Banking
Market - ImperialEvolution
Banking
Imperial
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"Eliminates tribute fee"
Coach's Tip
Banking completely removes the tribute fee, allowing you to send resources to allies at no cost. The ultimate team game economy upgrade.
Strategic Analysis
Strategic Identity
Banking completely removes the tribute fee, allowing you to send resources to allies at no cost. The ultimate team game economy upgrade.
When to Research
High Priority
Research Banking as soon as you have the resources and are using economy units.
Combat Impact
Eliminates tribute fee
Civilization Access
* 53 civilizations have access to this technology.
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Other Technologies to Explore
AoE Coach analysis
Context & meta
Banking is an Imperial Age economy technology researched at the Market. The upgrades record gives it a 300-food, 200-gold cost and 70-second research time. Its official help states the effect precisely: Tributes to other players are free. That makes Banking a team-economy technology, not a generic personal income button. It matters when your plan includes sending food, wood, or gold to an ally repeatedly; it does nothing to the combat statistics of units. The clean mental model is simple: Banking converts every later tribute into its full face value, so the value grows with the number and size of transfers.
History & balance
Banking belongs to the late Market technology path, after a game has already developed a reason to move resources between players. Its 300 food and 200 gold investment sits in the Imperial Age, so the technology is part of a mature team economy rather than a Dark or Castle Age shortcut. The official wording focuses on Tributes to other players, which keeps the identity distinct from Guilds, where the Market trading fee changes, and Coinage, where tribute is merely reduced. Banking is the point at which the team stops paying a transfer tax; it rewards coordination, planned resource roles, and a market that is used for alliance support rather than emergency selling.
In pro play
Research Banking when an ally is ready to receive meaningful, repeated transfers, not simply because the Imperial Age button is available. Queue the 70-second research while your economy can still fund units, then agree on a delivery plan: one player can carry food production while another keeps gold or siege flowing. The 300 food and 200 gold should be compared with the tribute value you expect to send, not with a vague feeling that the technology is late. Banking is especially clean when a team member is booming and another is converting resources into pressure. Keep the Market alive, communicate the next transfer, and let the free tribute turn one strong economy into a shared timing.
How to counter it
Banking has no combat counter. The classic player mistake is researching it automatically while the team has no transfer plan, or waiting until the important Imperial push has already failed because the ally could not receive resources efficiently. The improvement is economic: the official help says Tributes to other players are free. Research it when the saved tribute will pay back the 300 food, 200 gold, and 70 seconds, then use the Market to support the composition that the team actually needs. If you keep struggling with team economy without knowing which technology to research or when, AoE Coach reads your match-up and gives you the resource plan and timing.