After enough time every MMO runs into the same problem: players want tougher content. If you’ve spent over a decade playing WoW or FF14, you know that a new sense of challenge can reinvigorate your love for the game. Ten years ago, RuneScape got that in the Ironman mode. Locking you out from most online interactions, you were confronted with a daring prospect: you needed to beat the MMO by yourself. Now, you can take on that same challenge with friends, as Group Ironman is finally here. I’ll only say this once: try not to let it ruin your friendships.
While RuneScape’s solo Ironman mode is about being self-sufficient, the new group version is about being team-sufficient. In a party of between two and five players, you’re severely limited in the features you can engage with. You can only trade with others inside your group, and there’s no Grand Exchange or extra XP handouts. Not only are you attempting the MMO’s content in a much smaller setting, but almost every loot or XP drop has been significantly reduced.
You don’t need to stick together at all times in Group Ironman, though. Group storage allows you to seamlessly store and withdraw items between teammates, so there’s no need to meet in person. Maybe you’re collecting logs for your team’s Fletcher, or spending downtime mining for ores. If so, you can easily send these items to your teammates who need them the most.
If you’re already a solo Ironman player, you can invite your friends into a Group Ironman setting to carry on your adventure. Keep in mind that this is irreversible, so you can’t take this character back to solo Ironman after the fact.
If Group Ironman alone isn’t enough of a challenge for you, it can be made even harder. Competitive Group Ironman (CIM) dials the challenge up to eleven. Here, there’s absolutely zero interaction with other groups and players. While the standard Group Ironman mode at least has you engaging in tough content with other groups, CIM throws that out of the window. The real kicker? You can’t even use your old Ironman accounts in Competitive, you need to start from scratch. On top of that, your group also has to deal 100% of the damage to receive any drops, and there’s no one else to help you. You and your team need to be a well-oiled machine to survive CIM, otherwise, I’m afraid the creatures of Gielinor will grind you into dust.
Your rewards for Group Ironman aren’t just leaderboard bragging rights, either. Completing journey achievements with your group gives you unique armor, with different visual tiers. There are also special in-game titles and unique group poses, so you can wander around RuneScape and prove your skill without saying a word.
For the last ten years, RuneScape’s Ironman mode has been the ultimate challenge. All the online parts of the MMO are severely reduced, and the challenge gets exponentially harder. Now, with both the regular and competitive Group Ironman variants, you can take on that same challenge with friends.
Jagex has made the Group Ironman mode available to all RuneScape members right now.
Don’t forget that the RuneScape Harvest Hollow event is also live until Monday November 4. You can complete new quests, challenges, and even fight some more bosses if you fancy it.
There’s a lot more than just RuneScape out there for you. We’ve also got all the best single-player MMOs available right now, alongside some stellar fantasy games as well.
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