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) written by [plujan](https://www.kongregate.com/accounts/plujan). 0. Why play (and for longer than just to get the badges the quick and dirty way)? 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 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 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; and recently I spent 99 kreds for Battle Pass, obtaining an overpowered hero and skins which are unobtainable for free, 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 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 over 6 months 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. 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) 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). E. Add the other people playing the game as friends (Chat --> Game --> 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. 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 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. 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. 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 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 maybe sometimes 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. 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 Community center, upgrade the Warehouse, then all or most of the resource buildings. 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. To be continued when I have more time, if needed.

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 :)