Stone Mines provide the resource stone in Age of Empires, Age of Empires II, and Age of Empires IV. They commonly appear in clumps of 3-10 mines and the stone can be extracted by tasking a Villager on the mine.
Stone is not used in Age of Empires III and Age of Mythology. Hence, Stone Mines don't appear there.
Age of Empires[]
| “ | Can be mined for stone. | ” |
| —In-game description in the Definitive Edition | ||
Stone Mines in Age of Empires are fairly common, typically found near a player's starting point, and in small clusters around the map. Mining is the only method of acquiring stone, aside from Market commodity buying in Return of Rome, so if constructing a lot of defensive buildings, it is important to secure as many Stone Mines as possible before the resource is completely depleted.
Stone is used to build/upgrade Towers, Walls, Gates and Wonders, train Slingers, and to research Stone Mining, Siegecraft and Urbanization.
Age of Empires II[]
Stone Mines in Age of Empires II are about as common as in Age of Empires, although more stone is used; as such, the mines run out more quickly, leaving trade as the only available method of acquiring more. Stone is used for building Towers, Walls, Castles, Town Centers, and Wonders, and for researching some technologies.
Poles have the passive ability to generate gold when mining stone.
Age of Empires IV[]
In Age of Empires IV, Stone Mines are called Stone Outcroppings and appear as small or large deposits, which have footprints of 3 x 3 tiles and 4 x 4 tiles respectively. All deposits have a gather rate of 0.75 stone per second. The Mongols are the only civilization that cannot gather stone from outcroppings with Villagers, but can instead build an Ovoo over them to gather it passively.
Stone Ruins[]
Stone Ruins are stone sources exclusive to the The Sultans Ascend campaign. They appear in The Horns of Hattin and The Siege of Acre. They are functionally equivalent to a Large Stone Outcropping.
Gallery[]
| 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 | |