In Age of Empires IV, resources are the primary form of currency that players use to create units, construct buildings, research technologies, and advance through the Ages. Gathering resources and managing an economy is one of the game's fundamental aspects.
Overview[]
Age of Empires IV features four main resources: food, wood, gold, and stone. Each of the resources has a different primary purpose:
Food is required to create almost every human and naval unit. It is also the primary resource required to advance in Age, and is also used to research many different technologies.
Wood is the primary resource used to construct buildings - only a small number do not require it. It is also one of the main resources required to build all ships and siege engines, and many basic human units like the Spearman, Archer, Horseman, and unique equivalents. It is also used to research some technologies.
Gold is required to research almost every technology in the game. It is also the secondary resource required to advance in Age. Many powerful units, such as heavy units and siege engines, require gold to create.
Stone is the resource with the fewest uses and thus is typically the most scarce on almost all maps. It is required primarily for the construction of strong defensive buildings, as well as various other unique buildings.
In a standard game, players start out with only a small amount of resources and must gather additional resources to build up their economy and military. For most civilizations, the exact amount is 200 food, 150 wood, 100 gold but some civilizations can have slightly more or less of one resource. There are three primary methods of gathering resources:
- Using specific worker units to gather from natural resources on the map
- Through various forms of passive resource generation
- Using specific worker units to trade with allied players or neutral Trade Posts.
The resource UI showing the amount of resources and gathers, as well as the amount of food per minute
The amount of resources a player has collected is displayed in the bottom left corner of the UI, with each resource shown alongside the amount of workers gathering from it. Resource income rates in terms of amount per minute can be displayed by hovering the cursor over each resource. Resources are always displayed to the nearest integer, but are actually collected and stored to some number of decimal points. In rare cases, this can result in not being able to perform an action despite seemingly having enough resources according to the UI (for example, not being able to build a 150-wood building because the player only has 149.5 wood). In addition to the Town Center, which can accept any resource, each resource type has its own dedicated drop-off site. Food is dropped off at the Mill and Dock, wood is dropped off at the Lumber Camp, and gold and stone are dropped off at the Mining Camp. Once resources have been gathered, they can also be exchanged for each other at the Market.
Additional resources[]
In addition to the four main resources, certain civilizations have unique resources or 'currency' that can be accumulated through in-game actions and spent for various purposes.
- Olive Oil: The only one that is referred to as an actual resource and displayed alongside the other resources in the UI. Olive oil is gathered by the Byzantines exclusively as extra income from certain types or resource nodes. It is used exclusively to hire mercenaries, which are other civilizations' unique units. Olive oil can also be bought and sold at the Market and obtained through trading.
- Experience: Jeanne d'Arc earns experience through fighting with its titular hero unit and can use this experience to upgrade her. The Ottomans also collect experience from creating units and advancing through the Ages, and can use it to send units or unlock various bonuses.
Natural resources[]
Every map contains different amounts of resource nodes containing one of the primary resources in different amounts. There are no resource nodes that contain more than one type of resource, although some civilizations have bonuses which can passively grant them a secondary resource as they gather from a resource node. Resources are collected from these nodes by assigning worker units to gather from them, specifically Villagers and Fishing Boats (for water resources only). The following is a summary of all natural resource sources available in the game. Additional information is located on each of the resource's individual page.
Food sources[]
Food is the only resource which can be gathered from multiple natural resource nodes on the map. These are as follows:
Sheep are the most immediate source of food for every civilization, and each one contains 200 food. In a standard game, almost every civilization starts out with five Sheep and must collect additional Sheep from around the map using Scouts. The Mongols can also create Sheep through their Pastures.
Berry Bushes, or simply berries, are another source of food available to all civilizations, and players will almost always start out with one 'safe' patch within range of their Capital Town Center. They contain 250 food each and usually spawn in a few patches of six or eight bushes. More rarely, they can also spawn in small 'straggler' groups of two, usually distributed in greater number over a wider area in this case.
Deer are typically a secondary source of food, usually appearing farther away from the Capital Town Center in small, medium, large, or extra large packs of three, five, seven, and ten respectively. Each Deer has 350 food, and they are usually hunted after food from nearby Sheep and berries has been exhausted.
The Boar is the highest risk but highest reward source of food. With 2,200 food, they contain more food than any other source, and have the fastest gather rate. However, they also fight back if attacked, and have high enough hit points, armor, and attack to easily defeat small groups of Villagers. There are usually only a few on each map located in contestable areas between teams.
Shoreline Fish are present on the shores of most bodies of water, whether deep or shallow, and are gatherable by both Villagers and Fishing Boats. They contain 500 food.
Deep Water Fish can appear in the middle of larger bodies of deep water, and are gatherable only by Fishing Boats. They initially contain 1,000 food, but slowly respawn after being depleted, resulting in an infinite source of food.
Other resources[]
All other resources can only be obtained from a single type of resource node
- Trees - Wood
Wood can only be obtained from the map by from chopping trees. All trees contain 150 wood and have the same gather rate. Trees are present in both dense forests, which can not be bypassed, in Stealth Forest, which can be bypassed but restrict Line of Sight, or as lone stragglers.
- Gold Veins - Gold
Gold can only be gathered from gold deposits. These exist in Tiny, Small, and Large deposits of 1,600 gold, 4,000 gold, and 8,000 gold respectively.
- Stone Outcroppings - Stone
Similarly, stone can only be gathered from stone deposits. These exist in Small and Large deposits of 1,200 stone and 2,400 stone respectively.
Summary of resources and gather rates[]
| Resource | Amount | Base Gather Rate (resource/second) |
|---|---|---|
 Sheep
|
200 food | 0.75 |
 Farm
|
Infinite food | 0.75 |
 Berry Bush
|
250 food |  Abbasid Dynasty, Ayyubids, Delhi Sultanate:0.8625 |
| All others: 0.69 | ||
 Deer
|
350 food | 0.825 |
 Boar
|
2,200 food | 0.9 |
 Shoreline Fish
|
500 food |  Villager: 1 Fishing Boat: 0.65 Lodya Fishing Boat: 1.26
|
| Deep Water Fish
|
1000 food* | Fishing Boat: 0.75 Lodya Fishing Boat: 1.42
|
 Tree
|
150 wood |  Knights Templar: 0.63 All others: 0.75 |
 Tiny Gold Vein
|
1,600 gold | 0.75 |
| Small Gold Vein
|
4,000 gold | |
| Large Gold Vein
|
8,000 gold | |
 Small Stone Outcropping
|
1,200 gold | 0.75 |
| Large Stone Outcropping
|
2,400 gold |
Resource distributions[]
The natural resources on each map are distributed and arranged in different ways that can affect how a game is played. The number and placement of each resource on each map depend on many variables, including the number of players, the map size, and even sometimes the map biome. Resources on the map can roughly be divided into 'starting' resources and 'distributed' resources, which themselves can be either 'accessible' or 'contested' depending on the way they are defined by the map generation script.
Starting resources[]
Starting resources are resources 'assigned' to each player and tied specifically to the player's start position. At least one node of each resource type is usually within range of the player's Capital Town Center to provide them a relatively un-raidable early source of that resource. This is in addition to the five Sheep that every player starts with belonging to them, which are not generated by the map script but rather assigned separately along with the Villagers and other units. The 'standard' starting resource nodes are:
- Four nearby individual Sheep (along with the five starting Sheep at the Town Center)
- One medium Berry Bush patch within range and a secondary one further out
- One large Deer pack typically outside of the starting Line of Sight
- One close small Gold Vein and a secondary one further out
- One close small Stone Outcropping and a secondary one further out
- One or two large circular woodlines
The actual starting resources can vary from map to map. For example, Prairie and Turtle Ridge both have large starting Gold Veins and Stone Outcroppings. Quite a few maps like Continental, Cliffside, and Rocky River have two additional nearby Sheep. Marshland has large starting Berry Bushes while Forest Ponds only has stragglers. Several maps like Baltic and Atacama have each player starting with a nearby Boar, while other maps like Altai or Hideout move the starting Deer to within the radius of the Capital Town Center. In general, the greater the amount of starting resources, the longer a player will be able to keep their Villagers within range of their Town Center, and the safer it will be to play defensively or perform fast castle strategies. The positioning of the starting resources can also often have an impact on the game. For example, 'forward' resources (closer to the opponent) are more susceptible to tower rushing strategies and may require more investment to defend.
Distributed resources[]
The rest of the resources outside the starting ones are usually distributed randomly across the map through an algorithm, although on some maps, like Canal, there may be resource nodes deliberately placed in specific areas of the map by the map script. The number of these distributed resources will always vary depending on the map size and player number, and they can either be placed in 'contestable' or 'accessible' areas. The former will usually be placed more densely around the middle of the area between teams, whereas the latter will be closer to one team, although each area can be defined individually for each map. All distributed resources are excluded from spawning too close to the Capital Town Center. The total number of distributed resource combinations between maps is far too many to list, but many maps, especially from the base game, have a standard number of distributed resources, which is as follows:
- Two accessible individual Sheep per player and one contested group of three per player, except in 1 vs 1s where the group of three is replaced with one contested and one accessible group of two per player
- One accessible large Berry Bush patch per player
- One additional accessible large Deer pack per player
- Two contested Boars and large Gold Veins in 1 vs 1, plus 1 for each successively larger map size
- One accessible large Stone Outcropping per player
- One accessible small Gold Vein and Stone Outcropping per player, plus two to four contested of each depending on the map size.
Thus a land map with standard starting and distributed resources has the following amount of resources per player. Wood varies more significantly from map to map and is usually distributed more randomly, so is not included.
| Map Size | Berry Bush
|
Herdable Sheep
|
Huntable Food | Gold
|
Stone
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Micro (1 vs 1) | 5,000 food | 3,000 food | 7,100 food | 24,000 gold | 7,200 stone |
| Small (2 vs 2) | 2,800 food | 6,550 food | 20,000 gold | 6,600 stone | |
| Medium (3 vs 3) | 6,367 food | 18,667 gold | |||
| Large (4 vs 4) | 6,275 food | 18,500 gold |
Many different maps increase or decrease the amount of one resource node, which can impact viable strategies on that map. For example, most naval maps have an increased amount of gold and wood to support the creation of ships, in addition to the large or infinite amount of extra food from the fish sources. Maps with less wood such as Prairie may make it more difficult to support Archer-heavy armies, while maps with less gold like Himeyama or Carmel disadvantage expensive unit combinations or incentivize trade. Different resource distributions can also give a greater advantage to specific civilizations. For example, maps with more berries like Lipany are beneficial for the Abbasid Dynasty or Delhi Sultanate, while maps with more hunt like Haywire can benefit Rus.
Passive resource generation[]
In Age of Empires IV, the term 'passive resource generation' is used to refer to any infinite source of resources separate from the natural resources on the map that does not require direct gathering by a Villager or other worker. The generation of passive resources will usually be triggered by some particular action or initial resource investment. Passive resources do not include secondary resources generated by gathering resource normally, such as the Japanese civilization bonus granting extra stone with gold mining and vice versa. Passive resource generation is usually in the form of a small, steady resource trickle over time, but it can also be in the form of larger amounts or resources available periodically. This form of resource collection is particularly valuable because it does not require extra economic population space to gather, leaving additional room for military units. Additionally, because it is not directly dependent on the natural resources on the map, it is usually less threatened by enemy map control and raiding, since passive resource sources can often be kept close to a player's base.
| Civilization | Source | Resource Rate |
|---|---|---|
| All |  Relic
|
80 gold/min |
Relic +  Tithe Barns
|
40 food/min 40 wood/min 80 gold/min 10 stone/min | |
 Sacred Site
|
100 gold/min | |
 Merchant Camp
|
15 food/min 15 wood/min 15 gold/min | |
 Chinese
|
 Pagoda + Relic
|
62 food/min 62 wood/min 100 gold/min 25 stone/min |
| Taxes | Variable gold/min | |
| Delhi Sultanate
|
Sacred Site +  Sanctity
|
125 gold/min |
 Hisar Academy
|
Up to 960 food/min | |
 English
|
 Enclosures
|
10 gold/min per Farm |
 French Jeanne d'Arc
|
 Guild Hall
|
Stone: Up to 300/min All others: Up to 600 /min Only one resource at a time |
 Holy Roman Empire
|
 Regnitz Cathedral + Relic
|
160 gold/min |
 House of Lancaster
|
 Manor
|
60 food/min 45 wood/min 40 gold/min* Max 9 Manors |
 Japanese
|
 Yorishiro
|
Food or Wood: 70/min Gold: 60/min One resource per Yorishiro Max 6 Yorishiro |
 Kura Storehouse
|
45.6 wood/min | |
 Buddhist Monk +  Zen
|
25 gold/min per Monk | |
| Knights Templar
|
 Pilgrim Loan
|
Up to 900 gold/min Costs up to 1000 food/min |
 Malians
|
 Pit Mine
|
Up to 108 gold/min (Small mine) Up to 144 gold/min (Large mine) Max four Pit Mines |
 Mansa Quarry
|
75 gold/min | |
 Cattle Ranch
|
Up to 38 food/min per Cattle | |
 Grand Fulani Corral
|
20 food/min per Cattle | |
 Mongols
|
Relic + Improved Tithe Barns
|
60 food/min 60 wood/min 80 gold/min 15 stone/min |
 The White Stupa
|
240 stone/min | |
 Ottomans
|
 Sultanhani Trade Network
|
24 gold/min per garrisoned Trader Max 10 |
 Rus
|
 Hunting Cabins
|
Up to 420 gold/min (Across all cabins) |
 High Trade House
|
Varies. Up to around 200 gold to 250 gold/min on maps with dense wood | |
 Zhu Xi's Legacy
|
Pagoda + Relic
|
62 food/min 62 wood/min 100 gold/min 25 stone/min |
| Taxes | Variable gold/min | |
 Meditation Gardens
|
6 food/min per nearby Berry Bush 1 wood/min per nearby Tree 25 gold/min per nearby Gold Vein 25 stone/min per nearby Stone Outcropping |
Changelog[]
- Originally, Deep Water Fish and Shoreline Fish contained 2,000 food and 1,000 food respectively, and had gather rates of 1.1 res/s and 0.75 res/s respectively. With patch 11009, their food amount was reduced to 1,000 food and 500 food and gather rates to 1 food/s and 0.66 food/s respectively. With the Season One Update, Lodya Fishing Boats gathered from Deep Water Fish and Shoreline Fish at 1.9 food/s and 1.19 food/s respectively. With update 6.0.878, Fishing Boat gather rates were changed to 0.9 food/s and 0.7 food/s, and Lodya Fishing Boat rates were changed to 1.71 food/s and 1.26 food/s for Deep Water and Shoreline Fish respectively. With an unknown patch, the gather rate for Deep Water Fish was further reduced to 0.8 food/s and 1.52 food/s for standard and Lodya Fishing Boats respectively. With patch 13.1.4420, the Deep Water Fish gather rate was reduced to 0.75 food/s and 1.42 food/s for standard and Lodya Fishing Boats respectively, and the Shoreline Fish gather rate was to 0.65 food/s.
- Originally, Large and Small Stone Outcroppings contained 3,000 stone and 1,500 stone respectively. With Season Two Update 17718, they contain 2,400 stone and 1,200 stone respectively.
- Originally, players started with only a single owned Sheep at their Capital Town Center. With update 8.0.185, they start out with three Sheep, and two 'nearby' Sheep were removed from the standard start. With Update 11.0.782, players start out with five owned Sheep.
- Originally, Sheep contained 250 food. With update 11.0.782, they contain 200 food
- Originally, Boars contained 2,000 food. With update 12.0.1974, they contain 2,200 food.
- Originally, the gather rate from Berry Bushes was 0.66 food/s. With update 12.0.1974, it is 0.69 food/s.
- With update 13.0.4178, the Tiny Gold Vein was introduced, containing 1,600 gold
- Originally, Knights Templar wood gather rate was 0.65 wood/s. With patch 13.1.4420, it is 0.63 wood/s
| Resources in the 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 ·  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 |
| * not used in Age of Mythology and Age of Empires III | |
