Iron Sky Invasion follows the good old Shoot-Em-Up formula of 'You vs. 5000' that already worked for space classics like Wing Commander. Luckily, no army in the history of mankind (and videogaming) has ever managed to launch all their units at once, which is exactly how you beat the game, and therefore the Kraut invasion: by blowing them up one by one.

You can finish the game in about 8 to 10 hours in total.

If you want to get all the achievements, NOTE THIS:
There seems to be a bug with not receiving achievements after you restart a chapter from the campaign menu. Read here. Your best shot at getting all the achievements is to carefully read this guide, use this knowledge to get everything right in the very first playthrough, and only use 'Continue' from the campaign menu. Read the important hints section on that.

Be sure to also check mercury's short guide, since I try not to repeat anything he already said.

If you're just playing the game for the first time, complete the tutorial, which will familiarize you with the basic in-flight, and get the hang of how flying and combat feels. Destroy the drones in under 30 seconds, and you already have your first 2 achievements.

This is also the best opportunity to check out the controls (Esc > Options > Keyboard) and customize them to your liking.

I heavily recommend switching to cockpit view during combat, aiming will be so much more precise.

• Move - pitch/yaw
  
• Wheel - accelerate/decelerate
  
• Left button - fire
  
• Right button - target nearest enemy / cycle subsystems

• A / D - roll
  
• Q / W / E - transfer energy to shields / guns / engines
  
• S - cycle weapons (S like "switch")
  
• F - toggle linked fire / single fire (F like "fire mode")
  
• V - toggle cockpit view / external view (V like "view")

The ISS is somewhat of your main base. Returning to the ISS after certain completed US missions will advance to the next chapter in the game. You can still finish side missions from the last chapter, except for the final mission (see Hints for Completing Achievements).


Visit the Korean and NWO space stations for side missions.


You can visit the stations any time to repair hull damage, resupply with missiles/rockets, sell salvage or to change ships, and then return to battle. The map ('Tab' key) is somewhat real-time-strategy-like, but you (and the George W.) can travel faster than the enemy.


Destroying ships (and their engine parts) spawns salvage that you can pick up, and later sell at space stations. This generates loads of cash, which means buying upgrades earlier.

Check the bases on the map for salvage prices. They start at $10 000, and drop by $500 every time you click on a sell action, no matter if you click sell one or sell all ! Therefore, it's best to sell all at once, which will never drop the unit price below $9 000. (If you use sell one, prices can drop to a minimum of of $4 520 to $5 000, depending on how far the price had recovered). The price slowly recovers over time, to the initial 10 grand max.

• My recommendation: first, focus on the guns, engine and shields.
  
  
• Usually, I'd say: upgrade the gun first, since that's what you'll use to obliterate your enemies 90% of the time. Guns to Level 2 or 3, then engine to L2, shields to L2.
  
  
• There's no point in maxing out the flare gun, missiles are easy to evade: fire up your afterburner to outrun them, or face them head-on and simply steer away from them - they seem to be pretty sluggish.

• Again, I recommend switching to cockpit view during combat, for more precise aiming.
  
• Salvage blows up after 30 seconds - make sure to collect them ASAP.
  
• Usually, once you're out of missiles/rockets, a resupply container spawns nearby (purple dot on scanners) which you can pick up to rearm, so you don't have to return to any station - and you don't have to be cheap. Have some fun. Blow sh!t up.

Use linked fire against the lightly armored Rheingold fighters. That way you can blast them with one properly aimed blow (like squatting little annoying flies).


You can blow up certain parts of medium / capital ships and asteroids:

• engines (each engine destroyed will yield one unit of salvage!)
  
• gun turrets
  
• missile launchers

So when you fire at asteroids and capital ships, be sure to fire at the engines first for maximum salvage, since it will decrease their hitpoints as well.

When you fire at bigger ships (Wotan, Zeppelins etc.), aim for the gun turrets. It will also decrease their hitpoints, but also bring their defenses down.


Wotan and Hanebu IV class ships have substantially weaker armor at the bottom side (the flat side). For example, Dundee Plasma Gun vs. Wotan: top side - 8 HP, bottom side - 36 HP!
If you fly the Dundee, you can destroy a Hanebu in one sweep with 3 heavy rockets: link fire, approach their bottom side, and make sure the rockets impact there. (For un-upgraded rockets, it takes three - once they are upgraded enough, 2 might suffice.)


The principles are basically the same: destroy the engines for salvage, aim at gun turrets to reduce enemy fire. The difference is the weak spot: the Hangar Doors. Be sure to fire there when a Zeppelin launches a new wave of Valkyrs.


Use the afterburner to stay close to the fast Rheingold fighters. To keep up the pursuit, boost engine energy ('E' key) the most to supply the afterburner, shields ('Q' key) only if you need, you won't need your guns during the chase. Don't fly directly behind their 6 o'clock position, or they will fire with their rear chaingun - instead, stay in their 4 or 8 o'clock position (keep them in the left or right half of your screen, that should do the trick).

• Rheingold (70 HP) - 10 Rep.
  
• Valkyr (100 HP) - 7 Rep.
  
• Alberich (400 HP) - 20 Rep.
  
• Wotan (800 HP) - 30 Rep.
  
• Haunebu IV (1000 HP) - 50 Rep.
  
• Brünnhilde (1500 HP) - 150 Rep.
  
• Asteroid - 300 Rep.

Allright then... let's head out and paint the sky with nice explosions!

• Master blaster - Destroy all drones in the Shooting Range in less than 30 seconds.
  
• Satellite chaser - Complete the tutorial part of the game.

• Fly me to the moon - Safely escort Renate to the moon.
  
• Nuke it from orbit - Repel the meteorblitzkrieg.
  
• It's the size of Texas, Lady President. - Detonate the Überasteroid.
  
• New moon - Destroy the Götterdämmerung.
  
• Yes she can - Complete all US President missions.
  
• The Russian reversal - Complete all Russian side missions.
  
• Outsourced - Complete all Indian side missions.

• Quantity AND quality - Purchase all upgrades for the Korean light fighter.
  
• All decked out - Purchase all upgrades for the Dundee bomber.
  
• Ke ke ke - Acquire the Xerg light fighter.
  
• Canadian handshake - Acquire the Canadarm heavy bomber.
  
• For king and country - Acquire the Spitfire frigate.
  
• The emperor protects - Acquire the Banzai heavy fighter.

• Scrapper - Collect 100 salvage.
  
• Hoarder - Collect 500 salvage.
  
• Chooser of the slain - Destroy 300 Walkyr ships.
  
• Gold digger - Destroy 100 Rheingold ships.
  
• Close encounters - Destroy 50 Alberich ships.
  
• The line is broken - Destroy 20 Wotan ships.
  
• Destroyer destroyer - Destroy 10 Hunding ships.
  
• The fall of the king - Destroy 20 Hanebu IV ships.
  
• Tug of war - Destroy 10 Brünnhilde ships.
  
• The Knight - Destroy the Biterolf capital warship.
  
• The Mystic - Destroy the Heinrich capital warship.
  
• The Aviator - Destroy the Herrmann capital warship.
  
• The Bard - Destroy the Tannhäuser capital warship.
  
• The Armorer - Destroy the Walther capital warship.
  
• The Baron - Destroy the Wolfram capital warship.

• Returning to the ISS advances to the next chapter, so do yourself a favor and finish all the side missions and clear the map of any hostiles (until the 'Take Me To Heaven' oldie song plays) before you return there, so you start the next chapter with a 'clean slate'.
  
  
• Keep your eyes open for Brünnhilde and Haunebu ships, they are the rarest, so the Fall of the king / Tug of war achievements are amongst the hardest to get.
  
  
• To score kills for the 'Destroy ship xyz' achievements, you have to land the killing blow, that is the shot that takes down the ship's last HPs. The confirmation for this is when you receive the appropriate amount of reputation in the messages (bottom left corner) upon destruction.
  
  
• To make sure you don't miss kills on certain ships (or asteroids), you can use a nice little veteran space pilot tactic: Keep the ships you want an eye on selected in your target scanner, and target and engage the sluggish Valkyrs old-school. Just spot ships visually in front of you, or use your forward and rear scanner displays (upper corners of your screen) to turn your ship towards red dots.
  
  
• Some of the Indian missions are to bring salvage to the NWO base, so stop by there first and check for missions before you sell your salvage somewhere else.
  
  
• The last Indian mission is to bring 40 units of salvage to the NWO base, so complete the Indian missions ASAP, because in the final chapter, there will not be that much salvage to collect!
  
  
• IMPORTANT: Directly after you destroyed the Götterdämmerung mega-ship in the final mission, the game will end with the credits, and you won't get to return to any base. So make sure you visit all the stations to sell salvage and get your 'missions completed' / 'upgrades maxed out' achievements BEFORE you head for the Götterdämmerung.
  
  
• Not an achievement per se, but if you're going for the leaderboard highscore, make sure you land the killing blows to big targets, also asteroids. These reputation bonuses affect your score considerably. Also, each unit of salvage picked up gives 5 Rep. In addition, you can boost your score by dragging out battles againts the Zeppelin capital ships, engaging repeated waves of Valkyrs for more kills before you destory the Zeppelin carriers.