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->'''Soviet Hammer Tank:''' I always wondered though... how come the mightiest nations in the world need to collect ore while killing each other? I mean, what's even ''in'' that stuff?\\
''[Allied and Imperial tanks shoot at the Soviet Tank]''\\
'''Imperial Tsunami Tank:''' Don't ask ridiculous questions!
-->-- ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'' tutorial

In RealTimeStrategy games, the player needs to acquire resources in order to build anything. The number of resources to acquire and the means to acquire them vary from game to game, but overall there are five types of resources:

#'''Gold:''' Also called Cash, Requisition, Credits, Resource Points, etc.... Gold is your primary resource. You will need it for everything you plan to do. If there is a BlackMarket to buy other resources from, the gold-type resource is what's used as currency. If a game has only one resource, it's likely this one (if not, it's power).
#'''Lumber:''' A secondary resource; it's not as important as gold, but usually is needed for specific purposes (such as paying for upgrades or buildings). It's not that rare, but in the later stage of the game, everything will require Lumber. Some games have more than one Lumber-type resource, with each resource usually having a specific focus (for example, wood is needed for buildings, metal is needed for units).
#'''Power:''' A resource that is rarely found on the map, it's more likely to be produced by specific buildings or units. Power is different in that you do not build a stock of it (usually). You have a power supply (generated by certain structures), and a power demand (caused by most structures, if in varying armounts). If the demand ever exceeds the supply, bad stuff happens, varying from lowered building speeds, to some structures or units entirely ceasing to function.
#'''Population:''' Population is a cap on your growth, typically functioning as an ArbitraryHeadcountLimit. Like Power, it is usually provided by [[ConstructAdditionalPylons certain buildings]] or upgrades, rather than being harvested from the map. If demand exceeds supply, you can't build more units. Existing units may or may not die.
#'''Uselessium:''' Any resource you have no use for, usually because either you're at the wrong point in the TechTree ([[LevelLockedLoot too low]] or [[WorthlessYellowRocks too high]]), or you're the wrong faction; shows up only occasionally. If it can be exchanged for cash, it's ShopFodder. If it is cash but still can't be used for anything, it's MoneyForNothing.

How exactly these resource are gathered varies. Sometimes your basic WorkerUnit will go back and forth from the resource node back to your base, giving you a bit of resource each time. Other times the player may need only to capture the resource node with units and/or build a building on top of it gain a constant flow of the resource. Occasionally, the game allows you to trade one resource for another in some way.

Collecting natural resources can also be seen as an easy way to avoid the UnfortunateImplications of looting and pillaging, a war crime going as far back as UsefulNotes/TheRomanEmpire; avoiding a WhatTheHellHero moment, because no one owns nature. Some games use GaiasLament as a means [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical to do the opposite]], even having it as the reason for a group InHarmonyWithNature to get involved in a conflict.

Because TheComputerIsACheatingBastard, don't [[NotPlayingFairWithResources expect it to actually need resources]]. He's still gathering them, but it's likely he can do without. If this trope happens enough, the audience might find it annoying.

See also ConstructAdditionalPylons, NoRecycling and CommandAndConquerEconomy. A specific type of EasyLogistics. When you require a resource to make another resource, it's a case of RefiningResources.

----
!!Examples
%% No need to add extensive info about the strategy involved in each resources. The article is strictly about resources and how they behave. Please don't go into Administrivia/WalkthroughMode.

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Construction and Management Sim]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Caesar}} III'' has Denarii as a Gold-type resource, a multitude of other resources (Food, Clay, Pottery, Lumber, Furniture, Olives, Oil, Grapes, Wine, Iron, Weapons, and Marble) as Lumber or Uselessium types depending on the scenario, and Housing as a Population-type resource. Oddly enough, the only resource you need to build most buildings is Denarii (and for the few exceptions, the only other resource is Marble); the other Lumber-type resources are used automatically by the populace, usually to upgrade and maintain the quality of their Housing.
* The ''VideoGame/DungeonKeeper'' series has just Gold as its gold-type resource, used to build and maintain rooms, pay minions' wages, install traps, and (in the first game only) cast spells. It's obtained in finite quantities from gold veins in the ground, though some maps contain gem seams which offer an inexhaustible supply of gold at a lower collection speed.
** Chickens are something of a Power-Type resource, as you need them to feed your creatures. They begin to lose health if there are not enough to eat. If you run out, they get really grumpy and may leave your dungeon.
** In the second game, Mana is introduced as a Power-type resource to cast spells, keep traps functional, and sustain [[WorkerUnit imps]]. It regenerates at a constant rate proportional to the size of the Keeper's territory, although rare mana vents boost the rate dramatically. Mana is also needed in [[AwesomeButImpractical tremendous quantities]] to summon the Horned Reaper.
* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' resources come in standard flavors like stone, gems, body parts, ores, and logs, except there are many, ''[[ComplexityAddiction many]]'' subtypes of each. Even stone comes in over a hundred varieties, some of which have valuable properties, like flux stones for making steel. Like everything else, the process to make steel from iron is rather complicated.
** The trope is currently played straight, however, in that there isn't much functional difference between types of stone save for their melting point when constructing buildings or defensive fortifications. To make this worse, resources present on the map are determined [[DevelopersForesight through a process of simulated geology]]. While you can pick a starting area with favourable mineral analysis, you can't really predict what you're going to end up short on. And many resources and commodities (particularly food and clothing) can end up rotting or being otherwise contaminated before you get a chance to use them for their intended purpose. This is somewhat (but not entirely) offset by the fact that there are multiple resources that can be used for most jobs.
* Most of the ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'' games have some form of collectible resource, usually Lumber. Occasionally there's even different KINDS of "Lumber". Island of Happiness has FOUR, lumber, stone, gold lumber, and rare ore.
** The affection and respect of the townspeople can in some ways also be thought of as a resource.
* ''VideoGame/{{Pharaoh}}'' has an extremely complicated resource system, as resources are consumed by population (food, finished goods) or industry (raw materials) or traded (all of the above). There are only four instances of getting the YouRequireMoreVespeneGas message though: obelisks and sun temples, which require vast amounts of granite and sandstone, and libraries, which need papyrus, and a city requesting goods and refusing to accept one unit less.
* The ''VideoGame/RuneFactory'' game series has Gold and Lumber as resource types, in addition to RandomlyDrops monster trophies for item building, food and crops.
* VideoGame/SimCity uses money and power. VideoGame/SimCity 2000 adds water, but the pumping stations can't get enough water coverage no matter how many of them you have (which is why you use pipelines). VideoGame/SimCity 3000 adds waste management to the mix.
** Unlike [=RTSes=], however, the only resource ''you'' need (as Mayor) is money. Power, water, and waste management are things you build with that money that are necessary to attract Sims (i.e. citizens), create jobs, and gain popularity. Since population, jobs, and popularity are ([[VideoGameCrueltyPotential theoretically]]) your goal, these "resources" are actually more like the ''units'' in an RTS, i.e. the tools with which you achieve your aim. However, it is true that money works like Gold and power works like Power, as do water (with the proper infrastructure) and waste management (again, with proper infrastructure).
* ''VideoGame/{{Startopia}}'' uses Energy as both Gold and Power, so you can run out of it by overspending or overtaxing your power grid. However, it will recover if you give it time, though you'll be poor. This makes solar flares a goldmine. Your station can make anything else locally, apart from metal ores - if you have enough Energy.
** The game also averts NoRecycling by allowing you to build a recycling plant (operated by Groulien Salt Hogs), converting garbage into energy. You can also use it to dispose of bombs planted by competitors.
* ''VideoGame/{{Timberborn}}'': There are several kinds of resources in the game. Logs are required for every building, and they can be refined into planks or paper, which in turn can be refined into other materials. Beavers also need food and water, and there are a lot of crops they can grow; some can be eaten directly, while others need to be prepared first. Each faction has a different way to reproduce; the Folktails have a chance to give birth at night if you have at least two beavers and at least one empty bed, while the Iron Teeth grow babies in vats using a small amount of basic resources. Finally, far away from the starting point on every map, your beavers can scavenge scrap metal from human ruins.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:God Game]]
* ''VideoGame/BlackAndWhite'' offers a combination of many basic types of materials that support each other when gained: To feed your population, you have to produce food for them through either miracle spells or by assigning missionaries to harvest it. The same applies for wood, which is required for construction. To cast miracles, you'll have to spend prayer power (mana), which is generated by your villagers at the worship site...who also need food to keep worshipping. The size of your population and the number of houses they have between them also affects how large an area you can cover in the game. In the end, though, it turns out that lumber is a seriously lacking resource, because you constantly need to harvest it to build more houses, and forests have a nasty habit of running out of trees unless you took up gardening and treated your followers as vermin to be kept away from the rutabagas.
* The most basic materials in ''VideoGame/TheUniversim'' are stone and wood, which Nuggets can gather directly, though you later unlock buildings that makes gathering them quicker. The other basic resources -- water, iron, natural gas, oil, and unobtainium -- all require buildings in order to extract them. All of these can be refined into more complex resources, and there's only a finite amount of them on each planet. There are also several electricity generators, with varying degrees of efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions.
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Grand Strategy]]
* ''VideoGame/AgeOfWonders'' had just gold and mana. Whereas another game in the genre, Disciples, had gold and four different types of mana (five with the expansion pack), and you needed the right combination of mana to be able to cast spells.
* The first four games in ''Sid Meier's VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' series have three primary resources: Food (Nutrients in ''Alpha Centauri''), which feeds the city's population and increases it when the stockpile reaches a certain point, Production ("Shields" in ''Civ 1, 2 and 3'', Minerals in ''[[VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri Alpha Centauri]]'', "Hammers" in ''Civ 4''), which is used to build improvements and units, and [[GlobalCurrency Commerce]] ([[EnergyEconomy Energy]] in SMAC), which goes either to research, your treasury (which can be used to speed up production, and is needed to support buildings and/or units, depending on the version of Civilization), or making your citizens happy (more important at higher difficulties). In addition, in games after ''Civ 3'', there are strategic resources, which are required for some units and upgrades or otherwise enhance your empire in some way, as well as bonus resources that give you extra Food, Production or Commerce.
** Starting in ''Civ 4'', it is possible to know about a resource without having the technology to actually use them. This particularly common in IV, where Uranium is known upon the discovery of Physics (a late Renaissance-Era tech) but not actually usable until you discover Fission (a late Industrial-Era tech), turning Uranium into Uselessium for an entire tech level. (Having said that, you ''want'' Uranium, so knowing where it is can aid in your long-term strategic plans. This is even more important if you're in one of those matches where [[TheAllSeeingAI the AI magically knows where all the strategic resources are, from the first turn on up]].)
** Starting in ''Civ 5'', Science and Culture are divorced from Commerce and are now produced directly from buildings (making them rather like RTS Power). The ''Gods and Kings'' expansion, which reintroduces the concept of religion, adds Faith as a third building-created Power-type resource.
** Starting in the ''Gathering Storm'' expansion of ''Civ 6'', Strategic Resources have been reworked into a Lumber-type resource, which is stockpiled by your empire every turn and can be used for the construction of various units and buildings. Late-game strategic resources like Coal, Oil and Uranium do double duty as Power-type resources, requiring a steady income of each as maintenance for your units lest they gain reduced combat effectiveness.
* ''VideoGame/{{Colonization}}'', a variant of ''Civilization'' set in the American colonial era, has numerous available resources, reflecting the way a continent will have areas rich in different resources. Most of the resources translate into gold, and require specialists to take full advantage of them. For example, cotton can be grown on certain types of land, with some squares especially rich in cotton. The raw materials can be sold, but are worth far more if there is a specialist available who can convert them into finished products, such as a weaver who can convert the cotton into cloth. There are also specialists who make gathering the resources more productive. Population is tied to religion points, as increased religion points will entice freedom-seeking European emigrants. It is also necessary to employ statesmen to raise rebel sentiment, without which independence cannot be declared, and the game cannot be won. The resources a colony needs for itself are wood, iron ore and food.
* ''VideoGame/{{Dominions}} 3'' has a variety of these. Units require Gold and Resources (the former drawn from the national pool, stored, and permanently spent, the latter province-specific, unstorable, and renewing every turn), thus differentiating between cheap but slow-accumulating (low-gold, high-resource) and expensive-but-quick (high-gold, low-resource) units. In addition, magic requires a combination of gems of 8 different types. Beyond that, there's population, which affects gold and resources, and magic sites, which affect magic gems.
** A somewhat unique kind of resource are blood slaves, used in the Blood school of spells (concerned with summoning demons and such like). Unlike regular gems, which are limited in income due to your ability to find and defend magical sites of their type, blood slaves can be hunted from the province population by any commander capable of blood magic. The only cost to this is a slight decrease in population and an increase in unrest (which can be offset by lowering taxes). This means that a blood nation can essentially convert gold into magical power, which is completely impossible for any other school of magic. In compensation, blood spells are much more expensive, gem-wise, than regular magic. However, since a late game nation can produce literally ''hundreds'' of slaves per turn, ridiculously large armies of demons are commonplace in the endgame, often to the point of the player dispensing with regular troops altogether.
* ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron 2'' has a system with energy, metal, oil and rare materials. Somewhat averted in that the first three were simply consumed in order to create "Industrial Capacity" points (which were used to build units), while oil was consumed by certain units as they moved around. (You did NOT want to run out of oil!) there was also Supplies (that was produced from said IC and consumed by units) and manpower (used to train and reinforce divisions to full strength). There's also money, which is produced by IC devoted to 'consumer goods' and is used to fund spy operations and research teams.
* The browser game [[http://en.ikariam.com/ Ikariam]] has wood, gold, population, and four "luxury" resources (marble, wine, crystal, and sulfur). Each island has only one luxury resource necessitating trade with or raids on other players until one advances far enough on the tech tree and gathers sufficient resources to build colonies.
* ''VideoGame/MasterOfMagic'' has three main resources, Gold, Food, and Mana. Gold is both a Gold-type and a Population-type (in the form of your army's wages), Food is purely a Population-type, and Mana could fit either as a Lumber-type (can be stockpiled for casting spells) or a Power-type (must be gathered either by generating it from city improvements such as Temples, or sending magic spirits to claim magical nodes). Cities also have a Production resource, which can either be applied to building city improvements, training units, increasing the size of the city, or generating Gold.
* ''VideoGame/OldWorld'': 8-12 resources, depending if you include some odd ones. Wood, Food, Iron, Stone, and Gold are "Gold" types resources that are produced and accumulated to be spent on things, the first four can be bought and sold using gold. Abstract resources (training, civics, growth) are used city by city to produce things like production in civilization games, effecting the time to build things, if the city is not building something that uses the resource, civics and training accumulate empire wide for other purposes, growth causes population to increase. The weird ones are science,orders, culture, and discontent. Science builds empire wide to get technologies, discontent and culture accumulate city by city, and orders limits how many actions an empire can take a turn. All empire wide resources can be traded diplomatically.
* ''VideoGame/SinsOfASolarEmpire'': Gold and Lumber. "Income" is the Gold and is needed for everything, including bribing pirates and BlackMarket purchases. Of the two kinds of Lumber, troop production requires more Metal, while research requires more Crystal.
** ''Sins'' has a unique take on the ArbitraryHeadcountLimit as well: in addition to needing to be researched, it is linked directly to "upkeep," with each expansion of the {{Cap}} resulting in a flat-rate tax being taken off all your harvesting. The final level results in a headcount of 2,000 and a resource reduction of ''75%''... which isn't as bad as it sounds, since you can assemble a game-ending fleet with around 1,200 headcount.
** Finally, there is a secondary ArbitraryHeadcountLimit concerning Capitol Ships, the game's {{Hero Unit}}s. In addition to 50 Normal Supply, they also require 1 Capital Ship Supply. These are more expensive than Normal Supply, and you only get 16 of them, but they don't result in harvesting reduction.
* Initially, in ''VideoGame/SpaceEmpires'' you had construction points generated by facilities, which were affected by the value of the planet. In IV, this resource was split into three: Minerals (gold), Organics, and Radioactives (lumbers). Population simply generates itself if you have at least one million citizens.
* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' uses a list of Wood, Gold, and Power resources. Energy Credits and Minerals both act as Gold, with [=ECs=] spent on upkeep and used as money for the market, and Minerals used to make buildings. Minerals are also refined into Alloys and Consumer Goods; Alloys are militarized Gold (used to build warships) and [=CGs=] are Power (consumed by population and advanced jobs, but not spent to build anything). Food is a Power resource that feeds population (Pops), and pops are a Population type resource, determining how many jobs you can work (and thus how fast you can gather other resources). Unity acts as early-game Power and late-game Wood (consumed to provide various bonuses, and to build late-game Megastructures), and Science is Power (used over time to research technologies, although most early-game Science is harvested directly from the map). Influence is a Wood resource used in expansion and diplomacy. The seven Strategic Resources each act as either Wood or Uselessium, to build advanced ship components, advanced buildings, or nothing really. Naval Capacity and Administrative Capacity are Population type resources, however they are soft caps rather than hard caps as exceeding them applies increased costs and upkeep but do not hard limit your expansion. And on top of all this, ''all'' of the Wood- and Gold-type resources are also Power, as all resources are produced and consumed over time and a sustained deficit in one resource can lead to steep penalties across other resources or across your entire empire.
* ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'' uses credits as a gold resource. While planets have ores and minerals (called resources) they affect the production output and generation of credits, but are not a resource themselves.
* ''VideoGame/TotalWar'':
** Typically, there's just one standard currency, e.g. florins in ''[[VideoGame/MedievalTotalWar Medieval]]''. This is used to purchase all units and buildings in the game. There's also a number of ways to acquire more money, such as through merchant trade (including "acquiring" other merchants' business), generation of money by farming, mining, and trade, sacking enemy towns, or ransoming captured enemy troops. There's no population limit, but you are limited with how many troops you can order per settlement per turn, and certain settlements only have a certain number of troops of each type that can be ordered, and must replenish from the local "pool" of troops available - representative of the fact that if you recruited a few hundred knights from a particular region, you'll have to wait for either more nobles to come of age to join the military or for more peasants or middle-class citizens to be levied/recruited for combat.
** Interestingly, the very first game in the series, ''VideoGame/ShogunTotalWar'', has "koku" as a standard currency. In RealLife, koku was never a currency but a unit of measure, sometimes defined as the amount of rice to feed a single person for a year (about 330 pounds). While wealth of a region was often measured in "koku", it normally didn't equate to gold.
** ''VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammer'' mainly just has gold used for all unit and building production (the Vampire Counts give it a different name, but it behaves identically). Some factions have their own unique resources used in various ways. Bretonnia has serfs, which must be balanced between working in the economy and being deployed to the battlefield; Dark Elves collect slaves which can be used to increase gold production or spent in various rituals; Ogres have meat, which is gained by winning battles and used to pay units' upkeep and to make offerings to the Great Maw.
** ''VideoGame/TotalWarWarhammerII'': In the main campaign, ''The Eye of the Vortex'', the major factions race to gather a unique resource to power a ritual to prevent (or cause) [[ApocalypseHow the end of the world]]. Each race, with two rival factions per race, collect a different resource, but they all function identically, mainly being produced by control of certain locations or buildings, and only being used for the campaign objective and not production.
** ''VideoGame/ATotalWarSagaTroy'', which is set in the Bronze Age and thus before the developement of formal coinage, uses Food, Wood, Stone, Bronze and Gold. Food and Wood are used for early-game units and buildings, Stone and Bronze are added to the cost of higher-tier units and buildings, and Gold is used to produce faction-unique units, high-tier buildings and unlocking certain high-level technologies. Each non-city settlement in the game produces one of the five resources, making obtaining new sources of resources you are low on a priority for expansion or trade. Food is also produced in ports, simulating the nascent fishing industry of the era.
** ''VideoGame/TotalWarPharaoh'' uses the same resource system as ''TROY''. The player is unlikely to be fully self-sufficient in producing these without negotiating barter agreements with neighbours and allies.
* ''VideoGame/VictoriaAnEmpireUnderTheSun'' takes this to extremes, featuring no less than 47 resources. These include the standards of coal, iron and wood (albeit classed as timber, lumber and tropical), but also more esoteric types such as fertiliser, opium and luxury furniture. And God help you if you don't happen to be producing exactly the right blend of these materials at any point...
** Note that Iron had to be processed into steel, and that coal was used for (among other things) ammunition and glass. Yeah, Vicky has a lot of resources.
** The most important resource ''by far'' is cash, for the simple reason that it is used for more or less ''everything'' -- including importing goods if you aren't producing exactly the right blend of materials.
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Idle Game]]
* ''VideoGame/CookieClicker'' uses cookies as a Gold-type resource. After your first ascension, three additional resources are unlocked: Heavenly Chips, used to buy Ascension upgrades (Lumber-type), Sugar Lumps, which upgrade your buildings' production levels (another Lumber-type), and Magic Points, which you use to cast spells from the Grimoire (Power-type).
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Mixed-Genre]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Allegiance}}'' has one resource, Helium-3, which is equivalent to Gold. Building stations, conducting research, and purchasing certain advanced ships requires He-3, which is harvested by [[AsteroidMiners [=AI=] mining ships]] from special asteroids. Arguably, the game also has a second Lumber-type resource -- the asteroids themselves. Every new base needs to be built on an asteroid, which is consumed in the process. Some advanced bases require specific kinds of asteroid, which will get increasingly hard to find and secure as the battle goes on.
** ''"Population"'' can also said to be a resource in the game -- but in the case of ''Allegiance'', your "population" is made up of RealLife human beings playing on your team. With the exception of a very few (non-combat) drones, every ship the team fields will need an actual human pilot. The game automatically tries to maintain balance in numbers and skill between the competing teams, but having a particularly good player on your team can make all the difference.
* ''Videogame/BrutalLegend'' has "Fans", which function exactly like Mana in Sacrifice in that you collect them by placing Merch Booths over them, which sends the fans to your stage.
* ''VideoGame/DungeonDefenders'' has a single gold-type resource: Mana, and Mana is used to build/upgrade all defenses and use abilities. It's gained from treasure chests in between waves and spills out of dead creeps during them.
* ''VideoGame/FatPrincess'' has 3 resources: Wood and Metal for building things, and Cake for keeping The Princess fat.
* In ''VideoGame/KingArthurTheRoleplayingWargame'', gold and food are needed to maintain your empire and armies and to upgrade. On the other hand, you are a king over an empire, and these resources are not directly gained while in battle like other RealTimeStrategy games - they come into play during the turn-based portion. These may be traded in specific quests, along with artifacts and [[DeliberateValuesDissonance ladies]], and gold and food can be swapped for one or the other at a loss in winter.
* ''VideoGame/{{Sacrifice}}'', being half RTS and half RPG, had only two resources; Souls and Mana, though it's hard to tell which resource equates to which type. Mana is generated constantly from areas called "mana fountains"; placing a Manalith on that fountain allows you to draw upon that mana from a distance, so the more Manaliths you have, the faster your mana gauge fills. Souls, on the other hand, are limited- there's only a select amount on each stage, so the whole point of the game is to try and kill off your opponent's creatures (or the various creeps) and sacrifice their souls in order to use said souls to conjure your own creatures.
** Mana would be Power, and Souls would be population. Mana was produced by buildings, or by simply standing next to mana fountains, but required you to be near Manahoars to draw if you were elsewhere. It was used to power everything spell-wise. Souls were very interesting, however, in that they created a fluctuating ArbitraryHeadcountLimit that the players fought over.
* The original ''VideoGame/{{Spellforce}}'' has '''seven''' resources: Food, Wood, Moonsilver, Lenya Plants, Aria (sort of magical water), Iron and Stone. Different forces used different resources, which meant it encouraged combining multiple Light or Dark races; Elves, for example, could access some of their more powerful units by paying Iron, but lacked the ability to gather it for themselves, and could use the Forester building to [[GameBreaker gain an infinite supply of wood]].
** ''Spellforce 2'' has Stone and Silver share the gold type for their particular foci (buildings for Stone, and units for Silver), plus Lenya as a shared lumber type for anything magical. Farms also supplied Population. The PlayerCharacter could gather gold but only used it on equipment for hero units, making it exclusive to the RPG side of the game.
** ''VideoGame/SpellforceIII'' also has seven resources; only four of these (food, wood, stone and iron) are used by all factions, while the remainder are each unique to one of the three factions. Food and wood are essentially gold types, being needed for all units and all buildings respectively, while the others are needed for more advanced production and research. They are all present in a finite amount on the map, however, food can additionally be produced in infinite amounts by farms, while in the campaign the player character can acquire the ability to replenish the three other common resources. Gold is again only used in the RPG portions of the game to purchase equipment.
* ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'', in the civilization stage, has spice, which serves as money, and a specific amount of it is needed for building or unit creation. It is gathered steadily over time once you have claimed a spice mine, but the rate at which you gather it decreases with time as the spice in the mine decreases. The mines don't ever run dry though.
[[/folder]]


[[folder:MMO]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Foxhole}}'' has Salvage (refined into Basic Materials, which are used to build standard weapons, structures and vehicles as well as repair anything), Components (refined into Refined Materials, which are used to build end-game equipment), Sulfur (used to craft explosives), Coal (used to power trains and facilities), Oil (another power source and also refined into advanced fuel types), Aluminum (dropped by chance from Salvage nodes and used to advance the weapon TechTree), Copper/Iron (dropped by chance from Salvage nodes and used to advance the vehicle TechTree), and Rare Metals (dropped by chance from Salvage nodes and used to build large ships).
* ''VideoGame/GalaxyOnline'' has Metal, Gas, Population, and Science, all of which are produced passively over time by structures built for that purpose. Science points are spent to purchase new scientific upgrades without having to decide what you were studying beforehand. Population works just like metal and gas and is consumed for various tasks. One could logically suggest that the population "consumed" building facilities are just committed to working there and not available for other tasks. The population used up creating starship fuel and ammunition though...
* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'''s crafting system requires a number of different resources, which must be assembled into parts, which are then assembled into advanced weapons, engines, shields, etc. Most resources can be harvested, either in space or on the ground. The most advanced parts tend to require dilithium (one of the two game currencies) in their build. A workaround is to build the part at a lower level, then upgrade it. However, upgrading also costs dilithium, either directly or indirectly, so no matter what you will be spending money if you want the best gear.
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Puzzle Games]]
* ''VideoGame/PuzzlesAndSurvival'': The resources are food, lumber, steel and gas. These are needed in order to train troops, research skills and upgrade buildings.
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Real Time Strategy]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Achron}}'', all the races require 'L-Crystal' and 'Q-Plasma', which fulfill the roles of Gold and Lumber respectively. CESO (the humans) have a resource called 'Reserves' which ostensibly looks like Population (its icon is a small stick-figure person, and all units have a small integer cost), but it doesn't act as a unit cap; Importers continuously generate more and more Reserves over time... its closer to a cap on the number of units you can generate per unit time. The Vecgir also have a power resource called, appropriately, "power". When power demand exceeds supply, vecgir vehicles do not regenerate energy, eliminating the ability to use special abilities like self teleport.
* ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires'' has various resources, each with a different purpose and each blending "Gold" and "Lumber" related purposes over the series' lifespan. Food is primarily a "Gold" resource, paying for all your standard units and Age advances, but in earlier games also pay for their research upgrades. Wood and Gold (coin in ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresIII'') pay for "archaic" and "advanced" units respectively, siege units, and most upgrades. Stone features only in the first two games (before returning in ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresIV'') and is mostly used for defensive buildings and their upgrades. Each of these things are harvested from various exhaustible resources around the map, though Food can be harvested from rebuildable Farms, and [=AoE3=] made Farms and Plantations/Estates a slow but infinite source of Food and Coin, respectively. Population is also in effect, being increased by building houses, though some nations have their population cap full to begin with as a perk.
** ''VideoGame/AgeOfMythology'' ditches Stone, but adds [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly Favor]], used for mythological units and technologies.
*** In general, Microsoft-published RTS's tend to follow a pattern: Food from farms and fishing boats, wood from trees, gold/wealth from mines and caravans, and stone/metal from mines. Also a population cap that is boosted by constructing houses.
* ''VideoGame/AstroEmpires'' has a bit of an odd system: Credits are required by everything, and are supplied by your Bases' Economy, which increases as you build more Structures (certain Structures give more Economy than normal). Area is used up as you build Structures, and each type of planet starts with a set amount (moons have less, and asteroids have the least), which can be increased using Terraforming and Multi-Level Platforms. Population is also used up as you build, and is increased according to your Astro's Fertility (which can be increased with Biosphere Modification) every time you build an Urban Structure (later on you get Orbital Bases, which give a set amount of Population regardless of Fertility, and don't take up Area). Energy is the last resource that gets used up as you build, and is increased by Solar and Gas Plants, according to your Astro's Solar Energy and Gas stats, respectively (Fusion and Antimatter Plants give Energy regardless of resources). Metal Refineries increase your construction and production speed by your Astro's Metal stat. Crystals are the rarest resource, and boost your Economy for every Crystal Mine you build.
* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'':
** The ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSeries Tiberian]]'' series uses Tiberium as a Gold-type resources. The ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlertSeries Red Alert]]'' series uses "ore" as its Gold; another variant, gems, function exactly like ore, only it's worth more money. ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals Generals]]'' uses "supplies", mainly found in supply docks and occasionally as UN crates scattered around the battlefield, but also acquired via special support structures that serve as the only late-game source of income once the aforementioned supply docks are depleted (as they do not regenerate). All series have Power as, well, Power (though the spiritual predecessor ''Dune II'' is the {{Trope Namer|s}} for that resource). There is also often a Population limit on air vehicles, usually planes (number of Airstrips). Helicopters and other VTOL are able to land anywhere, but still needed a pad to rearm most of the time.
** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianTwilight'' changes their Gold into a Lumber-type, where they pay for upgrades instead.
** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'''s expansion, ''Yuri's Revenge'', though no different in the only-Gold-and-Power-type-resource paradigm, gives you the Grinder, allowing you to turn units, or [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential civilians]] whom you have {{mind control}}led, into resources on demand.
** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'' lampshades it in one of its tutorials with the page quote.
* ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes'' has three resources: Manpower, Fuel and Munitions, but only two follow this trope. Manpower is gold and Fuel is lumber (used for vehicles and advanced buildings), while Munitions are used for special abilities like airstrikes and throwing grenades. However, Fuel and Munitions are gathered like gold (owning the territory where the resource is located increases the rate at which you gain that resource), and Manpower was gained proportional to the amount of the map you controlled: the more you controlled, the faster you'd gain Manpower.
** In the eastern front mod, The Russians use munitions like a wood resource, where all upgrades cost both fuel and munitions. Abilities are free for them and have a longer cooldown.
* ''VideoGame/ConquestFrontierWars'' has ore, gas and crew, with each species having a higher demand for one of them. There are also 'command points' that limit the number of ships and satellites you can build, forcing you to build more communication structures.
* In the ''VideoGame/{{Cossacks}}'' series, there is gold, wood, food, stone, iron and coal. They are all Lumber-type except gold, which of course is Gold-type. They also have some Power-type aspects, in the sense that all units 'eat' some of your stockpile. Gunpowder units consume small amounts of iron and coal, and if it runs out they can't fire at all. If you run out of gold, your army officers and all ships mutiny, and if you run out of food there's a famine.
* ''VideoGame/DarkReign'' has two resources, taelon and water. You collect water, which, when the building's silo is full, is sent off-world and converted into credits. Taelon can be used to top-up power generators; however, a lack of taelon won't disable a generator - it'll merely cause it to run at half efficiency. Therefore, building twice as many generators allows you to ignore taelon altogether.
** ''Dark Reign 2'' only has taelon and uses it as a Gold-type resource.
* VideoGame/DawnOfWar'' 1 & 2 have requisition, a Gold-type resource which is generated by command centers, and further gained by capturing strategic locations, and power, which is gained by building power plants. Unlike most examples, power works mostly like a Lumber-type resource (it's used to pay for stuff, along with requisition. More power plants increase power input, but there is no power output other than the cost of units and upgrades). Strategic Points gave a steady stream of Requisition, which could be enhanced by Tech Tree upgrades and by building and upgrading listening posts on the point itself. Over time however, a Point would decay, and give much less Requisition. A decayed point captured by the enemy would return to it's original levels.
** The Orks also have population, as you need to build more Waaagh! banners to increase the Population cap on your army. In the ''Soulstorm'' expansion, the Sisters of Battle have a "Faith" resource generated and stored by specific units and buildings while the Dark Eldar harvest Soul Power from dead foes and allies ; both enable the use of powerful abilities which consume the resource. The Necrons offer an interesting variation on the trope, as they use requisition as a Power-type resource, each listening post built over a strategic location improving the speeds at which units and buildings are built (up to a 100% bonus for 5 listening posts) and power pays for ''everything''. Necrons also have a form of the ''Warcraft'' corpse economy, but only using their corpses and usually only dealing with the Necron Lord's shenanigans.
** In ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar 2'', power is a Lumber-Type resource. Some lower tier units only require requisition.
*** Additionally there's also a minor tertiary resource called Fury (or WAAGH or whatever depending on the faction), this is built by the deaths you take or inflict and it's used to charge certain special abilities or buy special, powerful units.
*** ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar 3'' has requisition and power as before, obtained by capturing resource points and building generators on them respectively. It also removes the Fury/equivalent resource in favor of Elite Points, which accumulate at a fixed rate throughout the game and are used to call in special units.
* ''VideoGame/DuneII'' requires you to mine Spice, which is what makes space travel possible, and is thus the most valuable substance in the galaxy. It also uses power produced by Wind Trap buildings. Being one of the grand-daddies of modern RTS, this is a possible {{Trope Maker|s}} -- and the {{Trope Namer|s}} of power resources.
** ''Dune 2000'' used the same resources. ''Dune II'' essentially set the mold for the ''Command and Conquer'' series (also by Westwood), with the aforementioned minerals or tiberium replacing spice.
* ''[[VideoGame/{{Earth2150}} Earth 2160]]'' has four resources: metal, water, crystals and energy. Their roles vary by race: ED uses water and metal, LC uses water and crystals, UCS uses crystals and metal, and all three use energy. The first three are either Gold or Lumber based on side, while energy is Power. Aliens need water for ground units and crystals and metal for air units.
** Similarily, the otherwise forgettable ''Dark Planet: Battle for Natrolis''. Humans use stone (ore) and crystals, the mystical Sorin use wood and stone, while the insect Dreil use crystals and wood. All three races use Energy as a Lumber-type resource, with Humans using the most but having it easiest to harvest, and the Dreil least and hardest.
* ''VideoGame/EmpireEarth'' has five: food (the most basic, needed to produce citizens), gold (multi-purpose), wood (for building construction and some military units), stone (for fortifications and some advanced buildings), and iron (for advanced weaponry). All must be collected from specific sources across the map, with the exception of food, which can be farmed. The expansion pack, ''Art of Conquest'', technically adds a sixth as carbon for the Space Age, which is harvested from giant crystals, but it's interchangeable with wood.
* ''VideoGame/EvilGenius'' has a particularly nasty consequence for not having enough power: your overworked generators will break down at an accelerated rate and eventually ''[[StuffBlowingUp explode]]'', leaving you with NO power to defend your base with, no control panels to use to have your henchmen and minions steal money from the world, a possible FIRE in your base... and did we mention you're also short $8000 per generator (with a good money-laundering operation giving you maybe $500 a minute)?
* ''VideoGame/HaloWars'' has a single resource for both playable factions called "Supply". It pretty much serves the function of gold in trope-speak. "Supply" is generated by buildings, you can have as many as you want (within the total building limit of your base), and it's also found in crates in random locations on the map.
** Naturally, there ''is'' a trade off. A building that generates supply takes up one section of your base. In games where you can build as much as you want, this wouldn't be a problem, but ''Halo Wars'' limits your buildings to the number of building spaces your base can support (maximum of seven). So, while Supply is infinite, building too many supply-creating buildings cripples your ability to turn that supply into units, effectively making you wealthy but undefended.
** Also keep in mind that power is a resourced, played relatively straight. The number of power plants the player has, the higher the player's tech level, determining what units, abilities, and research the player can use. However, each power plant costs more supply than the last, so attempting to reach for the endgame units and abilities too early will leave a player subject to a ZergRush by more cost-efficient low-tech units.
** For that matter, each base has only limited space to construct buildings, and that in itself can be seen as a kind of population-type resource. The only way to get more maximum building space is to find an secure another (pre-defined) base location and spend supplies establishing a secondary base on it.
* ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'' has ''a'' resource: "Resource Units," which is described [[AllThereInTheManual in the manual]] as being asteroids, veins of space dust, etc that have been deconstructed on an atomic level and stored away for use. (Plays the role of Gold, obviously.)
** ''Homeworld Cataclysm'' adds a Population resource in the form of a limited pool of "Support Units", which can be expanded by constructing Carriers and "Support Modules", and restricts the number of ships you can field.
* ''VideoGame/{{Impire}}'' uses the three resources Food, Materials and Treasure. Food is the only one gathered as standard inside your dungeon, although it can be converted into Materials at a low efficiency. Materials and Treasure can both be scavenged from invading heroes, while all three can be gathered by sending a group of units on a raid mission, which happens entirely offscreen. Mostly, food is used to build units, materials to build rooms and treasure to buy more unit slots. You very quickly get more resources than you can use.
* ''VideoGame/ImpossibleCreatures'' has Gold, in the form of coal, and Population, which both work as usual. Its secondary resource is electricity, which functions as a Gold/Power hybrid: it's produced by specialised buildings, but stockpiles over time at a rate per second and is used to pay for units and upgrades.
* ''VideoGame/MetalFatigue'' has only one resource, heat energy, which is most commonly available from a resource node--in this case, lava pools on the surface of the planet and in the subterranean layer. Worker vehicles simply huddle around the node and draw from it, providing a constant supply of energy points to spend. Players could also build solar panels on a FloatingIsland to harvest solar energy. Given how even large lava pools could be quickly drained by a dozen workers tapping from it, solar panels eventually prove extremely cost-effective to players looking to build advanced technologies.
* ''VideoGame/NetherEarth'' predates ''VideoGame/DuneII'' and features resource gathering, although here, you use the resources to produce robots ''directly''. Once a new in-game day begins, you're granted with a set amount of General points for producing any robot part you want, and, if you've already captured several factories, several part-specific points. Given how many points you actually need to produce an army that could pull off a decent fight, saving up on Generals this way might be a nice idea.
** Another pre-dating RTS examples would be ''VideoGame/HerzogZwei'' and its' little-known big brother ''Herzog'', which accumulate money for you each half-a-second. However, while in ''Herzog'', you just received less cash depending on how far you were from your homebase, its' sequel actually allows players to control his incomes by capturing (or, by skills bad enough, losing) a certain number of bases on the map. Therefore, one might consider it a slightly simplified variant of ''Nether Earth'''s resource generation.
* ''VideoGame/{{Outpost 2}}'' has common metals as the Gold-type and rare metals as the Lumber-type. Power can be generated by stand-alone structures, but some of the best power plants for-cost are ones that rely on an on-map energy source like geysers. Population isn't a cap here, either. It's the actual population of the base, which grows over time as a geometric growth rate influenced by morale and structures.
** The previous installment ''Outpost'' utterly averts this, and demonstrates why Administrivia/TropesAreNotBad: before discovering nanotechnology you have to manage dozens of resources, a shortage of any one of which put your colony into a slow, irrevocable death spiral until eventually you run out of air and EverybodyDies. And whether a particular mine produces what you need is basically random chance. The recycling center's Multi Purpose Goo will cover temporary shortfalls but it's not generally enough to run a colony on.
* ''VideoGame/ParaWorld'' has food, wood, and stone, but also a unique fourth resource called skulls. Skulls are used in some upgrades and in the promotion of units to higher levels, and are gained by killing other units.
* Polanie and Polanie II have... milk. With cows as harvesters, and grass as the spice fields. Works out pretty well, actually.
* ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations'': You begin with Food, Lumber, and Wealth, gaining access to Metal, Knowledge, and Oil as you advance in age. Knowledge is a hybrid-Lumber-Power resource, acquired through Universities, and used for Age-relevant researches and, late-game, missiles. The others serve as Gold at some times and Lumber at others: every unit requires two types of resource to build, essentially pushing you in the direction of a well-rounded army composition since if you focus on one unit you end up with a surplus of (at least) one resource. Rarely are you in a position where you can't build ''some''thing, even if it's not what you originally wanted to get. It also features Population (increased through Military Research), and Power in a mutated sense: you have a {{Cap}} on your maximum income ''rate'', which must be expawnded take full advantage of all your resourcing nodes.
* SpiritualSuccessor ''VideoGame/RiseOfLegends'' has timonium[[note]]Named after the city in Maryland where developer Big Huge Games did business[[/note]] as a Gold resource, Wealth (for the Vinci and Alin) / Energy (for the Cuotl) as Lumber-types, and Population. Timonium, wealth and energy have the same income cap found in ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations'', and the most common way of increasing wealth/energy income also raises that cap. There's also "Research", which is used to improve certain aspects of the player's nation, and the Vinci-only "Prototypes", which can be used to either give a general improvement across the whole army, or buy a special unit and improve units related to the special one. Both are acquired from specific buildings.
* ''VideoGame/RockRaiders'' requires you to tunnel through walls in order to progress as well as mine Ore (Gold/Uselessium) and Energy Crystals (Lumber/Power). Ore is used in the construction of buildings and paths, however it is generally available far more than it is used. Energy Crystals are used for certain buildings and to bring in vehicles. However, Energy Crystals are also used to power active buildings (and buildings will shut down if there are not enough Crystals), can be depleted by using Mining Lasers or from attacks by Slimy Slugs, and if a unit/building that cost Energy Crystals is destroyed or deconstructed, the Crystals are returned. (Depleted Energy Crystals can be recharged, however [[UnintentionallyUnwinnable not all maps have Recharge Seams to do so at.]]) "Collect X Energy Crystals" is also the win condition for most missions.
* Strategy in ''VideoGame/TheSettlers'' games revolves around careful resource management (as well as sensible road-building). This series of games is interesting in that some resources are quite easily renewable (you can just plant more trees, and you can farm as much grain and as many pigs as you like) while some (metal and stone) are finite.
* ''Franchise/StarCraft'':
** ''VideoGame/StarCraftI'' is the {{Trope Namer|s}}. Minerals would be gold and Vespene gas would be lumber.[[note]]Somewhat confusingly, however, you collect Vespene the same way you collect gold in ''Warcraft'', and you collect minerals the same way you would collect lumber...[[/note]]If you play well, you will likely constantly be hearing the phrase, "''You require more Vespene gas''". Both resources have a clear maximum collection rate per site. This difference from ''Warcraft'' -- where wood has an extremely high collection rate limit -- results in a drastically different tempo. Finally, the Protoss and (sort of) Zerg have Power resources. All Protoss buildings must be built near pylons, and shut down if the pylons are destroyed. Zerg buildings must be built on creep, which spreads out from hatcheries and creep colonies; however, losing the creep source doesn't hurt the buildings.
** Zerg larvae are used to produce all Zerg units and they spawn from the main production buildings once every 14 seconds or so.
** Population is also a resource. Each race has a standard Population cap (Terran supply depots, Zerg overlords, Protoss [[ConstructAdditionalPylons pylons]]), independent of each other. If you can acquire a WorkerUnit of a different race, you get an entirely new population cap to work with that applies only to that other race's units.
** ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'' kept the same formula but changed a few details: Vespene geysers are no longer infinite (depleted geysers gave a quarter of the normal output), Zerg can boost their larva production from three to seven via micromanagement, and campaign-only automatic Vespene gathering. In addition, Zerg buildings now die slowly if their creep source disappears, making creep into a true Power resource.
* ''VideoGame/StarTrekArmada'' uses dilithium as gold needed to build almost everything, gathered by mining freighters who harvest it from dilithium moons and bringing it back to a refinery. Crew is people used literally as a resource, as they are needed to crew all ships and manned stations. Crew are generated at the starbase, and you can increase crew generation by building more starbases or in the sequel, colonizing planets. Metal is introduced in the sequel and is needed for advanced ships and stations, it is gathered by a special station built in orbit around planets and moons. Gold-pressed latinum, also introduced in the sequel, is harvested and used similarly to dilithium and is used to buy research upgrades or to trade for metal or dilithium. Finally, officers are the population cap limiting the total number of ships and stations you can build. In ''Armada'', you can build expansions to increase your officer count while ''Armada 2'' has a hard limit. Species 8472 in the sequel use their own unique resource called bio-mass which is transmuted from all the other resources.
* ''VideoGame/StarTrekNewWorlds'' has planets with minerals which can be extracted with an (Advanced) Mining Station and then processed with a Resource Processing Station to usable materials to build your structures, defenses and vehicles. While there are six different minerals present within all missions, the tricorder indicates an abundance of specific mineral using a [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience specific color]]: Green = Raw Dilithium, Blue = Talgonite, Yellow = Silicon, Cyan = Kelbonite, Purple = Magnesite Ore and Red = Dolamide.
* ''VideoGame/StarWarsGalacticBattlegrounds'' has you collect 4 different types of resources to construct your base and build your army. Carbon is needed for base construction and a fair number of units, Food is needed for infantry and workers, Ore Crystals are needed for defensive structures and Nova Crystals are needed for Heavy Weapons, ships, aircraft and Jedi. All of these can be harvested by the same unit, and there are various ways to collect these materials (Ergo, to collect food, you can kill wildlife, fish, etc). There is also a trade system in the form of the Starport, which allows you to convert surplus resources into nova crystals, then turn those crystals back into other resources - a useful option when the various forces have polished off the last ore stockpile on the map, but you want to expand into a new area anyway.
** ''Galactic Battlegrounds'' doesn't just use the ''Age of Empires'' engine - gameplay-wise, it '''is''' ''Age of Empires''; graphics are different and missions are obviously different as well, but the gameplay is essentially the same, with the only difference being that the Franchise/StarWars game has more ranged weapons and flying units for obvious reasons. Because of all this, resources in the game work almost exactly as those in ''Age of Empires''.
* ''Stratosphere: Conquest of the Skies'' has three types of "floatstones", which you get from mountains of from sinking enemy fortresses and which you use to build up and repair your own fortress. Different types are required by different units, following the usual tech-level progression.
* ''VideoGame/SubmarineTitans'', an underwater RTS, has Metal for building stuff, Gold for researching technology, Corium for giving energy to your ships' weapons, and "Oxygen" which is analogous to Power. Silicons, an alien race, use different resources: Silicon (their equivalent of Metal), Corium and Energy (their equivalent of Oxygen.)
** The 2013 release adds some odd complications. Not only is water made an exhaustible (though renewable) resource, meaning you might have to keep moving water pumps in a place with a low water table, there are several optional resources that can be tapped with special buildings: coal, ore and oil. These can be sold for a quick buck or refined and combined in yet more specialised buildings to make increasingly complex (and lucrative) products like plastic, alloy, and computers.
* ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander'' is very similar to Total Anihiliation, only it calls Metal "Mass". Also, while units can lose abilities like cloaks or shields when power is depleted, a loss of power no longer turns off automated defenses (except for shield/cloak generators) and units' attacks.
* ''VideoGame/TheyAreBillions'': The resources you have to collect to build buildings and units are gold, wood, food, energy, stone, iron ore and oil.
* ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation'' uses two, Energy and Metal. Metal is a Gold-type resource, while Energy was both Lumber and Power. Both have an input and an output (constructing creates a drain on Mass/Energy, rather than taking the cost out all at once), as well as a limited reserve that players begin to use up if their output surpasses their input. Some units and buildings constantly add to the output; if you run out of Energy, defensive structures stop working and some units lose some weaponry and special abilities (such as cloaking or energy weapons like the Commander's D-gun.) Further reducing the turtleyness of the game, the remains of defeated units can be [[NoRecycling harvested for Metal]]. This gives the game a slightly different feel to the economy as, instead of simply gathering and hoarding resources to build units and upgrades, the player is instead balancing the input and output of their economy, gathering enough to build and operate what they need, while using it fast enough to keep from wasting it.
** This also created an interesting wrinkle in that the availability of metal on a given map could vastly change the required strategy. Core Prime's entire surface area was metal, meaning extractors could be plonked down anywhere en masses to fuel massive unit production. On the other hand, other maps had only precious few metal deposits, meaning one had to invest far more into energy collectors to fuel the very inefficient [[RefiningResources metal makers]] and be far more conservative in what they built.
* ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilationKingdoms'' was criticised for having only one resource (mana) and thus doing away with the interesting energy/metal tradeoff system from the original TA.
* ''Trade Empires'' has different sets of resources, depending on which historical period and location you choose to play in. In one period of Chinese history, for example, the main resources are: rice, millet, silk, silk cloth, jade, and jade idols. Population centres have an easier time hanging onto their populations if they provide not only a lot of food but a variety of it, together with luxury items. You're stuck with mining jade or collecting raw silk wherever it turns up, but jade carvers and silk weavers are production resources.
* ''VideoGame/UniverseAtWar'' has gold, or rather "resources" which is collected by little robots slicing up buildings and destroyed robots. It also has power.
* ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'':
** The original game is the TropeCodifier for the Gold- and Lumber-type resources. Gold, the primary resource, is obtained from gold mines, which contain finite supplies of gold, have a clear maximum collection rate, and collapse once they have been completely drained. Lumber is used to build Archers (or Spearmen, if you're playing the orc campaign), Catapults, and [[ConstructAdditionalPylons buildings]]. There's also a Population-type "resource" which extends the ArbitraryHeadcountLimit, and is acquired by [[ConstructAdditionalPylons building more farms or burrows]].
** ''Warcraft 2'' had a second Lumber-type resource, oil, which was found in water and used almost exclusively for naval units and upgrades (And unlocking the final tier). It was useless until you reached a certain level of technology.
** ''Warcraft 3'' also has another minor tertiary resource - corpses. The most obvious way to get them is to kill ground units or creatures, but the Undead can also produce them at Graveyards or in Meat Wagons, and carry them around in Meat Wagons. They're primarily used by the Undead for raising Skeletons and Carrion Beetles, healing Ghouls and Abominations, and for the Death Knight's AnimateDead ability. They're also used by the Night Elf Warden's Avatar of Vengeance, the Human Paladin's Resurrection ability (only friendly corpses), and the Tauren Spirit Walker's Ancestral Spirit ability (only friendly Tauren corpses).
*** Earlier in development (as shown in several previews years before the game came out), corpses were supposed to play a far greater role in the undead economy, but this could never be properly balanced, so they were scaled back to the limited use seen in the actual game.
* In ''War Dragons'', you need Food every time one of your dragons is ready to be trained to another level. Expanding territory also requires Food as an offering to the dragons to convince them to expand their territory. This means you have to keep upgrading your Sheep Farms and collaborating with your team to keep enough. Lumber is required for upgrading buildings and comes from your Lumber Mills. The trouble is keeping enough on hand to build and train without becoming a sitting target for other players and teams to raid, as your storage only protects so much.
* ''VideoGame/WarlordsBattlecry'' features four different kinds of resources (Gold, Metal, Stone, and Crystal), with each race needing different proportions of each (to the extent that some races had little use for one of the resources), making all four Gold, Lumber, and Useless, depending on which race you play as. For example, the elven races tend to use a lot of crystal, while more barbaric races tend to use a lot of stone, and the civilized races use a lot of gold. Resources are also produced somewhat differently than in most other games: your hero (and some units) can convert resource mines to your control, which then give you a steady stream of resources. This stream can be increased with some upgrades or by loading workers into the mines, and mines can (but rarely do, unless you're fighting against the Swarm) run out of resources, after which they will trickle resources at a greatly reduced rate. WBC also has population; each building you own increases your population limit (most buildings by 2, though some races have buildings which do nothing but increase it by 3, like the Orcish hovel and the Dark Dwarf supply depot), plus 5 for each level of your Keep, plus some more depending on your hero's stats.
* ''VideoGame/WarriorKings'': There are three resources -- food, material, and gold. It's actually food that's the most important resource and functions as both Gold and Population in other RTS games. Almost all units require food to produce and some can be bought with food alone, if your food reserves run out completely then most of your units will start starving until they're reduced to a few hit points, food taken from your reserves can be used to slowly heal damaged units and finally the size of your food reserves is used to measure the maximum population. Material acts as the Wood resource in other games, it's mostly used to make buildings and is a small component of cavalry and vehicles. Finally there's gold in the game which is used only for buying high end units and buildings, making this the least important resource. The Imperial faction has one unique resource which is faith. Faith is produced in churches and other religious buildings, it's used to power the miracles that the Imperials can use -- such as calling down fire from the skies.
* ''VideoGame/{{Warzone 2100}}'' has "Power" as a resource, although in gameplay it works like Gold instead.
* ''VideoGame/WorldInConflict'' just uses Requisition. It also doesn't have a resource gathering component; you have a certain points limit, and the cost of units is refunded slowly to it after they've been destroyed.
** Specifically, losing a unit refunds half the point cost immediately, and the remainder is restored at fixed intervals over the course of ten seconds. This can result in bizarre waves: taking out several heavy tanks, only to be met with several medium tanks (which is all that the player could afford immediately), then several heavy tanks when those are destroyed, though less than the original wave (since the points from the medium tanks have yet to be refunded).
* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Z}}''. The game has no resources per se. Instead, a map in the game is divided into territories that are conquered by capturing the flags at the centers of each territory. Control of a territory brings with it control of whatever lies inside, such as robot or vehicle factories. Production for a factory is chosen and units are periodically generated with more advanced units requiring more time to produce. The more territories a player controls the lower the time required for that player's factories to produce units.
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Role Playing Game]]
* ''VideoGame/Fallout4'': Most [[ShopFodder "junk"]] items can provide vital resources for building and maintaining settlements. Weapons, armor, trees, and broken-down settlement scenery can also be scrapped for wood, steel, leather, and other materials. Settlers require certain amounts of Food (crops), Water (provided by hand pumps or a purifier, the latter of which requires electrical power), and Defense to maintain Happiness, depending on the Population level, whose maximum is determined by the player's Charisma points.
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Shooters]]
* In ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', the Engineer needs Metal to build his machines. Weirdly, the Dispenser he can build can produce an infinite amount of metal (and health, and ammunition) over time.
[[/folder]]



[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/SettlersOfCatan'' has no single Gold-type resource; all five resources are Lumber-type, and all construction nominally requires at least two different kinds of resources. It's possible, however, to change 4 units of any resource into 1 of any other by trading with unknown [=NPCs=], meaning a player can, for example, build a road starting out with 8 sheep. Wood and brick are the most important resources in the early game, but become ShopFodder in the late game. The Cities and Knights expansion introduced three more Lumber-type resources needed for advanced improvements. The genius of the game is that while YouRequireMoreVespeneGas at all times, you are cruelly punished for hoarding resources whenever somebody rolls a 7 (which, in a two-dice system, has the highest odds of being rolled).
* This is a fairly common EuroGame mechanic. For instance, ''Stone Age'' requires lumber, brick, stone, and gold to build things, and requires you to set aside two of your tribe for a turn to increase your population.
[[/folder]]



[[folder:Tower Defense]]
* ''VideoGame/BoomBeach'', made by the developer of ''Clash of Clans'', has a more complex resource system.
** First, you have four main resources—Gold, Wood, Stone, and Iron, with the latter three filling the "Lumber" position. Gold is used to train and upgrade troops, and is also spent when launching attacks, exploring new areas on the player's map, and when the player sends his or her Submarine (available at medium levels) on a dive for resources. Most buildings are initially created with wood, with stone and iron added at higher levels. (Some buildings available only at higher levels require all three of these resources to build, and buildings that produce resources other than gold don't require that specific resource for upgrades.)
** The main "Power" equivalent is Power Stones, used to create statues that can boost your attacking ability, base defense, or resource production. There are three types—Fragments, Shards, and Crystals, which in turn enable your base's Sculptor to create Idols, Guardians, and Masterpieces respectively, with the statue's power increasing accordingly. A lower-level statue can be recycled (i.e., destroyed) to create one Power Stone of the next-higher level; recycling a Masterpiece creates 7 Power Powders; each of these makes a statue more powerful for 3 hours of real time. You also have a chance of getting Power Stones when defeating an enemy base (either that of another player or the game itself), and it's also possible for your Submarine to pick up Power Stones from a dive.
** At higher levels, the Weapon Lab (which allows the creation of prototype defenses that last one week of real time) becomes available; it's upgraded with the same resources as other buildings. However, it requires its own set of Lumber-type resources—Critical Fuse, Complex Gear, Power Rod, Field Capacitor—to build defensive structures. Those resources are also obtained by defeating enemy bases (though, as in the case of Power Stones, most bases won't yield one of these) and occasionally from Submarine dives (only at high levels).
* ''VideoGame/ClashOfClans'': Gold and Elixir are resources needed to create and upgrade things (buildings, walls, {{mooks}}, and regular Spells). Elixir is also used to fuel two late-game defensive structures. Eventually you can acquire Dark Elixir, which is used in training and upgrading EliteMooks and two of the three {{Hero Unit}}s, as well as brewing and upgrading Dark Spells and fueling a third late-game defensive structure.
* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Commander}}''. In theory you have access to an infinite number of troops, and the only resource that matters is your reputation. Capture enemy buildings, kill the rebels and fight with small numbers of troops and your reputation will rise, constantly request reinforcements and it will fall.
* ''VideoGame/CreeperWorld'': The main resource in each game is Energy, which functions like Power. It is continuously generated by collector and reactor buildings and is spent on constructing more units and powering their weapons. If your energy output exceeds your input, these functions slow down proportionately, which can be disastrous if your weapons shut down in the middle of a battle. Creeper World 2 and 3 both also have Ore, which functions like Lumber. It is collected from ore deposits on the map and is only used to make Anti-Creeper. In Creeper World 2, ore deposits are finite and can run out, in 3 they are unlimited. Creeper World 4 replaces Ore with three different secondary resources ([[ColourCodedForYourConvenience Redon, Greenar, and Bluite]]) which are each collected in different ways and are needed for a handful of special buildings and ammunition.
* ''VideoGame/GemCraft'' has a grand total of one resource: Mana serves not only to buy towers, traps, walls and gems, it's also used as your health bar by autocasting a banishing spell on monsters who get too close. If a monster gets close and you're out of mana, it's GameOver.
* ''VideoGame/GratuitousSpaceBattles'' has three resources in the campaign mode: cash, crew, and pilots. Cash is generally a Gold equivalent, representing the amount of money spent on building each ship, as well as on repairs and upkeep. Crew and pilots serve as a Lumber-style resource; every frigate and cruiser requires a certain number of crew and a single pilot, while fighter squadrons require sixteen pilots per squad but no crew. Cash is produced by factories, while crew/pilots are produced by naval academies. Depending on ship design, different ship types will demand different numbers of crew; for example, a ship heavy on missile launchers and carrier bays will have upwards of four hundred crew, while a ship focused on lasers and shields will have far fewer crew.
* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies'' mostly relies on sunlight, which is the gold type listed above, although the backyard and roof levels do have a variant of the population type, with lily pads being required for almost all pool development and flower pots being required for all roof levels (although you're always supplied with at least some of the latter as appropriate).
* In ''VideoGame/SpaceRun'', destroyed enemies drop "space nuts" (not food, little hex nuts) which are used for constructing additions to your ship.
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[[folder:Turn-Based Strategy]]
* In ''VideoGame/GenjuuRyodan'', mana is consumed to heal, resupply and summon units. The player and the opponent are given a preset amount of mana, captured mana crystals and mana regeneration rate at the start of all maps before having to use certain units to capture more mana crystals to increase mana regeneration rate.
* ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' uses a whopping seven resources, with gold as, well, Gold, and with wood, ore, gems, crystal, sulphur, and mercury as Lumber. Gold is the easiest to get, generated automatically by cities, gold mines, and certain items and skills, with upgrades to cities increasing that city's income. Wood and ore are both secondary resources, gathered at a rate of 2 per day from ore mines and sawmills, and also by certain items. Gems, crystal, sulphur, and mercury are all tertiary resources, produced by their respective mines, or, in the case of mercury, in labs, at the rate of 1 per day, and generally required for higher-level buildings and units. Certain town buildings also increase income of different resources, and any resource can be traded for any other in a marketplace, with the price becoming more favourable the more markets you control.
** Each faction inherently biases towards a certain rare resource in most games, meaning that the others are relegated to Uselessium for the most part. Every town does need some of every resource, but only in limited quantities. Excess can be traded away at a marketplace. Unfortunately for ''Heroes 1'', there was no marketplace and the bias was worse than ever, but hindsight is 20/20.
** Starting with ''Heroes VI'', all of the tertiary resources were condensed into just one: crystal. This does have the side-effect of hurting the usefulness of your marketplace, since you no longer have multiple useless resources to trade for resources you need.
* ''Videogame/{{MULE}}'' has Smithore (a rock used to build the titular robot donkeys that do all the work), Energy (powers said robot donkeys), Food (powers you), and Crystite (an otherwise-useless gem that can be traded for extra money.) Buy up plots of land, buy [=MULEs=], outfit them, buy/sell resources from/to other players, and hope the idiot computer players don't cheat each other blind and ruin everything. Yeeha.
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[[folder:Wide Open Sandbox]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'''s resource system was a bit esoteric when it came out, but [[FollowTheLeader has since been imitated by many other games]]. Lumber moves to the "Gold" category--in a new game, you almost always have to collect some before you do anything else (infamously, you accomplish this by punching a tree). This lets you make a crafting table, the starting and/or ending point for crafting almost everything else. You also need wood to make most weapons and tools--stone pickaxes and diamond pickaxes both require wooden handles--and torches, which you'll need in abundance unless you like stumbling around in the dark through monster-infested caves. Running out of wood is surprisingly easy, since you usually won't find any underground where most of your other resource-gathering gets done, so this forces you to spend time on the surface chopping down trees, and planting new ones when the nearest forest runs out.
** Most other materials are secondary, and transition into uselessness later in the game: your first tools will be pure wood, then stone, then iron, and eventually, diamond. Enforced somewhat by collection requirements; you can't collect stone with your bare hands, or diamond with anything less than an iron pick.
** Emerald, the only currency-like resource, was a late addition in the game, used only when trading with villagers (an optional sidequest of sorts). Villagers also bring a Population-type limitation: you can "breed" them, but only if the village has enough beds.
* The economy in the ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' games revolves around the production of wares. Energy is spontaneously generated on solar power plants, and is required in the production of every other ware. Minerals are mined from asteroids and are used in tech factories and military equipment. Bio (wheat, raw meat, etc) is made by bio factories and used by secondary factories and food factories. Food (burgers, [=MRE=]s, etc) is used in the production of Tech and Military equipment. Secondary factories build mostly non-essential goods, though some Tech factories need them. Tech (microchips, fighter drones, etc) are not used in the production of non-player wares (though they are used by the player to build ships), and Tech typically has some utility, like placing satellites in sectors or defending stations with automated laser turrets. Military equipment (lasers, shields, missiles) built essential equipment for equipping ships. Every race has its own unique Bio, Secondary, and Food factories, and their Tech and Military factories require that race's food. For example, an Argon Particle Accelerator Cannon Forge requires the Argon's Meatsteak Cahoonas, Energy, and Minerals.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Non-Game Examples]]
* One of the most infamous issues with ''Literature/LeftBehind Eternal Forces'' can be summed up as follows: men are a gold resource, women are a lumber resource.
* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': Characters must collect resources in order to build weapons and items. It is implied that there are around thirty six types.
* Referenced in the ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' "Storm Breaker" arc, in which Torg is thrust into command of a real medieval army and attempts to use his knowledge of RTS games to do so: "All right, have some of the townsfolk start [[VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} harvesting lumber]] and [[VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation setting up solar collectors]] in case we need to build more swordsmen!"
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