Resistance is a statistical value in Age of Empires II, Age of Mythology, Age of Empires III, and Age of Empires IV that is similar to melee and pierce armor in that it reduces the damage of incoming attacks.
Overview[]
The difference between resistance and armor is that armor is additive and works exclusively with integer values, whereas resistance is multiplicative and uses percentages. For example, while an armor value of '3' subtracts 3 damage from an enemy attack, a resistance of 30% reduces the enemy attack by 30%. If a hypothetical attack dealt 10 base damage, in both cases the resulting damage received would be 7. However, armor works like a piecewise function, with attack damage only increasing linearly if the damage is greater than armor, and otherwise being equal to 1. With resistance, attack damage is linear no matter what its value. For example, an attack with 10 base ranged damage to a unit with 20 ranged armor would continue dealing only 1 damage until its damage somehow eclipsed 20. Conversely, if the same 10 base damage applied to a unit with 90% ranged armor, the damage dealt would increase by 0.1 with each incremental increase in attack damage. Depending on the defending unit's hit points, even this small boost across multiple attacking units could result in a significantly faster time to kill, whereas with armor, attack damage increases would make no difference.
Age of Empires II[]
At the game's release, the most relevant percentage modifier for damage was the -25% damage taken when uphill compared to the attacker (and conversely dealing +25% damage to units snd buildings downhill, as described in the Attack article). Another relevant instance was most missed projectiles of ranged attacks dealing -50% damage.
This was eventually expanded, with the Georgians taking another -25% damage when uphill. The Jurchens take -50% damage from Area of Effect attacks of friendly sources. Cracked desert terrain applies a negative attack resistance on buildings placed on it, causing them to receive +20% damage from attacks.
Introduced in Lords of the West, bonus damage resistance is a property which helps units reduce (or even amplify, but not used yet) the bonus damage it is receiving. Bonus damage is all damage other than the damage caused by melee and pierce attack class. The value, when positive, is used for reduction, and when negative, can be used for amplification.
The following unit types have bonus damage resistance:
| Expansion | Civilization | Units | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
 Lords of the West
|
 Sicilians
|
Infantry, cavalry, and archers | 33% |
 Dynasties of India
|
 Bengalis
|
Elephant units | 25% |
 The Mountain Royals
|
 Persians
|
Castle, requires Citadels | 25% |
While negative armor values do exist in Age of Empires II and increase the damage units take from a particular attack type, negative resistances do not 'officially' exist. However, units that take a percentage of extra damage from attacks can be considered to have a negative resist. This is different than a multiplicative attack bonus, because units with such a 'negative' resist would take extra damage even from units that have no attack bonus.
Age of Empires III[]
In Age of Empires III, resists are indicated as a decimal number. For example, 0.30 corresponds to 30% ranged resistance. Since the Definitive Edition, a shield icon was added in the unit's statistics table, to indicates the resistance value.
Each value is displayed as a decimal number on the unit's statistics tab table near the relevant icon. The sword symbol indicates that the unit "resists" hand attacks, while the musket crossed with an arrow indicates "resists" against ranged attacks. The cannon symbol indicates "resists" against siege attacks, such as attacks from artillery or Flamethrowers.
As a rule of thumb, heavy infantry usually resists hand damage while ranged infantry and most cavalry resists ranged damage. Artillery and ships resist ranged damage, usually 50% or 75%. Before the Definitive Edition, building wagons, travois and rickshaws were the only units to resist siege damage. With the release of the Definitive Edition, however, this exclusivity was shared with the Nizam Fusilier, the only infantry unit with siege damage resistance aside from hand infantry units, which get a hidden 50% siege damage resistance while in cover mode.
The only units which can receive an upgrade to their resistance are the Iron Flail and the Meteor Hammer, with the "Double-Faced Armor" card, the Inca Villagers, with the "Alpaca Wool" card, and the Inca infantry and shock infantry units, with the Hualcana technology. The Carolean can change his resistance type from hand to ranged with the "Svea Lifeguard" card.
Units with high hand attack resistance[]
Infantry
- Armored Pistoleer - 60%
- Barbary Corsair - 40%
- Highlander - 40%
- Irish Brigadier - 40%
- Petard - 40%
- Rodelero - 40%
- Ronin - 40%
- Inca War Chief - 30%
- Revolutionary - 30%
- Pirate - 30%
- Samurai - 30%
- Swiss Pikeman - 30%
- Wokou Pirate - 30%
- Changdao Swordsman - 20%
- Musketeer - 20%
- Puma Spearman - 20%
- Rajput - 20%
- Skull Knight - 20%
Cavalry
- Black Rider - 40%
- Manchu - 40%
- Yojimbo - 40%
- Cavalry Archer - 30%
- Bow Rider - 30%
- Rifle Rider - 30%
- War Wagon - 20%
Units with high ranged attack resistance[]
Infantry
- Flamethrower - 65%
- Iron Troop - 60%
- Arsonist - 50%
- Chakram Thrower - 50%
- Huron Mantlet - 50%
- Mantlet - 50%
- Ram - 50%
- Cassador - 45%
- Arrow Knight - 40%
- Grenadier - 40%
- Jaeger - 40%
- Nootka War Chief - 40%
- Sharpshooter - 40%
- Fire Thrower - 35%
- Ranger - 35%
- Cetan Bowman - 30%
- Longbowman - 30%
- Pandour - 30%
- Ranger - 30%
- Skirmisher - 30%
- Yumi Archer - 30%
Cavalry
- Flail Elephant - 50%
- Yabusame - 45%
- Jat Lancer - 40%
- Mameluke - 40%
- Apache Cavalry - 30%
- Conquistador - 30%
- Elmetto - 30%
- Kanuri Guard - 30%
- Kanya Horseman - 30%
- Keshik - 30%
- Naginata Rider - 30%
- Raider - 30%
- Uhlan - 30%
- War Elephant - 30%
- Zamburak - 30%
- Musket Rider - 25%
- Axe Rider - 20%
- Cuirassier - 20%
- Dragoon - 20%
- Howdah - 20%
- Hussar - 20%
- Oprichnik - 20%
Artillery
- Culverin - 75%
- Falconet - 75%
- Flaming Arrow - 75%
- Gatling Gun - 75%
- Mortar - 75%
- Papal Bombard - 75%
- Sebastopol Mortar - 75%
- Hand Mortar - 50%
- Leather Cannon - 50%
- Siege Elephant - 30%
Ships
Units with high siege attack resistance[]
- Hand infantry in cover mode - 50%
- Nizam Fusilier - 20%
- Wagons, Travois, Rickshaws, and Builders - 20%
Age of Empires IV[]
In Age of Empires IV, most units have armor by default, and most abilities or enhancements increase or decrease enemy armor. However, there are a few cases where resistance is used instead of armor, and in these cases, the resistance can be either positive (damage is lessened), or negative (damage is increased).
- The Elzbach Palace reduces the damage taken by buildings within its influence by 25%.
- Originally, the Janissary had -50% ranged resistance (took 50% more damage from all ranged attacks). This was removed in update 12.0.1974.
- After researching War Horses, Gilded Knights from the Order of the Dragon take 25% less damage from all sources while charging.
- After researching Golden Cuirass, Gilded Men-at-Arms take -20% damage when they are below 30% hit points.
- With patch 9.2.628, Battering Rams gained -20% melee resistance (take 20% extra melee damage).
- With update 12.0.1974, all siege engines have a ranged resistance value instead of ranged armor.
- The Hard Cased Bombs technology give all units hit by Grenadiers a -15% melee and ranged resistance for 5 seconds.
- The Condottiero takes 33% less damage from gunpowder units.
- The Iron Clamps technology grants 25% resistance to gunpowder damage to Knights Templar fortifications.
Resistance can be shown in the UI either directly, where the armor value is normally located, or it can appear as an ability. In the case of the Battering Ram, which has both positive ranged resistance and negative melee resistance, it appears as both. In the damage formula, resistance affects the attack multipliers, which means that when a unit has both resistance and armor, the resistance is applied first, and then the armor value is subtracted from the remaining damage.
Gallery[]
