 This is the ironman / hardcore ironman Strength guide, the guide for regular players can be found here.

Strength is a player's power in melee combat. As a player raises their Strength level, they can deal more damage against opponents. A high Strength level is often favoured by player-killers over their Attack level because it raises max hit, helping to generate the burst damage necessary to kill other players faster than they can heal themselves.

Getting Weapons

As Ironmen have limited access to stores, obtaining weapons is far more difficult than a normal account. However, there are a lot of ways to obtain decent weapons.

Smithing

Most weapons will have to be made by yourself in the beginning of your accounts life. These can be made using the Smithing Skill.

Dragon Weapons

If you have 65 Slayer, you can kill Dust Devils. These NPC's drop both Dragon Daggers and Dragon Scimitars.

Strength Training Styles

Melee weapons vary in their attack styles. Some have four options, with a controlled option, while others have only three options. Players intending to remain a pure with no Defence need to take care when changing attack styles as you may gain unwanted Defence levels.

Numbers in brackets represent Hardcore Ironman experience

Aggressive

The Aggressive combat style is usually the top right option if there are 4 options, usually there is not a Aggressive option on weapons with 3 options. When using the accurate style for every point of damage a player deals, you gain 200(85) experience in Strength and 50(21) experience in Hitpoints. Using the agressive style provides an invisible +3 boost to your Strength level.

Controlled

The Controlled combat style is usually the bottom left option if there are 4 options, or the top right option if there are 3. When using the controlled style for every point of damage a player deals, they gain 66(28) experience in Attack, Strength, and Defence and 50(21) experience in Hitpoints. Using the controlled style provides an invisible +1 boost to your Attack, Strength and Defence levels. This attack style is only available in some melee weapons

Where to Train

Rock Crab

The best place to start training any combat skill at a low level is Rock crabs.

To get here click on the world map icon, beside the minimap.

Then select "Combat Training" for the category, and then "Rock Crabs Area"

Here you will find the Rock crabs that can be killed in order to start leveling up your combat stats. Start killing these until you feel you have a high enough Attack level to move on to killing other monsters such as Hill Giants, in Edgeville Dungeon or Yaks on Neitiznot (South).

Bandits

For players with higher levels, the best place train would be at the Bandits Camp, in the desert.

To get here click on the world map icon, beside the minimap.

Then select "Combat Training" for the category, and then "Bandits Camp"

Here you will find a large amount of Bandits that will automatically attack anyone who is wearing Saradomin or Zamorak equipment, allowing for easy AFK experience.
An easy god item to obtain are the god capes from the mage bank. To get these simply teleport to the mage bank, in the 'Player Killing' category, when you arive, enter the pool and then follow the path north. Pray at one of the three statues, if you got the Guthix cape, choose another statue.
Once you have a Zamorak/Saradomin item, simply wear it and the bandits will attack you.

It is recommended to bring a bunyip summoning, as they heal you between 1-10 hp every 15 seconds.

Slayer

If you are planning on training all your skills, it might help to do slayer at the same time as training combat. You can find a Slayer guide Here.

Strength Boosts

Items that you may use to increase the Strength skill:

Picture	Item	Benefits
	Strength potion	Increase your Strength level by 1-13.
	Super strength	Increase your Strength level by 1-19.
	Extreme strength	Increase your Strength level by 1-25.
	Zamorak brew	Increase your Strength level by 1-19
	Overload	Increase your Strength level 5 + 15% of your Strength level (Deals 50 damage over time)

Useful Items and Boosts

Picture	Item/Boost	Effect	How to Obtain
	Knowledge Effect	All experience gained will be increased by: 75% for 10 minutes for normal donators 100% for 20 minutes for super donators 110% for 40 minutes for extreme donators	Go to the Donator Zone, in the building to the west of the bank and click on the Defence Totem (Knowledge effect).
	Bonus Experience	All experience gained will be multiplied by 3 until the bonus experience runs out.	Logging in every day grants 200k Bonus Exp. Every 10th vote streak rewards you with 500k Bonus Exp.
N/A	Monthly Bonus	All experience gained is multiplied by 1.1 Voting during this time adds an additional 1.25 multiplier.	Play during the 1st to the 5th of every month.
N/A	Double Exp Weekend	All combat experience is doubled.	Play during the weekend (Saturday/Sunday).
	Combat ring	Doubles the experience received from killing a creature.	Bought from the agility ticket shop.

The Skill Cape

If you reach level 99 in Strength, you can talk to the Wise Old Man at home to obtain the Skill cape. He is located at home, in the building north of the bank.

The 99 cape costs 90K Gp and comes with a matching hood. Both the Strength cape and hood give +9 bonus to all defense stats.

For HCIM, this cape will cost only 300 gp.

If you reach 200m experience in the Strength skill you will also unlock the ability to buy the Master Strength Cape. It is exactly the same as the normal Skill cape. However, you can adjust the trim colour to whatever you like. This cape costs 15m Gp.