Ironman

Ironman Guide Page

This page is a work in progress and as such will be amended over time

Limitations

Playing as an Ironman or Hardcore Ironman means you must be entirely self-sufficient.

Briefly, Ironmen accounts have the following restrictions:

• Trading other players is disabled (exception: vote points, bonds and impax can be traded)
• Ironmen cannot use the Trading Post
• Ironmen cannot pick up drops from other players' kills.

Hardcore Ironmen follow these same restrictions, but with the added challenge of only having one life. A dangerous death will revert the account to regular Ironman status and the account's stats on the Hardcore Ironman Hiscores will be frozen. Safe deaths, such as those in many minigames, will not cause the loss of Hardcore status, unless you are a Hardcore Group Ironman.

Ironman modes must be activated during the tutorial while creating your new account.

Overview

The game can be represented by three main phases: the early-game, mid-game, and late-game.

The early game consists mainly of obtaining or achieving the following:

• Leveling up combat stats
• Obtaining aranea boots (and building start cash through killing araxytes)
• Obtaining zombie axe (and building start cash through killing armored zombies)
• Mage Arena 2 Cape
• Slayer helm
• Arclight
• Void set
• 87 Slayer for trident/abyssal tent and elite tasks

The mid game consists mainly of obtaining or achieving the following:

• Zenyte jewellery
• Basilisk jaw
• Tormented synapses
• Trident
• Blowpipe
• Bandos godsword
• Bludgeon
• Ava's assembler
• Ancient Warriors armour and equipment

The late game consists mainly of obtaining or achieving the following:

• Scythe
• Twisted bow
• Tumeken's shadow
• Ancestral set
• Oathplate
• Torva

Note: these are not exhaustive, but a general outline of what to expect

Basic Strategy

1. Early Magic Training

• Kill Yaks with your starter runes until you reach 35 Magic (for Fire Bolt).
• Pick up the gold they drop along the way.

2. Prayer Setup

• Buy runes for Fire Bolt and head to Taverley dungeon to kill Hill Giants in singles.
• Collect big bones:
  • You’ll need 44 big bones for 43 Prayer.
  • If you use the altar at the Chaos Temple in the Wilderness, you’ll save bones (likely needing only 20–30 instead).

3. Training to 68 Magic

You have two options:

• Option A: Do Slayer until you reach 68 Magic for Blood Burst.
• Option B: Splash until you reach 68 Magic.

4. Starter Cash Grind

• Kill Araxytes to build up cash until you get Aranea boots.
• These boots are great all-around and reduce web attack damage at bosses (including TOB).

5. Zombie Axe (Optional but Recommended)

• After boots, go for a Zombie Axe — a strong pre-Scythe weapon that’s faster to obtain than a crystal salad blade.
• Kill Armoured zombies by bursting.

6. Combat Training

• Train melee combat stats through Slayer until you reach 70–80 in all.
• AFK alternatives: Gemstone Crab, Rock Crabs, or Sand Crabs.
• Train Ranged:
  • Kill Yaks until mid-levels.
  • Then chin in the Catacombs of Kourend until 75 Ranged.

7. Zulrah Grind

• Kill Zulrah until you obtain both a Blowpipe and a Magic Fang.
• Both are core weapons useful nearly everywhere.

8. Slayer Unlocks

• Grind to 87 Slayer for:
  • A Trident from Kraken.
  • An Abyssal Tentacle (a must-have if skipping Zombie Axe).

9. Sunfire Runes

• Kill Revenants for 150 rev ether.
• Do a few Moons of Peril runs to get Sunfire Splinters (requires 33 Runecrafting to make Sunfire Runes).
  • Only a few splinters are needed; expect to get enough in 20–30 minutes.

10. Bandos & BGS

• By now you should be close to max combat.
• Kill General Graador for:
  • Bandos armour (optional, can be skipped).
  • A Bandos Godsword (BGS) — highly recommended.
• Alternatively, grind Edgeville Bounty Hunter for Vesta’s, Zuriel’s, and Statius Warhammer.
• An Armadyl godsword from Kree'arra can also help, though a BGS + Gmaul combo works fine.

11. Zenyte Jewellery

• Kill Demonic Gorillas for Zenyte shards.
• Craft:
  • Amulet of Torture
  • Necklace of Anguish
  • Tormented Bracelet

12. Endgame Raids

• Grind Theatre of Blood (ToB) and Chambers of Xeric (CoX) for:
  • Scythe of Vitur (BIS melee).
  • Twisted Bow (BIS ranged).
• Consider joining a PvM clan for easier raids.

13. Late-Game Progression

• With Scythe/Tbow, focus on Slayer and bosses of your choice.

Other notable grinds:

• Tormented Synapse (from Tormented Demons)
• Oathplate armour (from Yama)
• Shadow/Masori (from Tombs of Amascut (ToA))
• Avernic threads/Confliction gloves (from Doom of Mokhaiotl)
• Torva (from Nex)

Prayer Training as Iron

To train prayer after getting 43 from hill giants, you can focus on gathering dragon bones from dragon slayer tasks (or just kill them off task). Once you reach 65 slayer you will be able to get blue dragons on task, which means you can kill Vorkath which is by far the best way of leveling prayer as you get 2 superior bones every kill, and a chance of an ava's assembler.