When you try to build a shrine in Anno 117 and suddenly see a requirement for five weird resources, it usually feels like the game just dropped a puzzle in your lap without instructions.
This almost always happens in the campaign right after you pick Mars as the patron god on an Albion island.
You open the build menu, click the shrine, and it’s locked — no clear explanation, no hint where those resources even come from.
The important thing to understand is this: shrines in Anno 117 don’t unlock through research or money.
They unlock through a mix of devotion and physical offerings. Devotion comes naturally as your island follows Mars, but the shrine also demands a one-time set of shrine offering resources.
Those “weird resources” aren’t special shrine-only items — they’re normal goods pulled from completely different parts of the economy.
One might be a crop, another a metal bar, another a fish, an animal product, or even a wild plant you’ve never produced before.
This is why it feels confusing on Albion. Albion islands often don’t have the right fertility, wildlife, or resource deposits to make all the Mars shrine materials locally.
The game is quietly nudging you toward trade routes, secondary islands, or importing shrine resources, but it never says that out loud.
If you’ve only been developing one island, it can look like the shrine is bugged when it’s really just waiting for goods that exist somewhere else.
This section exists to clear that fog. It explains the real Anno 117 shrine requirements, what those weird shrine resources actually represent, and why the solution is usually logistics — not unlocking a hidden building.
Once that clicks, building a Mars shrine in Anno 117 stops being frustrating and turns into a straightforward checklist instead of a guessing game.
Clear Answer: How to Build a Shrine in Anno 117
Building a shrine in Anno 117 comes down to meeting a short but very specific set of conditions. If even one of these is missing, the shrine will stay locked in the build menu.
First, the island must have a patron god selected. In the campaign, this is usually Mars, and the shrine is tied directly to that choice. Without a patron god, the shrine cannot be built at all.
Second, the island needs to reach the required devotion level for that god. Devotion builds over time as the population follows the patron, so this part usually happens naturally and isn’t the main blocker.
The real hurdle is the third step: collecting the shrine’s offering resources. These are the five “weird resources” shown in the build menu. They are not research points, influence, or money. They are real, physical goods that must exist in your storage.
Finally, all of those resources must be delivered to the island where the shrine is being built. Producing them somewhere else is fine, but until they are shipped in, the shrine in Anno 117 cannot be placed.
Until every offering resource is available, the shrine remains locked. Once they arrive, the shrine unlocks immediately, confirming that the weird resources are shrine offerings, not a hidden progression requirement.
Read also: Multiple Ships on Trade Route Not Increasing Capacity (Anno 117)
Anno 117 Shrine Requirements Explained
Shrines in Anno 117 are directly tied to the god you choose for an island, so you can’t treat them like normal buildings. Each god — including Mars — has its own shrine, and the game won’t let you place it until a few specific conditions are met.
First, the island has to have a patron god assigned. This is the foundation for everything shrine-related. If Mars isn’t set as the patron god on the island, the Mars shrine in Anno 117 will never unlock, no matter what resources you have.
Next comes devotion. Devotion is generated over time as your population follows the patron god through religious alignment. As long as the island is growing and aligned with Mars, devotion usually isn’t the part that causes problems — but if devotion is too low, the shrine will stay locked.
The last requirement is the one that trips most players up: the shrine offering bundle. Every shrine in Anno 117 requires a specific set of material offerings before it becomes available. These offerings are made up of real resources from across the economy, and they must all be collected and stored on the island.
If any one of these requirements is missing — the patron god, enough devotion, or the full set of shrine offering resources — the shrine will remain locked in the build menu. Once all three are met, the shrine unlocks immediately, making it clear that Anno 117 shrine requirements are about devotion and logistics, not research or progression gates.
Read also: Anno 117 Pirates Not Spawning: Why Syracus or Voada Are Missing
What Are the “Weird Resources” in Anno 117?
The “weird resources” shown when trying to build a shrine in Anno 117 are simply shrine offerings.
They aren’t special shrine-only items or hidden mechanics. They are normal resources pulled from different parts of the game’s economy, which is why they look unfamiliar at first.
Shrine offerings are intentionally mixed across multiple production chains.
Instead of letting players unlock shrines using a single resource type, Anno 117 requires a combination of goods to reflect a proper offering to the patron god.
This design pushes trade, expansion, and logistics, especially when playing on islands like Albion that can’t produce everything locally.
Most Anno 117 shrine offerings fall into one of the following categories:
- Farmed crops such as barley, wheat, or grapes
- Smelted metal bars like copper or iron, produced from mined ore
- Fish or sea goods gathered by fishing boats in nearby waters
- Animal or hunting products obtained from wildlife on suitable islands
- Wild plants or rare items, including mushrooms or berries that usually can’t be farmed on every island
Because shrine offerings can come from so many different systems, it’s common for at least one of the weird shrine resources to be missing on the current island. When that happens, importing the resource or producing it on another island is not optional — it’s exactly how shrine construction in Anno 117 is meant to work.
Common Mars Shrine Offering Resources
The Mars shrine in Anno 117 almost never asks for five items from the same production chain. Instead, it’s designed to pull resources from across your entire economy. That’s why the requirements feel random at first — they’re meant to test whether you can source different goods, not just mass-produce one thing.
Most Mars shrine offerings follow the same basic structure, even if the exact items change from game to game:
- A basic crop, such as barley or wheat, produced on a fertile island
- A metal bar, usually copper or iron, made by mining ore and smelting it
- A fish resource, like pike or cod, gathered by fishing boats
- An animal product, such as a rabbit pelt, obtained through hunting
- A wild or rare resource, often mushrooms or berries that can’t be grown everywhere
What matters isn’t the specific item name, but the type of resource it represents. One farming good, one industrial good, one sea good, one hunting good, and one wild item is the usual pattern. If an Albion island can’t produce one of these locally, the game expects the missing Mars shrine materials to be imported from another island or bought through trade.
Once all five offering resources are present on the island, the Mars shrine unlocks immediately. The consistency of this structure makes shrine requirements in Anno 117 predictable once the pattern is understood.
Comparison Table: Shrine Resource Types & How to Get Them
| Resource Type | Examples | How to Obtain |
|---|---|---|
| Crops | Barley, Wheat, Grapes | Farms on fertile islands |
| Metal Bars | Copper Bar, Iron Bar | Mine + Smelter |
| Fish | Pike, Cod, Sardines | Fishing boats |
| Animal Goods | Rabbit Pelt, Bear Pelt | Hunting lodges |
| Wild / Rare Items | Mushrooms, Berries | Foraging islands, trade |
This table covers the most common causes of shrine-building delays.
Why Shrine Resources Are Missing on Albion Islands
Albion islands frequently lack:
- Certain fertility types
- Wildlife for hunting
- Metal or gem deposits
- Wild plant spawns
This design forces players to expand, trade, or import, rather than producing everything on a single island.
Fastest Ways to Get Shrine Resources in Anno 117
Import via Trade Routes (Recommended)
- Purchase missing resources from NPC traders
- Set up a trade route to the shrine island
- Deliver all required goods to unlock the shrine
This is the quickest solution, especially for wild plants and rare items.
Use a Secondary Island
- Settle or control an island with required fertility or deposits
- Produce the missing resources there
- Ship them to the Albion island
This is the most reliable long-term solution.
Quick Tips for Shrine Construction
- Always check island fertility before attempting production
- Use trade for mushrooms, berries, and rare plants
- Metal bars often require a second island
- Shrines do not consume resources repeatedly—only once per build
- Devotion must be reached before offerings matter
Summary
Building a shrine in Anno 117 requires devotion and material offerings, not research or special unlocks. The “weird resources” are standard goods drawn from farming, mining, fishing, hunting, and foraging systems. When production is not possible on the current island, trade and expansion are required.
Understanding shrine offerings and logistics resolves the issue completely.
