| “ | Must be built on a Gold Vein. Mines 36 Gold per minute without depleting the deposit. If a deposit has been depleted, the Pit Mine can be re-placed on exhausted Gold Veins. | ” |
| —Age of Empires IV description | ||
The Pit Mine is a unique economy building available to the Malians in Age of Empires IV. It can be built starting in the Dark Age. The Pit Mine can only be built on gold deposits, including depleted ones. The player is initially limited to one Pit Mine, but each advancement raises this limit by one, up to a max of four in the Imperial Age.
Abilities and influences[]
Pit Mine Influence (Influence): A Pit Mine projects an influence area one tile out from the gold deposit on which it has been built. Building Houses or Mining Camps within the influence range of a Pit Mine increases the Pit Mine's gold generation rate by 25% per building. The influence range cannot be extended by other buildings.
Tactics[]
The Pit Mine itself has a pretty fast payback time of 4.29 minutes, and a House built around it has an even faster payback time of 2.86 minutes. Additionally, the Pit Mine has an extremely high rate of gold generation when fully upgraded for the early game, more than 2 un-upgraded Villagers. This incentivizes players to build Pit Mines and the Houses/Mining Camps around it as quickly as as possible, even taking risks to do so, as it will repay itself incredibly quickly if left unchecked. Malian build orders typically involve building a Pit Mine immediately upon starting and continuing to build Houses around it as wood is gathered, replacing the gold-gathering Villagers that most civilizations will use to advance to the Feudal Age. Additionally, they prioritize building new Pit Mines immediately upon advancing to the next Age.
Because Pit Mines and mining settlements are so integral to a Malian economy, it also incentivizes opponents to attack the Pit Mines, the Houses/Mining Camps, and/or the Villagers building them as fast as possible. Malian players should be prepared for early Spearman harassment or Tower Rushing, either by countering immediately with Donsos, building an Archery Range in the Feudal Age, or even with the Saharan Trade Network landmark. Malian opponents should also scout vigilantly to find mining settlements, since most maps only have one or two safe Gold Mines and the rest will be far enough away from the Town Center to be vulnerable.
Further statistics[]
As the Pit Mine is unique to the Malians, only technologies that are available to them are shown in the following table:
| Hit points |  Court Architects (+30%)
|
Changelog[]
- Originally, Pit Mines had 1,200 HP. With patch 5.1.148, they had 1,500 HP. With patch 12.2.3327, they have 1,600 HP.
- Originally, Pit Mines generated 30 gold/min. With patch 5.1.148, they generated 35 gold/min. With patch 12.2.3327, they generate 36 gold/min.
Gallery[]
| Buildings in Age of Empires IV | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||
