ironman is a game mode where auction house， bazaar， and trade are all disabled， and it has a different progression line from regular profiles. i''''ve been playing on my ironman profile for around 8 months and i''''ve learned a lot during the process. i''''m sharing some of my experience and thoughts down below and i hope it can help out others who are newer to this game mode.
after reaching the spider''''s den， visit the grandma wolf npc and pick up the pet. then， finish up the slayer with some weak spiders in the tall den. switch to the mercenary set if you haven''''t already. go back to maddox and start a tier 2 boss， and then kill it too. both bosses are pretty manageable with the mercenary set and a dungeon pot. after slaying the tier 2 spider boss， visit maddox again and start a sven 1 slayer. tier 2 is harder than the other 2 tier 2 bosses， but it should be manageable with the current gear and the healing wand if proceed with care. keep grinding sven until you can get enough wolf teeth for a radiant orb， and get the maddox batphone.
after spawning on the island， you can cut down the tree， make some wooden tools， build a dirt bridge， collect the chest and cobble minion， and craft an aspect of the jerry (why not). after all of that， head into the portal and the journey begins. after talking to all 12 villagers， you''''ll have a weapon upgrade (rouge sword). harvest some wheat and sell them to an npc for coins so that you can get a rookie hoe. then， you can keep farming wheat until you get a full set of farm suit armor and enough coins to buy a bee pet. you can also harvest potatoes， carrots， and nether warts in the hub and level up those minions a couple of times. make sure to place down as many minions as you can and collect your minion from time to time.
the next step is aote and full dragon armor， and this will mark the end of the beginning stage. a weapon upgrade is needed， and because of the petition in the end island， a weapon that deals ranged damage is preferred due to the low movement speed (no god potion or young dragon armor). a dreadlord sword is the easiest weapon to go for at this stage. firstly， go grind spiders slayers (slayer xp and money) to unlock the grappling hook recipe and get bat 15. then， visit the catabs entrance floor and try to kill a couple of dreadlords. this can be done by attacking the dreadlord from a distance with the artisanal short bow. dying or failing the runs doesn''''t matter in this case since the only goal is to get a dreadlord sword (it requires cata 1 which should be met when you get the sword). after obtaining a dreadlord sword， you can reforge the mercenary armor to wise， or use a different set with higher rarity if you hav
starting out: from aotj and no armor to aote and full dragon armor
buy as many talismans as you can from the adventurer， and then the blacksmith to unlock reforge， and then reforge all armor pieces to fierce， bow to unreal， and the weapon to sharp. reforge the talismans for damage too. then， visit the librarian and enchant your items with the xp you got from farm animals (growth， protection， etc). go through the dungeon hub portal to unlock the quick travel， and buy a decent dungeon pot. after all of this， you can visit maddox， drink the dungeon pot， and kill 1 zombie slayer tier 1 boss and 1 tier 2 boss， and craft a wand of healing (1 more tier 2 boss if you don''''t get enough materials). after that， start a spider slayer 1 quest visit the spider''''s den.
craft a zombie pickaxe and enchant it at the librarian. get it to efficiency v if you can. the xp from mining sand earlier should be enough to unlock the deep caverns or even the dwarven mines. visit rusty in the gold mine to add telekinesis to all of your weapons and tools. keep mining cobble (or other ores) in the first level of deep caverns until you unlock the recipe for a creeper minion. pick up a set of lapis armor in the lapis mine (useful for xp and therefore enchanting xp). then， you can keep going down to unlock the lift and ore collections. give the enchanted materials to rhys to unlock the dwarven mines (if you don''''t have enough， just buy some from npcs， don''''t mine in the deep caverns because it''''s inefficient).
spoiler: starting out
www.uuwenzhai.com(placeholder)[a guide for hypixel skyblock – oct 16， 2021]
after reaching the farming level required to enter the farming islands， you can visit those islands to unlock the collections. before heading to the mushroom desert， craft a golden shovel and enchant it at the librarian so that you can get sand. you can farm a bit too if a crop is easy to farm. also， make sure to kill enough farm animals of each type so that you can at least craft the tier 1 minion of each kind. killing those animals gives you bat xp so this is the safest way to get the first couple of bat levels. the xp dropped from the farm animals should be enough to bring you to at least bat level 5， and you can buy an artisanal short bow from the weaponsmith. similar to the juju short bow and terminator， this bow is very powerful for its cost. after getting the bow and some arrows， visit rosetta and buy a set of squire armor and a squire sword (you can skip to the mercenary set directly if you farmed more crops and farm animals for a higher bat level (9) and more money (210k)). don''''t waste your money on the mage sets. both wands do low damage， and their mana cost can''''t be reduced because they can''''t be enchanted.
“a detailed ironman progression guide”
item progression line: aotj -> rouge sword -> rookie hoe -> farm suit + bee pet + golden shovel -> artisanal short bow -> squire set -> mercenary set -> talismans from adventurer -> wand of healing -> grandma wolf pet -> radiant orb -> zombie pickaxe + lapis armor (for xp)-> grappling hook -> dreadlord sword -> ender armor -> aote -> dragon armor (add golden axe and a fishing rod somewhere)