Iron Nest endings are causing a lot of confusion, but don’t worry, my obsessive research disorder is here for you again! Nick Nieuwoudt and Dominik Latos have made four, and every one of them is decided in mission 15 of 15, White Shells. This dieselpunk artillery sim game asks just one question: what ammo do you load into the gun before you fire on Barcelona? Keep reading for all four triggers and the one route almost nobody finishes.
Spoiler Alert: This article contains full spoilers for the Iron Nest endings. Proceed with caution!
What You’ll Read:
All 4 Iron Nest Endings (Quick Overview)
Every ending achievement resolves in Mission 15, White Shells. Here’s a quick overview of each ending.
| Ending | In-game description | How to trigger it |
|---|---|---|
| A City Silent | “A city wiped from the map.” | Fire the Atomic shell (ATMC) or any other lethal round into Barcelona |
| A City in Celebration | “A city that comes out to meet you.” | Fire the PRPG propaganda leaflet, or a STAR round, into Barcelona |
| A City Subdued | “A city that kneels, and calls it peace.” | Fire a chemical round, Phosgene (PGAS) or Tear Gas (TGAS), into Barcelona |
| The Road Not Taken | “A city spared, and a road no one else will ever walk.” | Attack your own High Command, then destroy every retaliating artillery position |
Ending 1: A City in Celebration (The Propaganda Route)
Easiest ending in the game, and almost anticlimactic. Load the PRPG propaganda leaflet shell, calculate your solution into Barcelona, fire. That is the whole thing. You do not need to clear military positions first, fire a second shell, or wait for a counterattack. The leaflet round resolves the mission on impact.
PRPG isn’t the only way in. The STAR is a second route to the same ending, which makes this the cheapest achievement in the game if you’re short on credits after a reload.
The epilogue is the softest in the game. Castile stops fighting itself, and the two sides end up standing together again. Fifteen missions of teleprinter orders, ended by a shell full of paper.
Ending 2: A City Silent (The Atomic Route)
This is the Oppenheimer route. You get this ending by doing exactly what you are told. High Command’s final order points at Barcelona, and the Atomic shell (ATMC) answers it.
Reload White Shells, confirm your firing origin, pick a point inside the city, calculate, load Atomic, fire. Wait for the impact and High Command reports that remaining resistance has been wiped from the map, then authorises stand down.
Pro-Tip: The Atomic isn’t required. Any lethal round into the city produces the same ending, so if you only want the achievement and you’re broke, you don’t need to spend 666 credits on it.
Ending 3: A City Subdued (The Chemical Route)
Barcelona survives this one, which somehow makes it worse. A chemical round into the city forces the alternate ending. Iron Nest’s chemical shells are Phosgene (PGAS) and Tear Gas (TGAS), which are less lethal, and tear gas is the cheapest way in.
The setup is identical to the Atomic route. Same city solution, different shell in the breach. The achievement text calls it a city that kneels and calls it peace, and having watched all four, that is the one that stuck with me.
Warning: do not lead with propaganda on this attempt. The PRPG round resolves the mission the moment it lands, so if you fire it first to “see what happens,” you will get A City in Celebration instead and have to reload. If you are collecting A City Subdued, leave both PRPG and STAR in the requisition list.
Ending 4: The Road Not Taken (The Betrayal Route)
This is the rarest ending in the game and the one everyone gets wrong.
Turning your guns on your own High Command does not end the mission. It starts a fight, and three things change the instant you do it. Your requisition is gone. You can no longer reposition Iron Nest. And the Counter-Battery Timer starts, because this becomes a timed mission. Everything you will fight with has to be bought before you pull the trigger.
What to Buy Before You Betray High Command
Buy first, betray second. Whatever sits in your inventory when you get the traitor message is what you finish the mission with.
Use recon before committing, and work out which friendly positions can actually shoot back at a stationary turret. Artillery is what ends runs, not infantry.
Then stock heavily against those positions specifically. Here’s how: fire cards prepared in advance, earthquake rounds stocked before firing, every artillery position gone inside ten minutes. Buy more than you think you need, because you can’t add anything else once you pull the trigger.
The Easy Way: Herd Them With Smoke First
There’s a shortcut I learned from a fan crazier than us: Before you commit, use smoke to funnel the friendly units into a single location. This doesn’t work on High Command itself, and trying it will just mark you as hostile early. Once everything else is bunched up, a couple of earthquake rounds clear the map instead of you working through a dozen separate firing cards.
It’s less satisfying than running the full card list, but if you’ve already failed this twice, it’s the way that gets it done.
The Betrayal Sequence
Do the maths before you fire anything. Here’s how:
- Recon the friendly positions and identify every artillery piece and spotter.
- Build a complete firing card for each one: bearing, range, charge plan, elevation.
- Buy your full loadout: APHE for High Command, APHE or HCHE for the artillery, earthquake rounds if you can afford them. This is your last chance.
- Load both guns.
- Strike High Command with APHE. The teleprinter turns on you, and the Counter-Battery Timer starts.
- Work straight down your prepared card list, artillery first, alternating guns.
The Cheapest Order to Get All 4 Endings
You do not need four campaign saves, but you do need to think about money. Requisition is the real problem here, not skill.
The Atomic shell costs 666 requisition. If you replay White Shells after finishing it once, you restart the mission with roughly 700 credits, which is enough for the Atomic and almost nothing else. That’s fine for the three city endings, which only need one shell each. It’s a problem for The Road Not Taken, where everything you fight with has to be bought up front.
So do it in this order:
- The Road Not Taken first: on your original run, while you still have the campaign savings to buy a real loadout.
- A City Silent: reload, buy the Atomic, fire on Barcelona.
- A City Subdued: reload, buy a chemical round. Cheap.
- A City in Celebration: reload, PRPG or STAR. Cheapest of all, and it ends the mission the instant it lands.
Go in the other direction, and you’ll reach the betrayal route with 700 credits and no way to buy your way out of the fight. Have fun!
That covers all four Iron Nest endings. If you’re still fighting the maths on the way there, the Iron Nest triangulation guide covers finding targets before you ever get to White Shells. Which one did you get? I got A City Silent by just following orders like an idiot, and The Road Not Taken took me three attempts. Tell me yours in the comments.
FAQ
Do my earlier campaign choices change which ending I get?
No. The campaign is a fixed sequence of 15 missions, and clearing one unlocks the next. Your decisions change how a mission plays, not which mission follows it.
Do I need a separate save for each ending?
No, but order matters. White Shells replays cleanly, so one campaign run gets you all four. The catch is money. Do the betrayal route first, while you still have your campaign savings.
Is killing the King in Mission 2 an ending?
Not in the achievement sense. Fire and Light, Mission 2, has no ending achievement. What the shot actually does is end your run: Iron Nest self-destructs, and you die with it. It’s the fastest way to close out a campaign, but a resolving ending.
Can I reposition Iron Nest after attacking High Command?
No. Mobility goes at the same moment your requisition does. Pick your firing position before you commit, because you are fighting the rest of the mission from it.
I destroyed High Command, but no ending appeared. What am I missing?
Artillery. The mission resolves when the retaliating positions are gone, not when command dies. Anything still firing is keeping the mission open.
