Requisition & Best Upgrade Path — Iron Nest Wiki

Launch Version / Updated: August 11, 2026

Requisition credits are the currency of the Iron Nest: they buy shells, powder charges, recon support and permanent upgrades. This guide explains how the economy works, every confirmed income source, the efficient earning patterns the community has settled on, and the upgrade order that wins.

How Requisition Credits Work

Earn them by completing objectives — and destroying priority targets marked with stars earns bonus points. Prioritize starred targets when planning engagements.
Spend them at the requisition station on ammunition, powder charges, recon planes, forward observers and emergency moves.
Credits do NOT carry over between sessions. Hoarding is strictly a mistake — a stockpile of credits is worthless the moment the mission ends. Spend them before major operations.
Powder charges are the base of the economy: shells are useless without them, so charge purchases are never wasted. Never leave the depot with an empty charge locker.

Where Credits Come From

Source	Income	Notes
Completing objectives	Base income per objective	Reliable, per-mission
Destroying priority targets (starred)	Bonus credits	The single best income multiplier — starred targets are worth far more than standard ones
Medal performance	Indirect	Gold medals gate the best missions and skirmishes
Skirmish challenges	Score-based	The only repeatable high-income mode (see below)

The income rule of the campaign: when the intel marks a target with a star, it is your highest-value shell target on the board. Plan the engagement order around starred targets first — a cheap HE round on a star is a better trade than an expensive AP round on a routine truck.

What You Can Buy

Purchase	Use
Shells	All confirmed types — see the shell types guide
Powder charges	Essential — the propellant for every shell
Recon planes	Reveal portions of the battlefield and hidden targets
Forward observers	Additional spotting assets — more triangulation data
Emergency moves	Relocate the Iron Nest to escape counter-battery fire
Upgrades	Permanent improvements to the machine (see below)

Earning Credits Efficiently — Community Methods

The One-Shot Multi-Kill (Community-Reported)

Score-runners found a repeatable high-value combo in challenge mode (community-reported):

Triangulate with a front-line infantry report + observer #2 — infantry reports give distance, the observer gives a bearing; the intersection is precise without spending a single credit on recon.
Line up an artillery position and its adjacent ammo depot in one solution — the depot is an underground/hardened target.
Fire ONE armor-piercing shell — AP penetrates the hardened depot; HE would splash the guns and leave the depot standing. One shot, two confirmed kills, a very high score.

The general lesson: the best score-per-shell ratio in the game is one AP round killing two adjacent hardened targets. Whenever two high-armor targets sit close together, that is your money shot.

How to Triangulate Without Buying Recon

"Triangulate" in this game means turning direction-only reports into one fixed map position — and you can do it without spending a credit on recon planes:

Take the infantry report's distance. Front-line infantry reports give a distance, not a bearing.
Take observer #2's bearing. A forward observer gives the direction.
Draw both on the tactical map. The bearing line and the distance circle intersect at the target — that intersection is your firing solution.

The same geometry works with any two spotter bearings: place the known tokens, draw each reported bearing with the yellow pencil, and mark where the lines meet (full method in the target-spotting guide). Two rules keep it honest: spotter error grows with range, so confirm anything beyond mid-range with a star shell, and re-check every coordinate entry — a rushed digit turns a clean intersection into a miss.

Why it belongs in a requisition guide: triangulation is the cheapest recon in the game. A pair of free spotter reports replaces a paid recon plane, and the saved credits go into powder charges and shells that actually kill something.

Credit Budgets That Win Medals

The gold-medal system pays in prestige and unlocks — and every one of its requisition budgets teaches the same lesson: efficiency, not volume. Budget ceilings below are community-reported and still being verified:

Mission	Budget Ceiling (Community-Reported)	What Fits
Rock of Gibraltar	Very tight	2× HE + powder — the cheapest medal in the game
Liberation / Counter-Battery / Dead Reckoning	Tight	HE + powder; skip recon; borrow star shells
Siege of Cartagena / Blind Fire	Moderate	HE + one HCHE for cluster shots
Skirmish – Chill	Volume — spending is the point	The one exception — buy everything

Farming insight: missions with tight budgets force you to learn the star-shell-only recon pattern, which then becomes your low-cost default for the rest of the campaign.

Challenge Mode — The Repeatable Farm

The two skirmish challenges are the only modes you can replay endlessly for score:

Skirmish – Challenge – Counter Battery Timer — pressure from the first shot; rewards fast solutions and clean kill chains.
Skirmish – Chill – Uncontested Front — no counter-battery fire; the volume farm. Its medals reward heavy spending and multi-kill shells — buy HCHE, wait for a packed battery, and let the credits flow.

The Recommended Upgrade Order

The community's core philosophy: "Build a machine you can trust before building one that simply hits harder." Consistency and control beat raw firepower every time.

1. Precision Trajectory Systems

Improves shot-to-shot consistency. Every shot you fire benefits, on every target, for the rest of the game. This is the single best first investment.

2. Hydraulic Improvements

Faster, smoother turret control — and the hydraulic system is the one that fails under stress. Less time cranking and fixing means more time shooting.

3. Armor-Piercing Shells

Unlocks/improves the AP capability that bunker and armored missions demand. Without it, hardened targets become grind-fests.

4. High-Capacity Explosive Shells

HCHE turns clustered targets into one-shot problems. Grab it once clustered batteries and packed infantry start appearing.

5. Enhanced Map Equipment

Faster, more accurate targeting workflow — reduced plotting time and better measurement precision. You live and die by the map; improve the map.

6. Recon Aircraft

Superior battlefield awareness: reveals hidden positions and reduces counter-battery risk. The better you see, the less you get shot back at.

7. Utility Ammunition

Smoke, illumination and gas flexibility. Situational, but the missions that need them need them badly.

Spending Strategy by Phase

Phase	Priority
First session	Powder charges + HE shells, then Precision Trajectory
Early campaign	Hydraulic Improvements, then AP
Mid campaign	HCHE, Enhanced Map Equipment
Late campaign	Recon Aircraft, Utility Ammunition

Liquidity rule: never spend down to zero before an operation — missions often dictate ordnance you do not have, and the requisition station is the only place to fix that.

Common Economy Mistakes

Pattern	Why It's a Trap
Hoarding credits "for later"	Credits evaporate at session end — spend before major operations
Spending down to zero mid-campaign	Missions dictate ordnance you may not own; keep a small buffer
Recon planes on every mission	Cheap star shells do most of the job; recon is for corridors that matter
Ignoring starred targets	You are leaving the highest-value credits on the board
HE on hardened targets	Splash damage, zero penetration — the shell is wasted either way; AP is the value round

The Reality Check

The upgrade tree numbers are still being mapped by the community at launch — the exact cost and effect scaling of each upgrade tier is not fully documented yet. The order above is the community consensus from the demo and launch coverage; expect refinements as the full tree is unlocked. Check back as we verify each tier's real values.