Ironman
In Soul's Remnant, you are given the option of playing as a "Harcore Ironman". This is not recommended for new players.
This places a restriction on you that makes it so you cannot trade with other players, and cannot join other parties or other guilds. You also cannot gain any EXP from monsters that other players contribute damage to, nor can you pick up the items dropped from monsters you received help in killing.
When forming a Group Ironman, similar restrictions are placed on you, but you can still interact with your fellow group members. You can help each other, trade with each other, and party up with each other.
Only each other.
Your status as a Hardcore Ironman will also be displayed to everyone, shown by one of the following badges that will be displayed to the right of your name:
- Hardcore Solo Ironman
- Hardcore Group Ironman
If you die as a Hardcore Solo, or if you run out of "lives" as a Hardcore Group, you will still remain an Ironman with all of the restrictions, but you will lose your Hardcore status and your badge will be changed accordingly:
- Solo Ironman
- Group Ironman
These badges will also be displayed on your character select screen.
How To Start
Playing as Ironman means you cannot trade with other players, cannot join parties or guilds, and must be fully self-sufficient. You start as a Hardcore Ironman. If you die, you will remain an Ironman, but you will lose the Hardcore status. Ironman characters can later choose to become normal characters, but normal characters cannot become Ironmen later. It's a serious challenge mode intended for experienced players. If you haven't played Soul's Remnant before, it's recommended to play as a normal character for your first character.
— What's an Ironman?, Ironman NPC (Journey's Start)
As of September 2025, you have to make some somewhat tricky jumps in the very first Tutorial map before you can become either type of Ironman.
To be more specific, you must talk with the floating crystal shown in the image to the right. The "Deferri Crystal".
After reaching the Deferri Crystal, you can interact with it, and ask it for details about what an Ironman is and what the process is in order to become the kind that you want to become.
It also accurately mentions that Ironman is a mode you should only play after having some experience in Soul's Remnant. Ironman is not the intended experience for new players!
Group Ironman
Becoming a Hardcore Solo Ironman is quick and easy.
Making a Hardcore Group Ironman is a little more complicated. Talking with the Deferri Crystal can help you understand what you need to do, but we'll explain the process here as well.
A Hardcore Group Ironman must consist of anywhere between 2 to 5 members. To make that happen, before interacting with the Deferri Crystal, the party leader must fill their party with everyone they want to make a Hardcore Group Ironman with.
If you aren't the party leader, you need to stay on that first tutorial map with everyone else. This is because the final step of forming a Hardcore Group Ironman is having someone leave through the portal and enter that second tutorial map.
Once that is done, your Hardcore Group Ironman is officially formed!
There's also the side benefit of forming a Hardcore Group Ironman where you immediately form and enter a Guild together, without needing to pay the 1,000 Soul Crystal cost! Yay!
Leaving the Guild will result in making you into a Solo.
Speaking of Solo, the Hardcore status for groups is different than it is for solo. The entire group is given a pool of "lives", one for each person in the group.
So if you form a Hardcore Ironman Group with 5 total members, that means you have 5 shared lives before you all lose your Hardcore status.
And everyone uses up one life when they die.
So if one player in your group dies 6 times, you all lose the Hardcore status, and your badges all turn into the Group Ironman version.
You can track the number of lives your group has left within the "Misc" tab of your Guild Window [N].
Use this information to keep you on edge~
Guild Benefits
Usually, in order to level a Guild, you need a certain number of current members in your Guild.
For both types of Ironman, the member requirement to level up your Guild is removed!
So be sure to level up your Guild, and reap all the benefits of those wonderful Guild Perks!
Deferri Crystal
After leaving the tutorial, The Deferri Crystal rests below the bridge in Spawn. Interacting with it will tell you what you need to do to "De-Ironman".
Along with everything else, your Storage will be erased upon losing your Ironman status! You've been warned!