| “ | Click a fishing ship to gather gold from this oyster, or click a villager if the oyster is near the shore. | ” |
| —In-game description | ||
Oysters are a source of gold in Chronicles. Oysters can spawn on random maps in Chronicles, or in the base game starting with update 141935. They act as Gold Mines which can be harvested by both Villagers and Fishing Ships. Fishing Ships and Villagers can deposit the harvested gold at the nearest Port or Dock; Villagers can drop it off at Mining Camps as well. Like fish, they can appear on water and on shallows. Unlike fish, they can also appear on other amphibious terrain such as beach, swamp, and navigable ice, but not inland.
Fishing Ships collect from Oysters faster than Villagers, and just like with fish, animal carcasses, and Farms, all units can walk over Oysters. Malian Oyster Gatherers drop off +10% gold, while their Fishing Ships do not, so it is better to gather Oysters with Villagers. Villagers of the Armenians and Georgians can drop off gold collected from Oysters at the Mule Cart, but Mule Carts cannot be tasked to an Oyster pile to seek out another when one is over.
Since update 153015, this resource is also available in the Scenario Editor of Age of Empires: Return of Rome, but does not spawn on official random maps.
Changelog[]
Chronicles: Battle for Greece[]
- With update 128442, the Antiquity Mode checkbox is available. If this is enabled, Oysters might spawn on random maps.
- Since update 141935, Fishing Ships no longer require Antiquity Mode to be enabled in order to be able to gather from Oysters.
Trivia[]
- Oysters are the only non-food resource that a Fishing Ship can gather.
- This is similar to Age of Empires III, where Fishing Boats can collect coin from Whales.
- Villagers harvesting Oysters use the same animation as when mining, swinging pickaxes, despite their fishing animation being more accurate as to how shellfish are collected.
Gallery[]
| Resources in the Age of Empires series | |
|---|---|
| Common | Food · Wood · Gold/Coin · Stone* |
 Age of Mythology |  Favor ·  Bushidō XP |
 Age of Empires III |  XP ·  Export ·  Influence |
 Age of Empires IV |  Bounty ·  Vizier Point ·  Olive Oil ·  Silver |
| 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 ·  Oysters ·  Pasture |
| Age of Mythology |  Dwarven Mine ·  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 ·  Stockyard · Meteorite · Toko-Koji Mat |
| * not used in Age of Mythology and Age of Empires III | |