How to progress in Iron Will

kittens-game

I just reset my kittens game, with 71 kittens (the bare minimum for paragon) and I thought: let's try the Iron Will mode. As far as I know, that means that I cannot buy any housing. So no huts, log houses or mansions (or any other things I do not yet know about). I gathered some catnip, build a field, harvested more catnip, and more catnip, and even some more. Then I got some wood and build a library. But I have no kittens to be a scholar! I have three libraries now and hit the maximum of catnip (5005) and wood (200.2) and no new buildings to build. What do I have to do?

Best Answer

In an Iron Will run, the resources that kittens normally gather are obtained thusly:

Catnip: Fields or trade.
Wood: Refinement or trade. As a bonus, Lumber Mills' effect boosts the return from refinement in Iron Will.
Science: Astronomical events. As a bonus, Iron Will runs always have at least a 25% chance of these auto-succeeding, even without observatories. Remember that science buildings boost the reward from these.
Catpower: Zebras will help you hunt. Each zebra is worth .15 Catpower per second.
Minerals: Meteors will still fall. As a bonus, meteors are more common in Iron Will mode, and are also worth 10% more. Remember that mines do boost the reward from these.
Gold: Once you have the Gold Ore upgrade, Zebra hunters have a 25% chance to obtain gold. Also, the usual rate of gold gain from Smelters is still available after that same upgrade.
Maximum Catpower: Each upgrade to Catpower (bolas, hunting armour, etc.) will increase this, since you can't normally boost it without housing. Composite Bows make the maximum 200, Bolas make the maximum 400, and Hunting Armor gives you exactly 1000 max (before Paragon and the like) so you can discover people to trade with.
Faith: Chapels will be your only source of faith while playing in Iron Will mode.
Coal: Quarries will still provide coal. So will Smelters, after getting the Coal Furnace upgrade.

Also, although Zebras' hunting abilities are enough to get Unicorns, because max Catpower is so limited early on, there is a slight chance every tick of a Unicorn simply showing up at your village, as long as you are in Iron Will mode, have Archery, and have less than two unicorns already.

Related Solutions

Should I force the kittens to do the same job forever

Looking at the code, the skills' information is as follows:

Dabbling - No XP required - No bonus
Novice - 100 XP required - 1.25% Bonus
Adequate - 500 XP required - 2.5% Bonus
Competent - 1200 XP required - 4.5% Bonus
Skilled - 2500 XP required - 7.5% Bonus
Proficient - 5000 XP required - 12.5% Bonus
Master - 9000 XP required - 18.75% Bonus

Thus, a kitten who is splitting their time up between two jobs about evenly is going to still be under proficient when a kitten who'd focused on the same job all the time has made master. You're probably better off letting a small number of kittens focus on Farming continuously through the year; you won't get much benefit right away, but when they finally do make master, they'll be able to feed more kittens, especially with the upgrade later on that doubles how much bonus all skills give.

Even worse, any kitten who has skill in a job they're not currently doing, will slowly (very slowly) lose experience in that job. The effect of this is minor (five thousandths of an XP per second), but if you're idling for long stretches, it can stall progress if you're trying to teach a kitten two jobs.

In the end, though, it doesn't matter too much what you do this early in the game. Getting to master-level kittens takes a while, and swapping your kittens around won't stop them from making master in their jobs eventually; just slows it a little. Plus, once you get more Pastures, and the Hoe upgrades to your farmers, even a small handful of Dabbling farmers will be enough to feed a fairly large population through cold winters.

Buying Workshop Upgrades in Iron Will mode

No, there is nothing that need to be unlocked via Job Upgrades.

For some upgrades there are prerequisites, but most of the times that is just logical. For example you need to upgrade the Mineral Axe before you can get the Iron Axe. Before you can upgrade the Steel Axe, you'll have to have the Iron Axe. And so on. The same applies to barn/warehouse upgrades. An example of such a requirement and unlock is the following (from workshop.js):

   {
    name: "steelSaw",
    title: "Steel Saw",
    description: "Improve Lumber Mill efficiency by 20%",
    effects: {
        "lumberMillRatio" : 0.2
    },
    prices:[
        { name : "science", val: 52000 },
        { name : "steel", val: 750 }
    ],
    unlocked: false,
    researched: false,
    handler: function(game){
        game.workshop.get("titaniumSaw").unlocked = true;
    }

There is nothing like this to be found in the workshop for Job upgrades. So you are completely safe by omitting the Mineral Hoes et cetera.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Should I force the kittens to do the same job forever

Buying Workshop Upgrades in Iron Will mode

Related Topic