This article is about the unit in Age of Empires IV. For Villager units in other games of the series, see Villager. |
โ | Gathers Wood, Food, Stone, and Gold. Builds and repairs buildings and can repair siege engines and naval units. | โ |
—Age of Empires IV description |
The Villager is a civilian unit in Age of Empires IV that can be trained at the Town Center starting in the Dark Age. Villagers are the backbone of every civilizations' economy, performing key tasks such as resource gathering and building construction. Villagers are available to all civilizations, except the Order of the Dragon, which have a special Gilded Villager.
Resource gathering[]
The primary role of Villagers is to gather food, wood, gold, and stone from various sources on the map and drop these resources off at a resource drop-off site, such as a Town Center, Mill, Lumber Camp, Mining Camp, and various landmarks and other unique buildings. The Gather rate for each resource varies and can be found on the Gather rates and bonuses page. They have a default carry capacity of 10 for all resources except for hunted meat, of which they can carry 25. Villagers from Islamic civilizations, namely the Abbasid Dynasty, Ayyubids, Delhi Sultanate, Malians, and Ottomans cannot gather from Wild Boar.
Attack behavior[]
Villagers have several different weapons that they use for different functions. They use bows to hunt deer and attack wolves from range, they use spears to hunt boar and attack wolves close-up, they use knives to attack enemy units, and they throw torches to attack enemy buildings and siege weapons. English Villagers only use bows to attack enemy units. In contrast to other units, the Villager's torch attack does not increase while advancing through the ages.
Building construction[]
Villagers are also used to construct buildings and landmarks to Age up. Every building has a base build time. This is the time it takes for a single villager to construct it. Additional villagers can be tasked to construct the building to increase the Build speed by 33% per Villager. This creates diminishing returns where each additional villager added contributes less and less to the improvement in build time. Choosing the number of villagers to build a landmark, especially when advancing to the Feudal Age, where each villager has a proportionally larger impact on a player's economy, is an important part of game strategy. Choosing too many villagers will significantly reduce resources gathered with little improvement in build time and may put the player at an economic disadvantage in the next Age. Conversely, choosing too few villagers may delay important technology or economic upgrades from the next Age too much and put the player at a tempo disadvantage.
Overall, build time follows this kind of law, and is shown with example times below for landmark construction.
Number of Villagers | Construction Time % |
Dark Age Landmark seconds |
Feudal Age Landmark seconds |
Castle Age Landmark seconds |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 100% | 190 | 220 | 250 |
2 | 75% | 143 | 165 | 188 |
3 | 60% | 114 | 132 | 150 |
4 | 50% | 95 | 110 | 125 |
5 | 43% | 81 | 94 | 107 |
6 | 38% | 71 | 83 | 94 |
7 | 33% | 63 | 73 | 83 |
8 | 30% | 57 | 66 | 75 |
9 | 27% | 52 | 60 | 68 |
10 | 25% | 48 | 55 | 63 |
Further statistics[]
Technologies | |
---|---|
Hit points | Textiles (+50%, Improved +100% Mongols only) Public Libraries (+2 per economic technology researched, Abbasid Dynasty) |
Regeneration | Gion Festival (Heal to full health every 3 minutes, Japanese) |
Movement speed | Wheelbarrow (+15%) Tawara (+7%, Japanese) Takezaiku (+7%, Japanese) Fudasashi (+7%, Japanese) |
Melee attack | Bloomery (+1) Decarbonization (+1) Damascus Steel (+1) |
Ranged attack | Steeled Arrow (+1) Balanced Projectiles (+1) Platecutter Point (+1) |
Armor | Fitted Leatherwork (+1 melee) Insulated Helm (+1 melee) Master Smiths (+1 melee) Iron Undermesh (+1 ranged) Wedge Rivets (+1 ranged) Angled Surfaces (+1 ranged) |
Gather rate: All Food except hunted meat and fish | Horticulture (+10%); Improved: (+15%, Mongols) Fertilization (+10%); Improved: (+15%, Mongols) Precision Cross-Breeding (+10%); Improved: (+15%, Mongols) |
Gather rate: Hunted meat | Survival Techniques (+15%); Improved: (+22.5% Mongols) |
Gather rate: Farms | Agriculture (+15%, Abbasid Dynasty) |
Gather rate: Berry Bushes | Tawara (+25%, Japanese) Takezaiku (+25%, Japanese) Fudasashi (+25%, Japanese) |
Gather rate: Wood | Double Broadax (+15%); Improved: (+22.5%, Mongols) Lumber Preservation (+15%); Improved: (+22.5%, Mongols) Crosscut Saw (+15%); Improved: (+22.5%, Mongols) |
Gather rate: Gold/Stone | Specialized Pick (+15%); Improved: (+22.5%, Mongols) Shaft Mining (+15%); Improved: (+22.5%, Mongols) Anatolian Hills (+15%, Ottomans) |
Gather rate: All | Ancient Techniques (+4% per Dynasty, Chinese) |
Carry capacity | Wheelbarrow (+5); Improved: (+9, Mongols) Crosscut Saw (+5 wood); Hearty Rations (+10, Delhi Sultanate) Tawara (+3, Japanese) Takezaiku (+3, Japanese) Fudasashi (+3, Japanese) |
Resource drop-off amount | Cupellation (+15% gold/stone); Improved: (+22.5% gold/stone, Mongols) Improved Processing (+8%, Abbasid Dynasty) |
Creation speed | Pax Ottomana (+50% for four minutes, Ottomans) |
Cost | Fresh Foodstuffs (-35%, Abbasid Dynasty) |
Building repair rate | Banco Repairs (+100%, Malians) |
Other | Forestry (Trees chopped down twice as fast); Improved: (Trees felled in one chop) Mongols) Village Fortresses (allows training at Keeps, Delhi Sultanate) |
Aura enhancements | |
Movement speed | Naval Deployment (+50% speed for 12 seconds after unloading from a Transport Ship, Byzantines) Nehan Conversion (+25% for 20 seconds, Japanese) Yam Aura (+15%, requires Yam Network, Mongols) |
Attack | Akritoi Defense (+1/2/3/5 melee damage per Age for 30 seconds Byzantines) Buddhist Conversion (+20% for 20 seconds, Japanese) Kurultai Aura (+20%, Mongols) Saint's Blessing (+2, or +3 with Fervor, Rus) |
Rate of Fire | Network of Castles (+20%, or +40% with Network of Citadels, English) |
Range | Wall Defense (+1) |
Armor | Akritoi Defense (+2 melee and ranged armor for 30 seconds Byzantines) Defense Arrow (+2 melee and ranged for 5/10/12 seconds, depending on Whistling Arrows, Mongols) Saint's Blessing (+1 melee and ranged armor, Rus) |
Damage resistance | Wall Defense (-25% ranged, -50% siege) |
Gather rate: All Food | Food Festival (+50% for 60 seconds) |
Gather rate: Farms | Irrigated Field (+10% per Granary, Chinese and Zhu Xi's Legacy) Mill Influence (+15%/20%/25%/30%, English) Daimyo Farm Aura (+20% per Town Center upgrade level, Japanese) |
Gather rate: All | Golden Age Tier 1 (+15% for Abbasid Dynasty, +10% for Ayyubids) Golden Age Tier 3 (+20%, Abbasid Dynasty) Irrigated (+10%/+14%/+18%/+22%/+26% per Cistern water level, Byzantines) Inspiration Bonus (+40%, additional +10% with Devoutness Holy Roman Empire) |
Resource drop-off amount | Wooden Fortress Influence (+20% wood, Rus) |
Creation speed | Golden Age Tier 3 (+20%, Abbasid Dynasty and Ayyubids) Military Festival (+100% for 90 seconds, Malians) |
Build speed | Inspiration Bonus (+25%, requires Devoutness, Holy Roman Empire) Construct the Kingdom (+33%, Jeanne d'Arc) |
Line of Sight | Set up Camp (+30%, English) |
Cost | Consecrate (-25% Jeanne d'Arc) |
Civilization Bonuses | |
Movement speed | Chinese (+15% in Yuan Dynasty) |
Ranged attack | English (+5) |
Range | English (+2) |
Gather rate: All Food | Rus (+5%/10%/15% depending on bounty) |
Gather rate: Berry Bushes | Abbasid Dynasty, Ayyubids and Delhi Sultanate (+25%) Ottomans (+50% from Twin Minaret Medrese) |
Carry capacity | Abbasid Dynasty, Ayyubids and Delhi Sultanate (+3 berries) Holy Roman Empire (+40%) |
Resource drop-off amount | Japanese (+20% extra stone with gold drop-off) Japanese (+20% extra gold with stone drop-off) Mongols (+50% gold at Steppe Redoubt) Rus (+1 bounty gold with every 10 food deposited from Deer, Boar, or Sheep) |
Cost | Holy Roman Empire (-66% from Palace of Swabia) Zhu Xi's Legacy (-10% in Yuan Dynasty) |
Creation speed | Chinese (+25% in Song Dynasty) French (+15%/15%/20%/25% per Age) Holy Roman Empire (+200% from Palace of Swabia) |
Build speed | Chinese and Zhu Xi's Legacy (+50% Defensive buildings, +100% all others) |
Other | Byzantines (Villagers gather Olive Oil from berries, Olive Groves, and Shore Fish) |
Unique landmark boosts[]
With the Khaganate Palace, the Mongols can obtain unique technologies and units from other civilizations. As such, Mongol Villagers can potentially benefit from the following boosts normally not available to them:
Aura and ability enhancements | |
---|---|
Attack | Saint's Blessing (+2, Mongols) |
Armor | Saint's Blessing (+1 melee/ranged, Mongols) |
Dialogue lines[]
- Abbasid Dynasty and Ayyubids: /Abbasid Dynasty dialogue lines
- Byzantine: /Byzantine dialogue lines
- Chinese and Zhu Xi's Legacy: /Chinese dialogue lines
- Delhi Sultanate: /Delhi Sultanate dialogue lines
- English: /English dialogue lines
- French and Jeanne d'Arc: /French dialogue lines
- Holy Roman Empire: /Holy Roman Empire dialogue lines
- Japanese: /Japanese dialogue lines
- Malians: /Malians dialogue lines
- Mongols: /Mongols dialogue lines
- Ottomans: /Ottomans dialogue lines
- Rus: /Rus dialogue lines
Changelog[]
- With the Season One Update, hunted meat carry capacity was changed from 10 to 25.
- With Season Two Update 17718, torch bonus damage vs siege was changed from +10 to +2, and the repair rate of siege units changed from 20 hit points per second to 5. With patch 9.2.628 the bonus vs siege was removed.
- With the Season Five Update, English Villagers hunting bow range increased from 2.875 tiles to 5 tiles, to match their range vs military units.
- With patch 7.1.113, Villagers no longer use their bow to attack boars. They always use their spear weapon.
- With patch 8.2.218, the base building repair rate was increased from 20 to 25 hit points per second. The return for repairing with multiple Villagers was diminished further such that repairing with 3-10 Villagers is approximately 5% slower overall.
- Originally, the additional stone cost for double-producing villagers from a Mongol Town Center within the influence of an Ovoo was 150 stone. With patch 8.2.218, this was reduced to 125 stone.
- With update 12.0.1974, the base gather rate from Berry Bushes was changed from 0.66 food per second to 0.69 food per second.
Trivia[]
- The Villagers have a distinct appearance depending on their gender, their civilization and the Age they are in. While Mongol Villagers wear the same base outfit, they can still be distinguished by their voices, body shapes and minor difference on their outfits.
- For the first time in an Age of Empires game, Villagers change appearance (more or less significantly) as their civilization progresses through the Ages. The other four units to do so are the Scout, the Khan, the Trader and the religious units.
- This is the first game in which Blacksmith technologies affect normal Villagers.