Old School Runescape Quick Guide to Ironman Mode

Being an Ironman in Old School Runescape is no easy task. You’ll have to be completely self-sufficient if you want to survive. Gathering OSRS gold and other seemingly abundant items will require twice—if not thrice—the work to acquire. Whether you want to be an Ironman or a Hardcore Ironman one at that, we’re here to help you learn the ins and outs of what it means to be one. And also. how to be able to overcome the hurdles you’ll inevitably experience along the way.

What is an Ironman?

An Ironman is a player who partakes in the Ironman Mode, a mode that forces you to be resourceful and careful about where and when you allocate your items and such. Should you join the Ironmen, you’ll be locked out of almost all forms of interaction with other normal players. These interactions include trading, the Grand Exchange, PvP, group minigames, and other group activities.

The Ironman Mode is perfect if you’re a lone wolf who doesn’t like company. If you’re keen on reaching the endgame of Old School Runescape, you can choose to permanently stay as an Ironman. To do so, you must go to Lumbridge and talk to the Ironman tutors that are located there. Once you set your account to permanently be on Ironman mode, you can no longer remove these restrictions—except by contacting OSRS’s customer support.

How Do I Become an Ironman?

You can only enable Ironman Mode once you’ve completed the quests in the Tutorial Island. That’s where all the new players start. After completion, find and speak to Adam, Juan or Paul before you leave the island. You can toggle the Ironman mode on and off only after the tutorial. But once you progress enough on your own and decide to turn it off, there will be a 7-day waiting period before it will take effect. Within this period, you can also cancel your decision should you have a change of heart.

Three Types of Ironmen

There are three types of ironmen is Old School Runescape – Standard Ironman, Hardcore Ironman, and Ultimate Ironman. Besides the main key points that we’ve discussed that ironmen will be restricted to, they also won’t be able to pick up drops from the kills of other players, use the Accept Aid feature, gain experience points from PvPs, and buy items from other players.

Hardcore Ironman players have it rougher compared to the standard Ironman player, though. If you choose to become a Hardcore Ironman, you’ll only get to have one life. Should you die in the game, you’ll automatically be demoted to a standard ironman. What’s more, you can no longer become a hardcore ironman once this happens.

Although to be fair, there are safe deaths that won’t affect your hardcore status. The activities that are deemed as “safe to die” are as follows: Last Man Standing, Pest Control, Duel Arena, Inferno, Fishing Trawler, Barbarian Assault, TzHaar Fight Cave, and TzHaar Fight Pit.

The Ultimate Ironman won’t be able to do any of the following (plus the other restrictions that were mentioned beforehand that are given to all ironmen): use banks of RuneScape, create item sets with the help of the Grand Exchange, or receive any resources of help from the Managing Miscellania.

What’s the Point of Becoming an Ironman?

So why would anyone want to make an already tedious game even more tedious with extra restrictions? Well, the answer to that is the rewarding feeling you get. Everything becomes much more significant in Ironman mode. How significant? To the point where even getting something utterly useless to a regular player like a water talisman drop makes you gleam with accomplishment.

Being an Ironman forces you to play the game and conform to the current market (since you don’t have access to it). So, if you’re tired of the usual ways of farming Old School Runescape gold for your normal character, why not give the standard Ironman mode a try? It will surely make you see the game in a different light and appreciate the many facets of OSRS.