Ultimate Ironman Guide (2024)

UIM Guide

Playing as an Ultimate Ironman is full of unique and interesting challenges, and 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 or regular account by talking to Adam in Lumbridge.

Restrictions[edit | edit source]

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.

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.

Getting started[edit | edit source]

• Completing the Stronghold of Security rewards 10,000 coins. This is an excellent source of early coins with no requirements.
• Quest experience rewards can be a great way to jump-start skill training.
• Some quests like Recruitment Drive have strict inventory restrictions, so it can be easier to complete them early on with fewer items to manage.
• Wintertodt deals damage based on the player's Hitpoints level. This makes it easier to do with low Hitpoints, as you can buy pineapples from Trader Crewmembers and note them via the Tool Leprechaun; then by using a knife on the unnoted Pineapple, it will create four pineapple rings which heal two Hitpoints each - therefore providing an excellent source of noted food early on.
• Training Agility will unlock various useful shortcuts. The increased run energy recharge rate is also helpful for many other training methods, quests, and activities. The skill also gives access to the Agility Pyramid for early money making.
• Training Thieving with blackjacking is one of the fastest methods for making money early on.
• The Ardougne cloak 1 is very useful for early transportation to the area. It also provides fairly fast access to a spirit tree and a fairy ring.

General guides[edit | edit source]

• 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.
• Supplemental guides
  • Ultimate Ironman Walkthrough Guide To Prifddinas - this guide provides a step-by-step walkthrough from account creation through the completion of Song of the Elves.

Combat[edit | edit source]

Combat often requires preparation with very limited inventory space. Because of this, Ultimate Ironmen usually rely on buyable or noted food.

• Cakes can be stolen from bakery stalls. Cakes heal 4 Hitpoints per slice for a total of 12 Hitpoints per cake. The Ardougne Baker's Stall also sells cakes and chocolate bars, which can be used to make chocolate cakes at level 50 Cooking. Chocolate cakes heal 5 Hitpoints per slice for a total of 15 Hitpoints per cake.
• The Shrimp and Parrot in Brimhaven sells cooked karambwan among other cooked fish.
• The Warrior Guild Food Shop sells potatoes with cheese, which heal 16 Hitpoints each. It also sells plain pizzas, which can be made into pineapple pizzas.
• Noted raw fish can be obtained in bulk from fighting Tempoross or catching minnows.
• The Frankie's Fishing Emporium sells various raw fish up to raw sharks.
• Zulrah and Vorkath commonly drop noted cooked manta rays.
• Saradomin brews can be made at level 81 Herblore. The potions can be noted at a decanter.

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.

For more information, see Ultimate Ironman Guide/Equipment.

Skill training[edit | edit source]

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.

	Attack		Hitpoints		Mining
	Strength		Agility		Smithing
	Defence		Herblore		Fishing
	Ranged		Thieving		Cooking
	Prayer		Crafting		Firemaking
	Magic		Fletching		Woodcutting
	Runecraft		Slayer		Farming
	Construction		Hunter