Storage Pit (Age of Empires)

This article is about the building in Age of Empires. For the building in Age of Mythology: Tale of the Dragon, see Storage Pit (Age of Mythology).

Storage Pit
Building information
Introduced in	Age of Empires
Type	Economy Research
Civilization	All civilizations
Age	Stone Age
Use	Drop-off point for resources (except from Farms and Berry Bushes) Research military technologies
Construction
Wood	120
Build time	30 seconds
Statistics
Size	3×3 tiles
Hit points	350
Melee armor	0
Pierce armor	0
Line of Sight	4

“	Used by villagers as drop-off site for food from hunting and fishing as well as wood, stone and gold. Can research technologies that improve the armor and attack strength of military units.	”
—In-game description in the Definitive Edition

The Storage Pit is an economic and research building in Age of Empires that is available to the player in the Stone Age.

Gameplay

Storage Pits are the most commonly-used resource deposit point: they are buildable from the Stone Age, and can take most resource types. Villagers can use them to drop off wood, stone, and gold. They can also be used to deposit certain types of food, mutually exclusive with the Granary: food from hunting and fishing goes to the Storage Pit, food from Farms and Berry Bushes goes to the Granary.

The best way to improve Villager gathering speed is to reduce the distance they need to travel to the drop-off point. So when Villagers are chopping down a wood line, it can be worth building additional Storage Pits in the deforested area to reduce the time spent travelling.

Return of Rome adds herdable animals in the Scenario Editor. Food from these can be deposited at the Storage Pit (as well as the Town Center, which is a drop-off point for all Villager resources). Villagers will herd these animals to the Storage Pit if they are nearer to one than a Town Center.

The Storage Pit is also used to research the majority of military technologies, increasing units' melee attack, armor, and from the Bronze Age, pierce armor. Each technology upgrades a large group of units, but there are some exceptions from these groups which may not be obvious:

• There are no ranged damage upgrades from the Storage Pit. The only technologies increasing ranged damage are Alchemy at the Government Center, and the Stone Mining upgrades at the Market (the latter of which only affects Slingers).
• Melee damage upgrades don't affect War/Armored Elephants or Fire Galleys.
• There are no melee armor technologies that affect Villagers, Slingers, Priests, siege units, ships, or Trade Carts.
• Mounted archers are affected by archer armor, not cavalry armor.
• Shield technologies only affect units from the Barracks and Academy (including Slingers).

From the Bronze Age, it becomes possible to create new Town Centers after constructing a Government Center. Town Centers can be used to deposit even more resource types than Storage Pits, and can train new Villagers, so are typically more useful. However, they do take twice as long to build, and cost more wood, so it's still worth building Storage Pits for resources close to the base, and building Town Centers in more far-flung regions where their Villager-producing capability is more useful.

Unlike the Granary and Barracks, building a Storage Pit won't unlock other buildings in later ages.

Technologies

	➞		➞		➞
			➞		➞
			➞		➞
			➞		➞
			➞		➞
					➞		➞

Technology availability

Civilization								All
Assyrians
Babylonians
Carthaginians
Choson
Egyptians
Greeks
Hittites								X
Lac Viet
Macedonians								X
Minoans								X
Palmyrans
Persians								X
Phoenicians
Romans								X
Shang								X
Sumerians
Yamato
Civilization								All

Further statistics

Construction time	Architecture (-33%)
Hit points	Architecture (+20%)
Line of Sight	City Watch (+3)

Civilization bonuses

• Choson: Storage Pit technologies cost -40%.
• Macedonians: Storage Pit are four times more resistant to conversion.
• Romans: Storage Pit cost -10%.

Team bonuses

• Babylonians: Storage Pits are built 10% faster.
• Choson: Storage Pits have +2 Line of Sight.
• Palmyrans: Technologies researched at and technologies benefiting the Storage Pit are researched 30% faster.

Changelog

Return of Rome

• Team bonuses added:
  • Babylonians: Storage Pits are built 10% faster.
  • Choson: with update 93001, Storage Pits have +2 Line of Sight.
  • Palmyrans: Technologies at and technologies benefiting the Storage Pit are researched 30% faster.
• Before update 125283, Villagers erroneously herded animals to the Granary instead of Storage Pit.

History

“	The storage pit was the functional equivalent of the granary, but for meat instead of grain. Storing meat presented special problems because it spoiled so quickly and easily. Meat was generally stored by drying or salting. The Storage Pit also represents the tool- and weapon- making skill of hunting societies, leading eventually to metalworking, making war, and armor making. In this capacity it also serves as a storehouse and collection point for the raw materials of tool and weapon making: wood, stone, and gold (representing all metals).	”
—Age of Empires manual

Gallery

All Storage Pits in the Iron Age: Egyptian, Greek, Roman (middle), Mesopotamian, East Asian

Storage Pit in the Stone Age (Definitive Edition)

Storage Pit in the Bronze Age (Definitive Edition): Greek, Mesopotamian, Egyptian (middle), East Asian, Roman

Storage Pits in the Iron Age (Definitive Edition)