Reference
Controls
IRON NEST is a hands-on gun simulator: most of what you do is grab physical valves and levers with the mouse, not press hotkeys. The keyboard handles a short list of interactions. Here's the full default scheme, plus the settings worth changing first.
How control works in IRON NEST
You operate the Iron Nest the way a real crew would — by turning the actual handwheels, valves and switches in the gun cab with the mouse. Traverse, elevation and powder charge are all set on physical controls. The keyboard is only for short interactions (interact, pick up, gas mask) and confirming prompts. Bindings are rebindable in the options menu, so the keys below are the defaults.
Keyboard
| E | Interact / ActivatePull levers, flip switches, press buttons you're looking at |
| E | Toggle Map ViewSame activate key, used on the map console |
| F | Pick up item |
| G | Equip / unequip gas mask |
| Enter | Confirm / continueAdvance briefings (hold to skip) and confirm the gun calculator |
| Space | Confirm promptUsed on some on-screen prompts |
Mouse
| Move mouse | Look around the gun cab |
| LMB | Grab & turn a valve / leverGun laying is physical — grab the control and drag it |
| LMB + Drag on map | Measure toolHold and drag across the map to measure range and bracket a blast |
| Scroll | Fine-adjust dialsWhere a control supports it |
Settings worth changing first
Mouse Sensitivity
Look speed. Lower it if laying the gun feels twitchy.
Clamp mouse to valves
Locks the cursor onto a control while you turn it — makes dialing precise charges far easier. Recommended on.
Additional Primary / Secondary Click
Remap the grab and secondary actions if the defaults fight you.
Hue Shift
Shifts the colour palette — the closest thing to a colourblind aid in the current build.
V-Sync
Caps frame rate to the display to remove tearing.
Knowing the keys is half of it — the other half is knowing what to do with the gun once you've grabbed the wheels. The how-to guides walk through the common physical tasks (loading and unloading a shell, restarting the engine, using the map measure tool), and the firing planner turns a spotter report into the bearing, range and charge you dial in.
More guides
- First firing solutionTurn a spotter report into bearing, range and powder charge — the core gunnery loop.
- Operations walkthroughEvery operation in order, suggested play sequence, and what each one teaches.
- Counter-batteryOperation 4 made solvable — triangulate, survive the timer, find the hidden guns.
- How-to guidesQuick answers: load and unload shells, restart the engine, measure on the map, aim the Scout Plane.
- Campaign mapThe operation structure at a glance — the tutorial spine, the two free modes, and each op's briefing and rewards.
- All guides →
Top tools
- Firing plannerSpotter report in, bearing · range · charge solution out.
- Ballistics calculatorRange ↔ powder charge with live arc and game-extracted speed curves.
- Firing tablePowder-charge range card — scan the bracket, dial the charge.
- Loadout guideWhich of the 9 shells to chamber for each kind of target.
- All tools →