Ironsand Enemies & Factions
Who you are fighting on the Long-Eared planet, and who will fight beside you.
Ironsand is not a generic horde shooter. The desert planet belongs to the Long-Eared, and the invasion is run by a named machine cult with several distinct enemy families. Learning what each group does is as important as picking a class. This page covers the factions Steam and Renderise actually describe, how they show up on each map, and which tools punish them. Pair it with the Maps Guide for locations and the Titan Boss Guide for the war platforms at the end of every operation.
Cult of the Iron God
The Cult of the Iron God is the occupying force. Their army is not only infantry. It fields combat drones, cyborg conversions, and the Titans that can level cities. Treat the cult as the campaign villain: every wave you clear is a piece of that occupation, not a random spawn table.
What that means in a run:
- Drones hold space and suppress with volume of fire.
- Cyborgs close distance and punish players who stand still in the open.
- Titans are the cult’s heavy platforms — unique loadouts, not reskins of the same HP bar.
If your squad is wiping before the boss, you are losing to the cult’s trash, not to the Titan. Re-read the Getting Started Guide and stop treating adds as filler.
Combat drones and cyborgs
Mechanical enemies are the most common threat on the Forward Push and in Arena waves. Electric damage is the matchup Steam-style elemental charts point toward: chain effects hop between clustered machines. Laser weapons also shine because they stay on target while a drone strafes.
How to fight them Stay staggered, not stacked. One rocket into a packed doorway deletes a cluster, but the same rocket deletes your Defender if they are holding that doorway. Engineers should plant turrets where drones funnel, not in the middle of a plaza. Medics heal after the volley, not during it.
Cyborgs want melee range. Dash (Shift) is not a sprint — it is your anti-grab tool. The achievement I Said Let Go! exists for a reason: something on this roster latches on. Break the grab, then dump close-range plasma or a Berserker burst.
Turret Takedown on Steam can mean enemy emplacements or your own Engineer kit scoring kills. Either way, treat hostile turrets as priority targets. They do not dodge, they do not panic, and they will chew a pad while you duel beetles.
Alien beetles and Arakh
The planet also has insectoid life. Steam highlights Arakh Exterminator, so beetle-class enemies are a first-class threat, not flavor. They appear most densely on the opening desert push. Organic targets take Fire well: burn DoT keeps working while you rotate to the next bug.
Do not tunnel on the Titan while beetles flank. Arena players especially fail this — they stare at the cannon and eat a latch from behind. Assign one player (often the Berserker or a laser Engineer) as bug control.
Snipers and lasers help for Headsplitter-style precision kills if you need a break from splash weapons. Rockets are fine for clumps, terrible if a Long-Eared ally is standing in the blast.
Radioactive mutants
The Depths introduced mutants born from elevated radiation. They belong in tight lava corridors, not on the bright desert start. Clustering is death: splash, radiation, and lava all punish a four-stack hugging the same corner.
Shake It Off is the achievement that most likely tracks clearing a status — stun, pulse, or radiation. The Medic is the cleanest answer. The Defender’s shield buys the seconds a Medic needs to top the squad before the next pulse. Do not save every cooldown for the Titan and then die to chip in a maze.
Use lava as a kill zone only when you can bait a mutant without standing on the drop yourself. Backpedaling into molten rock is the most common Depths wipe after “we ran past uncleared rooms.”
Titans as a faction, not a single boss
Each map ends with a unique Titan: turrets, missile barrages, pulse attacks, and heavy artillery. Spider Protocol: Shutdown strongly implies at least one chassis is spider-like, with joints and weapon pods you should break instead of spraying the torso. That is still a boss fight — it lives in the Titan Boss Guide — but you should think of Titans as the cult’s elite caste, not a separate game mode.
Adds do not stop when the Titan spawns. Arena is the clearest example: the cannon still needs bodies on the pad while the platform tries to shove you off. If your squad only learned “shoot the glowing bit,” you will lose to the wave, not the pattern.
Long-Eared allies
The Long-Eared are the planet’s people. Rescue them and they join raids. They are not a fifth class and they do not replace a missing Medic, but extra guns and a clutch save are real. Clear the room first. Extracting an NPC into a live beetle nest or a lava choke wastes the help they could give during the Titan.
Interact is E. If you see a prompt, call it. Solo players should still grab rescues; co-op should assign one person so three players do not all stop shooting.
Got Your Back is a co-op support unlock. Healing, shielding, or reviving a teammate is the obvious reading. Long-Eared NPCs might contribute in a pinch, but do not farm that achievement by ignoring human players.
Elemental cheat sheet
Use this as a planning card before you lock upgrades. Full weapon rankings live on the Weapons Tier List and the Weapons Guide.
| Element | Best into | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Electric | Drones, cyborgs, turrets | Chain damage through clustered machines |
| Fire | Beetles, organic packs | Burn keeps working while you reposition |
| Corrosive | Armored cult pieces and Titans | Armor reduction helps every weapon behind it |
| Cryo | Mixed waves and bosses | Slow plus a damage amp for the squad |
Arena wants Electric and Cryo so waves cannot flood the pad. Depths wants Fire for mutants plus a Medic. The Forward Push wants a mix because you will see machines and bugs in the same plaza.
Class jobs versus each roster
- Engineer — turret lines versus drones and Arena chokes. See the Classes Hub.
- Medic — mandatory-feeling on Depths chip and radiation.
- Defender — pad owner versus pulse and artillery.
- Berserker — beetle pops and Titan burst windows, not AFK pad sitting.
For four-stack jobs, use the Co-op Guide. For loadouts that match a faction, use the Best Builds Guide.
What we do not invent
Renderise has not published a full bestiary with HP numbers, spawn caps, or named elite variants beyond the families above. This wiki will not fabricate enemy names to look complete. When a patch adds a new mutant type or a fourth operation, it will land on Patch Notes first, then here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the most common questions.
Who is the main enemy in Ironsand?
The Cult of the Iron God occupies the Long-Eared planet with combat drones, cyborgs, and city-leveling Titans. Insectoid Arakh beetles and radioactive mutants appear as additional threats on specific maps.
What are the Long-Eared?
They are the planet’s inhabitants. Rescue them during operations and they can fight beside your squad. They are allies, not a playable fifth class.
Which element should I use?
Electric into machines, Fire into organic beetles and mutants, Corrosive into armor, Cryo when you need a slow and a squad-wide damage amp. Mix based on the map, not one element for the whole game.
Do adds stop when the Titan spawns?
No. Waves continue, especially in the Arena. Lose to adds and the Titan fight is already over. Assign someone to crowd control.