(last updated on July 19th 2020) **[From July 22nd I may not be able to further update this forum post, as well as anything else on this forum](https://www.kongregate.com/forums/1012882-iron-rage/topics/1917256-important-forum-announcement?page=1#posts-13424931). For more up-to-date info and guides, please see [the Iron Rage wiki](https://ironrage.fandom.com/wiki/IronRage_Wiki) and join [the Iron Rage Discord](https://discord.gg/GCXsHsd).** I don't know how to write an exact walkthrough, especially as there's lots of randomness (which daily rewards you get, which events are active...), but these are the most important things I wish I had known before starting to play in order to not have to beg for restart after a few hours of gameplay (which AgentIR kindly granted, so I could learn from my mistakes and come up with this) or get stuck for weeks. More information about nearly every component of the game can be find on [the Iron Rage wiki](https://ironrage.fandom.com/wiki/IronRage_Wiki). A short version of some most important tips can be found [in this other topic](https://www.kongregate.com/forums/1012882-iron-rage/topics/1694372-tips-and-tricks-to-get-better-at-this-game). 0. Why play (and for longer than [just to get the badges the quick and dirty way](https://www.kongregate.com/forums/1012882-iron-rage/topics/1849576-guide-for-badge-hunters?page=1#posts-13197087))? I have played all the still-functional badged MMOs and idle games on Kongregate, and I find it that of all of those with still very active development and communities this game has the best ratio of fun and gratification vs. frustrating or pay-to-win features. Yes, a plenty of very expensive purchases are available, but the impact of most of them is relatively minor and it is also possible to play, progress and enjoy with no or small expense (up to player level 30, mid-tier pvp ranking, and 6 months of daily playing I only spent 9 kreds for Captain Walker skin deal, and could have done without that too, just wanted to progress a few days faster and support the game with what I could; afterwards I spent 99 kreds for Battle Pass, twice, obtaining an overpowered hero and skins which were unobtainable for free for several months longer, but I know at least one player who reached level 33 and some top-level pvp rewards in a year without spending more than 9 kreds total - and the soft-cap maximum level is 34). Also, a nice community with lots of people willing to answer questions in the game chat room and discord, an active wiki, and a varitey of active clans - by "mid game" (around player level 25) everyone who plays daily or at least weekly is likely to find their place in a suitable clan. Quite a lot of bugs, but the game team correct them and compensate - and sometimes more than compensate - for them. No attacks on the base - what you have built is yours forever. No direct energy system, but usually can't lose whole day playing (except late-game with pvp) and most of the game is suitable for playing as short breaks every few hours or 1-2 times a day (though possible to progress faster by playing more). In almost a year of playing, something new has appeared at least every couple of weeks - whether a feature I progressed to, an event, or a new feature. Ok, now onto actually how to play in order to maximize chances of having such a positive longer-term experience... 1. As soon as you can remove or add troops on the Preparation screen (as soon as the tutorial lets you change troops freely, which should be after about 3 battles, if I remember correctly), remove all the troops and try to win just with **Captain Walker** so that he gets more experience. If you can't (or aren't patient enough for that), add Infantrymen (but only regular infantry, called just **Infantryman**), Stormtroopers (but only regular stormtroopers, called just **Stormtrooper**) and **Artillery Bombardment** in all the spaces available to them. You will have some empty spaces (which can be filled only with different types of units, such as heavy infantry) but that's ok. These 3 are the only troops and support you can build (in Barracks and Artilllery Factory) for a long time, that is the only reliably renewable units. They are also quite cheap and usually abundant, so you don't need to worry about spending them. Namely, if you win you lose all the troops you played to the field (even if they survived), and if you lose you lose all the troops you even added in the Preparation screen (except the hero, such as Captain Walker - you never lose him, but you lose the battle when his health is depleted). Usually the more fuel the mission takes (shown in the bottom of the Preparation screen), the harder it is. This is all valid both for the Storyline (at least up to winning all the battles with "recommended level 3") and World map. Always first try to win a mission just with those troops, and only if you can't, use something (slightly) stronger if it's a mission/event which will notably help you progress - or wait until you upgrade those troops further. 2. On the **World** map, use influence to open the territories **in the order of their influence cost from lowest to highest** (e.g., all the territories which cost 10 before all the territories which cost 15...), because that is also the order of difficulty. If you open a too difficult (too costly) territory, you won't be able to beat anything on it so you won't be able to get more influence and will get stuck for a long time. 3. In one of the banners on top of the screen, there are one-time bonuses after the first 1, 3, 6, 12 and 24 h of gameplay, make sure to collect them some time. 4. The in-game day starts at midnight Central European Time (UTC+1). There are several daily bonuses and tasks you should collect and do when you can: A. When you log in first time for the day. Just click on Take. B. **Calendar** (top-right). C. **Military Bonds** - the 3 skulls top-middle. Always do the first free click. Sometimes when you see nearly all the rewards are particularly valuable (for your situation), it may be worth also spending 10 gold for the next click. D. **A bonus link** is posted to [the Iron Rage Discord](https://discord.gg/GCXsHsd) (you need to write in the main chat there that you are from Kongregate in order to be given permissions to see other channels with such links, announcements and more; no need to install Discord app nor enable voice - it's just textual chat you can use also through Discord website) every few days. It looks something like https://www.kongregate.com/games/Enixan/iron-rage?ref=bonusrandomnumbersandletters Copy-paste in the browser (close the game first as it can't run twice at the same time). Bonus links are usually valid for 24 or 36 h. E. Add the other people playing the game as friends (Chat --> Game --> hover over the person's nickname --> Add friend). After they add you back, go to **Friendly Assistance** (third circle from the top on the right), pick the largest signal you can send (e.g., +5 or +10) and click Send (Send to everybody). Also in the same place Accept the signals they send to you, until you can Collect the crate in the top. Only works if your Kongregate profile isn't private, and only works with first 500 Kongregate friends, so you may need to remove some older friends. F. **Tax Collection** (Command Center - Taxes) - after you have enough friends - you need to fill the whole set of slots with friends in order to collect daily resources there. G. **Daily tasks** (third circle from the top on the left). Don't forget to click Take also on the additional reward if you complete all 3 of them. H. When you can, join a faction (on the banner on your Command Center) and do the faction daily tasks (**Reputation** on the same banner). Unavailable for a couple of days once a month. I. **Rating** in the bottom of the screen - then the highlighted chest in the top right. Available from when you start doing pvp battles or reach level 20. Also unavailable for a couple of days once a month. J. Often there is also some other active** event** which gives daily rewards after having made some progress in it, such as World Rating. Found in the left part of the main base screen or somewhere on the world map. 5. Do the **Additional missions** (2nd circle from the top on the left), especially when their rewards help you do the daily tasks and daily faction tasks. You won't be able to do the mission "Build the Arsenal" there for a long time, but it doesn't matter, other missions should also show up. 6. Open the **chests** quite frequently, as they take time to open and can amass into a very long queue. But very early-game don't open all of them, as a bit later on you get Additional missions and Daily tasks to open particular kinds of chests (e.g., 3 ordinary chests, a rare chest...), which may be a problem if you can't earn new ones right then and didn't spare any. 7. You can (and should, when you can't win with them) **Train** Infantrymen and Stormtroopers in the Barracks to improve their stats - but don't rush to train them to very high level, especially if you want to do pvp, as pvp matching is based on their levels. Similarly, you can (and should) do **Calibration** of Artillery Bombardment in Artillery Factory. There are also researches in the **Academy** which improve the stats of Infantrymen, Stormtroopers and Captain Walker. 8. You can at the same time with the same actions fulfill several missions - and should time it to do so when not too inconvenient. E.g., you can at the same time have a Daily mission to gain 5 influence, an Additional mission to gain 5 influence, and an Additional mission to conquer 3 territories - if you then counquer 2 territories which give 2 influence each and a territory which gives 1 influence, that will fulfill all these 3 missions at the same time. If you are playing casually (e.g., 1-2 times a day and without paying), it may be the best to usually conquer territories ONLY when you have a daily mission to fulfill with that, until such missions stop appearing. 9. You can upgrade buildings and troops, complete storyline missions, research technologies and do other non-repeatable tasks in the order missions ask for them or in another order - you will still get the reward when you get to that mission if you had already done it before. But repeatable tasks - such as collecting resources, gaining research points, exchanging collections or recruiting troops - need to be done after that mission appears; thus early-game you may want to exchange collections ONLY when you have a mission to do so or critically need these resources for a daily mission, and very early possibly even gain research points in the Academy ONLY when you have a mission to gain these research points or to research something which needs them, in order to not run out of the materials (but only very very early, as you should also research some crucial technologies ASAP, mainly these which give you more research points, more resources such as steel, and better stats for infantrymen and stormtroopers) It isn't crucial, as these additional missions aren't infinite so if you stick to the game for months you'll get to do all of them either way, but completing them earlier can give you some extra resources and troops. 10. It is occassionally worth spending small amounts of gold to fulfill daily missions or to open a day in the calendar you missed but learned it provides a very valuable reward; sometimes you can even get more gold than you spent. But save most of the gold to eventually buy the best skins for Infantrymen and Stormtroopers which can be bought and upgraded with gold (check [the wiki](https://ironrage.fandom.com/wiki/Skins) for more up-to-date information which ones). 11. Currently the game no longer favors staying below player level 20 even for pvp (too many people have already been doing that...), so do the storyline missions as soon as you reasonably can (with your regular troops you can build and slightly stronger, abundant troops which you can't) to level up above 18 so that you can join a clan, and above 20 so that you can run expeditions, participate in convoys, and participate in most events - and further, as the contents of all chests get better with each level. Especially, progress in the Overthrow campaign as quickly as you reasonably can, so that you can build and upgrade Tower of Alchemy and thus gain more research points. 12. The order in which to build/upgrade the buildings... Before building anything else not enforced by the tutorial, have at least one each of all 5 types of resource buildings (Armory for ammunition, Foundry for steel, Oil rig for fuel, Ionite mine for ionites, and a quarter for recruits) - if you e.g. run out of steel needed to build a Foundry without building one, you'll get stuck for a long time. Each time after you upgrade the Command center, upgrade the Warehouse, then all or most of the resource buildings. Note: before upgrading a resource building, collect the resources from it, otherwise those resources are lost. For other buildings there are many reasonable strategies - look up everything at the wiki and build/upgrade what seems most useful for your preferred playstyle. Or just follow the order the main and additional missions suggest for a while. In Ardheim (quite a while later), the first 3 buildings to build are Control center, Production warehouse and Turret factory. **FAQ** (AKA slightly more advanced questions I am a bit tired of answering in the game chat): * **Combat tactics? How to "get good"?** Obviously, upgrade your troops - especially Infantrymen and Stormtroopers, as they are cheapest to build and can be taken in largest numbers to most battles - not only by regular upgrades in Barracks and maxing the best skin obtainable with gold, but also by researches in the Academy. You don't need to (and at least later on shouldn't) upgrade all their stats evenly. The most important stats are armor and health for Stormtroopers (you will want to reach maximum armor as soon as reasonably possible), and evasion, health and damage for Infantrymen (accuracy is also important for both early on, but getting to 100 accuracy - total, counting in also skin and research - is enough overall or for a very long time). Keep in mind that you don't need to take a maximum possible set of troops to battle; it is often better to take a smaller number of strongest troops so that you can reliably deploy them quickly - for example, to take only the hero, infantry and stormtroopers (and maybe up to 2-3 other units) to most campaign missions. In all types of battle, the crucial skill is to play (deploy) the troops at the right time - don't just deploy everything one-by-one as soon as you can - it'll take some practice to master. Most importantly, Stormtroopers are both faster and (when properly upgraded) bulkier than Infantrymen and many other units and heroes, so you usually should to try to get them to be in the front - but not too far in the front - by the time they reach the opposing troops; but that doesn't mean always deploy them first. Keep watching your spawn point so that something doesn't get around to it, usually from a landing. After you upgrade your fortifications (mainly machine guns and mortars) a bit, capturing and keeping them becomes more and more important. Build Training Grounds and test any premium (non-hireable) troops in training battles there to learn their "hidden" characteristics before using them in real battles. In pvp, watch and learn from what your opponents are doing, especially those who beat you without having overwhelmingly stronger troops. An important pvp skill is keeping track of what the opponent already deployed, so that you know what they may (not) have left - especially support (everyone can take just up to 2 supports, so if they already played 2, they can't surprise you with a landing). In pvp and some events (heroic mode, Superiority), you can control the hero by clicking on the hero and then on the place where you want him/her to go - this is an important part of the strategy (especially with some heroes), and can also be used to unstuck a hero who stopped moving/shooting. * **How to get victory tape?** Victory tape is the reward for winning battles in the Superiority event (the skull-and-sword on the world map), which happens for a couple of weeks every 2-3 months. If the Superiority event "isn't available at the moment", just ignore that additional mission until it is. If it somehow appears as a daily mission or you are especially bothered by it, ask AgentIR on Discord to remove that mission for you. * **How to get into a good / suitable clan?** Many clans are now advertising their "philosophy" on the clan-advertiser channel of the [the Iron Rage Discord](https://discord.gg/GCXsHsd) and/or in the Kongregate game chat, so you can pick where to apply. People also get noticed by clans for doing relatively well in pvp or an event, for doing anything particularly intelligent or/and dedicated that can be noticed - for example, my clan leaders contacted me when they noticed I reached silver league in ranking and over 70 points in World Ranking event with level 5 Stormtroopers and level 5-7 Infantry, which was unusually low troop levels for that; some people got invited and even "fought over" by several top-10 clans for writing something unusually intelligent and helpful in the Kongregate game chat (such as explaining an event which even many experienced players didn't understand). You can also write that you are looking for a clan - and your strengths and wishes - in that chat or in Discord anytime (just don't be annoying by spamming it only minutes apart). * **How to convoy? (convoys on the world map)** If your troops aren't strong enough to do a fair 1/5 of total damage to a recruit convoy in 5-10 fights, you can join an open convoy with "carry" in its name, or ask in the game chat or in your clan to be carried; then just do any damage and leave it alone until you can collect rewards (you always needs to collect them before the convoy's timer runs out). If your troops can't even reach the convoy to do damage, just use an artillery bombarment (recruit) or a carbonite bomb (fighter and higher) on the convoy once. Once your troops are strong enough to do such fair share of damage, to a convoy fight you typically want to take a full or almost-full setup (you can leave out heavy machinery for a while as Guardians' AOE often ends up doing more damage to your troops than to the enemies), including the clan troop (Centurion, Morgan) if you have one. After you have the possibility to build turrets in Ardheim, you should take a Turret, and typically use it to protect your spawn point (after deploying all or most other troops); the other most useful convoy support is usually a shield - try to get it on your hero and more than 1 set of useful troops at the same time. After you are regularly getting Scouts and Medics/Sergeants from chests or have built the Academy of Officers and can afford to hire them, you should take them - they are typically the most useful "special troops" for convoys after you learn when to deploy and how to protect them - until you get the Mech lupus skin for lycanthropes (then take a Scout + a lycanthrope or a wolf pack with that skin). The most useful hireable "heavy infantry" for convoys are Berserks with Lord of the lands skin (learn to make good use of the intimidation skill), and the red faction ones (3-person squads are much better than 1-person...). Most importantly, don't "killsteal"! The convoy team typically should arrange (in the convoy chat or in Discord) the "killshot" time when all its non-carried members can try to do the final hit to kill the convoy at the same time, so that everyone gets a bonus loot for killing it - so don't kill the convoy (reduce its health to 0) alone. (Unless of course the convoy timer is very close to the end and all the attempts to arrange killshot have failed - after killing the convoy everyone needs to also collect the reward before that timer expires, otherwise they get nothing.) If someone wrote in the convoy chat "trimming", it means they are attacking it to reduce its health to very low for killshot, so you shouldn't attack it further. * **Expeditions? When to start doing them, what troops to use...?** The bulikest, highest armor and health troops, which thus have highest survivability - in (non-event) expeditions only, as long as no member of the squad dies and you win the battle, you won't lose that squad, so feel free to use strongest premium troops here. Reliable troops for all expeditions are Silent Sentries, "Rage of the Dominion" Deserters, "Lightning" troop defectors, AM-24d walking machines... essentially anything with 2000+ health and 85+ armor/ 90+ evasion. Lower level expeditions (minimum player level less than 20) can be beaten so reliably also with weaker troops. If you misestimate and a valuable troop still dies, you can revive them by using First Aid Kits - but only before the end of the expedition (before you click Result). You only need 3-5 such very strong troops per expedition - fill the rest of the spaces with whichever troops give high enough % so that you have total % of success over 100% (faction infantry and stormtroopers tend to be good for that). When you get ambushed, take only those 3-5 strong troops to battle. * **Which faction?** Check which faction's stuff you like the most on the wiki - especially the heroes and the research for regular troops. In principle red is supposed to be the most offensive, blue the most defensive, and yellow the middle ground. Currently blue faction is clearly the weakest in all aspects (troops, heroes, research), but thus also has least players so easier to rank well in pvp within the faction and thus get better end-of-faction-season rewards. Red faction has the strongest heroes and usually most players. Red faction infantry are most helpful to defeat first marauders (clear some parts of the main base) sooner than with regular infantry. Yellow faction special units are most helpful later on in beating "special units only" missions at the end of the Revival campaign. * **Which hero is better / the best?** The maximum stats of most heroes can be found [here](https://www.facebook.com/notes/iron-rage-community/firt-impression/296808817621487) and [here](https://iron-rage.strafy.com/heroes). Costs of most hero upgrades can be found [on the wiki](https://ironrage.fandom.com/wiki/Heroes). Some heroes are worse than Captain Walker. * **What are the best things to buy with kreds?** 9 kreds - Captain Walker skin, especially when it is available as a special offer together with some other stuff (but not crucial as there are also better skins for him now, obtainable in events) 99 kreds - Battle Pass, when that event is active and when your regular troops are strong enough to easily beat the invaders (similar strength as the repeatable world map missions costing 50 fuel) AND your fuel production is enough - this is also typically the best offer overall (but some Battle Pass heroes and skins are better than the other, especially now that Battle Pass event is active about once a month) 999(+) kreds - Extra slot(s) for chest opening (including Burglar's extra slots) * **Referrals?!** It's one of the banners hanging from the top of the screen, the one with 3 human siluettes. There, on clicking Invite, you'll get your referrer link, and a space to paste someone else's. It is a Facebook link, but having Facebook isn't necessary, as far as we have been able to determine it doesn't actually link to your Facebook account in any way. Everyone can paste just one link there (so careful whom you honor with it...), but of course everyone's link can be used by many people - if the specified number of people use your link, you get the rewards listed there. But that doesn't mean you should spam your link in the game chat (or anywhere) and beg for referrals - please don't, that's annoying and unlikely to be effective. Instead, try to first "earn" your referrals by being helpful and welcoming to new players in the game chat, and/or creating useful content. For example, if I have been most helpful with this guide, you are welcome to use my link: https://apps.facebook.com/iron_rage?referrer_id=21299647 (but you don't have to :) those rewards are quite minor at my stage, so if you are helped also by a player newer than me, by someone to whom they mean a lot, you are welcome to use theirs).

Great guid ethank you comrade

@AstraGlacialia thank you very much for take the time of write this! We added 1000 gold to your warehouse. Enjoy it, and have a good game

> *Originally posted by **[AgentIR](/forums/1012882/topics/1850438?page=1#13203172)**:* > @AstraGlacialia thank you very much for take the time of write this! We added 1000 gold to your warehouse. Enjoy it, and have a good game Awesome, thank you very much!

to correct a bit #9, only repeatables are "daily task", eventually collection and research points tasks run out from the "additional missions" tab. also for #7, most people would disagree, artillery bombardment is useless and those mechanics points could be better spent in Academy.

great guide been playing for about 3 months now.. playing world rating battles/pvp and lost 20 matches out of 25 quite often matched against a player 10 to 18 levels above me some times there hero destroy my whole squad alone

It's very valuable guide. Thank you for it. I can add that world conquer territories missions (for influence and to open other campaigns) are mostly a lot easier that storyline [first campaign missions]. When campaign mission says "recommended level" is level of your troops not yours (your base). 4th level troops just eat 1-2 level troops.

> *Originally posted by **[AstraGlacialia](/forums/1012882/topics/1850438?page=1#13200383)**:* >you may want to exchange collections ONLY when you have a mission to do so. - In fact at the beginning you can consider making things (collections, conquers, upgrading, building structures etc) only when you have a mission to do so. It's not a problem in the long run, because when you upgrade accuracy of your stormtroopers before mission, this mission will eventually pop up later and you will get the bonus, but ... later. - If you playing without real cash investment, then missions are your best friends. Besides the other players, which you mark as friends ant put into...your Citadel ;-) - It's good to save all those 3 min research stuff [in Academy] for your Alchemical laboratory. It's tedious to click on them every 3 min, so early use all longer period items [eg. 1 or more hours]. With laboratory you can convert all those short times items into longer versions at the cost of some ionites. I do this during battles, then I start research and go offline :)

Once more great job Astra! Though you should say that if they really into the game they should talk to someone mad... you know... because...