Getting Started

Quick answers

Is Iron Realms free to play?: Yes. Iron Realms is free to play in any browser with no download. Play offline with no account, or sign in to join the live realm. Nothing is for sale during the Alpha; when purchases open they will 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 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.

Welcome, my lord. Everything begins with a single tower on a green hill. In ten minutes you will have a working keep, a first march, and a clear next goal. Here is the path.

Playing offline or in the live realm

Iron Realms plays two ways, and you can start either without an account:

Play offline — the full single-player game runs entirely in your browser. Your progress is saved on your device across two rotating slots, so a bad save never costs you everything. Perfect for learning the ropes.
The live realm — sign in to share a world with other lords: real alliances, real wars, shared seasons and events. Your keep, marches, and chat live on the realm server.

You can play the whole game and reach the endgame offline. The live realm adds other players — it does not gate content.

The first ten minutes

Found your keep. Tap Play offline (or sign in), then Begin your reign. Your keep appears on the world map of Westeros-that-is-not.
Meet the Maester's Counsel. A small advisor panel names your single most useful next move at every moment. Follow it for the first session and you cannot go wrong — tap Show me and it takes you there.
Raise your first buildings. Open the Keep and upgrade a resource building or two (Farm, Sawmill, Quarry, Mine). Builds run on a timer; you do not need to sit and watch.
Claim the daily login. Show up each day for a growing reward — the seventh day is a jackpot, and the streak is yours to keep.
Take a first march. On the world map, tap a nearby creature camp or rebel holdfast and send troops. Winning drops resources, commander experience, and sometimes a blade.

The daily rhythm

Iron Realms rewards a short daily visit far more than marathon sessions. A healthy day looks like:

Claim the daily login and any finished build/train orders.
Queue the next upgrade so a builder is never idle.
Send a gathering party or clear a camp or two.
Check your alliance — help allies (one press of 🤝 Help the hall shaves a minute off every bannermate's longest build), join a rally, tend a fort.

Thirty minutes a day, done consistently, carries you all the way to the summit over time. See Economy & Pacing for exactly how long that road is.

The eight menus

The dock along the bottom is your whole world:

Menu	What lives there
🏰 Keep	Your buildings, upgrades, training, and research.
🗺️ Westeros	The world map — camps, seats of power, other keeps, marches.
⚔️ War	Battle plans, rallies, reports, and the war table.
🏇 Marches	Every army in the field, with recall.
🐉 Dragons	Your dragons, eggs, growth, and gear.
👑 Realm	Titles, leaderboards, events, and the Gazette.
🤝 Alliance	Your banner: chat, forts, war, and the Conquest Season.
⚜️ Council	The Small Council chambers — the deeper systems, unlocked as you grow.

The Council's chambers open in bands as your Keep levels, and the ladder now spans the first two days: a dozen doors on day one, the deepest (the Long Night at Keep 18, sieges at 20 and the siege table at 21) inside the first two days. You are never buried under thirty systems at once, and the opening always has something left to reveal.