The ultimate mecha anime fantasy is here, and you are right in the pilot’s seat! Iron Saga is a real-time strategy mecha game where you build a team of massive mechs and watch them do battle with all sorts of explosive weaponry.
In our Iron Saga tips and tricks, we will go over the different ways of customizing and upgrading your pilots and mecha. Like most Japanese gacha games, there are lot of systems going on here so let us walk you through them in our Iron Saga cheats, tips and tricks strategy guide to powering up your mechas and pilots!
Micromanage the battlefield for more efficient combat!
Your mechas will fight on their own and maneuver the battlefield as necessary, but you can also direct them in limited bursts using touch controls. If you tap on a unit and drag anywhere, you will see a green line form.
If you direct a unit like this and let go, they will boost to that location. This is useful if you see a power up kit drop or a big attack heading their way, and you can move them out of harm’s way quickly.
Performing this maneuver requires a boost charge, which is shown at the bottom left corner of the screen. You can hold up to three boost charges, and the boost meter refills on its own over time. It does not take long for it to fill up, so do not be afraid to use boosting a lot.
In addition to this, you can also have your mechas target individual enemies by dragging onto the enemy. The mecha you order will continue to attack that target until it is destroyed. Alternatively, you can also tap on any enemy unit without selecting one of your own mechas, and a giant crosshair will appear over that enemy. Your entire team will focus fire on that target, making this a helpful technique for taking down the big guys.
It may not seem to influential at first, but careful movement micromanaging can help you get through tough fights by mitigating some of the damage your units would normally take.
Grab the power up kits for a fighting edge!
When you destroy an enemy mecha, they may leave behind a little box with an icon in it – this is a power up! One of your mechas can move over to it to pick it up, and it will go into effect right away. Here is a list of all power up kits:
Repair Kit: Heals 25% HP of the mecha that picks it up. It looks like a little medical kit.
Large Maintenance Kit: Heals 15% HP for all mechas on the team. Looks like a bigger version of the regular Repair Kit.
Super Kit: Grants invincibility for 10 seconds. Looks like a yellow star.
Attack Kit: Increases ATK for 10 seconds. Looks like a red bullet.
Defense Kit: Increases DEF for 10 seconds. Looks like a blue shield.
Reloading Kit: Instantly reloads all of the mecha’s weapons and grants 10% more reload speed for the rest of that stage. Looks like a green ammo chamber.
SP Kit: Grants 100% SP, and Ultimate charge +1. Looks like a lightning bolt.
These kits are very helpful for giving your team the upper hand, so make sure you grab them on sight.
Fight to charge up SP, then unleash your active skill!
When your units attack and receive damage, they will gain SP. You can see how much SP they have by looking at the yellow gauge next to their HP gauge at the bottom of the screen. When the SP gauge fills up all the way, the pilot’s icon will flash blue – tap on it to unleash their active skill!
Each pilot has their own active skill, and they are powerful skills that can change the tide of battle. In general, active skills can only be used once per stage, so make sure you use them at the right time.
Remember that pilots will always have access to their active and other skills no matter what mecha they are piloting, so keep in that mind when you are pairing up pilots and mechas.
Learn new skills!
Once pilots are high enough, they can use their skill points to learn new skills. Skills are the bread and butter of every pilot mecha combos, so knowing as many skills as possible is important for battle.
Most skills besides the pilot’s ultimate are passive boosts that activate automatically, but some of them require certain conditions to be met before they activate. For example, Becas’ Consecutive Battle triggers upon him destroying an enemy mecha.
Try out different mecha!
The game does not explain the differences between your mecha and pilots very well, so we will do our best here. Mechas are their own beasts and should be treated like separate units. Each mecha has a grade letter rarity from the weakest being C to the strongest being SSS.
In general, try to stick to the highest rarity mechas you have, as they are much stronger than your lower rarity ones. Each mecha has its own HP, weight, size, and velocity, which all determine how sturdy the mecha is and how agile it is.
Mecha also come equipped with their own weapons and abilities, which grant them different fighting styling. Some mechas use long-range rifles, while others prefer to get up close and personal with bladed weapons. If you want to quick run down, just read the mecha’s info box and it will tell you what it specializes in.
It is best to try out all the different mechas you can get your hands on. You never know what will work well in your team composition, so feel free to experiment. When you find mecha you like, you can start upgrading them if you have enough primal energy cores.
Primal energy cores are acquired through playing through chapters, opening the star chests, and buying them from the gold market.
Equip parts to amplify your mecha’s strengths!
Now that you know how mechas work, we can go over parts, which are basically equipment for your mechas. Each mecha has six slots for specialized parts, and they grant various stat boosts.
Some parts increase melee damage, some increase health, some increase armor, and so forth. Try to equip a mecha with parts that plays up the mecha’s strengths – equipping melee boosting parts on a melee specialist is a great way to get them to slash up enemies like nothing!
You can also upgrade individual parts to increase their effect. All you need is gold to do it, so it is not expensive, however keep in mind that parts cannot go higher than your commander level!
What is helpful is that you can get all of that gold back. If you find a new part that is better than your existing one, you can scrap the old part to destroy it and restore all the gold you use. However, keep in mind that this process requires a flat fee of 10,000 gold, so in some cases it may be better to just hang onto the part cause you will lose gold in the end.
Develop the Vassago!
Once you get to chapter 6, you can unlock the Superalloy Institution. Here, you can develop special mechas and also upgrade Becas’ special mecha, the Vassago. Since Becas will almost always be on your team, it would be wise to build up the Vassago.
You can upgrade the Vassago like a normal mecha, but it also has access to special upgrades. In order to undergo these upgrades, you must first pass special quests that can be found in the institution.
Once you hit the requirements, you can upgrade the Vassago to change its form and grant it new abilities. You need Superalloy to do this however, which is a rather rare metal. You can earn it from the story mode or by disassembling old mechas you do not use anymore.
Open all the star chests!
The star chests that are scattered throughout the randomly generated chapter fields contain some very good loot, so make sure to open them before you move on. You may have noticed that some chapters have more star requirements than usual – this is because you can reset chapters to play through a new layout.
Do not forget about this – it is easy to fall behind in power levels because you are not getting the upgraded parts and goodies from the star chests.
Stop by the cafe for some new pilots!
If you are looking for rare pilots to recruit, be sure to stop by the cafe every now and then. You never know who will show up, and if you see a rare pilot that you do not have, you can give them items to increase their affection. At 60 affection, they will join your team. Do not worry if you run out of treats to give them – they will retain their affection for you the next time they see you.
When you hit commander level 18, you can start giving pilots on your team gifts to increase their affection. Improving their affection increases their stats, so do not forget about it!
And with that, you should be able to create a good team of powered up pilots and mecha. If you have any other tips or tricks to share, let us know in the comments below!
Published: Dec 19, 2019 02:01 pm