Economy and Resources in Heroes of Might and Magic III Remake

If the how to play page is the day and the town building page is the queue, this page is the wallet. Heroes of Might and Magic III Remake keeps the original resource loop that has been the spine of the franchise since 1999: seven resources, mines that pay you weekly, growth that fills your dwellings, a Marketplace that paper over a bad map, and a hand of secondary skills (Estates, Resourcefulness) that decides how big the wallet ever gets. This page is the field guide, with links into the faction overview for which towns need which resource and into the hero roster for who carries the economy.

The seven resources

• Gold — universal. Built in the Town Hall after you upgrade it; mines are on the map and pay 500 / 1000 / 2000 per day based on tier.
• Wood — buildings and some dwellings. Sawmill on the map.
• Ore — war machines, a handful of buildings. Ore Pit on the map.
• Mercury — mage creatures, Conflux, Tower. Mercury Mine.
• Sulfur — Inferno, Dungeon, occasional other towns. Sulfur Mine.
• Crystal — Tower, occasional other towns. Crystal Mine.
• Gems — Rampart’s gem pit, occasional towns. Gem Mine.

The map’s resource layout decides which towns are friendly on a given template. A Sulfur-rich map with no Mercury is a Dungeon or Inferno paradise. A Desert of Gems is Rampart’s dream. The random generator that drives the multiplayer night uses these patterns heavily. Read factions before you commit to a town on an unfamiliar template.

Resource economy and weekly growth explained in a long gamescom session

Mines and the second hero

Mines flagged on the adventure map add their tier’s income to your daily total, regardless of distance. A high-tier gold mine on the other side of the fog is worth more than the gold in your treasury on day one. This is why the beginner guide insists on a second hero as soon as you can afford one: send the second hero (a mule) to flag a mine while your main army continues building the first town. The mule does not need to fight; it needs to walk.

Two cautions from the original that still apply in the remake:

• A mine is captured by walking a hero onto it, not by an attack. The hero does not need to win a battle.
• Captured mines are flagged to your colour. They pay next turn. They do not pay instantly.

Weekly growth and dwellings

Each town has seven creature dwellings. Each dwelling produces a number of creatures per week — the growth — that depends on town structure (Castle Hall, Rampart upgrade tree, etc.) and on your faction. Growth is the second heartbeat of the economy. Mines fund buildings, growth fills armies. Without growth, mines are savings you cannot spend on troops.

Growth is per-dwelling, not per-town, and it rolls on Day 1 of every week. If you only need to know one rule: recruit on Day 1, not Day 7. Day 7 growth means the new creatures have already rolled and you miss that slot for the week.

Creature dwellings have a base growth that is fixed per faction. The Wood-and-Ore economy (cheap dwellings, low top-tier) and the Crystal-and-Gems economy (expensive dwellings, high top-tier) are real things in the balance. The creature tier list shows which creatures are worth chasing on which maps.

Marketplace and resource trading

The Marketplace in town lets you exchange any resource for any other at a posted rate. The exchange rate is fixed by town and is influenced by the Resourcefulness secondary skill. At base rate, 1 gem trades for roughly 1 mercury or 1 sulfur, 1 sulfur for 1 crystal, and so on. Resourcefulness lets you improve these ratios. A hero with Master Resourcefulness plus the right town is effectively a moving treasury that smooths the day-to-day of any random map.

Use the Marketplace to paper over a missing mine:

• You started Castle, the map has no ore. Buy ore from gems or gold for the war machines your build queue wants.
• You started Rampart, the map has no sulfur. You will not need sulfur most weeks, but the moment a Hydrologist specialty appears in your tavern, you will.
• You started Conflux. You need everything, all the time, in every combination. Marketplace is your third town.

The Marketplace does not replace a mine. It supplements. A map with no mine at all still leaves you scrambling every couple of weeks.

Estates, the silent economy skill

Estates is the gold-only secondary skill. Each level increases the gold income from the Town Hall and from captured mines. For a long campaign, Estates on the right hero is the difference between a weekly treasury of a few thousand gold and one that can fund a Mage Guild 4 plus a creature dwelling in the same week. Take Estates when the wheel offers it on a hero you intend to keep in the main roster.

If Estates is the silent economy skill, Resourcefulness is the loud one. It improves Marketplace rates on the hero’s person. A pack-mule hero with Resourcefulness plus a fast main hero with Estates is the two-punch economy a serious player runs in random maps. The hero tier list ranks the skills behind these choices.

Spells, wells, and income that is not gold

The Mage Guild and its Town Portal, Dimension Door, and Fly spells are not resources, but they replace the need for roads and movement potions. They are economic decisions: a guild day is not a wall day. A well refills your mana for free. The spells page covers the schools.

Towns themselves have a hidden gold income from the Town Hall. The Hall starts at one level and can be upgraded; higher halls mean more passive gold per day even before mines are captured. This is why a city you defend for a week without recruiting still grows. Combine a Hall upgrade with Estates and a gold mine and you can fund anything the faction overview asks of you.

What the remake changes about the economy

The public feature list is about the camera, the queue, and the cinematics. No preview has described a new resource system, a remade growth formula, or a Marketplace rework. The economy you train on the 1999 client on Complete Edition is the economy you will run in the 2027 client. The remake adds visible gold piles, prettier mines, and possibly an info-overlay that highlights which hero has Estates — that is interface, not rule. Practise on the how to play loop until the skill feels obvious, then the remake’s first hour will not feel like relearning how to count wood.

A short economy checklist

• Flag a mine on day one with a second hero.
• Recruit on Day 1, not Day 7.
• Visit the Marketplace at least once before week two even if you do not need to trade; the habit catches missing mines early.
• Take Estates on a main or mule hero when the skill wheel offers it.
• Treat Resourcefulness as a long-term bet on the main mage hero.
• Read the faction overview before you commit to a town that needs a resource your map does not have.
• Watch the long preview videos in previews if you want to see the new Marketplace screen in 3D before launch.

Gold is patience. Growth is timing. Mines are flags. The remake’s three voices — camera, queue, and overlay — make all three of those more obvious. The fourth voice, your habit of checking the wallet before you click Build, is the one that decides campaigns. This page is a reference for that habit. The town building guide is where you spend it.