What Are the Different Resources in Age of Wonders 4?

The centrepiece of everything related to ... well, everything, really. Gold is an indispensable resource that you will use for basically any upgrade you want to do. Building new structures, recruiting armies, and even unit upkeep all require Gold, but you will also need to use it as a tool to negotiate.

To get Gold, you need to build gold-generating structures in your cities and use your passive income to earn even more; this is also applicable for annexing relevant nodes and creating Gold mines whenever doing so. Starting off as a Champion will give you more Gold as part of their traits and passives.

Mana is a bit more complicated in some aspects, as there are technically three different types of mana, but all of them sort of do the same. So first, we'll talk about base Mana.

Mana is used to cast spells in the world, both overworld and in combat, both of which can help you bolster your army or dwindle the enemy one. By summoning units, you can use Mana as a separate resource to strengthen your army, and by using offensive or unit-enhancing spells, you can turn the tides of battle. This is also a resource that is used as Unit Upkeep, but you will mostly be using Gold for this.

Similarly to Gold, you can get Mana by having cities and annexing Mana nodes, building Conduits in your Provinces, some City Structures, and even collecting various pickups around the world. How much Mana you use and require depends entirely on your playstyle — if you are casting spells continuously, having a few Conduits will ensure you can do so more comfortably.

Also known as Mana 2.0 (not really), this is a limited pool that you can increase through a couple of ways but is mostly capped.

This 'resource' works as a way to stop you from using all of your 1,000 gathered Mana to smite fear into your adversaries' hearts (we see you, Mana hoarders) and trivialising combat. World Map Casting Points fully refill after every turn, so keep in mind how much Mana you can use per turn to understand how long a specific spell will take to cast.

Also known as Mana 3.0, Combat Casting Points work the same way as World Map Casting Points for the most part, as they will be the resource that stops you from using your powers to cast spells every turn.

Although you can only cast one spell per combat turn, you will eventually run short of Combat Casting Points, forcing you to use your spells more strategically and stopping you from casting every single time to create a pseudo-immunity. These are refilled at the start of each battle, though you will also earn a bit of Combat Casting Points per turn, allowing you to cast spells again in the same battle even if you used all of it in just a few turns.

Me am smart because me get knowledge a lot of time! This 'resource' isn't a degradable one (in the sense that you don't run out of it) but instead is always working towards filling a specific amount. Let me explain.

You get a certain amount of Knowledge points with each turn that you pass, but this isn't a quantifiable item that you can stockpile. Knowledge is used to unlock new spells in your various Tomes, but it only works as a resource so long as you are researching a spell, elsewise, it neither increases nor decreases but instead stagnates as a whole.

Whenever you finish research for a spell but still have a few Knowledge points left over, you can store them for one turn in a system known as Surplus, which is prevalent in a couple of other resources we will talk about in a second. This is the only way you can "stockpile" Knowledge, so make sure you are always researching something to make the most out of your resource gain.

You can get Knowledge by building Research Posts in provinces, with certain City Structures, or from pickups that you can find around the world.

Food is neither a Surplus-affected resource nor is it a stockpile-able one. The way this one works is that it depends on how much you produce vs how much your population spends, meaning that it depends more on keeping a balance to ensure that your inhabitants don't suffer from Starvation.

Food brings in Population, which is technically a resource of its own that allows you to annex one Province per Population in each city. This, in turn, will enable you to get various other Provinces to build your cities more to get additional resources. 

Food can be earned by either annexing Pasture nodes, building Farms and Forester provinces (Forester also provides Production — more on that later), certain City Structures, and various pickups around the world. 

You need to balance how much food you get to avoid suffering from the Starvation effect, which will start removing your Provinces and reducing your Population every three turns.

Production is a Surplus-affected resource that you can use to create City Structures, which essentially makes it one of the more important ones to keep high in order to progress your city-building much faster.

You can get Production by annexing Iron Deposits, building Foresters (which also provide Food) and Quarries in Provinces, various City Structures that boost Production, and overworld pickups.

This is one of the hardest — and likely one of the most essential — resources in the game to get. Draft affects how quickly you generate units; similarly to Production with City Structures, you will need to wait for several turns to get your army and even more for higher-tier ones.

The reason that Draft is so precious is that it is the sole resource that can only be attained by building certain City Structures, so you will not have much more of a choice and building possibilities to farm it with ease. It's crucial whenever you are trying to build an army and getting a new set of tiered units without having to wait an in-game week (yes, you read that right) to get them.

Imperium is a unique resource that you use for various things surrounding your ruling. You can use this to speed up relations with Free Cities, found cities from outposts you place around the world, and buying the build-defining Empire Skills.

Although all of these sound important, and Imperium is definitely a crucial resource to manage correctly, it isn't nearly as imperative as Gold is to the run. You get Imperium passively per turn and can earn more by building and upgrading the Wizard Tower City Structure and by annexing the Ancient Wonders around the world.