ARES: The Iron Vanguard has officially launched globally, and if you’re just starting your journey, there are quite a few things you should understand before spending your resources. The game has different suits, combat mechanics, summons, and progression systems that aren’t always explained as clearly as they should be.
In this ARES: The Iron Vanguard beginner guide, we will go over the new coupon code, how suits and classes work, the Perfect Change mechanic, elemental weaknesses, resource management, summon pity, and Guardian Rank. I’ll also share some progression tips to help you avoid wasting materials early on.
One of the biggest things to understand is that ARES doesn’t work like a traditional MMO where you select one class and stay locked into it. Your combat style comes from the suits you equip, and you can switch between two suits during combat.
So, if you’re starting the game for the first time, let’s go through the things I recommend focusing on early, along with some mechanics that can save you time and resources as you progress.
ARES The Iron Vanguard Beginner Guide – Suits and Classes
Before we get into the beginner tips, let’s redeem the available coupon code. There is one code shown in the video that you can enter through the account settings.
How to Redeem the Coupon Code
Follow these steps to claim your reward:
- Open the game and click on the Menu button.
- Go to Settings.
- Open the Account section.
- Find the Register Coupon option.
- Enter the code DCGIFTDC.
- Click Use Coupon to redeem it.
- Open your mailbox to collect the reward.
The code shown in the video is:
- DCGIFTDC: Reward delivered to your mailbox.
Make sure you enter the code correctly. If it doesn’t work, check whether it has expired or already been redeemed.
1. Understand Suits and Classes
The first thing you need to understand in ARES: The Iron Vanguard is how suits and classes work. This game doesn’t follow the usual MMO system where you select a warrior or mage class and then stay with that choice throughout the game.
Instead, your combat style comes from the suits you equip.
When you begin playing, you’ll have four different suits to choose from, and each one offers a different combat style. Your default appearance is separate from your combat class, so don’t worry too much about the appearance selection.
Does Your Appearance Affect Your Class?
When you first create your character, you’ll choose a default appearance.
This choice is simply related to how your character looks. It doesn’t determine your class, combat abilities, or the type of suit you can use.
So, you can choose whichever appearance you prefer without worrying about losing access to a particular combat style.
The Four Starting Suits
Each suit has a different role and set of abilities. Here’s what you need to know about the starting options:
- Engineer: Focuses on heavy firepower and drones.
- Warlord: A frontline class that uses a large hammer and shield.
- Hunter: A fast, close-range damage dealer.
- Warlock: Specializes in large area-of-effect magic attacks.
The suits provide different skill sets, traits, and gear options. This means your choice of suit affects how you fight and how you build your character.
However, you don’t have to commit to only one suit.
You Can Equip Two Suits
One of the most important features in ARES is that you can equip two suits and switch between them during combat.
This allows you to combine different combat styles rather than being stuck with a single class.
For example, you can have two different suits equipped in your E1 and E2 slots and switch between them whenever needed.
Your second suit slot unlocks quite early, after completing Act One, Chapter One, The Supply That Never Came.
Because of this, I wouldn’t stress too much about finding the single best class right at the beginning. Focus on unlocking your second suit, see which suits you obtain, and then build around the two that work best for you.
Suits Have Their Own Gear and Traits
Another thing you need to understand is that suits aren’t just different appearances. Each suit comes with its own progression systems.
Depending on the suit, you’ll have:
- Different skill sets.
- Individual traits.
- Separate gear slots.
- Different combat roles.
- Suit-specific progression requirements.
This means you need to think about which suits you’re investing in because upgrading a suit isn’t the same as simply changing your character’s appearance.
2. Learn How Perfect Change Works
The Perfect Change mechanic is probably one of the most important combat systems in ARES: The Iron Vanguard.
The game introduces you to switching suits during combat, but you should understand that the timing of your swaps matters.
Each equipped suit has its own Perfect Change gauge, which builds up while you’re fighting.
How the Perfect Change Gauge Works
When you enter combat, you’ll see your two equipped suits in the corner of the screen. Underneath each suit icon, there’s a gauge that fills up during battle.
When the gauge for your other suit becomes completely full, its icon lights up. That’s when you want to switch.
Switching while the gauge is full activates a Perfect Change.
This triggers the suit’s Perfect Change skill and provides additional benefits, which can include:
- Additional buffs.
- Increased skill damage.
- Progress toward your Burst gauge.
The exact benefits depend on the suit you’re switching into, but the main idea is to use the mechanic at the correct moment rather than switching randomly.
Don’t Swap Suits Constantly
One mistake you should avoid is repeatedly switching suits just because the button is available.
You really want to pay attention to the Perfect Change gauge and wait until it is fully charged.
When the gauge is filled and the icon is glowing, that’s your signal to activate the Perfect Change. Using it at the right time allows you to benefit from the skill and additional buffs.
I recommend getting comfortable with this mechanic early because it plays a major role in how you deal damage and manage combat.
Perfect Dodges and Counters Charge the Gauge
Another useful combat tip is that perfect dodges and counters can rapidly charge your Perfect Change gauge.
This means learning enemy attack patterns isn’t just about avoiding damage. Your defensive play can also help you activate Perfect Changes more frequently.
When you learn the timing of a boss’s attacks, you can dodge or counter more effectively and build your gauge faster.
This is one of the reasons manual combat can make a big difference in difficult battles.
Warlord Has a Defensive Option
Warlord works slightly differently from the other suits because its sub-weapon can also block attacks.
If you don’t hit the exact counter timing, you may still be able to block incoming attacks using its sub-weapon.
This gives Warlord a defensive option that can be useful when you’re learning boss patterns or dealing with difficult attacks.
3. Manual Combat Is Important Against Bosses
ARES: The Iron Vanguard has an auto-combat feature, but I wouldn’t recommend relying on it for every battle.
Auto combat can be convenient when you’re farming endless monsters or completing easier content. However, when you’re fighting difficult bosses, manual control can make a significant difference.
When to Use Auto Combat
Auto combat is useful when you’re dealing with regular enemies and want to save time. You can let the game handle some of the easier encounters while you focus on other things.
But when you enter a challenging boss battle, I recommend switching to manual combat.
Why Manual Combat Helps
Manual gameplay allows you to:
- Time your Perfect Changes.
- Dodge enemy attacks.
- Perform counters.
- Take advantage of boss weaknesses.
- Manage your skills more effectively.
- Respond to attack patterns.
The better you understand the boss’s attacks, the easier it becomes to find opportunities for dodges, counters, and Perfect Changes.
I would use auto combat for routine farming and manual combat when you’re facing bosses where timing and positioning matter.
4. Pay Attention to Elemental Weaknesses
Another mistake you should avoid is automatically equipping whichever suit gives you the highest power number.
Having a bigger power rating doesn’t always mean that your current setup is the most suitable for the boss you’re fighting.
ARES: The Iron Vanguard includes elemental strengths and weaknesses, and these can influence how you approach battles.
How to Check a Boss’s Weakness
When you’re fighting a boss, you can click on its name at the top of the screen to view information about its weaknesses and advantages.
In the video, the boss showed a fist icon as its weakness, representing physical damage.
You can also see additional information about the boss, including special effects and other details.
Before starting a difficult battle, I recommend checking the boss’s weaknesses and choosing your suits accordingly.
Different Damage Types
ARES features several different damage types:
- Physical
- Fire
- Ice
- Electric
- Radiation
These damage types don’t simply deal different colors of damage. They can also provide different effects during combat.
Here’s what the video explains about some of the effects:
- Ice: Can cause frostbite and freeze enemies.
- Radiation: Corrosion reduces the enemy’s Defense and elemental resistance.
- Physical: Gash causes damage over time.
- Electric: Can trigger area-of-effect damage.
The effects give different damage types their own combat purposes. As you progress, you should try to have more than one usable suit so you can adapt to different enemies.
Build More Than One Usable Suit
Early on, you don’t need to build every suit you obtain. However, having more than one useful suit can help you handle bosses with different weaknesses.
For example, you might use one suit for its physical damage and another that provides an elemental advantage against a specific enemy.
The goal is to build a flexible setup without spreading your resources too thin.
5. Focus Your Suit Resources Early
One of the biggest progression tips in ARES is to be careful about how you spend your upgrade materials.
The suit room is essentially your main progression menu. This is where you manage different aspects of your suits, including:
- Attributes.
- Gear.
- Skills.
- Traits.
- Suit upgrades.
You’ll spend a lot of resources improving your suits, so you should think about which ones you actually want to use before investing heavily.
Suits Can Reach Level 60
Every suit can eventually reach level 60, regardless of its rarity.
However, you can’t simply level it all the way to 60 without interruption. You’ll need to ascend your suit at specific level milestones.
Every 10 levels, you’ll need to use ascension materials to unlock the next level range.
For example:
- Level 10: Requires ascension to progress further.
- Level 20: Requires another ascension.
- Additional level milestones: Continue requiring ascension materials.
How Suit Ascension Works
When you reach a level limit, you’ll need Suit Ascension Cores to break through that limit.
Once you ascend your suit, you can unlock another 10 levels and continue upgrading it.
In the video, the suit was upgraded to level 10 and then ascended. After the ascension, the stats increased, and another 10 levels became available.
As your suit level increases, the upgrade costs also become more expensive.
This is why I recommend focusing your early resources on the two suits you’re actually planning to use rather than upgrading every suit you pull.
Don’t Spread Your Materials Across Every Suit
You may obtain multiple suits as you play, but that doesn’t mean you need to level all of them immediately.
I would focus on your main two suits first. Once you have a better idea of which suits you want to use, you can invest more resources into them.
This helps you avoid spending too many materials on suits that you might not use later.
6. Understand the Suit Transfer System
ARES has a suit transfer system that allows you to move XP from one suit to another using gold.
This gives you some flexibility when you decide to change your setup or want to invest in a different suit.
However, there’s an important limitation you need to understand before relying on transfers.
XP Earned Before Ascension Cannot Be Transferred
The suit transfer system doesn’t allow you to move all of your XP freely.
Only XP earned after ascension can be transferred.
Any XP you earned before ascending the suit cannot be transferred to another suit.
This is important because it means your early investments aren’t completely free to undo.
For example, if you spend a lot of resources leveling a suit before ascension, you shouldn’t assume that you’ll be able to move all that XP to another suit later.
My recommendation is to think carefully about your main suits before spending large amounts of materials. The transfer system provides flexibility, but it doesn’t remove every cost associated with changing your investment.
7. Duplicates Are Useful for Suit Traits
If you pull a duplicate suit, don’t immediately assume that it’s useless.
Duplicates can help with your suit progression, particularly when it comes to activating traits.
When you obtain the same suit again, you receive Suit Cores, which are used to activate the suit’s traits.
How Suit Cores Work
Suit Cores are important for improving your suits through their trait system.
So, even if you already own a particular suit, getting another copy can still provide progression benefits.
The video shows duplicate suits being used to help with traits. This means you shouldn’t automatically get frustrated when you see a duplicate during a summon.
Of course, the value of a duplicate depends on the suit and the progression requirements, but the main point is that duplicate pulls can still be useful.
Before deciding that a duplicate has no value, check which traits or upgrades it contributes toward.
8. Understand the Summon Pity System
The summon system in ARES: The Iron Vanguard has different categories, and understanding how pity works can help you plan your pulls.
There are separate summon types for suits and operators.
Guardian and Operator Summons
The game includes:
- Guardian Summons: Used for suits.
- Operator Summons: Used for operators.
These are separate summon categories, so you should pay attention to which banner you’re using when planning your pulls.
You can check your pity progress in the bottom-right corner of the summon interface.
Pity Carries Between Banners in the Same Category
One of the most important things explained in the video is that your guaranteed RAR counter carries between banners within the same summon category.
For example, if you’re 50 pulls toward an R-grade guarantee and the banner ends, you don’t necessarily lose that progress, as long as you’re staying within the same summon category.
This means you should understand which banners share the same pity progression before deciding where to spend your pulls.
The important distinction is that the carryover applies within the same category. You shouldn’t assume that pity from one summon type transfers to another.
Plan Your Summons
Before spending your summon currency, check the banner and understand which category it belongs to.
Knowing how the pity system works can help you avoid confusion when a banner ends and you move to another banner within the same category.
I recommend keeping track of your current pity progress and considering the banners you want to pull on before spending everything.
9. Don’t Ignore Your Guardian Rank
ARES has a progression system called Guardian Rank, and it’s more important than simply being an optional achievement feature.
You gain Guardian Points from different content and complete rank-up missions to increase your rank.
Why Guardian Rank Matters
Some of the main quests have Guardian Rank requirements.
This means you may eventually reach a point in the story where you can’t continue until you complete the required rank-up missions.
If you encounter a Guardian Rank requirement, you’ll need to finish the relevant missions before continuing through the main story.
This is why I recommend keeping an eye on your Guardian Rank as you progress rather than ignoring it until later.
Complete Your Rank-Up Missions
The Guardian Rank screen shows different rank-up missions that you need to complete.
The game also provides a Go Now option, which helps you navigate toward the content required for the mission.
If you’re unsure how to increase your rank, open the Guardian Rank menu and check the available objectives.
You can use the navigation feature to find the activities you need to complete.
My advice is to work on these missions when they become available so you don’t get stuck later when a main story quest requires a higher rank.
10. Use Your Regenerating Tickets Efficiently
One of the most useful progression tips in ARES is to pay attention to the activities that use regenerating tickets.
The game has several activities that provide important rewards, but their tickets take time to regenerate.
The three activities discussed in the video are Threat Subjugation, Planetary Dispatch, and Cosmic Raid.
Threat Subjugation
Threat Subjugation starts you with three tickets and provides rewards such as:
- Gear chests.
- Ascension materials.
- Minerals.
These rewards can help you improve your suits and gather materials needed for progression.
Planetary Dispatch
Planetary Dispatch also uses tickets and provides several useful rewards, including:
- XP chips.
- Ascension materials.
- Gold.
You should keep an eye on your available tickets and use them when appropriate so you don’t miss out on potential regeneration time.
Cosmic Raid
Cosmic Raid uses raid tickets and provides various materials.
This is another activity you should pay attention to once you unlock it, especially if you’re looking to collect more resources for your progression.
Tickets Regenerate Every 8 Hours
The important thing all three activities have in common is that their tickets take 8 hours to regenerate after being used.
Because of this, you don’t want to leave your tickets capped at three for an entire day.
For example, if you have three tickets available and use one, the regeneration timer begins. Using a ticket earlier allows that timer to start sooner, giving you an opportunity to regenerate another ticket while you’re away from the game.
I recommend using your available tickets once you unlock these activities instead of leaving them at the maximum limit all day.
This is a simple progression habit, but it can help you make better use of your regenerating resources over time.
ARES: The Iron Vanguard has several systems that you need to understand early, especially suits, Perfect Change, elemental weaknesses, and resource management.
If you’re a beginner, I recommend focusing on two main suits, learning how to switch during combat, and paying attention to the enemy’s weaknesses. You don’t need to invest heavily in every suit you obtain, and understanding the transfer system can help you make better decisions with your XP.
Don’t forget about Guardian Rank and the activities that use regenerating tickets. These systems can affect your progression, so it’s worth checking them regularly as you unlock more content.
The main thing is to take your time learning the mechanics rather than rushing through every upgrade. Once you understand how the suits and combat systems work, you’ll have a much better foundation for progressing through ARES: The Iron Vanguard.