HMP Irongate

Guards

HMP Irongate is the sixth and last map present in the main game, preceded by San Pancho. It is based on Alcatraz, a famous prison from the 1950's.

It is the toughest prison to escape. This prison contains 15 inmates. This prison also features ten guards who patrol the tight corridors with a zero tolerance policy, and are equipped with insta-KO  Stun Rod to keep the order. (Guards still use  Baton in console/mobile versions) There is very little free time or ten hour for protective custody available (1 hour of it 10 hour for protective custody, every cell and contraband detectors galore, so good luck getting into anything the warden is mean too doesn't like.

Even if you can get pass those obstacles, and the extra-tight security, the whole prison is surrounded by water, meaning you'll need a  Makeshift Raft to get out for good. HMP irongate also has its own free time music. This music will later be also used in Paris State Pen for free time music on the PC edition of the game.

## Crafting Recipes

  Makeshift Raft |  Raft Base +  Sail +  Length of Rope | 80

## Strategies / Ways to Escape

### Main Raft Strategy

#### Preparation:

You will need a Bed Dummy, Guard Outfit, Grappling Hook, Makeshift Raft, Plastic Staff Key, and cutting items (preferably Sturdy Cutters).

1. Label the 4th guard's name to something like "444444", "Staff", or "Red" as the key pattern is always the same. It is also recommended to get the maliman job so the cameras always ignore you, but it is optional. It is also best to get a (Durable) Contraband Pouch to bypass the scanners, however these don't work with console or mobile.
2. Get a Screwdriver, Powered Screwdriver, or a Plastic Knife (slowest), then get rid of the vent above your cell. Make sure you block the camera with a Tube of Toothpaste, or a Shaving Cream. After receiving the Vent Cover, cover the open vent with it to stay safe with a lower percentage.Then, craft a few Fake Vent Covers with two Paper Mache, and if you are you using the normal vent cover, replace it with the fake one. Make sure that it your last one breaks, load your last save to avoid being placed in Solitary, or use the normal one. It is also best to use your vent system to store your items to stay safe of shakedowns.
3. Craft a Cup of Molten Chocolate, then obtain a Wad of Putty and Molten Plastic. Knock out the guard with the Staff Key with the molten chocolate, and then take his Guard Outfit. Use the key to craft a Staff Key Mold with the Wad of Putty, and make sure you put the real key back on him to avoid being placed in solitary.
4. Whenever you have the time to, craft all the necessary items needed for your escape, and go up to the vents to cut the slats going to the right. You must have access to the ladder on the right side.

#### Escape:

1. Put the Bed Dummy in the bed, then block the camera and go into the vent. Collect everything you need. Put your Guard Outfit on, and go towards the ladder. You are safe to go to the roof at 23:00 without getting sniped. Go upwards, and when you see a pole, hop on to the ground when no guards are looking.
2. Go to the left and circle around the prison. After that, go down when you see a red key door on the fence. You should find a building with a ladder and a Prisoner Stash. Go up to the ladder, then cross the pole to the left. Then, cut the fence and once it breaks, use the Grappling Hook on the wall going down.
3. Go Right, and down a bit until you find a little wood platform. Use your Makeshift Raft at the edge, and escape HMP Irongate.

### Alternate Strategy

1. Most of the preparation is the same as the main strategy, however you will also need to knock out the guard with the Cell Key and use it to make a Plastic Cell Key. A contraband pouch will also be required for the escape, and you will not need to use the vent ladder.
2. At the night you are ready to escape, put the Bed Dummy on your bed, and switch your outfit to Infirmary Overalls or Guard Outfit. Gather everything you need. Your inventory should have "Plastic Cell Key, Plastic Staff Key, (Durable) Contraband Pouch, cutting item, Grappling Hook, and Makeshift Raft.
3. You are mostly safe to exit your cell without waiting to 23:00. Take the hallway down to the door to the yellow lock. Go out of the door at the bottom with the red lock. Go down the red door with the fence, and enter the little building with a ladder and prisoner stash. At this point, you are safe to drop your contraband pouch and your red and yellow keys.
4. If you didn't wait at the beginning, you will have to wait in this little room before going up the ladder. Once the time hits 23:00, the snipers despawn, and you are safe to go up the ladder to start cutting. Use your grappling hook to go back down, and use your raft to escape.

### Prison Takeover (PC)

It is possible to do a prison takeover in HMP Irongate, however it requires precision and difficult to pull off. This video will demonstrate the takeover. This can be done using glitches or playing casually.

#### Preparation

1. Get your intellect to 100. Don't worry about your speed and strength, or your weapon and outfit, because the guards stun rods will 1-hit KO (regardless of defense).
2. **(Optional)** Access the vent system with a fake vent cover, so no contraband will need to be kept in your desk. Be sure to block the camera doing this. Also, it's best to make sure to get multiple fake vent covers to prevent going to Solitary.
3. Get all the materials to craft molten chocolate. If you choose to play with glitches, you can duplicate the item you want to craft by clicking craft and pressing ESC or 9 during the same frame (the game runs in 45 FPS), then put something in the inmate give menu and click out of it. You will still have to collect duct tape or length of rope as you can't craft those.
4. Since you won't be doing the zipline glitch, you will still need the raft to escape.
5. Your vent should have 10 Cups of Molten Chocolate & 10 Rolls of Duct Tape if you stay safe with shakedowns. The Raft is safe to be in your desk, as it is only one red item so you can put it in the toilet if it isn't flooded.

#### Takeover / The Escape:

1. Fill your inventory with 3 cups of molten chocolate and 3 duct tapes. This can take out 3 guards. It is best to wait for a guard at the place where the cells and solitary are. When they come, defeat them, and tie them. After 3 guards, repeat the process.
2. After you get the note that says "OK [Name], you've made your point!", steal the red key from the guards, and get your raft. Then take the back door. Don't worry about the metal detectors going off, as after a successful takeovers, snipers won't shoot. Find the open master door, then make your way east to the dock. Then use your raft.

### Prison Takeover (Console / Mobile)

It won't be as hard to do a prison takeover on console/mobile than PC, as the guards don't have stun rods.

1. Get your strength and speed to 100.
2. Create the Whip (or baton or better), Plated Inmate Outfit and the Makeshift Raft.
3. Wait until Afternoon Rollcall and attack the 3 guards standing in front of the inmates. Tie them down with the Roll of Duct Tape they should have on them.
4. All the guards should wander over to the 3 tied up and attack you if your there as well. Attack them and tie them up until you get the Warden message.
5. Find the guard with the red key and take it. You will have to be quick with this. Pick the guard that had the red key up and run out the door below the roll call area. Then run through the other door with the electric fence around it. Go through the White Lock Door (should be open by now) and run to the dock (go straight down and run right). Drop the guard and put the red key back.
6. Use the Makeshift Raft and escape!

### Escape (Xbox and Playstation)

#### You will need:

1 Screwdriver

2 Fake Vent Covers

1 Guard Outfit

1 Makeshift Raft

1 Rope/Sheet Rope

1 Grappling Hook

1 Bed Dummy

3 Duct Tape

#### Method:

1. Get a Screwdriver and unscrew the vent above you. (Make sure to duct tape the camera first if there is one in your cell!) Place a fake vent cover there.

2. While in vents, go right and you will come to a blockage, use the screwdriver to remove it, you should now have access to the roof

3. Place all items listed above (except Bed Dummy and Duct Tapes, keep those in cell desk) in the vents.

4. When it goes lights out, get to the spot in your cell that is directly under the camera, (top middle).

5. Get Bed Dummy out of desk and place in bed then duct tape over the camera. Stand on your desk and enter the vents

6. Go to the ladder with the, Makeshift Raft, Sheet Rope, Grappling Hook and Guard Outfit. Go up the ladder

7. Now, being careful not to get caught by the searchlights, go down and to the left using the rope/sheet rope to cross the left wall.

8. Continue left and use the Grappling Hook to go up the next wall on the left of your screen, go down to the bottom of the building and look for a pipe that crosses the electric fence.

9. Cross that pipe without falling off, you should be on a small building with a pipe going to the left, cross the left pipe then use your grappling hook to go over to main wall.

10. You should be able to see water, go right and hug the edge of the Island until you see a small wooden jetty.

11. Hold the Makeshift Raft and just walk onto the jetty

12. Watch the cutscene and feel proud

### Stealth

#### You will need:

1 Makeshift Raft

1 Guard outfit

1 Bed dummy

1 Grappling hook

1 Sheet rope

1 Plastic Staff/Red key

And Lightweight cutters or higher

#### Escape method:

1. At evening roll call when the cell checks are announced go and place your bed dummy and take all your stuff.
2. When lights out begins go outside your cell and put on your guard outfit.
3. Go south through the door at the roll call area and through the door on the electric fence.
4. Go east, as far as you can. Then, go north as far as you can. Go west until you reach a building with a red/staff key door and boxes and a ladder inside.
5. Go inside with your key and climb up the ladder, then go up through the vent ladder to the roof.
6. Cross the pipe going west, then cut the fence on the roof of the next building.
7. Use your grappling hook and sheet rope to navigate to the South-West corner of the prison roof. Note that the grappling hook is used to go higher on the roof, and the sheet rope is used to go lower.
8. Once you reach the South-West corner of the prison roof, cross the pipes to reach the outer buildings.
9. Use your sheet rope to climb down the South outer wall.
10. Go East along the edge of the island until you reach a wooden dock.
11. Use your Makeshift Raft to escape on the dock.
12. Celebrate! You have now completed all 6 main prisons of The Escapists!

### Glitchless - No Raft Escape (PC)

Not requiring using a raft sounds weird at first, but there are spots you can dig out underground without reinforced concrete due to a developer oversight. This strategy was used in a 7 day glitchless speedrun with a time of 1:08:15 (video).

1. Label the 4th guards name to something like "444444", "Staff", or "Red", and the 2nd guards name to something like "222222", "Utility" or "Orange" so you can use a hidden place to store your items before you escape if you are worried about shakedowns.
2. To get the keys, you will need to craft a Cup of Molten Chocolate, Wad of Putty, and Molten Plastic. Knock out the guard you labeled, then grab the key and guard outfit. Craft the key mold with the real key and Wad of Putty, then put the real key back on the guard to avoid going to solitary. Then, craft the plastic key with the key mold and Molten Plastic.
3. Craft all the necessary items as you go along. You will need to do a job to get money for two Crowbars and a Length of Rope as they are not easy to find normally. Keep your Durable Contraband Pouch and Plastic Utility Key in your desk or in the toilet if you are worried about shakedowns.
4. Once you are ready, you should have the following items.
	1. Bed Dummy
	2. Guard Outfit
	3. Sturdy Cutters
	4. Sturdy Shovel
	5. Durable Contraband Pouch
	6. Plastic Utility Key
	7. Plastic Staff Key
	8. Grappling Hook
5. When you are ready to escape, make sure your heat is at 0% first. Put the Bed Dummy in the bed then attend Evening Rollcall with your Durable Contraband Pouch and Plastic Utility Key in your inventory. Gather everything you need, then at lights out, you are safe to go out. Go to the small building with the ladder and prisoner stash.
6. This next part may be considered as a glitch to some people, but is allowed for the speedrun.com submission. At lights out, you won't get any heat from being outside. Go up the ladder, then cut the fence. Your guard heat will go up overtime, but you won't get instantly sniped so you will need to do this fast.
7. Go back down with the Grappling Hook, then go up from the right where you will find three one-square water spaces. You will need to wait until 23:00 In-Game before you start digging. Once the time hits, dig right next to it. If you do it on the right square, you will not need a timber brace. Keep digging towards the right, if you get a chip stone, you are still fine because the shovel does have 2/5 chipping.
8. Escape.

### Exploit - PC Jesus Escape (PC)

This strategy is the fastest known method of completing HMP Irongate. It exploits a game bug in order to be done. The world record time for this strategy is 2m 55s 883ms, held by Smythe. (video proof).

1. Label the 2nd guard's name to something like "222222", "Utility", or "Orange" as the key pattern is always the same.
2. Grab a Tube of Toothpaste as fast as possible as soon as you have control over your character. It's important to do this fast as the speedrun timing starts as soon as the ingame timer at the bottom hits 8:51.
3. Quickly use a Tube of Toothpaste to block the cameras, and search all the desks for the materials to craft a Cup of Molten Chocolate, and Zipline Hook
	1. While searching desks, there is a glitch where you can click on another desk while the "Searching" bar is filling up to get results on the other desk you clicked on in the same cell. The best desks to do this trick in are the one 2nd from left at the bottom, and 3rd from the right on top.
4. Since Timber is a red item, you will need to bypass the scanner, so the only option is to yolo it to the janitor's cleaning supplies in hopes of no guards hitting a KO.
5. You may need to adjust your play depending on the desk randomness. If the prison goes to lockdown, find a guard straight away, or go to roll call if you are fast enough after putting the timber in the janitor's cleaning supplies.
6. Farm your intellect to at least 60. If you hit high fatigue, get KO'd from a guard to reduce the fastest way.
7. Craft your molten chocolate in the main roll call area, so you have more room to find guards. Make sure you only KO the guard whenever there is no other guard nearby.
8. Gather the Utility Key to use to get to the utility shed behind the janitor room, while carrying the guard in so you can put his key back on him. Quickly go back to the janitors area to craft your zipline, then put the key back on the guard once you are in the utility shed.
9. Climb up the vent, and put on a Guard Outfit before you go on the roof. Your guard heat will increase over time, so make sure that it is below 50% going up.
10. Go right towards the zipline. Right next to it, take off the outfit to get sniped, then use the zipline during the black screen transition.
11. When you get in the infirmary, you should still have the zipline movement. After you get off the bed by spamming D, you should clip into the blocks and escape.

If you don't care about the perfect time, add these to the main strategy:

* While also crafting a Contraband Pouch might not save any time on most cases, it is a lot safer to use instead.
* Do the janitor job to avoid getting fired if you're not confident of finishing before the time hits 14:00, or reapply if you have high intellect.
* If the strategy is being done at lights out, the snipers will despawn at 23:00, and respawn when the time hits 6:00.
* If you don't get the molten chocolate, an alternative is to use plastic forks with the infinite durability glitch and to craft Infirmary Overalls.
	+ To do this, you will need a weapon item, such as a Comb Shiv. Press the esc key and CLICK the profile button at the same time. This may require multiple attempts. Click into your desk while putting the weapon into your desk. Click out of your desk, then back in. If the menu is glitched with yellow keys, take the weapon out. Go to your profile and click the weapon. Once the extra items in your hotbar disappear, you will know if you've done it correctly.

## Bugs\Exploits

On one reported occasion, the underground glitched and everything was placed a floor below, excluding any doors. While this was incredibly strange, it allowed the person to escape with about 8 spoons and a makeshift raft. Don't count on this though, as it has only been reported once.

If you get knocked out by a Stun Rod (meaning sudden KO) as the lights turn down the game glitches and will say you are in your cell. The prison will not go on lockdown, allowing you to farm statistics until Roll Call if you keep a close eye on your Guard Heat.

It is possible to make game very glitchy by making Glitch 66. (This happens more in Shankton State Pen.)

On mobile, you can walk through one of the vent walls, don't plan on using it to escape though, if you go out of the map your game will crash. You can easily get back in by going back through the wall you came out of.

You can also use the zipline right after getting shot on the roof to escape.

## Trivia

* In the mobile and console versions, HMP Irongate was nerfed as the guards lacked stun rods and in the mobile version, only half of the cells had cameras. San Pancho was not nerfed at all and both prisons are often found to be equally hard.
* HMP Irongate and Stalag Flucht are the only default prisons to not have any prison-exclusive consumables.
* The HMP in HMP Irongate stands for "His Majesty's Prison."