Ironbro: The Quest for Perfection

Say you finished campaign. Piece of cake right? Went through arcade on hard? Easy peasy. But then you notice another option farther down the menu.... THE IRONBRO CAMPAIGN. An insanely difficult trek through the campaign with a wrenching twist: Each bro has only one life. This is a guide on all the tips, tricks, and help I have figured out in my mass analysis of Broforce.

Please don't forget to give the guide a rating! I very much appreciate the support, as it is one of the only ways I can judge how well I did without people leaving comments. Your consideration and few seconds you take to hit that button is not lost on me!

This guide is now the #1 Top Rated guide for Broforce on steam! (At least in English.) Thank you all so much for your positive vibes. I'm sorry I never update it, but the core of the guide is still entirely relevant to the current Broforce Ironbro mode. I'll let you guys experiment with the new bros for yourself. Wouldn't want to spoil everything for you, would we?

Introduction

This is NOT a walkthrough.

Broforce is a game with semi-random events and Mook spawns. It is impossible to do a step by step of any sort for the normal levels. Instead, I will do the next best thing and tell you what to watch out for. I WILL do step by steps on how to kill most of the bosses.

This guide may become outdated at some point in the far future.

The Section Below Was Written at 11/29/15
From the way things look, Broforce will continue to be updated with new Bros and possibly, just possibly modifications to the campaign maps. I am going to come out now and say that even if this is the case, I will probably never update the guide. Now, hold on a second before you start freaking out. There is probably only a 5% chance that the campaign will be modified, since it would be a modification after the official end of the Early Access, and a heavy one at that. So don't worry, it will probably never happen anyways. But the reason I refuse to update it is because of the sheer scale of time writing and fact checking this guide took. Even my gigantic TF2 guide (Easily 3 times more text than this one) took less time to write because I could easily find out things or try them out myself. I spent a good EIGHTY hours playing through the campaign mode in Broforce over and over again. I'm actually sick of it and will probably never play it again for at least a year.

Below is a screenshot from my profile.

There will be notable sections in this guide, all of which are vital to the Ironbro campaign as a whole. Screw more than one of these up, and it cripples your chances of getting anywhere. I would know, most of them are mistakes I made.

All screenshots shown in this guide (Including boss intros and Zones on the map) were taken by myself, but were not publicly published to avoid spamming my friend's activity feeds. (Not including the faces of the Bros).

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Below you can find the video to the Broforce theme song. Feel free to open this up and listen to total badassery as you read this guide.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk-87jzhVhs

How the Ironbro Campaign Works

The Ironbro campaign is different from the primary campaign in a bunch of game-changing ways. The first is the most notable: Each bro only has one life. If they die, they stay dead. They cannot be brought back to life by any means, including restarting the level. It is possible to avoid dying by pausing the game and restarting the instant before you are hit, although this takes godlike reaction times and is fairly impossible for anything other than falling into a rather long pit. The second feature is the unlock system: You start with a random bro and unlock the rest as you save POWs. It is possible and quite easy to fail the entire campaign because you didnt unlock any other bros and died. A single MISSION FAILED results in expulsion from the campaign. Lives also carry through from level to level and zone to zone: You cannot fail a mission unless you lose all your lives. You can have a maximum of 30 lives, (One for each bro). Once you reach 30 you will never see another POW and can only lose bros from that moment on. Make sure to rescue as many POWs as possible, but don't go for it if it might put your current bro at risk. It is not worth losing a bro to gain one back when you could safely get one later. Dying during the campaign has the same results as dying with more than 1 life in arcade and normal campaign: You respawn at the last activated checkpoint and all the Mooks stop shooting randomly. Remember: The less deaths, the better.

Slightly Important Terms I Might Use a Lot

These here are some abbreviations or phrases that are not all that common outside this guide, but for the purpose of shortening segments and decreasing my general workload (I'm a lazy little ♥♥♥♥), they come in handy.

Restart Shuffle: The act of restarting the map/level multiple times to finally select the bro you wish to play the level with.

ROF: Rate of Fire. How fast a person can attack. Unlimited ROF means the character can attack as fast as you can mash the button like you are playing one of those controller-breaking rounds of Mario Party.

Mobility Bro: A Bro with abnormally high mobility in all directions. The best examples are Brocketeer, Brade, and Mr. Anderbro. Brocketeer can fly, Mr. Anderbro can fly to an extent, and Brade runs faster and jumps higher than any other bro.

Heavy/Damage/Attack Bro: A Bro with a massive attack power, like Brominator. Brobocop and Bro in Black.

Useless/Sword Bro: Any bro that doesnt have anything more than a sword to attack. Using these will get you killed a lot, use them as cannon fodder for run-for-your-life missions
Brade is NOT in this category, due to his high mobility he is still of use.

High ROF Bro: A Bro with no set limit on how many rounds it can fire off per second. These include bros from many other categories and unique to this one, like Ellen Ripbro, Indiana Brones, Brocketeer, Mr. Anderbro, and all the Stealth Bros (Mentioned Below).

Stealth Bro: Bros that naturally excel at stealth. They have silent weapons, often 1-hit-KO any normal mook and 3-hit-KO Bruisers. The only bros in this category are Double Bro Seven, The Brofessional, and the Brodator. These are your most valuable bros: Master how to use them and try not to get them killed.

Air Raid: Those oh so fun times when random bombs fly down from the sky and smite thy ruin upon the earth.

General Rules of Engagement

First things first: I hope you don't mind restarting the level.

BECAUSE YOU ARE GOING TO DO IT A LOT

It is absolutely nescessary to use a Bro suited to the level at hand: Do not just use whatever the randomizer gives you. This can sometimes mean sitting there hitting restart for a good 2 minutes or so, but it is one of the most important parts of the game. Thankfully, more often than not the randomizer gives you a good enough Bro to take down a level with. There are a few bros that should not be used very often, but we'll cover those later. For now, just general rules that apply to all levels:

Practice Your Butt Off

Practice makes perfect. Unfortunately for you, you kinda do need to be perfect. Constantly play the Ironbro campaign and see how far you can get using a single bro: Once you can clear up to Zone 3, start trying for real. If you can't make it to at least Zone 4-5 without dying once, you aren't ready for this guide yet.

Avoid Combat Whenever Possible

The real secret to not dying is to avoid any situation where dying might be an outcome. Mind you, this does not mean run like hell through swarms of enemies: I have died multiple times from unlucky Kamikaze Mooks, been shot straight out of the air, or fell into a pit by accident. Take your time, treat it like a stealth game more than anything else. The goal is no longer to see how much of the level you can destroy, but how many cheap tricks you can pull off to skip entire levels.

Try to "Specialize" With a Few Bros

Being fully adept at a single bro is already more useful than being passable at 10 of them. Being able to fully master a bro and avoid dying is incredibly useful for progressing through levels. Make sure you do this to at least 5 bros, and don't use them on very risky levels (Discussed Later). I personally prefer Brocketeer, as his unlimited fire rate and jetpack make him perfect for climbing all over the place and avoiding combat, but still packs enough punch to deal with almost any enemy.

You Don't Have To Kill Everyone On The Screen

This ties in heavily with the avoiding combat one up top. Taking more risks just to shoot a random mook can cost you your life; Something you can't afford to lose. Unless they are something you really can't walk around, avoid them entirely.

Decide Which Bros You Suck At Most (So You Can Sacrifice Them Later)

Despite your best effort, there are some bros you are going to suck with. The most common examples are Cherry Broling (Who constantly flies straight into enemies) and MacBrover (Who is practically useless in a straight fight). These are characters you are going to use on Run-and-Hope-You-Live levels (Discussed Later)

Cheap Tricks That Work Hilariously Well

As with all games, there are exploits and tricks. In the Ironbro campaign, being too prideful to use an exploit will do two things:

1) Make me laugh at you because you won't get anywhere.
2) Make the campaign much harder.

Exploits like the ones below can simplify things immensely, and possibly save you tons of lives.

Killing Bosses With the Bottom of the Map

The bottom of the map is a blank abyss that instakills anything that falls into it. This is your greatest, undefeatable enemy........ and your best ally. This same instakill can also defeat bosses. The ability to tunnel down and let a boss fall into the pit removes any damage to you or your bros. However, this strategy only works on a few bosses, listed below:

GR666 (Part of the battle)
Stealth Tank
Sky Fortress (It's possible but I haven't pulled it off)
Terrorbot
Satan: First and Second Form (This is technically possible, but the map is built so deep it might take a full 10 minutes to do, making it faster to try killing him.)

Brocketeers Jetpack

I kid you not, I got to Zone 7 just using Brocketeer's jetpack. He jumps higher than every other Bro, can glide far distances, and kills normal and kamikaze mooks with the flames alone. This is invaluable on level that require you to climb up or have plenty of abandoned rooftops to jump to and from. Be careful though: If you get Brocketeer killed, you'll have to use the normal way for every other bro from then on out.

Tunneling Under The Map

Many sucessful war strategies have involved flanking in some way. A small, but very effective handful involve flanking from underneath, or tunneling. In a game where the is no depth and so no left and right to dodge enemies on, the only options are up and down. With up usually not an option, down is left open and viable. It is incredibly easy to Restart Shuffle into a high ROF character and tunnel your way to the end of the level. This comes into play a lot during Alien levels, as you can usually climb higher up into the map at an early time and tunnel through to the finish, while avoiding all the aliens and headcrabs.

The Incredible Flying Pig (Only works with knife melee Bros)

This is a well known / not well known glitch in Broforce that requires a pig and a knife. If you kill a pig, then hop on its corpse and knife it repeatedly, it will fly away with you on top of it. You can literally fly over entire levels, then jump down, shoot Satan and grab the helicopter ladder before any Mooks realize what's going on.
This requires using the Brommando, Bro in Black, Ellen Ripbro, Mr. Anderbro, or Rambro. Thankfully all pig spawns except one are located right at the beginning of the level, so you can easily Restart Shuffle to get a knife using character.

Super Mook Armor

This one isn't so much of an exploit as it is hilariously buffed. Unlike Alpha Broforce, you no longer need to kill the Super Mook to get inside, you simple need to get on top of it and melee. This will throw out the Mook inside and give you control of the armor. You can use this armor in two ways:
1) Use it as an impenetrable wall of firepower
2) Use all of its fuel to fly as far as you can into the level then smash down, killing all nearby Mooks while progressing you far through the level.
The flaw with the second option is the lack of knowledge about your landing zone: There is always a possibility it's over a chasm, a low section of the map or a bridge, and can kill you if you don't bail out fast enough. Another possibility is overshooting the finish entirely and falling into the abyss below.

Bros You NEED to Keep Alive

As a general rule, bosses are harder than normal enemies. As such, they tend to chew through lives like a fat kid eats candy on halloween, especially on a bad day. The bros listed below are ones you need to keep alive SPECIFICALLY for bosses.

Bro Dredd
Dredd is a normally mediocre Bro with an average powered pistol, but a slow melee. Where this character shines is in his special. Bro Dredd can remotely control 3 rockets to almost anywhere on the map within a medium time limit. This special will be vital to the Rail Fortress boss, mentioned later, and it can also help in the Terrorbot fight as well. He can also come in handy during the Terrorbot fight, but is only essential during the Rail Fortress. Its fine if he dies after that. (Well not really fine because it's Ironbro mode, but you get what I mean.)

The Brominator
The Brominator is one of the most powerful Bros in the game: wielding a minigun that fires more rounds per second than any other gun in the game times 3. As a tradeoff, he is slow, takes time to wind up the gun, and is not very suited to long levels with lots of enemies or explosive barrels lying around. However, he is invaluable for obliterating chunks of Boss health. This will especially come into play with bigger, immobile bosses like the Terrorkrawler, Humongocrawler, and Satan: Final Form.

B.A. Broracus
BA wields one of the most lethal short ranges weapons in the game, the Flamethrower. While this may not be of outstanding use or purpose in Zones 1-7, BA is almost essential for the Alien Invasion missions. Aliens instakill any Bro they touch, and are more resistant to bullets than Mooks. More than 3 of them at a time can overwhelm even the most skilled of players. BA's flamethrower negates that, causing every and any enemy to flee in terror before the fire belching gas-guzzler, it is capable of carving a path of destruction through aliens like a knife through butter. Beware, however: BA is not particularly powerful against bosses, so the likes of the Terrorkrawler and normal Krawlers can and will kill him if given the chance.

Brodell Walker AND/OR Ash Brolliams The reason these two need to be kept alive is because of their shotguns. Weird, right? If you think about it, it makes sense. Shotguns do insane damage close range and have an oddly high rate of fire, as well as shoot some pellets downward. This makes them excellent for tunneling downwards through levels, while also not losing any attack power. These characters will become vital in bosses like the Terrorkrawler or Terrorbot where your best chance of survival is to tunnel down.

The Ironbro Campaign: Formatting

I will list all the zones in the campaign from here on out, and they will follow a strict format, as seen in this section:

General Information

This is where I will list general info about the zone, such as its structure and its boss, although the boss will be heavily detailed later in the section.

Noteworthy Features

This is where aspects more or less unique to the zone in terms of enemys will appear. A good example of this is Zones 9 and 10 that have more Sawblades, Rocket chambers, and RPG Mooks than any other zone in the campaign.

MVB (Most Valuable Bro):

The Bro that I believe was the most suited for this area, and why. Take note! I may be wrong about some of these in regards to other people, this was my personal opinion. I choose the bro I did the best with.

The Boss (The Name Goes Here)

Direct Danger Level: Danger posed directly from the boss on a 1-10 scale
Indirect Danger Level: Danger posed by things in the boss area but not the boss itself. (Examples would be Mooks parachuting in, tons of explosive barrels, etc)

Down here would be a brief summary of the boss and how I personally handle it. Unless something way out of the norm happens, these methods will allow you to kill the boss without dying once, which really saves on lives. The walkthroughs will also have screenshots that I personally went and took to help explain them.

The Ironbro Campaign: Zone 1

General Information

Zone 1 is really as easy as Broforce ever gets. With very spread out enemies and incredibly short levels, there is no excuse for dying in any of these. If you can't make it through the entire zone without dying once, you aren't ready for Ironbro Mode.

Noteworthy Features

The only enemies on these levels (Besides the 3 Big Mooks on the last level) are normal Mooks and Kamikaze Mooks (K Mook). Small amounts of explosive barrels.

MVB: Any

Any bro would do perfectly fine on any of these levels.

The 3 Big Mooks

I don't really count this as a boss, mostly because it never was in the Alpha and is really just the introduction for a common enemy. Anyways, these three Big Mooks can be killed just like normal Big Mooks (B Mook), although watch out for the crossfire if you decide to go inbetween the first two. It's safer to go around on the left and climb past them to the top, shooting the top B Mook and then killing Satan to finish Zone 1.

The Ironbro Campaign: Zone 2

General Information

Zone 2 is basically Zone 1 but now with a bit more enemies, intoducing Mook Trucks and implementing B Mooks into the general rabble. Levels have gotten a bit longer, but are still relatively easy to climb over enemies.

Noteworthy Features

Plenty of hills and the sort to take alternate routes over enemies. A fair amount of Mook Trucks show up, which dispense about 5-6 Mooks (I haven't actually counted). Remember! Mook Trucks cannot be shot through by any Bro until they are destroyed, while Mooks CAN shoot through them. Always go over the trucks and don't bother killing them in most cases, just keep running before all the Mooks spawn out of them.

MVB: Any

Another assortment of average levels leads to no single Bro standing above the rest.

Terrokopter

Direct Danger Level 2
Indirect Danger Level 2: A few Mooks scattered around the level, shouldn't be a problem.

The Terrorkopter is not a boss worthy of its name, as it is by far the easiest to destroy with minimal effort. Simply take up a position in the area shown below, and as the Kopter approaches, open fire. If it starts to charge its minigun, go down the ladder a bit, then come back up and keep shooting. You should kill it in under 20 seconds.

The Ironbro Campaign: Zone 3

General Information

Zone 3 is where things start heating up a bit. Enemies are more grouped together, and Mook Doors are more common (Those spawn doors that keep spawning Mooks until the block underneath them is destroyed). B Mooks are now common and Dogs are first introduced. Bridges are a common thing, so watch out for bridges suddenly collapsing.

Noteworthy Features

More hilltops and jumps to take advantage of if you choose to use a Mobility Bro. There are a lot of Dogs in this zone, so if you are bad at handling them try to stay on the top of things.

MVB: Mr. Anderbro

Mr. Anderbro's high mobility in terms of directional boosts (Boosting up and forward) take full advantage of the hills and high platforms to avoid enemies, but still has enough fistpower to annihilate the boss and common enemies.

Terrorkanon

Direct Danger Level 0
Indirect Danger Level 3: Spawns Mooks all around it but usually doesn't live long enough to spawn too many

This fight is so simple and easy I dare say it is more pathetic than the Terrorkopter. Simply run up and shoot it until it dies, which it will do so very fast due to its low health. Avoid getting shot for a few second before the end of level screen shows so you don't possibly lose a life.

The Ironbro Campaign: Zone 4

General Information

Zone 4 is the introduction of buildings into the Broforce campaign. As with all buildings, they tend to have roofs and rooms, which can mean going from open places to very cramped ones quickly. It also introduces Grenade Mooks (G Mook) into the equation.

Noteworthy Features

Has a lot of skyscraper-like buildings, which means a ton of pits to go along with it. Watch out for drops. There are also G Mooks, which while not particularly threatening when alive, if shot too many times after death they can release another grenade with no warning, which can cause a lot of trouble for you in a cramped area, especially if you don't notice it get released from their corpse. The last level also introduces Super Mooks, which have a vareity of uses. There are three in total on the final level.

MVB: Brocketeer

Brocketeer's jetpack can allow you to fly easily from building to buidling without being shot at much.

For some reason Zone 4 has nothing resembling a boss or boss introductory screen.

The Ironbro Campaign: Zone 5

General Information

Zone 5 is one of the two "burning" zones. Basically everything is on fire and everything sucks. This zone is home to the worst level in the game, the Air Raid level. The 2nd level in the game also has air strikes, but not nearly as many as the first level. Super Mooks can be found here and there in level 2.

Noteworthy Features

A lot of air strikes can occur at random times in random places, often right in front of you. Some of these are specifically designed to kill you if you don't stop and take a step back. It also introduces Drillers, which drill up from the ground and release Mooks around them. These are only annoying if you stay in one place too long, or if you happen to step on one while it is drilling, which will kill you instantly.

MVB: Brade

Brade's speed and jump height are key for avoiding Mooks and Air Raids alike, as he can outrun many of the air strike traps and make Level 1 easier to finish. Beware, however, as losing Brade is always a possibility. Make sure you are willing to take that risk.

Stealth Tank

Direct Danger Level 6
Indirect Danger Level 2: A few Mooks here and there, nothing extreme

The Stealth Tank is the first real boss in Broforce. Packing more mortar rounds, an insanely high caliber minigun, and grenades for good measure, it is really a nasty piece of work trying take head on. Thankfully, I don't fight fair and this is how I killed it without dying.

Required Bro: Ash Brolliams or Brodell Walker
These screenshots were taken during different playthroughs, thus the different character and lives.

Directly after you drop down into the boss area, turn around and shoot into the wall. Eventually you will reach a natural cave area that will take you farther down. At the bottom there is another cave to your left: ignore that, going down it will kill you. Proceed to tunnel to the right until you think you are roughly below the tank. (Feel free to grab some POWs as long as you tunnel to reach them: it's free lives and it won't cause the Stealth Tank to start attacking.) Use your shotgun to start emptying a cavern a few blocks below the tank, but leave some walls to climb back up to the top. Once your cavern looks roughly as sparce as the second picture, climb back up to the tank and shoot out the blocks you left underneath it. Make sure there aren't any blocks covering the bottom of the map! The Tank is actually not a heavy object in the game and it will land on the tiniest things between it and the bottom of the map. You may have to go down and shoot out blocks from under it. The Tank should fall all the way down through the cavern and hit the bottom of the map, killing it instantly.

The Ironbro Campaign: Zone 6

General Information

Zone 6 is a fairly crowded area with a a decent assortment of all Mook types, except for RPG and G Mooks. Level 1 of this zone has a pig at the start, allowing for the use of the Incredible Flying Pig exploit to skip a level, assuming you don't overshoot the finish or fall off your pig into a crossfire.The levels are hilly and allow for multiple paths to be taken, which means more ways to avoid enemies. Watch out for explosive barrels, there seem to be a lot.

Noteworthy Features

Other than the Incredible Flying Pig exploit in Level 1, nothing really stands out. Even the boss is pretty tame. It's just an average campaign level of Broforce. I believe there is a B Mook right outside of the screen when you start Level 2, so be on guard for random fire. A few Drillers here and there.

MVB: Broniversal Soldier (And no, it's not because the boss is GR666, a parody of another character from the film Universal Soldier.)

Broniversal's unique bullets that carry enemies with them into other enemies proved entertaining effective against large crowds, especially when the first one you shoot is a K Mook.

GR666 (Yeah, it's actually G, not C. Common misread.)

Direct Danger Level 5
Indirect Danger Level 0: Maybe 1 or 2 Mooks lying around. Often die from GR himself.

GR666 is actually one of the easiest bosses that has been around since Alpha Broforce and before the Alien Update. While actually packing quite a lot of firepower (Rapid fire rocket launcher, grenades, super smash jump, and air strikes), because of a commonly known method for defeating him almost nobody dies to him anymore. This method uses the Super Mook found in this area shown in the picture to the left. Grab the armor, fly to the start of the boss fight, then just let it rip man. None of GR's attacks can penetrate the armor, and while he will of course get back up again once you "kill" him, you can still knock him down in almost 3 seconds, then blast his body away with the twin miniguns. Remember to grab ammo refill packs from USA flag boxes to refuel your Super Mook armor's jetpack. Keep shooting him to the right until he eventually falls off the cliff at the end (Or in some cases jumps off it himself). Easy boss fight.

The Ironbro Campaign: Zone 7

General Information

Zone 7 is home to some of the less hospitable city levels in Broforce, as well as a boss so erratic in its performance I could never come up with a solid, 100% success rate to beat it. This is also the zone with the descender level, which I'll cover in a second.

Noteworthy Features

Level 1 in this zone is your average annoying city level (All of which I hate in general). Its easy to fall of the roof, its so enclosed that one explosion takes half the building and you with it, and there are an annoyingly high amount of B Mooks. However, it is short. Level 2 is a descender level, where instead of going to the right, you go down. This one isn't so bad until about halfway through when you come across a SWARM of G Mooks. These things can and WILL eradicate the entire portion of the map they are on through sheer volume of grenades. All it takes is for one grenade to kill another G Mook and then his body spawns a grenade which sets of a chain reaction. Until you are absolutely sure everything is done exploding, don't go down any farther. There are also 2 Super Mooks in very tight areas, so be careful.

MVB: The Brofessional

The Brofessional's 1 hit 1 kill pistol is perfect for the tightly packed rooms of the buildings in Level 1, and his special makes quick work of B Mooks. During the descender level his ability to teleport melee comes in handy to escape explosions, as well as simply kill G Mooks before they can cause a problem.

Megacockter (My least favorite boss)

Direct Danger Level 7
Indirect Danger Level 9: Between the bottom of the map killing you, the amount of Mooks shooting at you that you can't see, the lack of maneuvering room and K Mooks, the second part of the boss battle becomes the most deadly part of the entire game.

The Megacockter battle is separated into two parts:

Let it be known that I am NOT sure what happens if you fall off the end of the Megacockter battle area. I have never hit it myself in Ironbro and it was originally designed to restart the battle in normal campaign and arcade if the player failed to hit enough propane tanks to destroy it.

First Part
To begin, Cockter drops down from the sky and starts shooting up the building you just entered. This part is really simple: First, before you enter the building Restart Shuffle until you find a bro that you don't mind dying (Do NOT choose MacBrover or Cherry Broling, as they WILL die and get you nowhere in this battle.) Run up the building as fast as you can, ignoring all the Mooks in your path and grab the zipline at the top.

Second Part
This part is where things get very annoying. To begin with, if there is a K Mook on the roof across from you, destroy the box blocking its view of you and let it run to its death before the Cockter starts dropping bombs. Jump over to that roof and wait until the front of the Cockter gets just right in front of the propane tank before shooting it and running to the next one. Remember to use propane tanks on the second floor too, but do NOT GO DOWN PAST THE SECOND FLOOR. Due to a map edge glitch going on the third floor CAN be treated as the bottom of the map and may kill you, not to mention it's almost impossible to see yourself. Stay on the roof and 2nd floor. Ignore any Shielded Mooks and focus on the propane tanks and timing them. Don't just shoot them and hope for the best, try to line up your shots before you fire them off. Don't take down your guard though, and make sure there aren't any normal Mooks that have a clear bead on you. After about 5 propane tanks or so the Cockter will enter an explosion cutscene of sorts. YOU CAN STILL DIE AND LOSE A LIFE HERE, SO DO NOT MOVE A MUSCLE. Wait until the animation is done and the level beaten screen shows up before continuing.

The Ironbro Campaign: Zone 8

General Information

Zone 8 is another burning zone, but this time with less air strikes. Now it just has more explosives coming from enemies. The layout is like other past island levels: plenty of hills and a tall mountain to climb up in Level 2.

Noteworthy Features

This zone has more Mortar Trucks and Missile Tanks than any other zone I can remember off the top of my head. There must be at least two in every level, and there are about 5 Missile Tanks in Level 2. Burning levels seem to be synonymous with explosions because it also seemed like there were more K Mooks than usual. When it comes to vehicular explosions, keep running past them so they don't have time to fire off at you. For K Mooks, try not to run into them and get blown up.

MVB: Brade

Brade just seems to do really well with burning levels. He runs past everything easily, can climb mountainsides almost as well as Brocketeer can, and he can solo the boss.

Sky Fortress

Direct Danger Level 8
Indirect Danger Level 4: Occasional Mooks lying around, after it loses its two rocket sides it will start throwing Mooks, particularly K Mooks out of the top of it, causing some problems.


What better way to finish off a zone with too many explosives than by adding MORE explosives.
The Sky Fortress is relatively easy to kill, but you need a high ROF Bro, like Brade or Ellen Ripbro. Just as the cutscene ends, haul butt over to the Fortress and climb onto the left tread, pressing yourself against the wall. This is to prevent the Fortress from shooting the three APOCALYPTICALLY sized rockets at you that you really just do not want to deal with. If you see the left wall open to reveal the cannon, immediately restart the map as this means you didn't move fast enough and are about to get 10 megatons of explosive force point blank into your face. Once against the wall on top of the left treadmill, shoot as fast as you can until the left wall is destroyed. Climb over to the right wall (Even if the Fortress is currently flying) and do the same to that side, making sure that you are right up against the wall to prevent it from firing the big bombshells. Once both walls are destroyed, the next time it touches the ground, hop off the Fortress as it will shed the two broken walls and go solo with the middle of the Fortress. Before it takes off again, hop on to the side of it and grab on. Do not let go if you can help it, as without the two walls the Fortress progresses to the right much faster and ever catching it again can pose a serious risk from all the Mooks it shoots out. Once you are latched onto the side, shoot as fast as you can again until the Fortress hits 0 health. When it starts to play its death animation, climb on top and stay there until the level ends to prevent being shot by a random Mook on the ground while waiting for the fight to finish.

The Ironbro Campaign: Zone 9

General Information

Zone 9 and 10 are the introduction to what I refer to as the Terrorist Camp subset of level designs. It has plenty of underground bunkers, actual roofs for once, and a whole load of new wall, floor and ceiling based defense systems.

Noteworthy Features

Zone 9 and 10 are the introduction to the Sawblades (Everyone just loves these don't they) and the Missile Defense System (MDS for short). Both of these more or less function with the idea of motion sensing in mind, and both can kill their allies just as much as you for some seriously chaotic collateral damage. Sawblades in particular can throw up so much blood and dirt that you can't see where the blade is until it's too late. NEVER THINK YOU CAN OUTRUN A SAWBLADE. It will always dispense before you get past it. Instead, try to avoid them entirely, or if you have to go past them, lure out a single sawblade, avoid that, then run underneath during the cooldown time. The MDS is simpler to destroy: Just attack it really quickly before it activates.

MVB: Bro Max

An unusual choice, right? Max's flame pellet shotgun actually 1-hit-kills Sawblades dispensers and MDSs point blank, making it excellent defense. It works wonders in the underground bunker areas, and keeps the numerous B Mooks from getting a shot off due to the fear caused by fire.

Rail Fortress

Direct Danger Level 3
Indirect Danger Level 10: Between the tons of Mooks, Sawblades, Explosive Barrels and general other crap caused by the missiles from the Fortress, simply climbing up a single story can kill a player.

Normally this would be a grueling uphill battle until you finally manage to catch up and kill the Fortress. Thankfully, there is a much easier solution.

Requires Bro Dredd

Restart Shuffle until you have Bro Dredd. Get to about the point where the cutscene plays, then don't go any higher. Use Dredd's special (Make sure you aren't facing a wall, numnuts.) and guide the rocket into one of the WALLS of the Fortress. Not the ceiling or floor, but the wall. After the hole is made, guide another missile THROUGH the hole you created and destroy the screen in the Fortress. Boom. Boss defeated with absolutely no effort or risk.

The Ironbro Campaign: Zone 10

General Information

Zone 10, along with Zone 9, is part of the Terrorist Camp level design subset. As such, it has bunkers, rooms, WAAAAAAY too many sawblades, slightly more dogs than usual, a lot more B Mooks than usual, and telephone poles.

Noteworthy Features

Level 1 of this zone is an ascendance level, meaning you climb very far up to reach a goal. However, this ascendance level is VERY narrow, and usually spawns too many K Mooks and explosive barrels for comfort. Be incredibly careful on how you climb it so that everything doesn't start exploding, because you will be inside that blast radius. As with all Terrorist Camp areas, there are also plenty of Sawblades and MDSs to be found here as well.

MVB: Mr. Anderbro

Mr. Anderbro is not usually my Bro of choice, due to his limited range. However, this works perfectly with the ascendance level. The close quarters allows for instant hits, and his punches knock K Mooks straight off the platform, preventing chain explosions from occurring.

Terrorbot

Direct Danger Level 8
Indirect Danger Level 7: Due to all the Sawblade dispensers lying around, as well as the assorted Mooks and explosive barrels, dying from the level itself is not an uncommon occurrence.

There are really two ways to do this. One is risky, the other is tedious and requires certain Bros to work.

Risky
The risky way to do this is to try and wait until it eventually stomps its way to the bottom of the map. You can help it along its way, but will also have to dodge missles, gunfire, grenades and air strikes.

Tedious

Requires either a Tunneler Bro (Ash or Brodell) or another high spread damage Bro like Brommando.

The tedious way starts here, in the picture to the right.
At around this area, you need to tunnel up to ALMOST the top of the map. DO NOT GO PAST THE 5TH TOP LAYER. IF YOU DO, YOU WILL ACTIVATE THE TERRORBOT. Once you do that, you need to tunnel down to ALMOST the bottom of the map. If you actually tunnel down to the bottom you risk falling in yourself. Once you do this, the entire middle of the map should be gone. Go up and activate the Terrorbot. Immediately after the cutscene, shoot out the ground from underneath the Terrorbot. If all goes well, it should fall straight down and smash through the bottom layer, dying instantly. If not, wait until it eventually slams down of its own accord and dies.

The Ironbro Campaign: Zone 11

General Information

Really, nothing more needs to be said here. Zone 11 is the introduction to my favorite enemies and levels in the game (Though not the easiest enemies and levels in the game). The aliens are a swarm based enemy, meaning you will likely never run into just 2 or 3 of them. Especially in Level 3 or 4 (Can't exactly remember and I am NOT going all the way back through campaign to find out) when there are almost ten of the f*ckers in a cave after a drop down from a hill. Here's my advice for that part: Save yourself the trouble and just run. It also introduces headcrabs, which aren't much of a threat unless you make the stupid mistake of walking under them.

Noteworthy Features

Nothing already that wasn't mentioned earlier. Another note on the headcrabs is that they don't have to be attacking to latch on to you, they just have to touch your head and its lights out.

MVB: B. A. Broracus

As I mentioned much earlier in the "Bros to keep alive" section, BA's flamethrower is the ultimate anti-Alien weapon. It causes fear, which prevents aliens from touching / instakilling you and has penetrating damage, meaning you don't get that annoying death where the bullets wouldn't go through the corpse and the alien just jumped over it and killed you.

Acid Crawler

Direct Danger Level 6
Indirect Danger Level 0: Nothing else in this area except the boss.

The Acid Crawler is a bit like the Bruisers back in Zone 1. It's just a buffed up version of an enemy that will appear about 2 more times throughout the alien zones. The trick to beating him is simple. Tunnel down like in the picture down below and shoot him until he dies. Make sure there are at least 4 blocks between him and you, or else the acid might eventually burn through to you.

The Ironbro Campaign: Zone 12

General Information

Zone 12 is the start of the underground alien levels. Less Mooks, and WAY more aliens. Also, more opportunities for tunneling, both above and below. In one of the levels, possibly Level 1 or 2, there is a section with a checkpoint sided by two wall-ish structures and holes in the ceiling. This is one of the dreaded "Alien Survival" sections. Almost 20 aliens will start to pour out of the ceiling and swarm you, overwhelming you with sheer numbers. I suppose you could run for your life, but I would also advise you choose a good damaging bro with fast ROF, like Double Bro Seven.

Noteworthy Features

The only really noteworthy things here are the rocks and the egg pods. Boring, right? The rocks in the alien levels have a huge weight assigned to them , similar to the heavy blocks in earlier levels but on a larger scale. Many parts of the level are rigged to drop rocks on your head if you fire a shot off, so if the ceiling suddenly vanishes from above you get out of the way. Egg pods shoot out headcrabs after a while, but are usually no threat. If you bump into them or jump on them it causes them to spit out a headcrab, which may cause problems. Other than those two, nothing to report.


Except for this.
A hellish level designed to cause pain and death. It is filled to the brim with spikes that show no mercy in its design. Amazingly, there is actually a way to skip the ENTIRE LEVEL. You need to back up to the open area you came through and climb up the wall to the place shown on the screenshot. You then have to dig to the right a bit until you see the open sky above the spike area. Dig up and over until you enter the empty area up to. Run until you see a hole built into it. Slide down the hole, and the end of the level is right in front of you.

MVB: Ash Brolliams

I say Ash because of two things: Shotguns work wonders in close quarters, and the chainsaw special. During the Alien Swarm, I easily sawed my way through most of the crowd before blasting away the other half with the shotgun.

Humongocrawler

Direct Danger Level 2
Indirect Danger Level 5: Rocks constantly fall from the ceiling and can crush you without warning.

The first true boss of the alien level, the Humongocrawler (HG for short) is exactly that: a giant alien that crawls. With no true main method of attack, it simply roars like crazy, causing the ceiling to collapse and release tons of rocks which can crush you easily. Thanks to an update a while ago, it also shots three balls of acid spit in a row. While that can kill you, they are easier to avoid.

The way to defeat HG is simple, and involves strafing. Run up and shoot the thing, just like you would expect. Then, when it roars and pushes you back, instead of uselessly trying to power through the roar and possibly dying to a rock, use the roar's force to rocket yourself back to the beginning of the boss fight. Run back and repeat the process until HG dies.

The Ironbro Campaign: Zone 13

General Information

The beginning of Zone 13 is the Terrorist Camp meets Alien. The usual Sawblades, MDS and RPG Mooks combined with the aliens. It also introduces my least favorite enemy, the Fat Headcrab. These little buggers run straight at you and explode, dousing you with acid and killing you just like a K Mook, except these ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ run faster.

Notable Features

The last two levels in this campaign feature the Terrorkrawler, a monstrously large Acid Crawler decked out with missiles and twice the size of a normal one. It will proceed to randomly smash through the floor right after this area here in the screenshot. There is no way to defeat him until the final battle; just run as fast as you can, but be careful not to get hit by the Fat Headcrabs on the way there. The earlier levels feature common Terrorist Camp enemies like Sawblades and MDS.

MVB: Brade

Brade's ability to just run fast in general as well as his invincible special attack make him almost perfect for running away from the Terrorkrawler. He also does fairly well on the earlier levels.

Terrorkrawler

Direct Danger Level 9
Indirect Danger Level 1: A few Mooks parachute in every now and then but quickly die from the Terrorkrawler himself.

The Terrorkrawler is my favorite boss in this game, just because of his sheer scale and the fact that he is the only boss to screw you over multiple times before the fight even starts. The method of defeating him is just like the Acid Crawlers, except on a larger scale. Make sure you stay underground at almost all times, as Terrorkrawlers acid spit covers almost the entire map at once, leaving no room for above-ground evasion. The screenshot below shows where to tunnel, but be careful, as it is possibly to fall to your death trying to do this. Make sure you know how to do this before you attempt. Once you get down below the ground just let it rip until he dies.

The Ironbro Campaign: Zone 14

General Information

Zone 14 is without a doubt the hardest zone in the game. It takes the few sections of mass alien swarms from previous alien levels and goes crazy with it. There are a crapton of aliens in these levels, along with constant air strikes, fat headcrabs, normal headcrabs, and just general annoyance. Practice these levels a lot, you WILL die at least once.

Noteworthy Features

Any and all times you emerge onto the surface, expect more air strikes than that first level of Zone 5. To make matters worse there are acid explosions and headcrab eggs EVERYWHERE, just to annoy the crap out of you.

MVB: None

To be honest these levels are so ridiculously chaotic and random that one single bro cannot fully excel in any aspect.

The Heart of the Hive

Direct Danger Level 0

Indirect Danger Level 10:

Exploding flying fat headcrabs. Nothing more needs said.

The heart of the hive is usually the hardest boss indirectly; the sheer number of flying fat headcrabs overwhelms anyone that approaches. Thankfully these flyers are incredibly easy to avoid. Taking the path shown in the screenshot, which is just up and to the right of the checkpoint, you can tunnel to the right over into the side of the heart's chamber. Here, you find a wall of that squishy healing stuff. Make sure your Bro has a decent ROF or else it will heal over you and kill you. Blast your way through it and jump on top of the heart, and then shoot it a few times until it dies. Once it explodes do not move from that spot or you risk being mobbed by flying fat headcrabs. Wait until the end stage screen shows, and boom! You've beaten the last alien level in Broforce.

Alternate Tactic: Requires Bro Dredd
Another tactic you can use if you feel like Restart Shuffling is to use Bro Dredd's special rockets to shoot down the heart from a distance. It can minimize the risk of the organic blocks regenerating on top of you or falling short of the heart and getting mobbed by fat flying headcrabs.

The Ironbro Campaign: Zone 15

General Information

Everything either does basically nothing, explodes, or spawns things that explode. There are no exceptions. Zone 15 is long, painful, unforgiving, and frankly I think needs to be toned down a bit. It turns the welcome difficulty curve of Broforce into a f*cking difficulty MOUNTAIN.

Noteworthy Features

I really wasn't kidding (too much) about everything exploding. Many of the enemies function like K Mooks, except somehow more infuriating. There are also mage things who have the sole purpose of summoning more exploding people. This wouldn't be so bad except they spawn them right next to you, and can do so across practically the entire map, making it a f*cking nightmare to try and progress, let alone complete a level. Hell is also home to Spitters, or as I affectionately nicknamed them during a heated playthrough, "Those f*cking fat vomiting balls of lard". These fleshsacks just vomit acid at you. Not too horrible right, why the bad name? Guess what happens when you kill them.

Yep.

They f*cking explode.
And they don't just explode.
They explode into MORE EXPLODING PEOPLE that then proceed to explode in a general radius around the death spot of the Spitter. This zone is the kind of stuff that Micheal Bay probably jacks off to. Then his pants would probably explode too, and kill me along with it because I swear to god I must have died 43 times trying to perfect this zone, and I failed. There's your challenge. Beat Zone 15 without dying once.

MVB: None

Literally no Bro is versatile enough to get through this hellhole any better than the others. It's a sick and twisted place full of pain and misery, and no matter who you play as, you WILL die at least once. If you don't you aren't human.

The boss is covered in its own section below

The Final Battle With Satan, Lord of Hell

Unfortunately, there are no straight evade-and-kill tactics with Satan. There is no way to weasel out of the combat; you are going to have to use all your Bros to take him down. Obviously try to stay alive as long as you can with a single Bro, but be prepared to fight down to the final life. I don't blame you if you get Satan's True Form down to 1 hp and then die, then quitting Broforce forever.

The Final Boss

To be honest, while I absolutely HATE the zone he's in, Satan is one of my favorite bosses in the game. He's fun to fight, has a massive variety in his attacks, and his final form could rival the old bosses of Metroid. (All those other 90s kids know the one's I'm talking about.) There are basically four phases of his battle, as shown below. Take note that POWs constantly appear during every phase except 3, so if you haven't unlocked all the Bros yet you can still grab them during this fight for some extra lives.

The First Phase: Super Satan

Huge thanks to Overlord_Cane for making this hilarious (at least in my opinion) photoshop.

Super Satan is the first phase of Satan's battle. He's buff as hell and is wimpy as crap; the guy takes less hits to knock out than the Stealth Tank took to kill. His attack basically consist of vomiting fire at you and smashing the ground a lot, which causes an effect similar to Bronan's max charged sword. This area of damage CAN kill you, so watch out. He also creates force fields around himself (which can crush you if you get caught between it and a wall or the ground). Shooting the field enough times can break it and stun Satan for a decent amount of time. He can also shoot single fireballs at you, and fireballs rain down from the sky. Shoot his health to zero to advance to Phase 2.

Special Note: He can stunned by Bronan's charged sword attack. I'm not sure if any other attacks can do this, but I know Bronan's can.

The Second Phase: Super Satan: The Not So Final Form

This is when things really start to heat up. Satan wakes up from his previous phase's KO and ignites, boosting his max health a bit and really busting out the insane attacks. This crazier version of Satan flies, vomits insane amounts of fire, smashes the ground, and teleports/vanishes constantly. During his teleports giant fire snake things come blazing down from the sky in curved downward arcs. These are INCREDIBLY hard to avoid and always come down in pairs, usually one on each side. You have to desperately attack him while avoiding the fire vomit, as he has more health than the previous form. The game here is to kill him before he kills you.

Phase Three: Deathfield

Anyone that played Expendabros when it first came out remembers this level design: stuff is exploding behind you and you need to run like crazy. Pro Tip: Run to the right, not the left. This task is made much harder by fireballs raining down from the sky and what else?

You guessed it!

EXPLODING PEOPLE! YAY!
Watch out for some of the fireballs. They are deliberately placed in areas to intercept you mid-jump and kill you, so watch out.

At the end of the level when you reach the helicopter, the chopper WILL BE SHOT DOWN. This is part of a scripted sequence that is supposed to make you fall into the pit below. MAKE SURE YOU GO STRAIGHT DOWN! DO NOT KEEP GOING TO THE RIGHT! If you manage to reach the left side of the screen as you fall it will actually kill you and not send you to the final phase of the battle.

The Final Phase of the Final Battle With Satan, Lord of Hell

The Final Phase: Satan: True Form

This is it people! The finale of Broforce, and my god is it amazing to behold. Satan starts out as a towering pole in the middle of the arena sided by three crusher things on either side of him. Ignore these, and try to stay off the ground or else more exploding people will start hurling themselves at you. This phase, in and of itself, consists of about 3 steps:

Step One: Taking Out the Death Beam

On top of Satan's head above you can see the giant hole of energy located in the middle of his forehead, jutting out slightly from the rest of the body. By climbing up Satans neck pole thing, you can get on top of the head and shoot at the hole. However, to effectively get you off his head, Satan will fire a constant beam counterclockwise, starting just slightly to the right of the middle of his neck and ending just to the left of it. It covers the entire map and cannot be avoided at all unless you dig into the neck like the picture above and run through to the other side as he fires the beam. Keep going until the energy hole is destroyed; you will know when it is. After the cannon hole is destroyed, latch onto the side of Satan's head and fill it with lead for a bit until the head detaches from the neck to lead into step 2.

Step Two: Defeating Satan With No Neck

At this point in the battle stuff starts getting even more intense, if that was even possible. Instead of death beams, it's now a game of "The Floor is Lava". Except instead of lava I mean it spawns like twelve exploding people and throws them at you, just like every other stage in Zone 15. Satan has basically two attacks now: Absolute bullet hell fireballs rain down from above, and plasma-acid vomit. I believe the fireball hellstorm is summoned when Satan's head rumbles something sounding like "Bro Fire". The only safe haven from this nightmare is under something. Since touching the ground isn't an option, you have to hide under Satan's head. Well, Satan don't like that. He will attempt to vomit on you if you stand directly underneath him, which reduces you to bones immediately. Switch constantly between latching onto his head and shooting (He has a TON of health, this could take a long time), and hiding underneath him while avoiding the plasma vomit.

Step Three: This is Some Seriously Cinematic Stuff Right Here

The final step of the boss consists of watching Satan's scalp spawn more exploding guys (Like everything else in this world) while his rotting head laughs awesomely. You can easily avoid the exploding guys by hiding under Satan's head and waiting until the constant explosions wear down his health enough to finally kill him, triggering the cutscene and ending the Ironbro Campaign.

Well, This is the End of the Guide

Many thanks to those that believed in my advice and read the guide all the way to the end. I sincerely hope this guide helped you achieve your dream of completing the Ironbro Campaign, or was at least a hilariously good and informative read. I wish you all the best of luck in your future endeavors, whether they be in Broforce or in real life.

If you see an error in grammar or spelling in this guide, please inform me. I will be more than happy to fix it.

I appreciate the want to help me with guide revisions and advice, but like it says at the top of the guide, I will probably never play Broforce again and will never update or edit this guide. So please, save your own time and don't leave comments relating to tips and advice.

Please rate this guide with the rating you feel it deserves. I pride myself on my quality (although not so numerous) guides and I very much appreciate feedback. Your support is not lost on me.

Special Thanks To:

Colonel Mustache for creating the Portbrolio guide. His Portbrolio really helped me look up the facts on all the Bros when I needed information.

Waffle for putting up with my constant harassment and for looking through the guide in its early development stages. You go man.

Whoever the guy was that made the .gif I used as the title card of this guide. Hopefully it doesn't break copyright, because it is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awesome.

This dude for making the hilarious Super Satan title card I used in my guide. That's custom made too, just for this guide! Thanks a ton!

Again, many thanks for reading the entire guide. The act of simply reading this guide to the end means so much to me. If this actually helps anyone beat the Ironbro Campaign, please tell me in the comments below!

Please rate this guide with the rating you feel it deserves. I very much appreciate the feedback. Your support (or lack of support) is not lost on me.

[BuckNasty]

cool, thanks

[Timer]

THANK YOU SO MUCH this guide helped me alot after so many fails I finally got to the finale with 2 bros left desperabro and brade. Desperabro killed the first two forms while Brade killed the true form.

Also nobody talks about how much more climatic the final fight is when you have two bros, your heart is beating 200 times per second.

[Timer]

Hey i know you don't update this anymore but for anyone here. Bronan the brobarian should replace Bro dredd because he does much better at killing Rail fortress.

Bronan the barbarian special can go through rail fotress without having to damage any of it. He can literally oneshot him.

Go too jaba plays original broforce video if you want to see a better example.

[The Freeman]

Thanks again, king

[Xenos]

The only thing that Hard really changes (unless they changed it since I last played) is that mooks have a FAR faster reaction time, fire more often, and kamikaze mooks will not delay their explosions. The second they get close to you, they will blow up.

What this means is that never being seen by the enemy is even MORE important. Basically, do what I already recommended, and avoid direct confrontation at all costs. On Hard, enemies can react so fast they will shoot you from off-screen if they see you coming.

[The Freeman]

Your guide helped a lot during my journey of Ironbro campaign, thanks a lot. Say, could you give any tips about how to beat Ironbro mode on HARD difficulty?

[Hungarius]

i think you can also include bro max in the bros to keep alive, his shotgun deals insane damage to bosses at point blank range

[no143no]

I thought this was an actual useful guide, until I read "avoid combat", I am simply outraged, Broforce does not avoid combat, it fights terror with no remorse, and you are a coward for even suggesting it! (Although I will use this guide later to not go insane)

[Roxumbao]

mama im a crimminal

[Wonder112]

Thanks for the great guide, couldn't have done it without your help!