Overview
If you have just started to play Ironbound, READ THIS FIRST!! This guide contains tips and comments on how to start with your right foot.
General Tips
– This guide was written for the current version (1.5.1). It may be obsolete for later versions.
– “PRACTICE” against the computer for as long as possible to earn gold and upgrade your character (HPs and gear) before using “PLAY” or to “ARENA”.
– Buy gear up to 1000 gold (full resell value) for as long as possible until you are confident enough to buy more expensive gear (50% resell value).
– Of course, if you can, buy some gold with real money, it will help the developers and make this process much easier!!
First steps and initial gear
– Just after the tutorial, DON’T jump into “PLAY” or to “ARENA”, you will probably become frustated against enemies (real people or bots) that have more HPs, better gear and probably play better than you.
– Instead, go “PRACTICE” againt the computer to gather money. In “PRACTICE”, each of the four classes have 20 opponents to beat: 5 AI levels for each of the fours classes. You gain 200 gold once for each Very Easy AI you beat, 300 for Easy, 400 for Medium, 500 for Hard and 1000 for Expert. This means that if you beat them all you can earn 38400 gold.
– You receive 1000 gold just for doing the tutorial and another 1000 for registering. Immediately use this money to buy 1000 gear or less for your first class. DON’T buy anything more expensive than 1000 gold or you will not be able to resell it for full value!!!!
– The idea here is to slowly gather money to buy a complete new gear set, with all items under 1000, selling the gear from one class after you defeat all AIs and then using the money to buy gear for the next class to beat the AIs and so on, untill all classes have a complete gear.
– Here is my suggested “Cheap” gear for each class, each item costs 1000 gold or less (but you may change or improve as you like, as long as each item costs 1000 gold or less).
Cheap Berserker
Adamantium Sword 900
Adamantium Hacker 900
Fine Grindstone 900
Tribal Might 900 or Blood Idol 900
Cheap Crusader
Adamantium Sword 900 or Beacon of hope 1000
Adamantium Tower 1000
Iron Spike 600 or Defender Charm 600
Steel Bolt 900
Cheap Assassin
Adamantium Sword 900
Adamantium Dirk 900
Pendant of Cunning 900
Relic of Cruelty 900
Cheap Witch
Admantium Sword 900
Ruby Orb 900
Relic of Cruelty 900
Savage Idol 900 or Steel Shard 900
Beating the AI step by step
– Starting with 2000 gold, buy the Adamantium Sword 900 gold, which can be used with all classes. Also buy the Adamantium Tower (1000 gold) for the crusader. Using both items, you can now easily beat all the Very Easy AIs with the Crusader (earning 800 gold). Sell the shield and change class, buying items from the above gear. Do this with all four classes.
– Just by beating all 16 Very Easy AIs you will gather 3200 gold, totalling 5200 (if you sell all your previous gear).
– Now upgrade your character’s life (click customize and then the upgrade tab). Upgrading to level 2 will cost you 200 gold and make your toon gain 25 life and will now have 125 life. If you do this upgrade for all 4 classes, you will still have 4400 gold, so you can still buy all the above gear for each class (selling and buying as you change class).
– With the complete “Cheap” gear above for each class, go beat all 16 easy AIs, 4 with each class. This will allow you to gather 4.800 money, for a total of 9200 gold.
– Now upgrade all classes to level 3 (150 hps), it will cost you 400 gold for each class, or 1600 total, so you should still have 7600 gold. You can now beat all 16 Medium AIs in the same way as before, with the “Cheap” gear above and the improved health (I did it, so you can do it too). That will allow you to gather 6400 money, adding up to 14000 gold.
– From now on, it is up to you. Choose the class you like the best (I chose the Crusader, see below), upgrade it to level 4 (600 gold for 175 Hps) and then to level 5 (1000 gold for 200 Hps) and buy some nice gear. Try to beat the Hard AI and then the Expert AI to gather more money.
– You can now start to “PLAY” in the ladder with less frustation, allowing you to earn money from wins (100 gold each) and ranks: 500 gold for reaching Brawler (300 rating), 1000 gold for reaching Hunter (600 rating), and so on.
The Crusader
– My suggestion is to start this process with the Crusader. Use the following gear with a total cost of 10.850 (Thanks to nestharus for the suggestion in the Making Fun forum). You shall have enough money for this gear even after upgrading the crusader to level 5:
1) weapon: Demon Bane = 3300
2) shield: Lionheart Shield = 3000
3) Trinket 1: Divine Shard = 2900
4) Trinket 2: Protector Armband = 1650
5) Perk: “Cruelty” Perk
– As nestharus says in his post, the main strategy here is: “take damage at the start. Don’t go for Divine Shard until you have enough defense and have perhaps seen some of the disables and dispels used. Around 100 hp is usually good to start the Divine Shard.”
– You are not invincible in this gear! You will probably lose to a couple AIs and most humans, but with this gear you should be able to beat most bots, including all four Hard AIs (2000 gold) and all four Expert AIs (4000 gold). I did it, so if you are unable to do it, maybe you need to improve your play. Beating the AIs will give a good understanding of how this gear works.
– In the ladder, this gear should quickly bring you to at least rating 1200, Challenger (but you can and should go much higher), for another 5000 gold in ranks, coupled with at least 50 wins (5000 gold). You should have now more than 16000 gold (6000 with Hard/Very Hard AI + 10000 gold in the ladder) without selling the Crusader gear!
– Now go choose a class, buy some good gear and share your success!!
Final thoughts
– This is my first guide on Steam and I am still new to Ironbound, but I hope this guide is useful for new players.
– Please let me know if you have improvements on the suggested gear under 1000 gold or if you have other classes beginner gear to suggest
– Good Luck!!!