How to enable Ironman mode in Ready or Not

Thanks to its realistic elements, Ready or Not is already a challenging shooter game, but what if you could turn its difficulty further up a notch? Well, the Ironman mode does exactly that, and if you’re wondering how, I’m here to answer all your queries about it. 

Besides marking the game’s transition from early access to a full release, Ready or Not’s Update 1.0 introduced a bunch of new features, including a Commander mode or, as the devs like to call it, an “immersive single player experience.” The Ironman mode falls under the Commander mode, utilizing exclusive mechanics to offer players a hardcore experience that’s much more grueling than the multiplayer mode. If you’re ready to take on the challenge, let’s learn more about being an iron man in Ready or Not, shall we?

Ironman mode in Ready or Not, explained

Simply put, Ready or Not’s Ironman mode is a single-player permadeath mode, meaning if you die, your character and save file are lost forever. Death deletes your entire progress, so you have to start over from the beginning, and that includes having to start from the very first story mission. The main objective of the Ironman mode is to avoid death at all costs, which gets pretty difficult.

The purpose of the Ironman mode is to offer players a hardcore reminder of the reality of being a police officer. Playing this mode also makes you eligible for some special rewards if you manage to complete Ready or Not’s campaign in Ironman mode. To give you a whiff, if you complete the run without losing anyone on your team, you earn a special Steam achievement and a Diamond watch (Developer’s Ruined Watch cosmetic). That said, to get the watch, you have to ensure that no one on your team dies or leaves due to increasing stress levels. 

How to enable and disable ironman mode in Ready or Not

To enable the Ironman mode in Ready or Not, go to the Main Menu, then the Single Player tab, and then select Commander mode. Here, you should find the option to enable Ironman mode. If you want to disable it later, go to the Commander mode menu again and select the Training Mode instead of Ironman.

Note that completing Ready or Not in Ironman mode isn’t an easy feat. You should be prepared to invest time and effort. To avoid dying in the permadeath mode, I recommend practicing the missions in training mode first. This will help get you a hang of the maps and how things work in general.

The Commander mode also comes with exclusive mechanics like the possibility of exfiltrating out of a mission before your officers’ stress level increases beyond normal, and extra save slots. You should use these benefits to help complete the challenge.