How to Find Targets — Spotting & Triangulation — Iron Nest Wiki

Launch Version / Updated: August 11, 2026

You are locked inside a 5,000-ton machine and can never see the battlefield. Finding targets in IRON NEST means turning intelligence reports into map positions using bearings, distances and a few geometry tricks. This guide walks through every method, from clean two-bearing fixes to shooting at a grid square with nothing but hope.

What Spotter Reports Give You

Field reports from the front line come in three flavors:

Two bearings — e.g. "Target #1 – Bearing 186° from Spotter #1 – Bearing 111° from Spotter #2"
Bearing + distance — e.g. "Bearing 42°, 3.4 km from Reference Point A"
Vague descriptions — "across the river," "near the burned farm," "behind the church tower"

Click the values onto your clipboard as you read them — you will need them at the map table.

Method 1: Two-Bearing Triangulation (Most Common)

When you have bearings from two known positions:

Place the known positions (spotters or reference points) on the map with their tokens.
Take the yellow pencil and draw a line from Spotter #1 in the given direction (186°).
Draw a line from Spotter #2 in its given direction (111°).
The intersection of the two lines is the target. The game displays bearing/distance as you draw — no math needed.
Mark the intersection with a red target token.

If the two lines do not quite meet, the target sits inside the small triangle between them. Average the two lines and place the token in the middle — spotter reports carry error margins that grow with distance (community-reported): treat close-range fixes as precise, and extreme-range intersections as estimates to confirm with a second observer or star shell.

Method 2: Bearing + Distance

When a report gives a bearing AND a distance from one known point:

Draw the bearing line from the known point as above.
Use the drafting compass: set the radius to the given distance and draw a circle centered on the known point.
The target is where the bearing line crosses the circle.

With two distance readings from different points (no bearings), draw both circles — the target is where the circles overlap.

Method 3: Dead Reckoning for Vague Intel

Reports that say "across the river" or "near the bridge" require educated plotting:

Anchor to landmarks — rivers, forests and roads are marked on the map. Start with the described landmark and estimate.
Triangulate the vague part — combine the description with a partial bearing: "across the river from Spotter 3, roughly east" becomes a sector to search, not a point.
Shoot the box — fire a first ranging shell at the center of the suspected area. Radio feedback ("target is west of the fall of shot") tells you which way to correct. Community practice: work in the smallest corrections that produce observable feedback.

Method 4: S.T.A.R. Illumination for Night & Fog

When visibility (or your intel) is poor:

Fire a S.T.A.R. illumination shell — it lights up a massive 12.74 km area, revealing enemy positions that were not in your reports.
Illumination is non-combat: it cannot kill anything, and it will not trigger counter-battery fire the way a combat shell does. Use it freely for recon.
Follow up with spotter reports describing the revealed positions.

Rules of Engagement When Plotting

Engage targets one at a time — complete one firing solution before starting the next.
Except enemy artillery: mark ALL artillery positions at once, before firing your first shell. The counter-battery timer starts the moment the first shell lands on enemy guns, and a second artillery position you have not plotted becomes a death sentence. Full details in the counter-battery guide.
Verify every number twice — bearing vs. range confusion, or a 180° misread, is the classic operator error.
Clean up old lines between engagements. A map full of stale yellow lines produces fresh mistakes.

From Plot to Firing Solution

Once the red target token is down:

Draw the final line from the Iron Nest to the target with the red pencil.
The displayed bearing and range copy to your clipboard.
Take them to the ballistic calculator and generate your firing card.

A good spotter makes the gunner's job trivial. A bad one fills the countryside with holes — and the occasional blue skull.