Fastest Way to Unlock All Badges & Gear in Tears of Metal

You just spent three grueling hours surviving endless hordes, perfectly commanding your troops, only to wipe on a late-stage boss and realize you didn’t extract enough resources to unlock that one crucial gold-tier badge. The progression wall in Tears of Metal can feel like slamming your head against a reinforced Scottish shield wall, leaving you with empty pockets and a decimated battalion. If you are exhausted from suboptimal runs, constant wipes, and want to know the absolute fastest way to unlock all badges & gear in Tears of Metal, you have finally found the right war camp.

TL;DR: The Short Answer

If you want the fastest way to unlock all badges & gear in Tears of Metal, you must abandon full-clear runs and focus on targeted, high-efficiency extraction loops.

• Prioritize Economy Badges First: Immediately unlock the “Scavenger’s Eye” and “Quartermaster’s Grace” badges to multiply your base resource yields by up to 40%.
• Spam Sector 2 Elite Hunts: Do not push to the final boss. Clear Sector 1 rapidly, hunt the guaranteed Elite spawns in Sector 2 for high-tier gear blueprints, and extract immediately.
• Ignore Trash Mobs: Stop fighting every single enemy. Use mobility gear to bypass low-value hordes and only engage objectives that reward Meteoric Iron and Valor Tokens.
• Stack Co-op Multipliers: If possible, run with a full squad. Tears of Metal scales resource drops heavily in co-op, offering a massive 2.5x multiplier to badge XP when playing with four players.

Table of Contents

• TL;DR: The Short Answer
• Understanding the Progression Economy in Tears of Metal
• Common Mistakes Hindering Your Progression
• The Optimized Route: Fastest Way to Unlock All Badges & Gear in Tears of Metal
• Alternative Methods for Farming Badges and Gear
• Advanced Tips for Hardcore Players
• Priority Unlocks: The Meta-Progression Tier List
• The Ultimate QoL Bypass: XMODhub
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Final Verdict

Understanding the Progression Economy in Tears of Metal

Before you can exploit the progression system, you must fundamentally understand how Tears of Metal handles its economy. The game utilizes a dual-currency and experience system that dictates how quickly your army grows in power.

First, we have Meteoric Iron. This is the primary physical currency used to forge new weapons, upgrade your base camp armor, and permanently unlock the gear blueprints you discover during your runs. Meteoric Iron is dropped by Elite enemies, found in hidden caches, and awarded for completing primary sector objectives.

Second, we have Valor Tokens. These are intrinsically tied to your Commander Profile and are the sole currency used to unlock and upgrade Badges. Badges in Tears of Metal are game-changing passive modifiers that dictate your build—ranging from increasing your personal melee attack speed to granting your summoned archers flaming arrows.

The core issue most players face is attempting to farm both simultaneously without a dedicated strategy. Because Elite enemies drop gear blueprints and Meteoric Iron, while massive horde-clearing and objective rushing grant Valor Tokens, a “balanced” run is actually the least efficient way to play. To achieve the fastest way to unlock all badges & gear in Tears of Metal, you must separate your runs into dedicated “Iron Runs” (for gear) and “Valor Runs” (for badges).

Common Mistakes Hindering Your Progression

If you feel like your progression in Tears of Metal has slowed to a crawl, you are likely committing one of several critical tactical errors. Fixing these mistakes is the first step toward optimizing your grind.

Overstaying in High-Threat Zones

The most common mistake is the “one more wave” mentality. As you progress through sectors in Tears of Metal, the Threat Level increases exponentially. While the loot quality does technically increase, the time-to-kill (TTK) on enemies skyrockets. Spending 15 minutes fighting a Sector 4 boss for a 10% increase in Meteoric Iron is mathematically disastrous when you could have completed three separate Sector 1 and 2 runs in the same amount of time, yielding 300% more resources overall.

Upgrading the Wrong Gear Early

Many players waste their hard-earned Meteoric Iron upgrading early-game, low-tier gear like the Rusty Claymore or the Peasant’s Tunic. This severely delays your ability to afford the mid-game gear that is required to survive efficient farming routes. You should hoard your resources and only unlock gear that directly contributes to movement speed or area-of-effect (AoE) damage, as these are the two stats that dictate farming speed.

Ignoring the Synergy Between Badges and Gear

Unlocking badges at random because they “sound cool” will ruin your build efficiency. For example, unlocking the “Cavalry Charge” badge does absolutely nothing for you if your current gear loadout focuses on slow, heavy infantry play. You must map out your badge unlocks to complement the gear you are actively farming.

If you find yourself constantly dying because you made these early-game mistakes and your character is now under-leveled for the zones you need to farm, you might want to consider utilizing external tools to fix your economy. For players looking to bypass the frustrating early-game resource drought, utilizing Tears of Metal cheats and console commands can instantly grant you the Meteoric Iron needed to get your build back on track, allowing you to focus on the high-level gameplay rather than the tedious early grind.

The Optimized Route: Fastest Way to Unlock All Badges & Gear in Tears of Metal

Now we get into the exact, step-by-step routing. This is the mathematically proven fastest way to unlock all badges & gear in Tears of Metal. We will break this down into the two distinct types of runs you need to be doing.

Phase 1: The “Iron Rush” (Gear Farming Loop)

Your goal here is strictly acquiring Meteoric Iron and Gear Blueprints.

1. Loadout Preparation: Equip the lightest armor you have for maximum stamina regeneration. Equip a high-burst damage weapon, like the Highland Halberd, designed to burst down single targets quickly.
2. Sector 1 Sprint: Ignore all standard enemies. Sprint directly to the main objective. Complete it as fast as humanly possible. Do not loot chests unless they are directly on your path.
3. Sector 2 Elite Hunting: Once in Sector 2, the game director will always spawn 2 to 3 Elite enemies (usually Armored Brutes or Corrupted Captains) near the secondary objectives. Hunt them down immediately.
4. The Extraction: Once the Elites are dead and their blueprints/Iron are collected, run straight to the extraction point. Do not attempt the Sector 2 boss.
5. Repeat: This entire loop should take no more than 6 to 8 minutes once you master the map layouts. You will be swimming in gear blueprints and the Iron needed to craft them.

Phase 2: The “Valor Cleave” (Badge XP Loop)

Your goal here is to maximize Valor Tokens to unlock and max out your Badges.

1. Loadout Preparation: Equip heavy, sustained-damage gear. The “Ironclad Defender” set paired with a wide-swinging Greatsword is optimal. You want maximum AoE damage.
2. Horde Manipulation: In Tears of Metal, Valor Tokens are heavily tied to killstreaks and massive multi-kills. Enter Sector 1 and intentionally trigger the alarms or hit the “War Horn” environmental objects to summon maximum horde sizes.
3. Choke Point Farming: Funnel the massive hordes into narrow terrain—bridges, castle gates, or ravines. Use your Commander abilities and your troops to obliterate 50+ enemies simultaneously. This triggers a “Slaughter Bonus,” multiplying your Valor Token drops.
4. Sector 1 Boss Clear: Because you are geared for combat, wipe the Sector 1 boss for the massive flat Valor Token bonus, then immediately extract. Do not go to Sector 2, as the enemies become too tanky to reliably trigger the Slaughter Bonus.

Alternative Methods for Farming Badges and Gear

If the hyper-optimized loops above start to burn you out, or if you simply prefer a different playstyle, there are highly effective alternative methods to consider in Tears of Metal.

Alternative 1: The Co-op Scaling Exploit

Tears of Metal heavily rewards cooperative play. When you play with a full squad of four, the enemy density increases, but more importantly, the base drop rate of Meteoric Iron and Valor Tokens increases by a staggering 2.5x. The alternative method here is to form a dedicated “Split-Farm” group.

Have two players focus entirely on gathering environmental resources and opening chests, while the other two players (the highest damage dealers) focus strictly on hunting Elites. Because loot is shared upon extraction, you are effectively completing two different types of runs simultaneously. This requires high coordination but is arguably the most fun way to unlock all badges & gear in Tears of Metal.

Alternative 2: Stealth and Sabotage Runs

Not every run requires a bloodbath. If you unlock the “Shadow Cloak” gear and the “Silent Step” badge, you can perform zero-kill sabotage runs. In specific map variants (like the Midnight Siege maps), you can sneak past all guards, steal the high-value Meteoric Iron caches from the enemy war camps, and extract without swinging your sword once. This method is incredibly fast, often taking under 4 minutes per run, though it rewards zero Valor Tokens, making it only viable for gear farming.

Advanced Tips for Hardcore Players

For the top 1% of players who want to shave every possible second off their run times, you need to start manipulating the deeper mechanics of Tears of Metal.

Animation Canceling for Faster Clears

Every heavy attack in Tears of Metal has a lengthy recovery animation. By tapping your “Command Troop” button exactly one frame after your weapon’s hitbox connects with an enemy, you will instantly cancel the recovery animation of your swing. This allows you to chain heavy attacks 40% faster than normal, drastically lowering your time-to-kill against Elite enemies and speeding up your Iron Rush runs.

Manipulating the Spawn Director

The AI director in Tears of Metal monitors your health and resource levels. If you are at full health and have not taken damage, the director will spawn fewer, but higher-tier enemies. If you intentionally take falling damage right at the start of a run to drop your health below 50%, the director will panic and flood the map with lower-tier “trash” mobs. This is an incredible, high-risk strategy to guarantee massive hordes for your Valor Cleave runs, ensuring you get maximum killstreak multipliers for your badges.

Priority Unlocks: The Meta-Progression Tier List

To truly execute the fastest way to unlock all badges & gear in Tears of Metal, you cannot spend your currencies haphazardly. Purchasing the wrong upgrades early will bottleneck your efficiency. Below is the mathematically optimal unlock order to maximize your hourly yield of both Meteoric Iron and Valor Tokens.

Understanding the Extraction Penalty Math

Many players ruin their progression rate by pushing their luck against late-stage bosses. In Tears of Metal, wiping results in a brutal Extraction Penalty. If your Commander falls in battle, you instantly lose 60% of your unbanked Meteoric Iron and 40% of your earned Valor Tokens for that run.

By utilizing the Sector 2 Elite Hunt strategy detailed above, you guarantee a 100% retention rate of your loot. A successful 8-minute extraction yielding 800 Meteoric Iron is infinitely better than a 25-minute wipe that leaves you with a paltry 400 Meteoric Iron. Always secure the bag.

The Ultimate QoL Bypass: XMODhub

Let’s be completely honest. Even utilizing the absolute fastest way to unlock all badges & gear in Tears of Metal, you are still looking at anywhere from 40 to 60 hours of repetitive grinding to completely max out your Commander Profile. If you are an adult with a full-time job, or if you simply want to experience the endgame builds without treating the game like a second career, the vanilla grind can be exhausting.

This is where XMODhub becomes the ultimate quality-of-life upgrade. Instead of running the Sector 1 loop for the 400th time, you can take total control of your game’s economy. With XMODhub’s dedicated tools for Tears of Metal, you can instantly inject Meteoric Iron, max out your Valor Tokens, or even toggle God Mode so you can casually explore the lore and environments without the stress of constant wipes.

Here is how you bypass the grind in three simple steps:

1. Download and Install XMODhub: Head over to the official site and install the lightweight, secure client.

2. Auto-Detect Tears of Metal: Launch the app and let it automatically detect your game installation. XMODhub supports over 5,000 titles, so finding your game is instantaneous.

3. Toggle Your Enhancements: Boot up your save file, open the XMODhub overlay, and simply toggle on “Infinite Meteoric Iron” or “Max Badge XP.” Instantly forge the gear you want and command your army your way.

Download Tears of Metal Trainer Now

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Verdict

Mastering the progression system in this game requires discipline, map knowledge, and a willingness to abandon traditional full-clear playstyles. By separating your runs into dedicated Iron Rushes and Valor Cleaves, ignoring the bait of high-threat zones, and utilizing advanced mechanics like animation canceling, you have now mastered the fastest way to unlock all badges & gear in Tears of Metal. Your army will be unstoppable, and your armory will be overflowing.

However, if you ever find yourself fatigued by the inherent repetition of roguelike grinds, remember that gaming is about having fun, not working a second job. Utilizing a powerhouse tool like XMODhub—which safely and seamlessly supports over 5,000 massive titles including similar medieval combat juggernauts like Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord and Subnautica 2—ensures that you dictate how you play. Whether you grind it out with our optimized routes or take the fast track to absolute power, the battlefield is yours to conquer.