A city's population consists of population units , which can be assigned as workers to produce FIDSI resources every turn. The amount of each FIDSI resource produced by a worker in a city starts at 4, with the exception of Influence
, which starts at 2, due to the City Hall improvement automatically built when founding a city. Worker production can be increased with city improvements, empire plan policies, and Hero Skills, Capacities, and Accessories.
Growth, Consumption, and Starvation[]
For all empires but the Broken Lords (see below), the generation of population units is organic. When positive, a city's total Food output is added to its growth stock every turn. When the growth stock reaches its upper limit, a new population unit is generated. For normal game speed this upper limit is determined by the equation 5 * 2.75. So a city with 2
needs to have a stock of ~103
for the third
to appear. And city with 3
needs to have a stock of ~226
for the fourth
to appear. See Cities#Population Growth for more information.
Additionally, each population unit consumes 2 every turn, and a negative total Food output will subtract from the city's growth stock. When the growth stock reaches its lower limit (equal to the upper limit needed to get the current population), a population unit is removed from the city. Note that a city's population can never be reduced below 1
through starvation. Additionally, when producing a Settler, Food output is reduced to zero if you would otherwise have positive output. Producing a Settler with negative Food output will not increase your output to zero. Producing a Settler removes one population unit.
Broken Lords Population Units[]
Population unit mechanics work differently for the Broken Lords, as they cannot produce or consume Food. Population units can only be generated by buying out a population increase with Dust in the city screen. Population units are not generated organically by the Broken Lords and cannot be assigned as Food workers. Because of the lack of a Food growth stock, they are also immune to starvation.
Worker Production[]
Worker production can be increased in a variety of ways, but it's important to remember that these increases only apply to population units assigned as workers to the appropriate resource. A city improvement that increases Food production for each worker would have no effect on population units assigned as Dust workers, only those assigned as Food workers.
City Improvements[]
To simplify this section, and because some city improvements provide bonus "per " output for multiple resources, the following table will show by how much each of the city improvements increases the given resource per unit of population. Additionally, many of the listed improvements have other effects or conditions to be built not listed here.
Name | Era | +![]() ![]() |
+![]() ![]() |
+![]() ![]() |
+![]() ![]() |
+![]() ![]() |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
City Hall | I | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
Center for Minerology | I | 5 | ||||
Husbandry Center | I | 5 | ||||
Canal Locks | II | 5 | ||||
Glory of Empire | II | 1 | ||||
Public Granary | II | 2 | ||||
Advanced Alchemy Lab | III | 3 | ||||
Dust Depository | III | 4 | ||||
Large-Scale Aquatic Center | III | 2 | ||||
National Museum | III | 2 | ||||
Fungal Laboratory | III | 5 | ||||
Production Line | IV | 3 | ||||
Refrigeration Plant | IV | 3 | ||||
Wyrm Farm | IV | 2 | ||||
Altar of Channeling | IV | 5 | ||||
Altar of Transcendence | IV | 5 | ||||
Aura of Empire | IV | 4 | ||||
Imperial News Network | V | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
One improvement not listed on the table is Defensive Wards, which is something of a special case. While Defensive Wards also has a "per " effect, it increases a city's Fortification
by 30
per
rather than any of the FIDSI resources, and also doesn't require the
to be assigned to any specific role for the effects to come into play; if a city has 10
and it builds this, it will get a bonus of 300
regardless of how those population units are assigned.
Empire Plan[]
By setting the "Economy and Population" branch of the Empire Plan to its first tier, all cities in your empire get +3 per
.
Heroes[]
Heroes have three main avenue for increasing the "per " output of a city: Capacities, Skills, and Accessories.
Capacities[]
With the exception of the Slavery capacity, all capacities that increase the "per " output of a city have the name "[Resource] Efficiency X", where the resource is one of the FIDSI resources, and X is a number 1 through 3 that determines the effectiveness of the capacity.
Hero | Icon | Name | Effect |
---|---|---|---|
Lorekeeper Masargaka | ![]() |
Food Efficiency 1 | +1 Food ![]() ![]() +1% Food ![]() |
Tlato Mosi Pakwa | ![]() |
Industry Efficiency 1 | +1 Industry ![]() ![]() +1% Industry ![]() |
Ipsa Wacha Exid the Chosen Ululani Raui Specialized Polyp 2D |
![]() |
Industry Efficiency 2 | +2 Industry ![]() ![]() +1% Industry ![]() |
Petrov Judit | ![]() |
Science Efficiency 2 | +3 Science ![]() ![]() +1% Science ![]() |
Commander Irjsko Lasmak | ![]() |
Science Efficiency 3 | +4 Science ![]() ![]() +1% Science ![]() |
Bela The Bat Syrav | ![]() |
Dust Efficiency 1 | +1 Dust ![]() ![]() +1% Dust ![]() |
Baron Joslyn Deyval Siryi Alastra Sable Deceiver Napog Dauda Skya Keeper Dabuo Ofosu |
![]() |
Dust Efficiency 2 | +2 Dust ![]() ![]() +1% Dust ![]() |
Lord Peyton Quinn Sable Deceiver Bayari Kulaa Jasah Murdap |
![]() |
Dust Efficiency 3 | +3 Dust ![]() ![]() +1% Dust ![]() |
Strio | ![]() |
Influence Efficiency 1 | +1 Influence ![]() ![]() +1% Influence ![]() |
Iracu Pali Inoa Specialized Polyp Q9 |
![]() |
Influence Efficiency 2 | +2 Influence ![]() ![]() +1% Influence ![]() |
Feeds on Bones Long Fangs Queenslayer Ka-Riss |
![]() |
Slavery | Increases the "per ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
As an additional note, the Sway of the Master can be equipped on heroes to give them the Slavery capacity.
Skills[]
The only Hero skill that increases the "per " output of a city is the Cultists Hero skill "Impassioned Preacher", which provides +1 per
for each of the FIDSI resources on the city per level of the skill, up to 3.
Accessories[]
The accessories that can be equipped to a Governor to increase a city's "per " output are the Tomes made of Titanium
, Glassteel
, Adamantian
, and Palladian
, which focus on Science
, Dust
, Industry
, and Food
respectively. They all require researching a specific technology to unlock.
Item | Material | Tier | ![]() |
Effect | Unlocking Technology |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
![]() |
Titanium | 1 | 6 |
+1 ![]() ![]() |
Advanced Armor |
![]() |
Titanium | 2 | 12 |
+2 ![]() ![]() |
Alchemical Armor |
![]() |
Titanium | 3 | 24 |
+4 ![]() ![]() |
Exotic Armor |
![]() |
Glassteel | 1 | 6 ![]() |
+1 ![]() ![]() |
Advanced Armor |
![]() |
Glassteel | 2 | 12 ![]() |
+2 ![]() ![]() |
Alchemical Armor |
![]() |
Glassteel | 3 | 24 ![]() |
+4 ![]() ![]() |
Exotic Armor |
![]() |
Adamantian | 1 | 12 |
+1 ![]() ![]() |
Uncommon Armor |
![]() |
Adamantian | 2 | 24 |
+2 ![]() ![]() |
Marvelous Armor |
![]() |
Adamantian | 3 | 48 |
+4 ![]() ![]() |
Exceptional Armor |
![]() |
Palladian | 1 | 12 |
+1 ![]() ![]() |
Uncommon Armor |
![]() |
Palladian | 2 | 24 |
+2 ![]() ![]() |
Marvelous Armor |
![]() |
Palladian | 3 | 48 |
+4 ![]() ![]() |
Exceptional Armor |