AoE3 Database
About & sources
Every number here is read by a program from an installed copy of the game: Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition 100.19.18309, Steam build 25040513 (updated 2026-10-14), read on 2026-10-14. Nothing is typed in by hand, and the descriptions of units, technologies, cards and civilizations are the game's own text.
What is read from where
The game keeps its data in .bar archives of compressed binary XML. Units and buildings come from protoy.xml (hit points, attacks, damage multipliers, resists, costs, what each building trains and researches); technologies, age-ups and cards from techtreey.xml (costs, research times, prerequisites and every effect); civilizations from civs.xml (starting units, age-up techs); decks from each civilization's Home City file; names and descriptions from the English string tables; icons and paintings from the interface archives.
What a civilization has is followed through its technology tree: what its start and its age-ups enable is its regular roster; what revolutions, native allies, consulates, mercenaries and cards add is listed apart.
Worked-out pages
Counters, the cost-effectiveness ranking, age-up and shipment values are our own arithmetic on the game's numbers. Each page shows its formula and what it leaves out (upgrades, range and speed, area damage, bonuses that are not goods).
After a patch
The whole site is re-read from the new files, so every page states the version it shows.
Machine-readable data
The same numbers as the pages, as whole JSON files — for tools, mods, research and answer engines. Free to read and quote with a link. What each field means: /raw/index.json; a plain-text guide to the site: /llms.txt.
- /raw/civilizations.json
The 24 playable civilizations with their summary text, starting resources and units, regular roster, age-up choices and Home City card IDs.
- /raw/units.json
Every unit with hit points, cost, train time, resists, every attack with its multipliers, unit types and civilizations.
- /raw/buildings.json
Every building with hit points, cost, build points, attacks, what it trains and civilizations.
- /raw/cards.json
Every Home City card with its text, effects as the site prints them, raw effects, and which civilizations have it in which age.
- /raw/technologies.json
Every technology and age-up researched at a building: cost, research time, prerequisites, effects and civilizations.
- /raw/counters.json
The site's own equal-cost matchups for every regular unit: share of matchups won, hardest counter and best target with the edge (Lanchester square law, base stats).
Hover cards for your site
Add one line to any page and every link to a unit, building, card, technology or civilization here shows its card on hover:
<script src="https://aoe3database.com/tooltips.js" async></script>
Free to use; please keep the links pointing to aoe3database.com.
Unofficial fan reference, made under Microsoft's Game Content Usage Rules using assets from Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition. Not endorsed by or affiliated with Microsoft, World's Edge, Forgotten Empires or Tantalus. Age of Empires is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.