| Resource Overview | History |
Aluminum is one of the 31 rare resources. It only becomes visible once a nation has entered the 
Industrial Age; until then it appears as a rocky patch, as with 
Oil. It appears as a collection of aluminum products, with a shiny blue-silverish color.
Like all rare resources on land, Aluminum can be gathered by sending a Merchant from the Market to the resource location. Aluminum provides the following benefits:
- +20
Metal gather rate - +20 Oil gather rate
- Aircraft base costs reduced by 15% and speed increased by 25%
- The cost reduction also applies to the base cost of upgrades, but does not apply to ramping costs or ramping costs of upgrades.
- The discount affects all "air" units, not only aircraft built at Airbases. This includes Helicopters, Fighter Bombers, and Missiles (including Nuclear Missiles). This makes it significantly more impactful than Uranium on reducing the cost of using nukes.
- Increasing the speed of a Bomber by 25% causes it to match the speed of a Fighter, preventing most interceptions to and from a bombing run. Similarly, an Aluminum-boosted Strategic Bomber is able to not only match but exceed the speed of a Jet Fighter, and a boosted Stealth Bomber is able to outrun a non-boosted Advanced Fighter.
The gather rate of rare resources can be increased in various ways, as described in the main article; Oil production from rare resources is actually affected by Refineries.
Aluminum can be an important resource to nations using a lot of aircraft units in the late game.
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