In Age of Wonders 4, players take on the role of intrepid rules bent on conquering a realm for their empire. To do that, they need to vie for power against other rulers with the same goal. There are many ways to improve the player’s empire, such as building important structures, annexing valuable provinces, and more.
One of the most impactful ways a ruler can improve their empire in Age of Wonders 4 is to gather Magic Materials. These materials provide specific bonuses that can affect a wide range of things. Some improve Relations with other Rulers, some improve costs, and others increase casting points.
How to Get Magic Materials
Magic Materials can be found spread around every procedurally-generated realm. The amount of Magic Materials present in a realm cannot be augmented with Realm Traits or Settings. Likewise, there aren’t any Faction Traits that affect how rulers interact with Magic Materials.
Finding a Magic Material is just the first challenge. Once discovered, it must be annexed into an empire for the ruler to begin producing that material. When annexing, any province improvement will do. There aren’t particular province improvements for gathering Magic Materials.
Magic Materials can also be acquired through trade with another ruler. If any ruler, including a player, has a Magic Material in their territory, they can trade that material with other rulers through Diplomacy. However, once traded, the material will no longer provide benefits to the ruler that traded it away. To get that material back, they must break their Trade Treaty.
Magic Materials
There are three categories of Magic Materials: Ores, Liquids, and Plants. They each provide a specific bonus to a ruler’s empire, such as improving unit costs. They provide additional bonuses if that ruler has all three materials in a given category. Here’s a description of each Magic Material along with the bonuses they provide:
| Category | Magic Material | Bonus | Collection Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ores | Arcanium Ore | Hurry Recruitment for Units is 25% cheaper. | Rings of Binding:
Heroes gain:
|
| Focus Crystals | Units gain +10% experience. | ||
| Fireforge Stone | Units cost 20% less Draft. | ||
| Liquids | Archon Blood | +20 Combat Casting Points. | Cosmoflux Elixir: Mana Resource Nodes grant +10 Knowledge and Mana. |
| Astral Dew | +20 World Map Casting Points. | ||
| Tranquility Pool | Researching Spells costs -10% Knowledge. | ||
| Plants | Haste Berries | Founding, migrating and absorbing Cities takes -2 turns. | Imperial Essence: +10 Imperium income. |
| Silvertongue Fruit | Whispering Stones grant +1 Allegiance. | ||
| Rainbow Clover | +100 Relations with Free Cities and Rulers. |
Age Of Wonders 4 is available now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows.