Since you can't rely on RuneScape gold other players for supplies, you'll need to gather everything yourself. Building a sustainable cycle of gathering and crafting resources is key.
Critical Gathering Skills:

Woodcutting + Firemaking: Chop trees and burn logs. This combo trains two skills at once and helps unlock winter event activities and Quest requirements.

Fishing + Cooking: Your best early source of food. Start with shrimp and anchovies, progressing to trout, salmon, and eventually lobsters.

Mining + Smithing: Essential for making your own gear. Start with copper and tin, move to iron, then aim for steel and mithril for more reliable combat gear.

Crafting: Kill cows for hides, tan them into leather, and craft armor. This saves money and provides a good armor set early on.

Herblore: Use herbs and secondaries from early Slayer and farming to make basic potions. Even simple Strength or Energy potions are huge early-game boosts.

The earlier you start building this resource infrastructure, the less painful the progression becomes in the mid-to-late game.

Efficient Combat Training

Training combat is crucial for survival and unlocking better gear. Ironmen don't have the luxury of buying weapons or armor from other players, so you'll need to earn everything through grinding and loot.

Best Early Training Spots:

Chickens & Cows – Easy to kill, drop feathers, hides, and bones.

Goblins – Good for early gear drops and quick XP.

Al Kharid Warriors – Moderate defense and decent XP for mid-level combat.

Stronghold of Security – A must-do for any Ironman. It offers 10,000 coins and four safe zones to train on increasingly tough monsters.

Be sure to pick up every bone you come across. Bury them or save them for use on a Gilded Altar later to power-level your Prayer—a vital skill for combat survivability.

Level Prayer Strategically

Prayer gives access to protective and offensive abilities critical for Ironman survivability, especially in bossing and quests. Here's how to train it early:

Bury all bones you collect from chickens, cows, goblins, and other creatures.

As you unlock more GP and Construction, build a Gilded Altar in your POH with burners for faster training.

Use Ectofuntus for early high XP gains if you're willing to grind slime and bone dust.

You'll want to hit level 43 for Protect from Melee as soon as you reasonably can—it will make many bosses and quest fights manageable.

Combine Skills for Efficiency

Time is precious in Ironman mode. Whenever possible, train multiple skills at once to reduce downtime and increase productivity.
Examples:

Fish and Cook: Cook what you catch immediately.

Chop and Burn: Train Woodcutting and Firemaking together.

Kill and Loot: Fight enemies that give both useful resources (bones, hides, herbs) and combat XP.

Mine and Smelt: Use the ores you mine right away to smith armor.

Also, make use of early-game tools and gear that improve your gathering speed—upgrade your axes, pickaxes, and fishing rods as soon as possible.

Unlock Key Locations and Resources

Gaining access to critical areas can streamline your Ironman journey immensely:

Fairy Rings – Unlocked via Fairytale II - Cure a Queen. Offers fast travel across Gielinor.

Ardougne Cloak 1 – Easy teleport to Ardougne Monastery and good early prayer bonuses.

Glory Amulet (via crafting or dragons) – Offers teleports to key locations.

Player-Owned House – Build it as soon as possible for RuneScape gold for sale easy teleports, banking alternatives (especially for UIM), and fast skill training.