Resources

Overview[]

Resources are the currencies of They Are Billions that allow you to pay for everything in the game from units, to buildings, to research. Seizing control of then subsequently exploiting and spending resources as fast and efficiently as possible is the key to rapid expansion and ultimately victory.

There are a total of eight resource types in They Are Billions, five of which can be stockpiled and three of which cannot:

HUD (1) — Resources as shown in the HUD.

Stockpileable Resources: Gold, Wood, Stone, Iron, Oil.

Non-Stockpilable Resources: Workers, Food, Energy.

The most important differentiating factor between Stockpilable and Non-Stockpileable Resources is that the latter are not consumed when the numbers on the HUD go down, only occupied. This means that if a building which requires one of these resources for upkeep is destroyed or switched off then those resources will become available again.

If Food-supply in your colony is negative, the gold maintenance cost of the unsupplied units is doubled.

All resources without exception require buildings to exploit or create them. For example in order to create Workers you must construct housing from the appropriate tab. Resources can be broadly split into two groups: Those that require a nearby resource node to exploit e.g. Quarries require Stone, Iron, or Gold to be nearby, and those that do not; such as Power Plants and Windmills.

All buildings which gather resources from their surroundings have a collection range which is the highlighted area that shows up before you place the building on the map. Each resource tile which is inside the collection range will contribute 0.5 units to your income rounded up. The total amount of income a building will give you when placed is shown while you are previewing the building in a given position and should be used to get the best positioning.

Note - when placing multiple buildings of the same type: The gathering ranges of identical buildings may not intersect by even one tile, therefore in some situations placing two buildings further apart may allow you to collect more resources overall from an unusually shaped node.

Non-Stockpileable Resources[]

Workers[]

Workers are gained by building housing structures, such as tents and cottages.

Almost all buildings require workers. Units also require 1 worker each.

Workers may be freed up by switching off production buildings preventing them from accruing further resources until their workforce returns.

Food[]

Food is gained by building fisherman cottages and hunters cottages, and later on farms and advanced farms.

Food is consumed most heavily by housing structures. All units except for rangers also require food.

If your colony runs out of food, units start demanding 30% extra gold per unit rounded up. This means the cost doubles for rangers for example.

Energy[]

Energy is mainly gained from mills, with power plants and advanced mills being alternative options in the late game. It can also be found in batteries on the map.

Almost all buildings require energy.

Comparison of efficiency of different energy sources[]

	Lightning Spire	26 Mills	Five Power Plants and five average Sawmills	13 Advanced Mills
Energy provided	800	780	780	780
Initial cost	16000 gold, 300 stone, 400 iron, 200 oil (building and research)	7800 gold, 520 wood	5500 gold, 250 wood, 150 stone	10400 gold, 130 iron
Minimum footprint	25 tiles	104 tiles	55 tiles	52 tiles
Maximum spaces around buildings	24 tiles	312 tiles	140 tiles	156 tiles
Workers	60	104	60	52
Maintenance	100 gold	156 gold	220 gold	520 gold

Lightning spire is the most space and maintenance efficient source of energy in the game. Power plants are the second most efficient - while they have higher upkeep, they use 2-4 times less space than mills, which can be filled by dwellings and other buildings. Also, power plants require less time to look for placement spots, making them better power source for no-pause runs. Mills have second lowest maintenance, but require much more space and attention, and may hinder productivity of other buildings such as Farms. Advanced mills are the least efficient, having footprint comparable to Power Plant/Sawmill combo and 2.36 times their upkeep.

Stockpileable Resources[]

Stockpileable Resources are consumed when a unit/building is built, and will not be refunded (or at least, not in full) when the unit/building is removed from play.

Aside from production buildings, these resources also may be acquired from small caches found around the map (500 for gold, 10 for the other resources), or as resource drops from villages of doom (1000 for gold, 20 for the other resources). Once the player builds a market, resources may be bought and/or sold for gold as well, albeit at a very steep price.

A warehouse boosts non-gold resource production by 20% in a radius of 12 around it. A bank boosts gold production by 30%, also in a radius of 12 (but a bank is 3x3 whereas a warehouse is 4x4, so the bank affects less space).

Gold[]

Gold is acquired via two means; Through taxes from housing structures (tents, cottages and stone houses) and from mining gold nodes using Quarries. The Command Center provides an initial 200 gold income to help the player get started.

Gold is needed to build all structures and units, and everything apart from passive defences require gold upkeep as well. A strong gold economy is thus fundamental to a successful game, as it determines how able the player is at expanding and reinforcing choke points, and how many units they are able to field at a given time. A low gold income spells certain doom, as the player will be unable to make repairs or replace lost units in the face of an ever-growing enemy presence.

Gold is a common bottleneck in the late game, where many units and structures cost a large sum of gold to build, as well as late game research.

If your colony runs out of gold, units start deserting.

Wood[]

Wood is collected by placing a sawmill close to forest tiles (or cactus tiles on the desert map).

Wood is an important early-game resource, used to build all but the most basic of buildings. It is recommended to develop a strong wood income early on, as almost all buildings and units throughout the game will require at least some wood. For the early game in particular, early defences (especially wood walls), cottages, farms and the wood workshop will use up large quantities of wood.

Power plants will reduce wood income by -10 per plant.

There is no known penalty of having negative wood income.

Stone[]

Stone is mined from stone nodes (found as brown patches around the map) using quarries and advanced quarries.

The first use of stone is to build the Soldiers Center, an important building that allows the player to expand their mobile army beyond the starting 5 units. After that, stone is hardly used until the player builds the Stone Workshop and enters the mid game.

During the mid to late game, significant amounts of stone are used to build mid- to high-tier structures of all kinds, such as stone walls and stone houses. It is thus important to secure an adequate supply of stone before this point, or the player may find it difficult to expand and defend their colony from the mid-game zombie waves.

There is no known penalty of having negative stone income.

Iron[]

Iron, like stone, is mined from iron nodes (found as blue patches around the map) using quarries and advanced quarries.

Iron's only use early on is to train soldiers and snipers at the Soldiers Center, and one iron quarry at this stage should be sufficient for the colony's needs. Iron becomes more important once the player enters the late game.

In the late game, iron is used to upgrade resource collecting nodes to their "advanced" versions after the requisite research is completed at the Foundry, and to build the most powerful defensive towers and units. It is thus essential for the defence against the final wave of zombies, where multiple such towers and units are required.

There is no known penalty of having negative iron income.

Oil[]

Oil is acquired by placing an oil platform on top of an oil pool, which are found around the map. The oil platform needs to be researched at the Foundry, thus making oil a late game resource. Each oil platform gives a fixed oil income.

Oil is used to build and maintain units from the Engineering Center, and to upgrade resource buildings to their advanced versions (notably Advanced Farms).

Oil is scarce in the sense that there are only so many oil pools on the map that the player can exploit, and each mechanical unit requires oil for maintenance (1 for a Lucifer/Thanatos, 2 for a Titan). Thus, unlike the infantry units trained from the Soldiers Center, there is a significant cap on the number of mechanical units the player can field, based on their oil income. On the other hand, if the player goes for a primarily infantry strategy (such as mass snipers), just one oil platform can be enough to satisfy their needs.

If Oil-income in your colony is negative, the gold maintenance cost of "unsupplied" units is doubled.