Ultimate Ironman Guide

Playing as an Ultimate Ironman is full of unique and interesting challenges, and it is very different from a regular account or normal Ironman. In addition to the restrictions given to regular Ironman, Ultimate Ironmen cannot use banks. This guide aims to give general advice, tips, and suggestions for playing as an Ultimate Ironman.

This page has a quick introduction to the Ultimate Ironman mode, as well as some guidance on getting started on a new Ultimate Ironman account. More in-depth skill training methods, quest tips, equipment suggestions, and more can be found on their respective pages. These pages can be navigated to using the icons in the top-right of each page, or by the links further down on this page.

On Tutorial Island, Paul can change a player's account mode to Ultimate Ironman mode. Once off of Tutorial Island, it is impossible to become an Ultimate Ironman. It is possible to "downgrade" an Ultimate Ironman to a normal Ironman, unranked Group Ironman, or regular account by talking to Adam in Lumbridge.

Before getting started as an Ultimate Ironman, it is important to understand all of the unique restrictions of the game mode. Besides the restrictions given to every Ironman, Ultimate Ironmen are not able to do the following:

• Use the banks of RuneScape. Players are still able to use noted items on bank booths, chests, or banknote merchants like Phials to unnote them.
• Create item sets using the Grand Exchange.
• Receive resources from Managing Miscellania.
• Send their servant to the bank or the sawmill.
• Keep any items on death nor take advantage of the Protect Item prayer.
• Use the seed vault.
• Receive daily buckets of sand from Bert.
• Withdraw partial sets from any of the hotspots in the costume room. However, players can store individual pieces of a set.
• Store duplicate pieces in any of the hotspots in the costume room.
• Use the storage units associated with the Chambers of Xeric to store supplies or unretrieved loot.

Other than these, some storage systems such as the Costume room and STASH units are still useable by Ultimate Ironmen. For more information on the systems that are not restricted in this gamemode, see the UIM item management guide.

Like all Ironmen, UIM cannot receive rewards from group bosses when fought alongside other players, excluding the following exceptions:

• The skilling bosses Tempoross, Wintertodt, and Zalcano.
• The multicombat wilderness bosses Callisto, Venenatis, and Vet'ion.
• The raids Chambers of Xeric, Theatre of Blood, and Tombs of Amascut.
• Moons of Peril
• Nex
• Nightmare
• The Forinthry Surge buff from Revenant maledictus
• The Hueycoatl
• Royal Titans
• Yama

• Item Management - this page outlines all the options such as looting bags, Item Retrieval Services, the costume room, and various STASH units that UIMs use to store and manage their items.
• Quests - some quests, such as those on Entrana, are particularly challenging for UIMs. This guide gives tips on these sorts of quests.
• Minigames - some minigames like Barbarian Assault also have some restrictions on items, which can make them tricky to participate in as a UIM.
• Ironman Moneymaking Guide - this guide, though aimed at regular Ironman players, also has some moneymaking methods that apply to UIMs. In general, it is recommended to aim for 55 early on, for access to High Level Alchemy as an efficient way to turn drops or other valuable items into coins.

Combat often requires preparation with very limited inventory space. Because of this, Ultimate Ironmen usually rely on buyable food, Saradomin brews, and protection prayers.

• The Warrior Guild Food Shop sells potatoes with cheese, which heal 16 Hitpoints each, and The Shrimp and Parrot in Brimhaven sells cooked karambwan, which heal 18 Hitpoints. Getting better food is generally not worth the time investment.
• Saradomin brews can be made at level 81 Herblore. The potions can be noted at a decanter.
• Many bosses will commonly drop noted food items that can be saved for later or used for the boss itself, such as Zulrah, Vorkath, the Kraken, and The Forgotten Four, among others.

Potions needed for combat are typically made and noted at a decanter beforehand, as preparing them on the go would be needlessly inconvenient and slow. Players can then simply unnote whatever potions they need. For Melee combat, players can buy regular attack and strength potions at the Warriors' Guild if they don't have their own supplies. Alternatively, the dragon battleaxe special attack can be used with attack or super attack potions.

The most important factors for choosing combat equipment are strength, availability, and storability. Non-storable options have a significant opportunity cost, as the looting bag space could be allocated for other very useful items. Because of this, a weaker item that is storable or easily re-obtainable can often be a better choice for general use. Untradeable items cannot be stored into the looting bag, so tradeable alternatives are often preferred.

Going to Mastering Mixology for the Chugging barrel is useful for late game PvM such as raids and the Inferno. The barrel allows for up to 100 doses of 5 different types of potions to be stored in the device and withdrawn at a bank, eliminating the need to have 5 different noted potion stacks at the bottom of the inventory.

For more information, see Ultimate Ironman Guide/Equipment.

Depending on the skill and the method, training skills on an Ultimate Ironman can be very similar to that of regular accounts, or wildly different. For example, Agility and Thieving training are done much like on any other account. On the other hand, training skills like Construction, Smithing, and Prayer must utilise creative methods to get around inventory limitations.

Because of the limitations, it is sometimes best to stick to training one skill for a long period of time. Some skill training methods require a specific inventory layout, and preparing for a certain type of inventory layout takes time. This makes switching from one skill to another inconvenient, or impossible in some cases. However, skillhopping is still possible with skills that require little to no preparation, such as Fishing and Agility.

Potentially dangerous skill training methods may require being able to fit most of the items into the looting bag. These methods include subduing Wintertodt, training Slayer, killing dragons for Prayer, and chinning Ranged. Having more space is beneficial for these methods, and they can become unviable if players have a lot of extra items in their inventory. Safe methods require much less preparation and planning, because players can simply deathbank their items for extra storage and do not have to worry about potentially losing their items.

For more information about skills and their training methods, the dedicated pages are listed in the table below.

v t e Skill training guides
Free-to-play guides	Melee Ranged Magic Defence Prayer Hitpoints Crafting Mining Smithing Fishing Cooking Firemaking Woodcutting Runecraft
Members' guides	Melee Ranged Magic Defence Prayer Hitpoints Crafting Mining Smithing Fishing Cooking Firemaking Woodcutting Runecraft Agility Herblore Thieving Fletching Slayer Farming Construction Hunter Sailing
Ironman guides	Money making Melee Ranged Magic Defence Prayer Hitpoints Crafting Mining Smithing Fishing Cooking Firemaking Woodcutting Runecraft Agility Herblore Thieving Fletching Slayer Farming Construction Hunter Sailing
Ultimate Ironman guides	Item management Equipment Quests Minigames Money making Melee Ranged Magic Defence Prayer Hitpoints Crafting Mining Smithing Fishing Cooking Firemaking Woodcutting Runecraft Agility Herblore Thieving Fletching Slayer Farming Construction Hunter Sailing
General guidelines	Efficiency