Resources & Economy

Gold fills the war chest, stone raises the walls, and lumber builds the fleet. A Governor who masters the flow of raw materials commands the archipelago — one who neglects it will be commanded by those who do.

Settlement & Life

Tax policy, food supply, morale, and the pressures of a growing population.

Buildings

Structures that produce, store, and defend a settlement's wealth.

Provisions Upon Arrival

Every new Governor arrives with a modest provision chest — 250 Gold, 250 Stone, and 250 Lumber, along with 120 coins and 200 food. A Main House stands ready at level 1. These reserves are enough to break ground on the first mines and begin generating income, but they will not last long.

Raw Materials

Three raw materials sustain the economy. Gold is the most versatile — demanded by nearly every construction project, research endeavour, and military commission. Stone anchors fortifications and infrastructure, pacing how quickly a settlement can expand. Lumber fuels the harbour — without it, no ship is laid down and no fleet sets sail.

Each material is extracted from its own mine: the Gold Mine, the Stone Quarry, and the Lumber Mill. Higher levels yield greater output. Even without a mine, the land provides a small passive trickle — but serious Governors break ground early.

Coin, Food & Morale

Beyond raw materials, a settlement must contend with the needs of its people. Coins are revenue drawn from taxation — the larger the population and the higher the rate, the greater the income. Coins purchase supply crates at the Bazaar and fund advantages that raw materials alone cannot buy. The Main House determines how many coins can be stored — upgrade it to expand the vault. Coin overflow is retained temporarily, then decays each hour back toward treasury capacity.

Food is consumed continuously by the population. Farms supplement the natural yield, but mouths multiply fast — a growing settlement quickly outpaces its stores. When food runs low, Happiness falls sharply. Discontent settlers work slower, and at the worst levels mines and farms produce only half their normal output. These forces are tightly linked — consult the Settlement & Life chapter for the full picture.

Production

Each mine level increases output steadily. The base rate determines how much a single level produces; passive income is the trickle that flows even without a mine.

The Storehouse

A settlement can only hold what its Storehouse can contain at full efficiency. Surplus beyond capacity becomes temporary overflow: you keep it, but it decays each hour until stock returns to cap. A well-built Storehouse also shields a portion of reserves from plunder — the stronger the stores, the less a raiding fleet can carry off.

Settlement and building screens show overflow amount and depletion rate so you can spend excess quickly before it fades.

Click a resource (or coins) in the settlement resource bar to open the detailed ledger: it shows total stock, net trend per hour, and each modifier that pushes the value up or down.

Marshal Voss notes

Protected stores are the difference between a setback and a collapse. A raiding fleet takes what it can carry — a strong Storehouse ensures the settlement survives the loss.

Island Resource Tiers

Not all land is equal. The archipelago's islands vary in natural wealth — some sit atop rich deposits, while others offer little more than sand and scrub. A Governor who scouts the world chart before expanding will find the effort well rewarded.

These tiers are a permanent property of each island, visible when hovering over uninhabited shores on the chart. They should not be confused with the abundance labels (Scarce, Modest, Plentiful, Overflowing) that appear in Shore Survey reports — those describe how each individual resource compares to the island's average stores, not the island's overall tier.

Beyond tier, each island favours one resource over the others. A shore rich in lumber will produce roughly 80% more lumber once settled — while its gold and stone output sits 40% below normal. Starter islands are exempt; specialisation only applies to colonised territory.

Specialisation cannot be seen from the chart. Send spy ships to survey uninhabited shores before committing a colony fleet — the survey reveals each resource's abundance and names the dominant material. See Raiding for how this shapes the plunder economy.

Treasurer Mora notes

Raids, shipments, and trade contracts are settled against the treasury at the moment of departure — not a stale count from the prior hour. Prudent Governors verify their reserves before committing.