Berry Bushes or Forage Bushes are an early food source and appear in every game of the series.
Age of Empires[]
| “ | Can be foraged for food. | ” |
| —In-game description in the Definitive Edition | ||
The Forage Bush and Fruit Bush (or Berry Bush before Return of Rome) in Age of Empires provides an easily-accessible, naturally-occurring source of food, making it a key resource from the Stone Age to early Tool Age. Each Bush yields 150 food, which can be deposited at the Granary or Town Center. Note that foraging and farming are the only resource types that Villagers cannot deposit at the Storage Pit.
Villagers gather food from foraging at a moderate rate: far slower than fishing and, since the Definitive Edition, slightly slower than hunting. However, it is still faster than the gathering rate of Fishing Boats/Ships, and on par with farming. The key advantage is that Bushes are so easy to harvest: unlike fish, they typically occur in large clusters; unlike land animals, they are stationary, so don't require micromanagement-intensive herding or luring strategies; unlike farming, they require no wood or construction time. For these reasons, foraging is often the main source of food in the early game.
Bushes can't be reseeded, so are a finite resource. Typically, easily-accessible sources are depleted quite early in the game. This is where Farms come into the picture, as they can always be replaced whenever a sufficient supply of wood is available.
Foraging was originally solely from Berry Bushes, but Return of Rome replaced them with Forage Bushes and Fruit Bushes, carried across from Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition.
Age of Empires II[]
Like its predecessor, the Forage Bush in Age of Empires II provides an early source of food. Forage Bushes always appear in clusters, and there is usually a cluster near every player's starting Town Center. Building a Mill nearby helps increase collection rates by minimizing the time Villagers need to spend walking to their drop-off points.
On most maps, there are several other Forage Bush clusters scattered around the map. Each Bush contains 125 food. It is advisable to gather food from animals first before gathering from Bushes since the working speed of Foragers is slower, at 0.31 food per in-game second. However, foraging is still faster than farming when taking into account the fact that they don't need to walk around nearly as much, and foraging doesn't require a wood investment outside of building a Mill near the Berry Bushes.
In The African Kingdoms, the Fruit Bush was introduced. It only differs from the Forage Bush in its appearance.
Civilization bonuses[]
- Aztecs: Foragers carry +3 food.
- Franks: Foragers work 15% faster (25% in The Forgotten).
- Gurjaras: Start with 2 Berry Bushes.
- Mayans: Forage Bushes last 15% longer.
- Portuguese: Foragers generate wood in addition to food (0.33 wood per food).
Age of Mythology[]
| “ | Villagers tasked on edible crops will gather Food. | ” |
The Berry Bushes in Age of Mythology contain 100 food, and like in the other games, clusters of them can sometimes be found close to the Town Center. They are a slow, but safe method of gathering food.
History[]
| “ | Berry bushes symbolize the gathering nature of pre-agricultural humans and are a staple of Age of Empires games. Berries, like all fruit, evolved as a means for plants to disperse their seeds--in this case through the digestive tracts of animals. | ” |
Age of Empires III[]
The Age of Empires III Berry Bush holds 1,000 food and is harvested by Settlers, Villagers, Coureur des Bois, Cree Coureur des Bois, or Settler Wagons. The Berry Bush, unlike animals, do not lose food over time due to decay, but the gather rates are slower (the same as a Mill, except for the French).
Berry Bushes usually come in clusters of 2-4, and last a considerable amount of time to European and Asian civilizations. Most maps usually have a cluster of berry bushes near them as an early source of food.
They should not be used by the French Coureur des Bois, or those utilizing Cree Coureur des Bois due to the fact both units gather berries slower than working at a Mill. Furthermore, major Native American civilizations should always use hunting (spawning new animals as the Lakota, or Haudenosaunee via cards), fishing, and berries for as long as possible due to the inferiority of the Farm to berries, Mills, and fishing.
In the Definitive Edition, Torps constructed will spawn a Berry Bush. However, these Berry Bushes only hold 200 food and decay over time. With the "Blueberries" Home City Card, Torps will spawn a Blueberry Bush, which have +200 food and are gathered twice as fast by Torps, instead of a Berry Bush, and turns all Torps' Berry Bushes into Blueberry Bushes.
Blueberry Bushes also appear in the Scandinavia map included with the Knights of the Mediterranean expansion.
- See also: Food#Gather rates
History[]
| “ | There are many varieties of berries native to the Americas. Tart cranberries grow in cranberry bogs, flooded at harvest time to float the ripe berries to the surface where they are skimmed off and dried or put into preserves. Thorny blackberry bushes grow wild in the southern United States. The Guarana berry grows in the northeastern parts of South America and is named after the Guarani tribe. | ” |
Age of Empires IV[]
Berries always contain 250 food, they appear in groups, always near the starting Town Center in a group of 6, and several more groups around the map. The Abbasid Dynasty and the Delhi Sultanate can create orchards when constructing a Mill near the bushes, improving the capacity to 350 food. The Twin Minaret Medrese Landmark for the Ottomans spawns up to 4 renewable bushes with an improved 50% gathering rate on them. Byzantine Villagers also generate +50% olive oil when gathering from Berry Bushes.
Trivia[]
- The berries throughout the Age of Empires series appear to be based on either redcurrants or raspberries, both which are common throughout the Old World and the Americas. The species of the fruit bushes are unknown, although it is plausible they could be gooseberries.
- Since the presence of Berry Bushes is something of a running joke in the Age of Empires series, the Berry Bush description in Age of Empires III reads "It wouldn't be Age of Empires without berries".
- Age of Empires and Age of Empires II are the only games in the series where no technologies improve berry gathering rate.
- According to the prototype data entries, other food-based plant sources were planned to have been added in Age of Mythology, according to the Multiplayer Alpha language.dll file and WildCrops unittype tag.
- The Fruit Bush appears to be based on Strychnos spinosa, a bush or tree with yellow fruit that is native to Africa. However, the fruit on Strychnos spinosa is round in shape, while the Fruit Bush's fruit is closer to a lemon shape. However, the fruit cannot be lemons, as they are not native to Africa.
Gallery[]
| Resources in Age of Empires series | |
|---|---|
| Common | Food · Wood · Gold/Coin · Stone* |
| Age of Mythology |  Favor |
| Age of Empires III |  XP ·  Export ·  Influence |
| Age of Empires IV |  Bounty ·  Vizier Point ·  Olive Oil |
| Extractable resource sources in the Age of Empires series | |
| Common | Tree · Gold Mine · Stone Mine* · Berry Bush · Farm (I · II · M · III · IV) · Animals (Fish · Herdable animal) |
| Age of Empires II |  Fish Trap |
| Age of Mythology |  Jade Mine |
| Age of Empires III |  Cherry Orchard ·  Coal Mine ·  Copper Mine ·  Crate ·  Diamond Mine ·  Estate ·  Field ·  Hacienda ·  Mango Grove ·  Mill ·  Rice Paddy ·  Rock · Salt Mine ·  Silver Mine · Tin Mine |
| Age of Empires IV |  Olive Grove |
| * not used in Age of Mythology and Age of Empires III | |