The Resource Den hides part of a planet's stockpile from raiders. Anything the den covers cannot be taken as plunder when you lose a battle, and it does not show up on an enemy espionage report either. It is the only building in SFC2 that protects resources.
Where to find it
The Resource Den sits at the very bottom of the Buildings page, under the Foundry. It has no requirements at all, so you can start one on your first day. It is a planet building. Moons cannot build it.
Every level takes one building field, the same as any other building.
The row shows the current Capacity and, over on the right, how much the next level would add. The More Info panel calls the same number Storage, which is misleading. The den does not hold anything and it does not raise your warehouse limit. All it does is mark resources as untouchable.
How much it protects
Level 1 protects 30,000. Every level after that adds a flat 7,500.
| Protected | 22,500 + 7,500 × Level |
|---|
That figure is one pool shared across all three resources, not that much of each. A level 8 den protects 82,500 in total, not 82,500 ore plus 82,500 crystal plus 82,500 hydrogen. The More Info panel in game says the amount applies to each resource individually. It does not.
How the pool is spread
The game hides the same amount of every resource where it can, and it starts with whichever one you have least of. If a resource runs out before its share is used up, the leftover capacity goes to the bigger piles. Three examples, all with a level 8 den and its 82,500 of cover:
- An even stockpile. 400,000 ore, 140,000 crystal and 100,000 hydrogen. 82,500 split three ways is 27,500, and every pile has more than that, so 27,500 of each is hidden. The attacker works from 372,500 ore, 112,500 crystal and 72,500 hydrogen.
- A lopsided stockpile. 500,000 ore, 10,000 crystal and 5,000 hydrogen. The two small piles are covered completely and the remaining 67,500 all lands on the ore.
- A small stockpile. If everything on the planet adds up to less than the den's capacity, all of it is hidden and a raider carries away nothing at all.
Protection comes first, then the split
The den runs before the plunder split, not after. The order is always the same:
- Subtract what the den covers.
- The attacker can take half of what is left, or 55 percent in a declared war.
- That amount is then capped by the cargo space of the ships that survived the battle.
Because the attacker only ever takes half of the remainder, every resource the den hides saves you half a resource in real losses. A level 8 den does not save you 82,500 in a raid. It saves you 41,250.
The same attack, run twice through the in-game Calculator. On the left the defending planet has no den and loses 320,000. On the right the same planet with a level 8 den loses 278,750. The gap is 41,250, exactly half of the 82,500 the den covers.
Spies cannot see behind it
An espionage report shows what an attacker could plunder, not what the planet is really holding. Protected resources are taken out before the report is written, so a good den makes you look poorer than you are.
That planet was holding 30,000 ore, 22,000 crystal and 12,000 hydrogen, and a level 6 den covers 67,500, so the whole lot is hidden and the report reads zero across the board. A report deep enough to see buildings still lists the den itself, so an experienced raider will work out why the numbers look wrong.
Cost
Every level costs exactly twice the level before it, in equal amounts of all three resources.
| Level | Ore | Crystal | Hydrogen | Total cost | Protected |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 3,000 | 30,000 |
| 2 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 6,000 | 37,500 |
| 3 | 4,000 | 4,000 | 4,000 | 12,000 | 45,000 |
| 4 | 8,000 | 8,000 | 8,000 | 24,000 | 52,500 |
| 5 | 16,000 | 16,000 | 16,000 | 48,000 | 60,000 |
| 6 | 32,000 | 32,000 | 32,000 | 96,000 | 67,500 |
| 7 | 64,000 | 64,000 | 64,000 | 192,000 | 75,000 |
| 8 | 128,000 | 128,000 | 128,000 | 384,000 | 82,500 |
| 9 | 256,000 | 256,000 | 256,000 | 768,000 | 90,000 |
| 10 | 512,000 | 512,000 | 512,000 | 1,536,000 | 97,500 |
| 11 | 1,024,000 | 1,024,000 | 1,024,000 | 3,072,000 | 105,000 |
| 12 | 2,048,000 | 2,048,000 | 2,048,000 | 6,144,000 | 112,500 |
| 13 | 4,096,000 | 4,096,000 | 4,096,000 | 12,288,000 | 120,000 |
| 14 | 8,192,000 | 8,192,000 | 8,192,000 | 24,576,000 | 127,500 |
| 15 | 16,384,000 | 16,384,000 | 16,384,000 | 49,152,000 | 135,000 |
Build time uses the normal building formula, so it depends on your Capitol and Foundry:
| Time (hours) | (Ore cost + Crystal cost) / (5,000 × (1 + Capitol level) × 2 Foundry level) |
|---|
Tearing a level back down costs a third of what that level cost to build, and takes a third of the time.
Is it worth upgrading
Level 1 is one of the best buys in the game. 3,000 resources buys 30,000 of cover, ten times what it cost. Level 2 is still good at 6,000 for another 7,500. From level 3 on, the upgrade costs more than the extra it protects, and it only gets worse: the price doubles every level while the protection stays flat at 7,500.
Count it in raids instead. An extra 7,500 hidden saves you 3,750 every time you are cleaned out. Level 2 pays for itself in two raids, level 5 in thirteen, level 8 in a hundred and three, level 10 in over four hundred. And it only earns anything at all on the raids where you actually had more than the den's capacity sitting on the planet.
Most players take the den to four or five and leave it there. Past that the same resources do more good in mines, or in ships you can fleet save, which is still the only way to protect a stockpile that matters.
What it does not do
- It is not storage. It does not raise your warehouse limit, so it will not stop a full warehouse from capping a mine.
- It does not stop the attack. Your ships and defenses still fight and still die. The den only limits what the winner carries home.
- It does nothing on a moon. Moons cannot build one, so anything parked on a moon is fully plunderable.
- It does nothing on a Hephaestus. A Hephaestus Class Attack Platform has no buildings, so everything in its hold is up for grabs if it loses a fight.
- It does nothing against missiles. An Interplanetary Ballistic Missile strike destroys defenses. It never takes resources, so there is nothing for the den to hide from.
- It does not cover resources already loaded on a fleet. Cargo in flight is protected by being in flight, not by the den.
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