as well as the Archwright and Haunted Recluse heroes that can be used with either the expansion or base game - Also includes support for the Covenant Expansion with all it's new treasure, corruption, spell, and invocation cards along with the Undaunted Aegis, Relentless Warden, Devious Swindler, and Reverent Astromancer heroes - Advanced "Disable Phase Tracker" mode which allows you to just update your hero boards and use the Advantages Calculator without tracking individual game phases This app has been designed to work perfectly in a Slide Over window on iPad so you can run it on top of the "Return to Dark Tower" app for easy access. However, it also works beautifully in full screen mode or on an iPhone. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Restoration Games or the "Return to Dark Tower" board game. Built by Ben Dodson, an independent developer. If you run into any problems or have any suggestions for improvements then let me know via support@dodoapps.io

Screenshots

Gauntlet4 screens
Return to Dark Tower Assistant4 screens

Verdict

The call

Gauntlet and Return to Dark Tower Assistant both sit at 4.9 stars, but that hides the real split: 83% of Gauntlet's written reviews are positive against 0% of Return to Dark Tower Assistant's. Gauntlet also leads on price (Free vs $0.99) and update cadence (weekly vs every 4 months). On rating, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Gauntlet is free to download; Return to Dark Tower Assistant costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Gauntlet against 5.0 for Return to Dark Tower Assistant. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Gauntlet has 299 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 83% of Gauntlet's written reviews are positive against 0% of Return to Dark Tower Assistant's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Gauntlet ships an update weekly, Return to Dark Tower Assistant every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on September 10, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Gauntlet versus Return to Dark Tower Assistant: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGauntletReturn to Dark Tower Assistant
PriceFree — better$0.99
Rating4.9 (299 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings299 — better3
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.415.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size18 MB3 MB
Age rating4+9+
DeveloperScott CampbellDodo Apps

Customer experience

Gauntlet

All ratings299 ratings
Positive97.7%
Neutral1.0%
Negative1.3%
Written reviews30 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral6.7%
Negative10.0%

Return to Dark Tower Assistant

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral100.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Gauntlet

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Developers have seemingly given up (according to one review)
  • App ruined for jailbroken phones (iOS 14 and up)
  • Board scrolls every time life or counters are moved
  • Does not track win-rate for the deck not shown as primary in a match
  • App is very small on iPad Pro

Requested features

19 requests
  • Scan cars to make adding decks easier
  • More precise search engine
  • Faster card loading times
  • Display card prices
  • Scan cards in deck building
Show 14 more
  • Add Android support
  • Add tournament bracket functionality
  • Deeper stat tracking
  • Leave notes about each deck
  • Leave notes about individual cards
  • In-app purchases for donations
  • Add play test cards
  • Better layout for exporting decks to text
  • Feature to track win/loss ratios without starting a game
  • Option for locking board scrolling
  • Android release (mentioned as desired)
  • Manual change of player names when playing 'against yourself'
  • Add friends who don’t use the app to games
  • Add full deck lists

Return to Dark Tower Assistant

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Gauntlet

No in-app purchases

None

Return to Dark Tower Assistant

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Gauntlet free?
Gauntlet is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Return to Dark Tower Assistant free?
Return to Dark Tower Assistant costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Gauntlet or Return to Dark Tower Assistant?
Return to Dark Tower Assistant is rated higher. Gauntlet averages 4.9 out of 5 from 299 ratings, while Return to Dark Tower Assistant averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Gauntlet or Return to Dark Tower Assistant have ads?
Neither Gauntlet nor Return to Dark Tower Assistant shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Gauntlet or Return to Dark Tower Assistant?
Gauntlet ships an update weekly, and Return to Dark Tower Assistant every 4 months. Most recently, Gauntlet was updated on September 10, 2026 and Return to Dark Tower Assistant on September 23, 2026.

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