Wiki / Player Guide / Buildings / Housing

Housing

Overview

Housing is the backbone of every Egyptian city. Without a growing population there are no workers for farms and quarries, no tax base to fund monuments, and no prosperity score to satisfy the Pharaoh's requests. Every house begins as a simple vacant plot placed by the player; immigrants walk in from the edge of the map as soon as a valid road connection exists, and the plot immediately becomes a Crude Hut. From that point forward, evolution is entirely automatic — the city rewards houses that have reliable access to food, water, goods, and civic services by upgrading them, and punishes neglect by downgrading them.

Pharaoh tracks 20 distinct housing tiers, from the Crude Hut to the Palatial Estate. The two lowest tiers have their own page — see Huts for the Crude Hut and Sturdy Hut in detail. The path upward brings tangible benefits at each step: higher tiers pack more residents into the same footprint, produce significantly more tax revenue per house, reduce vulnerability to fire and crime, and push up the desirability of the surrounding neighbourhood. The largest residences — manors and estates — generate so much tax income that in a fully mature city the treasury can comfortably outpace export revenue from trade alone.

How It Works

A vacant plot becomes occupied the moment it has road access within two tiles. Immigrants enter from the kingdom road entry point at the map edge. Once occupied, the house is evaluated at regular intervals against the requirements for the next tier above it. If all conditions are met it upgrades; if any required service lapses it eventually downgrades.

Three factors control every tier transition:

Houses on 1×1 plots automatically merge into 2×2 blocks when four same-tier plots occupy adjacent squares. Merged blocks hold considerably more residents per tile. Merging cannot be forced early — it happens only when the conditions for the next tier are already satisfied.

Risks

All houses carry ongoing risk from fire, crime, disease, and malaria. In general these risks diminish as housing evolves upward — but fire is the exception: risk actually climbs from a Crude Hut all the way through Ordinary Cottage (tier 6) before falling steeply at higher tiers. Dense clusters of low- and mid-tier housing should always sit close to a fire station.

Very low-tier houses are also a net negative for their neighbourhood: they drag down the desirability of surrounding plots, making it harder for neighbouring houses to evolve. As houses advance the picture reverses — high-tier residences become a positive desirability influence, reinforcing their own neighbourhood.

A house that loses any single required service or drops below the desirability threshold will devolve after a short grace period. Devolution can cascade quickly: a Palatial Estate stripped of its water supply can fall all the way back to a Crude Hut within a very short time if the problem is not fixed. Stable housing depends on uninterrupted walker coverage, not merely having the right buildings nearby.

Labor and Tax

Houses at tiers 1–10 (Crude Hut through Spacious Apartment) are the primary source of workers for your city. Labor seekers dispatched by farms, workshops, and civic buildings walk the road network and draw from any house they pass within two tiles of — and once a labor link is established, the building has access to the city's entire worker pool, not just the nearby residents.

At tier 11 (Common Residence) and beyond, houses stop supplying workers and instead generate scribes and produce substantially higher tax revenue. In a prosperous city, taxes from a well-stocked noble quarter can comfortably exceed all trade income. The tradeoff is real, however: building too many 3×3 manors and 4×4 estates without maintaining a sufficient base of worker-producing housing causes severe labor shortages across the whole city.

All Housing Levels

All values sourced from src/scripts/houses.js. Desirability and entertainment thresholds are for Normal difficulty.

# Sprites Level Footprint Max pop. Desirability
to evolve		 Food Water Religion Health Education Entertainment
pts (Normal)		 Goods
1 Crude Hut variant ACrude Hut variant B Crude Hut 1×1 5 −10 — — — — — — —
2 Sturdy Hut variant ASturdy Hut variant B Sturdy Hut 1×1 7 −5 — Well — — — — —
3 Meager Shanty variant AMeager Shanty variant B Meager Shanty 1×1 / 2×2 9 / 36 0 1 type Well — — — — —
4 Common Shanty variant ACommon Shanty variant B Common Shanty 1×1 / 2×2 11 / 44 4 1 type Well 1 god — — — —
5 Rough Cottage variant ARough Cottage variant B Rough Cottage 1×1 / 2×2 13 / 52 8 1 type Supply only 1 god — — — —
6 Ordinary Cottage variant AOrdinary Cottage variant B Ordinary Cottage 1×1 / 2×2 15 / 60 12 1 type Supply only 1 god — — 10 —
7 Modest Homestead variant AModest Homestead variant B Modest Homestead 1×1 / 2×2 16 / 64 16 1 type Supply only 1 god — — 13 Pottery
8 Spacious Homestead variant ASpacious Homestead variant B Spacious Homestead 1×1 / 2×2 17 / 68 20 1 type Supply only 1 god Physician — 16 Pottery
9 Modest Apartment variant AModest Apartment variant B Modest Apartment 1×1 / 2×2 18 / 72 25 1 type Supply only 1 god Mortuary — 20 Pottery, Beer
10 Spacious Apartment variant ASpacious Apartment variant B Spacious Apartment 1×1 / 2×2 19 / 76 32 1 type Supply only 1 god Physician + Mortuary — 25 Pottery, Beer
11 Common Residence variant ACommon Residence variant B Common Residence ★ 2×2 80 40 1 type Supply only 1 god Physician + Mortuary Scribal School 30 Pottery, Beer
12 Spacious Residence variant ASpacious Residence variant B Spacious Residence 2×2 84 48 2 types Supply only 1 god Dentist + Physician + Mortuary Scribal School 35 Pottery, Beer
13 Elegant Residence variant AElegant Residence variant B Elegant Residence 2×2 88 53 2 types Supply only 1 god Dentist + Physician + Mortuary Scribal School 40 Pottery, Beer, Linen
14 Fancy Residence variant AFancy Residence variant B Fancy Residence 2×2 92 58 2 types Supply only 2 gods Dentist + Physician + Mortuary Scribal School 45 Pottery, Beer, Linen
15 Common Manor Common Manor ★★ 3×3 100 63 2 types Supply only 2 gods Dentist + Physician + Mortuary Scribal School 50 Pottery, Beer, Linen, Jewelry
16 Spacious Manor Spacious Manor 3×3 108 68 2 types Supply only 2 gods Dentist + Physician + Mortuary ×2 Scribal School 55 Pottery, Beer, Linen, Jewelry
17 Elegant Manor Elegant Manor 3×3 116 74 2 types Supply only 3 gods Dentist + Physician + Mortuary ×2 Library 60 Pottery, Beer, Linen, Jewelry
18 Stately Manor Stately Manor 3×3 124 80 2 types Supply only 3 gods Dentist + Physician + Mortuary ×2 Library 70 Pottery, Beer, Linen, Jewelry
19 Modest Estate Modest Estate ★★★ 4×4 184 90 2 types Supply only 3 gods Dentist + Physician + Mortuary ×2 Library 80 Pottery, Beer, Linen, Jewelry ×2
20 Palatial Estate Palatial Estate 4×4 200 100 2–3 types Supply only 3 gods Dentist + Physician + Mortuary ×2 Library 90 Pottery, Beer, Linen, Jewelry ×2

★ Common Residence and above no longer supply workers to the city's labor pool.

★★ Common Manor and above occupy a fixed footprint and do not merge from smaller plots.

★★★ Modest Estate requires 2 units of Jewelry (two different luxury goods deliveries).

Supply only — a Water Supply building is required; a Well is no longer sufficient.

Desirability to evolve — the tile desirability required for the house to advance to the next tier. Values shown for Normal difficulty.

Entertainment points — cumulative score from entertainment walkers (jugglers, musicians, dancers, senet players). Required points scale with difficulty.

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