Immovable wall — Iron Stance taunts all enemies, braces for a self bulwark (temporary HP that stacks with any shields/heals), and digs in: the more hits it soaks, the more damage it shrugs off. A passive also reduces all incoming damage.
"You cannot break what refuses to yield."
When a Gladiator reaches level 10 and you select Iron Titan, three things change permanently:
Iron Stance: Enters Iron Stance, taunting all enemies, bracing to take 20% reduced damage for 6 ticks, and raising a [max HP × 0.35] HP self bulwark — temporary HP (its own pool, stacks with any shields/heals) that soaks blows. Passives: every hit taken is reduced by a flat [5 + TOU × 0.05] damage, and Dig In — each hit taken stacks +2% damage reduction (up to 25 stacks, diminishing past 25%, approaching 45%). Damage-over-time seeps through the bulwark.
Iron Titan grants the following ability score bonuses on top of the Gladiator base scores:
These bonuses stack with ability score points allocated from levelling. They cannot be removed without retiring the hero.
Reduces all incoming damage by 0 per hit (flat reduction before HP loss, scaling with Toughness).; Digs in under fire — each direct hit taken adds a stacking damage reduction (up to 25 stacks), so the Titan grows tougher the longer it is focused. Iron Stance also braces for a self bulwark: temporary HP layered on top of any shields or heals.
This passive is always active during combat — no gear or skill tree investment required to trigger it.
A Iron Titan put through the Bloodline Forge leaves a Legacy Item carrying this passive — at the level 50 cap: On run start: gain +100 DEF for the entire run. The number scales with the hero's level at forge time, and any hero can equip the item.
Defense (Iron Wall, Fortification, Second Wind), Vitality (Unstoppable Momentum).
See the Skill Tree deep dive for the full 119-node reference and routing advice, or the Gladiator build guide for a complete path recommendation for this class.
Both subclasses unlock at level 10. Compare them to choose:
| Iron Titan | Pit Fighter | |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | Immovable wall — Iron Stance taunts all enemies, braces for a self bulwark (temporary HP that stacks with any shields/heals), and digs in: the more hits it soaks, the more damage it shrugs off. A passive also reduces all incoming damage. | Duels the strongest enemy: deals +30% damage to it and draws its attacks, but takes +20% damage from it in return. Its Execute strike hits the dueled enemy harder the lower its HP. Thorns reflect 30% of incoming damage back at attackers, and Duelist's Poise parries the dueled rival's blows — sharpening with Agility investment. |
| Stat Bonus | +2 Toughness, +1 Vitality | +2 Toughness, +1 Vitality |
| Details | This page | Pit Fighter page → |
The choice is permanent — use a Scroll of Divergence consumable to re-select without retiring the hero.