Economy & Production

The five resources

• Metal - available almost everywhere, but needed for everything from the humblest drone to the mightiest Titan, and all structures besides.
• Ichor - a rare substance that powers a frame's living components and ichor grid. Icaroids usually need it; drones don't. However, an Icaroid design that does not use any ichor whatsoever can get away without it as well.
• Industry - the workforce available each turn to turn metal and ichor into units and structures.
• Science - poured straight into research each turn. Research is not banked; it's used immediately on whatever you're currently researching.
• Gems - gathered slowly over time at gem sites, each of which produces a different gem. Each complete gem allows you to produce one Icaroid with a potent ability that may be scaled significantly by the ichor pieces and glyphs attached to it.

Income

Each turn you collect metal and ichor from each province you hold. Provinces each have a resource affinity based on the terrain which is further enhanced by the structures on it; a metal-rich province can produce an incredible amount of metal with a mine, while an ichor seam can produce a huge amount of ichor (see the map guide). Bigger provinces produce more resources corresponding with their size. Buildings add to this: a complete mine, workshop, or similar faction building can greatly increase output of a resource in a province. Research institutes add science at a flat rate per province, so they're worth building lots of (if you can afford it).

Upkeep

Having a giant standing army isn't free. Every turn you pay a small upkeep cost on the units you field, which is calculated as a fraction of each design's value. This amount is deducted from your metal pool before you spend on anything else. It's modest per unit, but a huge army of expensive frames adds up.

The lesson is to keep your force purposeful. Idle units still cost you metal you could be spending on your economy or building new and improved units, so mass what you need where it matters rather than constructing units you won't use and letting them hang around forever.

When production stops

If an enemy captures your capitol, your income, construction and production all halt until you retake it. Losing your capitol is often the end of the game, so drop everything and try to retake it if possible (see the overview).

Factories and the queue

You can manufacture units on any province that holds a completed factory structure (every capitol starts with one). A factory has a production queue: a first-in, first-out list of units you want built. Each turn the hex draws metal and ichor from your pool based on the total available industry and uses it to progress the construction on the front unit of the queue. If the front unit cannot receive any more resources (such as if it's waiting on a specific resource that you're short on for completion), the factory will begin to walk through the rest of the queue one at a time, constructing things behind the waiting unit until it runs out of industry.

A unit that can't be fully paid for this turn is left partly-built and resumes next turn; nothing is wasted, since budget the front unit can't use (say, spare metal while it waits on ichor) rolls onward to the next unit in line that can. When a unit finishes it's immediately placed into an army on that hex. You can mark a queue item to loop to have it added back into the queue once built, so a factory can churn out a steady stream unattended.

What a unit costs

A unit's price is split across the two spendable resources:

• Its metal cost comes from the design's point value. the more powerful the frame and its equipment, the more metal it takes.
• Its ichor cost is simply the number of ichor grid squares filled. Each square costs exactly one ichor. A frame with no ichor pieces costs no ichor, which can be an interesting way of keeping your designs cheap and easy to produce. In either case, keep your designs focused and don't place ichor pieces you don't need.

Drones are all metal constructions which makes them cheap and fast-building filler fast bulk - a good way to convert a metal surplus into bodies when your ichor income is the bottleneck. Which designs and drones you can build at all depends on your research and faction.

Gems

Gems are rare ichor pieces that grant an Icaroid a unique ability. In a campaign they're a currency of their own, with each gem type tracked and acquired separately. You earn them by holding gem deposits, which trickle a fraction of a gem into your inventory each turn; it takes several turns of holding a deposit to bank a whole gem by default.

A Gem Mine built on a deposit province raises its yield significantly. The gem mine raises income to half a gem per turn at Mk I, a whole gem at Mk II, and two per turn at Mk III. The Mk I gem mine needs no research; the higher tiers are unlocked in the Infrastructure branch. Gem mines are critical if you want to field your most powerful, impactful designs regularly.

A unit whose design carries a gem needs one gem of the right type to complete. If you don't have one banked, that unit sits fully built but stalled in the queue, awaiting its gem. It will be completed the moment a gem of the correct type is available. Gem-bearing designs are usually limited by your gem counts. Ensure these valuable units remain as protected as you can keep them, because you won't get the gem back when the unit is destroyed.

Running the economy

Income scales with the provinces you hold and the buildings on it; upkeep taxes large armies; factories convert metal and ichor into units at a rate your industry sets; and gems ration your very best units. Balance the three resources so you don't starve your factories waiting for a specific resource. Next consider reviewing Buildings for what you can build and Research for things you can unlock.