Tips and Tricks for a successful Hardcore Ironman.

[Cigar 20]

I figured I would make this guide as a starting point for the HCI community to come and get some tricks and pointers for how I approached my HCI. Hopefully after reading this more people will give the HCI mode a try or utilize some of these tips to further advance their HCI as the gamemode is rather difficult. We are only given one life meaning any death that is outside of pest control, dungeoneering, and dominion tower is not safe and you will lose your hardcore iron status. 

If you think I have forgot anything or think something should be added please let me know. I can be reached in-game on Space. 

I figured I would start off with a basic overview of the gamemode and go from there, so without further adieu....

The basics:

The HCI gamemode boasts a whopping 5% xp rate which make it the hardest gamemode Ataraxia has to offer. As HCI we are not allowed to utilize most shops with exceptions to...

- The shopkeeper which stores some teleport tabs and other generic items for starting out. 

- The vote store

- The trivia point store

- The skillcape store

- Nurmof which is the Bronze Donor shop. Nurmof sells a few nice items like mystery boxes for 20m each, high tier herblore supplies, potions, and divine locations. 

- Slayer reward store

- Runespan reward shop

- The rare item shop which has mostly cosmetics

- Bobs skilling store which is a great hub to get some of your basic skilling items. 

- And finally Xuan the aura shop. 

The HCI mode also has a nice 20% drop boost which in theory gives us a better chance at receiving drops from NPCs but be careful as if we die then your account will revert to a plain Ironman. 

The server hosts double xp weekends every weekend unfortunately as Hardcore Irons we do not benefit from this.  

Voting: Voting is important not only because it supports the server but it also gives you a few added bonuses which make the HCI gamemode easier. Voting gives you 5 points per 12 hours along with 2m GP per vote and the chance at a few different items ranging from mystery boxes, SOF spins, deathtouched darts, and a chance of a trial 7 day membership at the bronze level. 

Vote books are also pretty helpful. Vote books are received every 100 votes. So for 100 server votes everyone receives 1 vote book. And for every 200 votes everyone online receives 2 vote books and so on. The books give you a few different options. You can either claim the book for a combination of xp and money, just xp, or just money. I usually just choose the 30% boost as that is most valuable to me. 

Early on I would suggest using your vote points for crystal keys. You can get 1 crystal key per 1 vote point. The crystal key chest provides a lot of skilling items, armour, runes, and the dragon hatchet and pickaxe which is really nice for those of us who aren’t really into PvM or haven’t had the opportunity to train their character to be able to acquire those items.

Mystery Boxes: Mystery boxes are also good for providing Armour. I have gotten quite a few barrows pieces from those boxes along with other assorted items like a whip. This allows you to get some items early on in your career as a HCI so when you start combat you don't have to do much farming for gear as you should have a fair supply. I delayed combat for a long time so I had a large stock pile of items prior to when I started combat which really helped and saved me time from having to farm the supplies. If you are a bronze donor you can buy a mystery box for 20m per box. I did this for awhile but I would save your GP as you will need it for other things down the road. 

Trivia: Trivia questions are a nice way to get some good weapons once you start advancing your character. You get 1 point per correctly answered trivia question and a varying amount of GP depending how fast you answer the question. As far as the trivia shop goes most of the items are cosmetic however, I would suggest you get the crystal bow as that is going to be one of the best bows you will have for a long time on your journey as a HCI. There is some mage armour in there was well but I wouldn’t suggest getting that unless if you see a need for it. The staff of light is another good idea as well. The rest of the items are mostly cosmetics and are up to you about what you want to get.

Random Skilling NPC's: While skilling you may have noticed those skilling NPC’s popping up. Those are randomly generated NPC’s that show up while you are skilling. Clicking them will give you a different amount of GP and it is usually random. I have gotten nothing above 300k and nothing less than 1k gp. At every 1000 actions in a certain skill they also will give you a piece of the skilling outfit. (Thank Moo for this idea, I didn't even think about this)

Dailies: Every 24 hour period you are given 3 dailies to do. Those dailies are important because along with 1.5m GP each completed daily you have the chance at getting a huge xp lamp that can be used on any skill which is really helpful from advancing your lower leveled skills. Each lamp gives about 27.5k xp which will advance you from level 1 to level 37 instantly. Along with that you get VIS Wax which can be used as fast teleports or to change a daily if you do not like your daily. The dailies can range anywhere from mining, woodcutting, smithing, firemaking, fishing, or thieving. 

Donations: I know this is a odd topic to throw into a guide for HCI but I feel like this is something that should be touched on because it will make your experience as a HCI significantly easier. Not everyone has the ability to donate and that is okay, but for those that do I wanted to touch on a few perks I found EXTREMELY helpful and the member zone itself as it has a lot of skilling methods that will make it very easy to train certain skills. 

As far as perks go if you are only investing in the bronze rank for the member zone it is hard for me to pick just one but instead I will list the ones that I have purchased and my reasoning for it. 

- Sleight of Hand: This was one of the first perks that I bought because at the time I was a level 3 HCI and I found it tedious to have to continue to eat while thieving because the stalls damage you for minimal HP each time you have a successful thieve. 

- Herbivore: This was a recent acquisition of mine. I purchased this to hopefully make Herblore a little easier as collecting the herbs/supplies for this will be one of the tougher skills along with farming and construction. 

- Master Fisherman: Although this allows you to potentially double a caught fish that is not the reason I got this perk. Along with Sleight of Hand I was level 3 at the time and collecting the living minerals would prove difficult. This perk eliminates the need to have the applicable bait to fish. 

- Key Expert: This perk should be obvious. I purchased this to double my opportunity at getting something from the crystal chest in hopes of getting my dragon hatchet and pickaxe sooner rather than later. 

- Perslaysion: This is probably one of the most important perks you could get on your HCI. This perk allows you to cancel slayer tasks for free which saves you points and will save you from potentially fighting a NPC that has the chance to kill you. 

- Elf's Friend: I purchsed this perk to get access to Prif so I could use the harps for free crafting XP and the ability to make the crystal hatchet and pickaxe. Seren stones are also here and there is a prayer training method that are both useful. 

- Convincing Cook: I purchased this perk so I wouldn't have to worry about burning fish. 

- Dedicated Divination: I purchased this perk kind of on a whim. I'm not all that impressed with the bonuses that it offers but I have already achieved 99 Divination on my Ironman account and this is a very slow 99. This perk provides a 25% XP boost and it is still slow. 

- Master Fledger: This perk proves to be extremely useful. This perk removes the need to have bow string to string bows which will save any HCI a TON of time and effort from picking flax and stringing the flax into bow string. 

- Alchemic Smithing: This perk was useful because it removed the need for Coal while smelting. 

The member zone itself has quite a few nice features that make it worth getting even if that's all you invest in. 

- Dramen Tree: The dramen tree is a tree that when you chop it has the chance to give any type of log that you can chop on Ataraxia. This is beneficial because it also gives you mahogany logs which you will need to convert into planks for Construction as we cannot use the construction shop. The variety of logs is also nice because it allows you to build up quite a collection so when you are ready to start Fletching and Firemaking you already have a variety of logs at your disposal. 

- Blurite Rock: The blurite rock is a stone that you mine. The rock gives you every type of ore that is currently mine able in Ataraxia. The benefit of this is similar to the Dramen tree because it gives you a variety of ore to use for Smithing. 

- Gem Stall: Besides giving a variety of uncut and cut gems, the gem stall also yields one of the best thieving xp in the game along with the chance at receiving an uncut onyx from the stall. This is nice because once you have the crafting and magic level you could make yourself an amulet of fury which is a good amulet that is relatively easy to get. 

-Fishing spots: The members zone also offers two fishing spots. The fishing spots are cavefish and rocktail and with a convenient range right next to it this also allows for good cooking abilities. 

I will continue to update this guide as time goes on to include more tips and tricks and I will be making skilling guides specifically for the hardcore ironman gamemode. 

As always, let me know if you have any advice or things that you would like to see added and I will add them!

Edited February 8, 2019 by Dave