Achievements & Medals Guide — Steam Achievements & In-Game Medals — Iron Nest Wiki
How achievements and medals work in IRON NEST: Heavy Turret Simulator — the 33 Steam achievements, the 100+ in-game medal system, and proven strategies to farm medals efficiently.
Launch Version / Updated: August 11, 2026
IRON NEST ships two parallel reward systems: 33 Steam achievements tracked by Valve (per the official Steam store listing), and the in-game medal system with 100+ unlockable medals awarded per mission. The two overlap heavily — most Steam achievements are earned by collecting in-game medals. This guide explains both systems, what the community has confirmed so far, and the fastest reliable paths to the hard medals.
The Two Systems
| System | Count | Where It Lives | What It Tracks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam Achievements | 33 | Steam overlay / profile | Medal collection, story progression, campaign completion |
| In-Game Medals | 100+ | Mission end screen | Per-mission performance: accuracy, streaks, efficiency |
The store page confirms the achievement total, but the full official unlock list is community-documented rather than officially published. Exact unlock requirements for individual achievements and medals are community-reported and still being verified.
Confirmed Achievement Facts
- 33 achievements total, per the Steam store listing.
- Achievements sync with Steam cloud saves and support Steam Family Sharing (both confirmed on the store page).
- Most achievements are earned indirectly: play the campaign, collect medals, and the list fills itself. If you are chasing the full list, the fastest track is medal hunting — see below.
The Medal System — How Medals Are Awarded
Every mission awards medals across six confirmed categories:
| Medal Category | What It Measures | How to Farm It |
|---|---|---|
| Ally kills = 0 | Friendly-fire discipline | Confirm every target with a second spotter before firing; check the Iris radius before HCHE |
| Kill streak | Consecutive kills without a miss/escape | One target lane at a time; twin-gun pre-loading |
| Kills per shot | Efficiency — multi-kills per round | HCHE on clustered batteries and packed infantry |
| Requisition limit | Budget discipline | Lean loadouts — HE + powder only (see the requisition guide) |
| No recon planes | Map and spotter skill | Substitute S.T.A.R. star shells — they are ammunition, not recon requisitions |
| Counter-battery time left | Survival speed | Mark all batteries pre-shot, HE them fast, save FDC pauses for the end |
Mission-specific medal requirements — from Calibration Fire's extreme shot economy to the skirmish challenges — are catalogued in the story walkthrough guide.
Fastest Medals (Do These First)
| Medal | Mission | Loadout | Effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 kills, tiny budget | Rock of Gibraltar | 2× HE + powder | Trivial |
| Single shot fired | Calibration Fire | 1× HE + powder | Trivial — the first mission's gold |
| 0 recons, 15 kills | Siege of Cartagena | HE + one HCHE for clusters | Easy |
| 6+ streak, tight budget | Liberation | HE, spotters only | Easy |
| Long counter-battery survival | Counter-Battery / Phantom Battery | Fast HE on batteries, late FDC pauses | Medium |
| 5 kills, one shell | Skirmish – Chill | HCHE on a packed battery | Medium |
Medal Strategy Notes
- Medals are per-mission, not cumulative — a streak resets when you miss, so a clean mission is worth more than a spectacular one with friendly-fire incidents.
- Gold-tier medals reward restraint, not volume: the highest medal sets require 0 ally kills and tight requisition budgets. Treat each mission as a score challenge rather than a survival sim, and the medals follow.
- The two skirmish challenges exist precisely for achievement hunters — one with counter-battery pressure for the "counter-battery time left" medals, one without for kill-volume medals.