Beginner Tips and Tricks for Iron Harvest

Iron Harvest is an incredible RTS game that brings into the tragedy of the Great War, but this time with lumbering mechs of mass destruction. Players can take heed of four factions, each with its different motives and mechs. This can be quite a challenging game, as it requires a truly strategic mind to come out on top. No matter how skilled you are at RTS games, this article will reveal features or controls that you most likely would not have known. Here are some tips and tricks that every player should know when playing Iron Harvest.

Tips and Tricks for Iron Harvest

Every Mech’s Weakness

It may seem impossible to take down mechs with mere infantry alone in Iron Harvest. And that is often the case. However, every mech is very vulnerable from their rear, so if a mech threatens your troops, scatter them and try to loop them around to the mech’s rear. Most mechs r not responsive enough to speedily turn around to deal with them. Infantry with armor-busting capabilities such as anti-armor or grenadiers is fantastic at exploiting their weak rear armor, dealing huge damage.

Also for this reason, never let your mech out on its own if you can help it and if it isn’t necessary. Try to at least have some infantry support to prevent enemy flanking maneuvers.

To also prevent your mechs from getting hit in the rear, don’t get them to ever turn their back on their opponents. You can actually order your mechs to walk backward, by holding ‘C’ and right-clicking where you want them to go. They will move backward, allowing their guns to still fire and their rear to be protected. This could save the life of your mechs.

Retreat to Fight Again

Retreat in Iron Harvest is more useful than in other RTS games. In Iron Harvest, every unit is valuable, and you cannot afford to lose them. If they are suffering on the field, press ‘R’ to have them retreat. They will run straight to your headquarters and will receive less damage and run faster whilst doing so.

Once any unit is near your Barracks or Workshop, you can get them to reinforce themselves. This means they receive instant soldiers and are healed to full health. This is faster and cheaper than recruiting more soldiers, and they retain any veteran rank they may have gained from fighting.

Don’t be scared to retreat – all the best players do to make sure their army survives to make another push on the enemy.

Related: Best Factions in Iron Harvest Ranked Tier List

Engage in a Little Fisticuffs

In Iron Harvest, your soldiers can do a little more than just shoot. When selecting a unit, a melee option will become available in the bottom right panel. Click it and you will toggle the unit’s melee mode. Left-click on another unit to target them. Your soldiers will rush over to fight them in melee combat.

This isn’t the most viable way of vanquishing an enemy, but sending your engineers to melee fight the enemy machine gunners will stop them from using their infantry-melting machine guns, allowing your other infantry to pour in the fire. Melee stops them from using their guns and abilities, which will turn any situation around. You’ll be surprised how effective this can be!

The Power of Shift

The shift button allows you to have more reign over your troop’s movement. When holding shift, you can select multiple points to flesh out a unit’s pathway, to allow you more control over how they move. This allows you to maneuver mechs between your defenses so they don’t stomp right through them and allows you more of strategic control over your units.

Shift can queue up commands. If you want one of your units to secure numerous resource points, which is vital in Iron Harvest, you can hold shift and right-click each of the resource points to make that unit do them one after the other.

You can also hold shift to select numerous units and then hold control and press a number to assign them to a group. Once in a group, all you need to do is press their group’s number on your keyboard to select them all.

Selective selection

There are many ways to select units in Iron Harvest:

• Double-clicking one unit will select all units of that type.
• Press Tab to select the next unit in rotation.
• Press F4 to select all units on-screen.
• Double-press F4 to select all of your units.

Keeping these in mind will give you more authority over the battlefield.

Leave the power in their hands

Instead of micromanaging your units’ abilities, you can right-click them to give your units authority over them. If you won’t be able to supervise a situation, simply allow your units to make executive decisions that could save their lives and push back the enemy whilst you deal with another situation.

Keep an eye on Gamer Journalist for more gaming and Iron Harvest content, such as how to play a coop campaign.