Resources
Three of them, and they behave differently enough that the one you are short of decides what you build next. Gold is everywhere, materials are the second half of most bills, and energy is the one that quietly stops you. A fourth counter — War Bonds — appears once you have any, and it is not a resource at all.
The three
| Resource | Produced by | Per building | Max buildings | Spent on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | Gold Mine | 50/hr | 5 | Everything. Every building, every unit, every research project, every tribute. |
| Materials | Material Depot | 30/hr | 4 | Construction, upgrades, vehicles, tribute, most research. |
| Energy | Power Plant | 20/hr | 3 | Barracks, Training Yards, Factories, Motor Pools, Material Depots, vehicles, tier-2 research. |
They cannot be produced, gathered, researched or awarded — the only way one enters the game is a purchase. Nothing on this page is priced in them, and nothing priced in them can be bought with these three. They buy rented structures and nothing else; see training space.
How production works
- It accrues continuously and is credited when you look. Your balance is brought up to date the moment you open the game. Nothing is lost while you are offline and there is nothing to "collect".
- Only active buildings produce. A structure still under construction or upgrading contributes nothing until it finishes.
- An upgrade in progress stops production. Plan an upgrade for when you are about to be away, not when you are trying to afford something.
- There is no storage limit. Nothing overflows and nothing is wasted if you leave the game for a week.
- Your balances are the three counters top-left — gold, energy, materials, in that order.
Ceilings
Because each producer is capped in count and in level, there is a hard maximum on what a base can generate. Reaching it is a mid-game milestone, not an end state — the ceiling is low compared with what expeditions bring in.
| Resource | Level 1, full set | Maxed | Maxed + research |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold | 250/hr | 1,000/hr | 1,250/hr +25% |
| Materials | 120/hr | 480/hr | 624/hr +30% |
| Energy | 60/hr | 240/hr | 300/hr +25% |
Three Power Plants at level 1 produce 60 energy an hour. A Barracks costs 100 energy, a Training Yard 75, a Motor Pool 190, a Factory 250. Almost every time you are stuck waiting, it is for energy — build all three plants before you need them, and upgrade them before you upgrade a fourth Gold Mine.
What pays back fastest
A producer earns back its own gold cost in a fixed number of hours. That is the honest way to order your early purchases.
| Purchase | Cost | Adds | Gold payback |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gold Mine (new) | 100 gold · 50 materials | +50 gold/hr | 2h |
| Gold Mine → 2 | 150 gold · 75 materials | +50 gold/hr | 3h |
| Gold Mine → 3 | 225 gold · 115 materials | +100 gold/hr | 2h 15m |
| Power Plant (new) | 150 gold · 75 materials | +20 energy/hr | — |
| Material Depot (new) | 200 gold · 50 energy | +30 materials/hr | — |
- Gold Mines to five. Cheapest thing in the game per unit of income.
- Power Plants to three — you will need the energy for military buildings.
- Material Depots to four.
- Upgrade the Gold Mines to level 3 (a level-3 mine pays for its own upgrade in about two and a quarter hours).
- Training Yards, then troops, then expeditions.
Where resources go
- Construction and upgrades — see buildings for every price.
- Training — 50 gold per infantryman, whichever kind. See units.
- Vehicles — troops and resources, from 150 gold · 75 materials · 40 energy for a pair of Recon Drones up to 400 · 200 · 100 for one Battle Tank. See vehicles.
- Research — from 250 gold + 200 materials up to 3,000 gold + 1,200 materials + 900 energy. The whole tree is 13,850 gold, 6,150 materials and 3,250 energy. See research.
- Tribute — 400 gold and 150 materials for the first of a day, half again as much for each one after it. See the clock.
Everything is checked before it is charged, so an order you cannot afford is refused rather than half-paid. Cancelling a construction, a training order or a research project in progress refunds 50% of what it cost — with one exception. Cancelling a vehicle assembly refunds no resources at all; it returns the troops instead. See vehicles.
Getting more than the ceiling
Once you are in a Control Sector, resource deposits on the sector map hold far more than your base produces: 1,200 in a sparse one, 2,400 moderate, 3,600 rich. A party sent out to one is back within minutes with hours of mine output. That is where your income comes from once you are established.
Deposits are finite. What a party carries away is gone from the ground, and a deposit emptied completely is struck through on the map and can be sent to by nobody until it recovers — which it does, to full, one hour later. Four hundred of them are scattered across the sector and other players are drawing on the same ones, so a deposit you were counting on can be empty by the time you get there. See expeditions.