Iron Nest Ops
The IRON NEST operator's station: red-lit dieselpunk turret interior with brass traverse handwheels, elevation gauges and a cluttered instrument panel.

Unofficial operator's reference · Released 2026-08-06

You are alone in a turret, and High Command wants a grid reference turned into fire.

IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator is a dieselpunk artillery simulator where nothing is automated. This site is the fire-control desk that the game deliberately does not give you: a working ballistic calculator, the gunnery maths written out plainly, and mission help checked against Steam's own data rather than copied from other fan sites.

Open the ballistic calculatorLearn to triangulate

Start here

ToolBallistic calculatorRange in, elevation and charge count out. The one thing you will keep open on a second screen.Core skillHow to triangulateTwo spotter bearings into one target position — and the reason your first shots land nowhere near it.Core skillElevation & powder chargesWhy 60° is maximum range, what each charge buys, and the mental shortcut per charge count.ReferenceShell typesHE, HCHE, AP, STAR, SMK, TEAR and LE — what each is for, including what LE is actually good for.ReferenceRecon planesSetting a camera run, what it costs, and why the photos you already have can be worthless.CampaignAll 15 missionsThe real campaign list from Steam achievement data, ranked by how many players actually clear each one.

What kind of game is this?

You play the sole Operator of the IRON NEST: a twin 800 mm battleship turret — the developers describe it as an up-gunned Bismarck turret carrying Schwerer-Gustav-class guns — mounted on walking legs. It is roughly 20 m wide, 30 m tall and 50 m long, and you run all of it yourself. In reality those jobs are split across a gun crew; here they are all yours.

Looking down the twin 800 mm breeches of the IRON NEST from inside the turret, lit red by the interior lamps.
Two 800 mm barrels, and one Operator to run them. There is no crew to hand the job to. Screenshot: IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator.

A mission is one loop, repeated under time pressure:

  1. Orders arrive on the teleprinter as grid references, bearings and ranges from spotters.
  2. You copy them into a notebook and plot them on a paper map with pencils and a drafting compass.
  3. You measure a fresh line from your own position to the target — that gives the firing bearing and range.
  4. You convert range into gun elevation, choose how many powder charges to ram, and pick a shell.
  5. You lay the turret, fire, and wait for a correction to come back.

There is no health bar, no crosshair over the enemy, and no kill-cam. What you get back is a report, a reconnaissance photo, or a newspaper the morning after. That distance between pulling the lever and learning what you hit is the whole point of the game — the developers cut voice acting for the same reason.

The in-game gun elevation device: a brass panel showing a target distance of 07.5 km, numbered powder charge selectors from 1 to 6, and a Calculate Required Elevation dial.
The game gives you this — distance in, charge count selected, elevation out. Our calculator runs the same sum for every charge that reaches, so you can see what each option costs before you ram it. Screenshot: IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator.

The part everyone gets wrong first

A spotter's bearing is not your gun's bearing.

When a spotter reports "bearing 138, range 4,200", that describes a line from the spotter to the target. Feeding 138 into the turret points your gun at empty ground. You use spotter reports to find the target on the map, then draw a new line from the NEST to that point. That second line is the firing solution. This single confusion accounts for most "my shots go nowhere" posts on the forum — it is worked through step by step in the triangulation guide.

The IRON NEST briefing room wall: a large map of Spain marked with front lines and regional borders, flanked by mission boards and lit by hooded lamps.
The campaign runs across an alternate-history Spain. Fifteen operations, and half of all players never get past the fourth. Screenshot: IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator.

How hard is it, really?

Steam publishes the global unlock rate for every achievement, which makes the campaign's difficulty curve measurable rather than a matter of opinion. Mission 1 is cleared by 92.5% of owners. By Counter-Battery, mission 4, that is down to 50% — half of everyone who buys the game stops there, at the first operation where the enemy shoots back. Only about 3% ever reach the final harvest, and just 1.2% unlock the rarest of the four endings.

The arithmetic is not what stops people. Working the map fast enough, while the teleprinter keeps printing, is. The full mission table shows where every drop-off happens.

Common questions, answered quickly

Does IRON NEST have co-op or multiplayer?
Version 1.0 is single-player only. The developers originally said no, then reversed it after community demand: a multiplayer mode where each player commands their own NEST on a shared map is planned, and a standalone co-op title in the same universe is pencilled in for late 2027 or early 2028. Community mods add co-op and PvP today. Full answer.
Is there a VR version?
In development, but queued behind the PC release and console ports. A community VR mod already exists. More.
How much does it cost, and where can I buy it?
It launched on 2026-08-06 on Steam, GOG and the Epic Games Store at $15.99 with a launch discount, returning to $19.99. Platform details.
Is there still a demo?
The Steam Next Fest demo was made permanently available. More.

Why trust the numbers here

Several IRON NEST fan sites state the campaign has 17 operations. Steam's achievement list — which is generated by the game itself — shows 14 numbered operations plus the finale, White Shells. We use the achievement list, cite it on every page, and mark anything that comes from player observation rather than the developers with a badge. Where we have derived a figure instead of reading it, we say so. How this site is put together.

Last updated .