Your First 24 Hours

Quick answers

Is Iron Realms free to play?

Yes. Iron Realms is free to play in any browser with no download and no account required. Every building, troop tier and Seat of Power is reachable without spending money — purchases buy speed and cosmetics, never a higher ceiling.

Does spending money make you stronger in Iron Realms?

No. Nothing purchasable raises your power ceiling. A charter audit runs on every build and fails it if any offer would sell power. During the pre-alpha nothing is for sale at all — better than that, the store gives its goods away: everything in it is free to take, once a day per item, while the realm is being built. When payments do open, spending will compress time only: it clears timers, it never raises the summit.

How long does it take to max a keep in Iron Realms?

Keeps cap at level 45 and troops at tier 13 — the same summit for everyone, and it is a campaign: about seven months of steady play at half an hour a day, counting keep 45 and the nineteen plots that gate it. The Fair Play ledger inside the game reads that figure straight out of the shipped constants, so it is never a month behind the build.

The opening day decides your first week. Here is a paced plan that never leaves a queue idle and lands you in an alliance before the sun sets on day one.

Hour 0–1: Raise the keep, join a banner

Finish the guided founding, then do two things before anything else: start your Keep upgrade, and open the Alliance menu to join an active banner. Everything in Iron Realms compounds off the Keep level, and everything social compounds off being in an alliance early — the help taps alone shave hours off your first week.

• Queue the Keep upgrade first — it gates every other building tier.
• Join an alliance with recent chat activity, not just the biggest one.
• Set your first gathering party marching so away-time earns.

Hour 1–4: Economy foundation

Raise your resource buildings (farm, lumber, quarry, mine) to match your Keep, and start your first research in the economy discipline. Press Help on every alliance timer you see — each one takes 1.5% off that build's duration, to a maximum of 20 helps (30% off), and it is free and speeds the whole banner, which speeds you back.

Hour 4–10: First army, first raids

Build the Training Yard and train a starter army. Hit low-level creature camps on the map for materials and commander XP — scout first, never march blind. Bank the daily login and complete the beginner quest chain; it pays outsized early rewards.

Hour 10–24: Set up overnight

Before you log off, leave nothing idle: a long Keep or building upgrade in the builder queue, a maester expedition or gathering party running, and a research study underway. You want day two to open with three completions waiting, not three empty slots.