MergeCiv Resource Guide: Every Resource and How to Earn It
MergeCiv has seven resources and one rule that governs everything you grow on the grid: nothing produces without a Villager standing next to it. This is the full reference — every resource, what produces it, what it buys, and where each stage of the game chokes.
Nothing Produces on Its Own
The most important fact in the MergeCiv economy, and the one the game never spells out: resource tiles produce nothing unless a Villager works them. A Tier 6 Forest with no worker beside it is scenery. Coverage depends on the worker's tier — a Tier 1 Villager works only the tile to its right, a Tier 2 House adds the tile to its left, a Tier 3 Village adds the tiles above and below for four in total, and a Tier 4 Castle works all eight neighbors at a flat 4x yield. The Scout already knows this: its placement logic clusters resource tiles next to your Villagers, so work with the clumps it builds instead of rearranging them.
A worked tile's output is its tier per second, scaled up by a compounding tier bonus and by the worker — each settlement tier above the first adds another 50% to yields. Labor is not free, though. Every population point eats 1 Food per second, forever, and population doubles with each settlement tier: 1 for a Villager, 2 for a House, 4 for a Village, 8 for a Castle. The only income that skips all of this is passive: the Agricultural, Forestry and Mining Tradition legacies and a few artifacts pay out with no tiles at all. If any of this is new, start with the beginner's guide; the rest of this page assumes you know the basic loop.
The Seven Resources
Food
From worked Wheat Fields, the one resource tile you have from the very start. It buys your population — Villagers cost 100 × 2^population Food, doubling with every population point — your first grid expansions (Clear Brush to 4x4 is only 30 Food), and mid-game gates like the Castle upgrade at 100,000 Food plus 20,000 Ore. It is also the only resource with a permanent drain: upkeep. Starting cap: 100.
Wood
From worked Forests, unlocked for a trivial 50 Food. Wood is the Stockpile currency — each new Stockpile starts from a 50 Wood base and the price climbs with every one you already own — and it gates the settlement chain: Houses cost 1,000 Wood + 500 Ore to unlock, Village 2,500 Wood + 250 Ore. Half a million of it goes into Subterranean Stockpiles late. Starting cap: 200.
Ore
From worked Ore Deposits, unlocked with Ore Mine for 100 Wood. Scarce early — its starting cap is a miserly 60 — and the entire late game is priced in it: the Apprentice wants 200, the Mage Tower 50,000 per level across ten levels, and the Citadel an even 100 million. There is no point in the game where you have too much Ore.
Metal
Metal appears in your resource list with a starting cap of 0, but it plays a far smaller role than the other six — do not plan a build around it. Workshops, the tile you would assume makes it, earn their keep elsewhere: each worked Workshop tier adds 0.5 Stockpile spawn weight to the Scout, quietly turning free scouting into Stockpile delivery, and worked Workshops drive the Workshop Assembly Lines bonuses.
Gold
No tile produces Gold. It flows from Tribute — every past society you leave behind via Resettlement pays passive Gold forever, scaling with the cube of your highest tile tier at the moment you reset — from the Taxes upgrade (+1 Gold per second per population per level, max 3), and from artifacts. Gold is wiped on Resettlement, so spend it down before you reset. It buys the Gold-upgrade tier (Grain Silos, Secure Vaults, Mounted Scouting, eventually Reinvestment), spell unlocks, and artifacts. Starting cap: 50, though Secure Vaults lets Stockpiles add Gold storage.
Knowledge
Produced by exactly one thing in the game: the Citadel's center tile, at tier squared per second. Spent on T5 research — Detect Magic, Fiction, Coalesce Knowledge — and on Libraries, which raise its capacity. Its superpower: Knowledge survives both Resettlement and Ascension, so every point is permanent progress.
Culture
Earned only when you Resettle, scaling quadratically with Villager population (roughly P + P²/5) — which is why a board of high-tier settlements pays radically better than one tall Forest. Spent on Legacy upgrades, from Fellow Pilgrims and the Traditions all the way to Plans for Citadel. Capped at 1,000,000; each Theatre tier adds another million of headroom. For when to actually pull the trigger, read the prestige guide.
Tile Chain Reference
Everything that can occupy a cell, where it comes from, and what it is for. One quirk worth internalizing: resource tiles keep their names at every tier — a Tier 3 Forest is just a bigger Forest — while the settlement chain is the only one that renames as it climbs. Whether to merge up or hold tiles for coverage is its own art; the merge strategy guide covers it.
| Tile | How you get it | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Wheat Field | Scout, from the start | Produces Food when worked |
| Forest | Scout, after the Forest upgrade (50 Food) | Produces Wood when worked |
| Ore Deposit | Scout, after Ore Mine (100 Wood) | Produces Ore when worked |
| Workshop | Scout, after the Craftsmanship legacy (5 Culture) | Each worked tier adds 0.5 Stockpile spawn weight to the Scout; powers Workshop Assembly Lines |
| Stockpile | Spawn Dock (50 Wood base, price scales with how many you own); also scouted once Workshops are worked | Raises storage caps; merge for more capacity; movable Underground later |
| Villager (Tier 1) | Spawn Dock, 100 × 2^population Food | Works the tile to its right; 1 population |
| House (Tier 2) | Merge two Villagers; requires the Houses upgrade (1,000 Wood + 500 Ore) | Works right and left; 2 population |
| Village (Tier 3) | Merge two Houses; requires the Village upgrade (2,500 Wood + 250 Ore) | Works four neighbors, adding up and down; 4 population |
| Castle (Tier 4) | Merge two Villages; requires the Castle upgrade (100,000 Food + 20,000 Ore) | Works all eight neighbors at a flat 4x yield; 8 population |
| Citadel | Plans for Citadel legacy (1,000,000 Culture), then constructed with 100M Ore and escalating Mana | Center tile generates Knowledge at tier² per second; opens its own grid layer |
| Library | Citadel layer; 10,000 Knowledge for the first, +10,000 per Library owned | Raises Knowledge capacity; mergeable; generates Culture hourly once Fiction is researched |
| Theatre | Citadel layer; 1,000,000 Knowledge + Culture scaling with Theatres standing (1M, 2M, 3M…), requires Fiction | Each tier raises the Culture cap by 1,000,000 |
Worked Example: Feeding a Tier 2 House
Put a Tier 2 House next to a Tier 3 Wheat Field on its right. The field's base output is 3 Food per second; the tier bonus lifts that to about 3.6, and the House's 1.5x worker bonus lands it around 5.4 Food per second before any global multipliers. Now subtract upkeep: the House is 2 population, eating 2 Food per second, for roughly 3.4 net. Then look at your storage. At the starting 100 Food cap, that single tile fills you up in about half a minute, and everything past the cap simply evaporates. Worse, at population 2 your next Villager costs 400 Food — four times what you can even hold until Stockpiles raise the ceiling. That is the entire early game in one picture: income is almost never the problem. Caps are.
Where Each Stage Bottlenecks
Early (3x3 to 5x5)
Storage, immediately. With caps of 100 Food, 200 Wood and 60 Ore, you are losing overflow within minutes, and the Claim Wilderness expansion wants 60 Ore — your entire starting Ore cap — on top of Food and Wood. Get a Stockpile down before anything ambitious, and merge your Stockpiles too: higher tiers hold more, and you free a cell.
Mid (automation to Resettlement)
Ore and upkeep. The automation chain is priced in Ore (the Apprentice alone is 1,000 Food + 200 Ore), Ore Deposits are the last of the three basic resource tiles you unlock, and meanwhile every settlement merge doubles your Food drain. The Resettlement upgrade itself wants 5,000 each of Food, Wood and Ore plus the 6x6 grid — that is your first real savings target.
Late (Ascension and beyond)
Ore again, then Culture. Mage Tower levels run 50,000 Ore apiece, Subterranean Stockpiles 500,000 Wood and 500,000 Ore, the Citadel 100 million Ore. And the sharpest edge in the game: Plans for Citadel costs 1,000,000 Culture while the Culture cap is exactly 1,000,000 — you have to fill the bar to the very top, and the Theatres that raise that cap live on the layer it unlocks. Plan one deliberately fat Resettlement for it. More cap-management tricks live in the tips page.