Religion (Age of Empires IV)

Religion in Age of Empires IV is the basis of religious units, religious buildings and religious technologies. The real-life religion of a civilization determines the cosmetics (name, appearance, voice lines, etc) of the units and buildings, and sometimes non-religious units and buildings as well.

List

The following lists the effect of religions on different civilizations. While the game features two major religions, the standard unit is decided by what unit is available to other civilizations. For example, while Knights are available to Christian civilizations, Lancers are available to Muslim civilizations, Chinese, Mongols (before being replaced by the Keshik), and Zhu Xi's Legacy, meaning that the Lancer is the "more generic" unit. Similarly, Madrasas are available to Muslim civilizations (except Ottomans), Universities are available to Christian civilizations, Chinese, Japanese, and Zhu Xi's Legacy, meaning that the University is the "more generic" building.

Religion	Civilizations	Characteristics
Christianity	Byzantines English French Holy Roman Empire Jeanne d'Arc Order of the Dragon Rus	Lancer replaced by equivalent Knight All European civilizations have the same icon for Villagers
Islam	Abbasid Dynasty Ayyubids Delhi Sultanate Malians Ottomans	University replaced by equivalent Madrasa (except for the Ottomans) Monastery replaced by equivalent Mosque Monk replaced by equivalent Imam (except for the Delhi Sultanate and Ayyubids) Cannot eat Wild Boar, but Berry Bushes near Mills have +100 food, and Villagers gather from Berry Bushes 30% faster and have +3 carry capacity (except for the Ottomans and Malians)
Other	Chinese Japanese Mongols Zhu Xi's Legacy	N/A

Trivia

• The Japanese are the only civilization which have the choice of selecting between religions, as they have two religions (Buddhism and Shintoism).
• Variant civilizations have the same religion as their base civilization.

Units

Main article: Religious unit (Age of Empires IV)

Buildings

Religious building
Building information
Introduced in	Age of Empires IV
Type	Religious
Civilization	All civilizations
Age	Castle Age
Use	Trains and improves religious units
Construction
Wood	200
Build time	25 seconds
Statistics
Hit points	2,100
Garrison	3
Ranged armor	50
Fire armor	0

“	Produces religious units and houses religious technologies. Starting in the Castle Age (III), religious units can pick up Relics and place them in this building to generate Gold.	”
—Age of Empires IV description

Buildings which produce religious units, research religious technologies, have healing abilities, or hold Relics to generate resources are called religious buildings. They are available starting in the Castle Age and cost 200 wood. The five main religious buildings are identical in purpose and statistics, and are usually referred to when talking about religious buildings:

• Monastery - Byzantines, Chinese, English, French, Order of the Dragon, Jeanne d'Arc, Holy Roman Empire, Rus, Zhu Xi's Legacy
• Mosque - Abbasid Dynasty, Ayyubids, Delhi Sultanate, Malians, Ottomans
• Prayer Tent - Mongols

The Japanese have the choice of two religions (through their Feudal to Castle Age landmarks) between which they have to select one:

• Buddhist Temple (requires Temple of Equality)
• Shinto Shrine (requires Floating Gate)

Other religious buildings

The following buildings are civilization specific religious buildings:

• Pagoda (max 3) - Garrisoned Relic (1 per Pagoda) provides an additional income of 50 food, 50 wood, 50 stone. Does not improve with Tithe Barns.

Landmarks

• Abbey of the Trinity - Acts as a Monastery
• Dome of the Faith - Acts as a Mosque
• Aachen Chapel - Inspires units in a large radius so long as a Prelate is garrisoned.
• Regnitz Cathedral - Doubles Relic Gold generation.
• Abbey of Kings - Heals all nearby friendly units that are out of combat by +6 every 1 seconds.
• Grand Winery - Acts as a Monastery
• Floating Gate - Spawns Shinto Priests carrying Yorishiro for free every 2 minutes.
• Temple of Equality - Acts as a Monastery
• Shaolin Monastery - Acts as a Monastery, can train Shaolin Monks

Civilization bonuses

• Delhi Sultanate: Mosque is available in the Dark Age, and costs -50%. For each Scholar garrisoned in a Mosque, technologies' speed increases by 12.5% for all buildings in the influence (max 3 Scholars garrisoned per Mosque). It has Compound Interest. When built, the first Mosque gets 1 Scholar garrisoned.
• Mongols: All buildings can be packed, moved to another location and unpacked.
• Japanese: Can choose between access to either Buddhist Temples or Shinto Shrines based on their choice of Castle Age landmark.

Further statistics

Hit points	Court Architects (+30%)
Armor	Slate and Stone Construction (+5 fire, Holy Roman Empire and Order of the Dragon only)
Resource generation	Tithe Barns (Relics placed in a religious building provide an additional income of 30 food, 30 wood, 30 stone every minute)
Speed	Superior Mobility (+50% while packed, Mongols only)
Other	Monastic Shrines (Prayer Tents provide the Ovoo influence, Mongols only) Superior Mobility (+50% pack/unpack speed, Mongols only)

Gallery

Abbasid and Ayyubid Mosque trough the ages

Delhi Mosque trough the ages

Ottoman Mosque trough the ages

Malian Mosque trough the ages

Chinese and Zhu Xi's Legacy's Monastery trough the ages

English Monastery trough the ages

French and Jeanne d'Arc's Monastery trough the ages

HRE's and Order of the Dragon's Monastery trough the ages

Rus Monastery trough the ages

Mongol Prayer Tent

Technologies

Technologies which boost religious units, buildings, Relics, or Sacred Sites directly and specifically are referred to as religious technologies.

Technology	Cost	Time	Effect
Generic
Herbal Medicine	275 gold	45	Religious units heal +60% faster
Piety	325 gold	45	Religious units +40 Hit Points
Tithe Barns	500 gold	60	Relics placed in a religious building provide an additional income of 30 food, 30 wood, 30 stone every minute.
Abbasid Dynasty
Proselytization (House of Wisdom)	150 food, 350 gold	60	Imams can convert singular units without holding a Relic.
Delhi Sultanate
Efficient Production	None	135	Allows Scholars to garrison in military buildings, boosting production by 100%
Sanctity	None	210	Allows capturing Sacred Sites before the Castle Age
All-Seeing Eye	None	157	Scholars +100% Line of Sight
Swiftness	None	450	Scholars +50% movement speed
Zeal	None	1,080	Units healed by Scholars gain +50% attack speed for 3 seconds
Holy Roman Empire and Order of the Dragon
Devoutness (Holy Roman Empire only)	100 food, 250 gold	60	Inspired Villagers gather resources 10% faster and construct 25% faster
Inspired Warriors	100 food, 250 gold	60	Holy Inspiration affects Military units, improving their armor by 1 and damage by 15%
Mongols
Improved Herbal Medicine	275 gold, 275 stone	45	Shamans heal +90% faster
Improved Piety	325 gold, 325 stone	45	Shamans +60 Hit Points
Improved Tithe Barns	500 gold, 500 stone	60	Relics placed in a Prayer Tent provide an additional income of 45 food, 45 wood, 45 stone every minute.
Monastic Shrines	100 wood, 225 gold	45	Prayer Tents gain the Ovoo influence.
Ottomans
Field Work (Imperial Council)	1 Vizier Point	0	Spawn 2 Imams at the Landmark Town Center. Imams now passively heal nearby units for 1 HP/s in addition to their standard healing ability.
Rus
Divine Light	75 food, 200 gold	45	Duration of Saint's Blessing is increased by +10 seconds
Fervor (Abbey of the Trinity)	275 gold	45	Damage bonus and range provided by Saint's Blessing is increased by +1 and +5 tiles respectively
Saint's Veneration (Abbey of the Trinity)	475 gold	45	Warrior Monks +100 HP
Japanese
Bunrei (Shinto Shrine)	400 gold	45	Increases the maximum limit of Yorishiro by +2 (to a total of 6) and spawns two Shinto Priests holding Yorishiro at the Floating Gate
Five Mountain Ministries (Buddhist Temple and Temple of Equality)	750 gold	60	Buddhist Temples and Temple of Equality cast Sohei's Sutra every 6 seconds
Nehan (Buddhist Temple and Temple of Equality)	350 gold	45	Buddhist Conversion ability now grants +25% movement speed and has a cooldown of 90 seconds
Shinto Rituals (Shinto Shrine)	300 gold	30	Shinto Priests gain +40 hit points, +60% heal rate, +15% speed
Zen (Buddhist Temple and Temple of Equality)	200 food, 300 wood	35	Buddhist Monks generate 25 gold per minute

Unless mentioned, the technology is researched at the religious building.

Despite Blacksmith Armor technologies benefiting religious units and various cavalry and other military technologies benefiting the Warrior Monks, these cannot be called religious technologies since they apply to a variety of different units.

Changelog

• With the Season One Update:
  • Availability of Herbal Medicine for the the Delhi Sultanate moved from the Dark Age to the Castle Age (in line with other civilizations).
  • Tithe Barns provide 30 stone per minute, as intended.
  • Mongols: Fixed a bug where Tithe Barns research time was 80 seconds instead of the intended 60 seconds. It also gives the proper +30 food, wood, and stone instead of +20.
• Originally, Herbal Medicine cost 350 gold and took 60 seconds to research. With Season Two Update 17718, it costs 275 gold and takes 45 seconds to research.
• With patch 10257, the base research time for Herbal Medicine for the Delhi Sultanate was reduced from 300 to 180 seconds, while the the base research time of Piety was reduced from 600 seconds to 135 seconds, to reflect the 3x Dark Age research speed scale factor.
• With Season Two Update 17718:
  • The base research time for Herbal Medicine for the Delhi Sultanate was increased to 225 seconds to correctly reflect the 5x Castle Age scale factor. Tithe Barns base research time reduced from 900 seconds to 720 seconds.
  • Mongols: Improved Tithe Barns now generates the correct amount of resources.
• Originally, Herbal Medicine increased the healing rate of religious units by 100% and the Mongol improved version by 150%. With patch 20249, it increases the healing rate of religious units by 60% and the Mongol improved version by 90%.
• Holy Roman Empire: With update 24916, fixed an issue with the Tithe Barns technology where it was providing only 20 stone every minute, instead of the intended 30.
• With update 7.0.5861, the unique Holy Roman Empire technology Benediction has been merged into Devoutness, which now also makes Villagers construct buildings 25% faster.
• With patch 9.2.628:
  • Herbal Medicine, Piety, and Tithe Barns are no longer available to the Japanese. They are replaced by new unique religious technologies at the Buddhist Temple and Shinto Shrine.
  • Originally, Tithe Barns provided an extra 30 food, 30 wood, 30 stone and Improved Tithe Barns provided 45 food, 45 wood, 45 stone. With the patch, these amounts were changed to 40 food, 40 wood, 10 stone and 60 food, 60 wood, 15 stone respectively.
• With update 11.0.782, the unique Delhi Sultanate technology Manuscript Trade was reworked into a civilization bonus and removed from the game, with each garrisoned Scholar now increasing the Dock workrate by 20%.

Trivia

• The icon for the Abbasids' Proselytize ability is named "declare state religion" in the game files and is listed among the common abilities, possibly indicating that the ability to choose a religion was being considered as a feature for all civilizations before the introduction of the Japanese.