Ready or Not

I will try to explain everything that worked for me to make it as easy as possible to get both ironman achievements, it sounds to be a pain to achieve at first but trust me its not hard at all with the right set up.

1) How to activate ironman on your save

Its actually a bit buggy to activate ironman. In the new game menu, enable ironman mode with X then on the next screen, before selecting standard, make sure to press X again once. if you dont do that, your save wont be in ironman mode. Once you loaded in the game, exit to menu and go check in single player, commander, to make sure ironman was correctly activated. it will say "ironman mode enabled" with a skull image. Maybe it will get fixed in future updates.

2) How to keep your save if something goes wrong

If at any point you or one of your officers die, quickly press xbox button on your controller, press start on the game picture and close the game. You can also use the delete local save trick if you are familiar with it but its not needed (if you do that make sure to close your game after each level to create a new cloud save). Now you wont be stressed about ruining your run near the end also make sure to not fire any officers. It will void the achievement if they die, fired, or quit their job from stress. If they got too much stress you can always replay the first level or any easy level you like, to get them back to content.

3) The set up: officers traits, loadout weapons, armors...

We will go full no lethal. Because the weapon i used was insanely OP and in the same time it will avoid your officers to get stress or anxious from killing too many people. Its a perfect loadout for S ranks run as well.

- Officers traits: i will start with the officers traits cause you need to make sure you start your run with at least two of the following traits that i used. Since its completely randoms each run, dont hesitate to delete your save in the menu and repeat step 1 of this guide until you find a good traits list to begin with. you will unlock more officers as you complete levels for other traits. You are free to use any traits you like but here is what i used to be more tanky:
• Riot Control : increase duration of all stuns (you will understand why i use this)
• Armorer : Improve both your own as well as your team armor
• Nutritionist : Increase the health of you and your team
• The 4th officer was Pacifier to increase the chances of suspects to surrender when hit by less lethal munitions, but Negociator should be good as well or anything impacting suspects moral.

- Armors :
• Heavy armor with Ceramic + full coverage
• Helmet : Ballistic mask
• Face wear : anti flash goggles

- Weapons :
• Main weapon : M32A1 FLASH (Launcher)
• Pistol : anything you like, i used Magnum or MK V (only gonna keep this in case a suspect is stuck somewhere and you cant arrest him and dont want to restart a level)

• Long tactical : i used M320 flash to get more flash power but tactical shield is also a good option especially for your officers because it actually protect the back like an extra armor i dont recommand shield anymore because they will start messing up with it sometimes instead of just flashing enemies. just stick to M320 flash or anything you like to use!

• Munitions slots : 10 flashbang ammo + 1 side arm ammo AP bullet

Now you can register your Preset loadout with X and press RT to move on each of your 4 officers loadouts and use this same preset to all 4 of them. it wont change when you switch your officers, the loadout are for alpha, bravo...

4) Gameplay and tips

I am gonna give a few useful tips or overall informations that i can remember about ironman or the gameplay itself. You probably already know most of them.

Your only goal is to complete each level, the ranks doesnt matter but with this set up you will get lot of A+ or even S ranks. Dont hesitate to shoot a suspect with your pistol if they really dont want to drop their weapons, one or two kill is fine. Most levels are very easy but some might be a bit more tricky like the postal office or the last level in the port due to the crazy long range shooting. But hey anyway you can close your game if you have a bad run

On Elephant level (university) its fine if one civilian get executed. Thats what happened in my game and the only issue about it is that your officers will get anxious or stress. It really doesnt matter and after the following level they will be back at content if everything went well.

RB is your best friend : « move and clear » option on a door will let your team enter and clean everything around. With your flash grenade-launchers army, the suspects wont stand a chance and will most of the time surrender quickly , make sure they restrain everyone or press RB when aiming the targets. Dont even feel worried about sending your team in a ambush, they are really tanky and i NEVER had any officer dying in my whole run, but they are not invincible so if it happen just close your game.

Trapped doors : some missions has trapped doors, you can press A on door handle to peek door. Then check at bottom right of the screen if your RB action say « disarm trap » when aiming at the door. Faster and easier way to check for trapped doors.

Dont spam your flashbang too much and remember to hold X to check your ammo cause you will lose the remaining ammo if you reload too early. You also get 4 « free » flash ammo from your M320 flash (hold Y to equip) that doesnt use your launcher ammo.

So overall this strategy is just a flashbang firework, and that worked so easily and peacefully for me. Most guides on internet will tell you to protect your officers or even leave them at the spawn but here they will babysit you and once you get used to this gameplay you will complete the levels very fast. It can still be a bit annoying sometimes to look for the last civilian hidding in bathroom but i completed the run under 4h in game time. If you have any question feel free to ask !

I will try to explain everything that worked for me to make it as easy as possible to get both ironman achievements, it sounds to be a pain to achieve at first but trust me its not hard at all with the right set up.

1) How to activate ironman on your save

Its actually a bit buggy to activate ironman. In the new game menu, enable ironman mode with X then on the next screen, before selecting standard, make sure to press X again once. if you dont do that, your save wont be in ironman mode. Once you loaded in the game, exit to menu and go check in single player, commander, to make sure ironman was correctly activated. it will say "ironman mode enabled" with a skull image. Maybe it will get fixed in future updates.

2) How to keep your save if something goes wrong

If at any point you or one of your officers die, quickly press xbox button on your controller, press start on the game picture and close the game. You can also use the delete local save trick if you are familiar with it but its not needed (if you do that make sure to close your game after each level to create a new cloud save). Now you wont be stressed about ruining your run near the end also make sure to not fire any officers. It will void the achievement if they die, fired, or quit their job from stress. If they got too much stress you can always replay the first level or any easy level you like, to get them back to content.

3) The set up: officers traits, loadout weapons, armors...

We will go full no lethal. Because the weapon i used was insanely OP and in the same time it will avoid your officers to get stress or anxious from killing too many people. Its a perfect loadout for S ranks run as well.

- Officers traits: i will start with the officers traits cause you need to make sure you start your run with at least two of the following traits that i used. Since its completely randoms each run, dont hesitate to delete your save in the menu and repeat step 1 of this guide until you find a good traits list to begin with. you will unlock more officers as you complete levels for other traits. You are free to use any traits you like but here is what i used to be more tanky:
• Riot Control : increase duration of all stuns (you will understand why i use this)
• Armorer : Improve both your own as well as your team armor
• Nutritionist : Increase the health of you and your team
• The 4th officer was Pacifier to increase the chances of suspects to surrender when hit by less lethal munitions, but Negociator should be good as well or anything impacting suspects moral.

- Armors :
• Heavy armor with Ceramic + full coverage
• Helmet : Ballistic mask
• Face wear : anti flash goggles

- Weapons :
• Main weapon : M32A1 FLASH (Launcher)
• Pistol : anything you like, i used Magnum or MK V (only gonna keep this in case a suspect is stuck somewhere and you cant arrest him and dont want to restart a level)

• Long tactical : i used M320 flash to get more flash power but tactical shield is also a good option especially for your officers because it actually protect the back like an extra armor

• Munitions slots : 10 flashbang ammo + 1 side arm ammo AP bullet

Now you can register your Preset loadout with X and press RT to move on each of your 4 officers loadouts and use this same preset to all 4 of them. it wont change when you switch your officers, the loadout are for alpha, bravo...

4) Gameplay and tips

I am gonna give a few useful tips or overall informations that i can remember about ironman or the gameplay itself. You probably already know most of them.

Your only goal is to complete each level, the ranks doesnt matter but with this set up you will get lot of A+ or even S ranks. Dont hesitate to shoot a suspect with your pistol if they really dont want to drop their weapons, one or two kill is fine. Most levels are very easy but some might be a bit more tricky like the postal office or the last level in the port due to the crazy long range shooting. But hey anyway you can close your game if you have a bad run

On Elephant level (university) its fine if one civilian get executed. Thats what happened in my game and the only issue about it is that your officers will get anxious or stress. It really doesnt matter and after the following level they will be back at content if everything went well.

RB is your best friend : « move and clear » option on a door will let your team enter and clean everything around. With your flash grenade-launchers army, the suspects wont stand a chance and will most of the time surrender quickly , make sure they restrain everyone or press RB when aiming the targets. Dont even feel worried about sending your team in a ambush, they are really tanky and i NEVER had any officer dying in my whole run, but they are not invincible so if it happen just close your game.

Trapped doors : some missions has trapped doors, you can press A on door handle to peek door. Then check at bottom right of the screen if your RB action say « disarm trap » when aiming at the door. Faster and easier way to check for trapped doors.

Dont spam your flashbang too much and remember to hold X to check your ammo cause you will lose the remaining ammo if you reload too early. You also get 4 « free » flash ammo from your M320 flash (hold Y to equip) that doesnt use your launcher ammo.

So overall this strategy is just a flashbang firework, and that worked so easily and peacefully for me. Most guides on internet will tell you to protect your officers or even leave them at the spawn but here they will babysit you and once you get used to this gameplay you will complete the levels very fast. It can still be a bit annoying sometimes to look for the last civilian hidding in bathroom but i completed the run under 4h in game time. If you have any question feel free to ask !

I will try to explain everything that worked for me to make it as easy as possible to get both ironman achievements, it sounds to be a pain to achieve at first but trust me its not hard at all with the right set up.

1) How to activate ironman on your save

Its actually a bit buggy to activate ironman. In the new game menu, enable ironman mode with X then on the next screen, before selecting standard, make sure to press X again once. if you dont do that, your save wont be in ironman mode. Once you loaded in the game, exit to menu and go check in single player, commander, to make sure ironman was correctly activated. it will say "ironman mode enabled" with a skull image. Maybe it will get fixed in future updates.

2) How to keep your save if something goes wrong

If at any point you or one of your officers die, quickly press xbox button on your controller, press start on the game picture and close the game. You can also use the delete local save trick if you are familiar with it but its not needed (if you do that make sure to close your game after each level to create a new cloud save). Now you wont be stressed about ruining your run near the end

3) The set up: officers traits, loadout weapons, armors...

We will go full no lethal. Because the weapon i used was insanely OP and in the same time it will avoid your officers to get stress or anxious from killing too many people. Its a perfect loadout for S ranks run as well.

- Officers traits: i will start with the officers traits cause you need to make sure you start your run with at least two of the following traits that i used. Since its completely randoms each run, dont hesitate to delete your save in the menu and repeat step 1 of this guide until you find a good traits list to begin with. you will unlock more officers as you complete levels for other traits. You are free to use any traits you like but here is what i used to be more tanky:
• Riot Control : increase duration of all stuns (you will understand why i use this)
• Armorer : Improve both your own as well as your team armor
• Nutritionist : Increase the health of you and your team
• The 4th officer was Pacifier to increase the chances of suspects to surrender when hit by less lethal munitions, but Negociator should be good as well or anything impacting suspects moral.

- Armors :
• Heavy armor with Ceramic + full coverage
• Helmet : Ballistic mask
• Face wear : anti flash goggles

- Weapons :
• Main weapon : M32A1 FLASH (Launcher)
• Pistol : anything you like, i used Magnum or MK V (only gonna keep this in case a suspect is stuck somewhere and you cant arrest him and dont want to restart a level)

• Long tactical : i used M320 flash to get more flash power but tactical shield is also a good option especially for your officers because it actually protect the back like an extra armor

• Munitions slots : 10 flashbang ammo + 1 side arm ammo AP bullet
Now you can register your Preset loadout with X and press RT to move on each of your 4 officers loadouts and use this same preset to all 4 of them. it wont change when you switch your officers, the loadout are for alpha, bravo...

4) Gameplay and tips

I am gonna give a few useful tips or overall informations that i can remember about ironman or the gameplay itself. You probably already know most of them.

Your only goal is to complete each level, the ranks doesnt matter but with this set up you will get lot of A+ or even S ranks. Dont hesitate to shoot a suspect with your pistol if they really dont want to drop their weapons, one or two kill is fine. Most levels are very easy but some might be a bit more tricky like the postal office or the last level in the port due to the crazy long range shooting. But hey anyway you can close your game if you have a bad run

On Elephant level (university) its fine if one civilian get executed. Thats what happened in my game and the only issue about it is that your officers will get anxious or stress. It really doesnt matter and after the following level they will be back at content if everything went well.

RB is your best friend : « move and clear » option on a door will let your team enter and clean everything around. With your flash grenade-launchers army, the suspects wont stand a chance and will most of the time surrender quickly , make sure they restrain everyone or press RB when aiming the targets. Dont even feel worried about sending your team in a ambush, they are really tanky and i NEVER had any officer dying in my whole run, but they are not invincible so if it happen just close your game.

Trapped doors : some missions has trapped doors, you can press A on door handle to peek door. Then check at bottom right of the screen if your RB action say « disarm trap » when aiming at the door. Faster and easier way to check for trapped doors.

Dont spam your flashbang too much and remember to hold X to check your ammo cause you will lose the remaining ammo if you reload too early. You also get 4 « free » flash ammo from your M320 flash (hold Y to equip) that doesnt use your launcher ammo.

So overall this strategy is just a flashbang firework, and that worked so easily and peacefully for me. Most guides on internet will tell you to protect your officers or even leave them at the spawn but here they will babysit you and once you get used to this gameplay you will complete the levels very fast. It can still be a bit annoying sometimes to look for the last civilian hidding in bathroom but i completed the run under 4h in game time. If you have any question feel free to ask !

I completed it a week ago or so and I have this information:

-Loosing an officer (meaning an officer dying during a mission) doesn't ruin the run if you Alt+F4 fast (one of my officers died in Valley of the dolls, I did it fast and nothing happened, I tried again and kept going)

-Dying doesn't ruin the run if you Alt + F4 fast (I died one time on Elephant and another on Neon tomb and it happened the same as I was telling)

-Dying DOES count if you don't Alt + F4 fast (One time I died and let a couple seconds pass because I was shocked and doing Alt +F4 didn't work)

-During my run, some officers got anxious and even stressed and it didn't ruin the achievement, neither did sending them to therapy, so there's that.

-If someone wants to know what build did I have it was: If the mission is against (mostly) light armored or no armored enemies: mp5 with at least 3 magazines (specially in missions with a lot of suspects like hide and seek, relapse or greased palms) and a 509 as a side weapon, both with Hollow point rounds If the mission is against heavy armored enemies (like in Neon tomb or Clemente hotel): mp7 and and fiveseven, both with AP rounds

Lastly I used always ballistic mask, heavy armor with ceramic plates in the front, back and sides, 2 or 3 flashbangs/grenades (this depends on the map, for example in relapse I carried 6 grenades), mirrorgun and at least 1 wedge (THIS ARE EXTREMELY USEFUL if you know how and when to use them). For the rest of the team, always one red with a mirrorgun and the other with breaching shotgun/ram and the same with the blue team

For the record, during each mission it's essential to maintain a balance between the damage you have received and the damage each bot has received. If all the blue team are injured and red team is healthy, keep blue covering doors or your back and enter in new rooms or zones that you identify as dangerous with the red team.

Follow an order: stack up-->mirror-->if it's empty breach and enter and if not, breach, flash/sting and enter. Don't get confident cause you're finishing the mission and and play if you don't have enoght time, you'll spend a lot if you wanna do things right but it's the only way to get the achievement. Also, if an enemy is standing in an easy to shoot position, it's better for you to shoot him instead of sending your team (sometimes they fail even the most stupid shots). It's also essential to lean to the right and left before entering a room or around a corner, but NOT THE BASIC LEAN, the FREE LEAN is the one you want. GL :)