The Forge Race Tier List 2025 – Best Race Ranking

This The Forge Race Tier List 2025 – Best Race Ranking guide breaks down every race in The Forge with in-depth explanations of their strengths, weaknesses, passives, and practical performance across combat, mobility, mining, and long-term progression. Instead of only ranking, each section explains exactly why a race belongs where it does and what kind of player benefits from it.

Best of the Best Tier

These are the two Mythical races. They define the peak performance ceiling of the game and outperform everything across multiple gameplay systems.

Angel

Angel stands at the top because it brings unmatched mobility, strong combat power, and absurd utility all in one package. The wings fundamentally change how you traverse the world, creating a different tempo of play compared to every other race.

Key advantages include faster and longer dashes, extended invulnerability frames, higher movement speed, better stamina, and noticeably higher jump height. When you test this race against any other, the difference in fluidity becomes obvious immediately.

It also delivers outstanding progression value. The luck bonus alone makes it one of the best mining races in the game, especially when stacked with potions, totems, or other buffs. Players grinding materials will notice the difference run after run.

Then there’s its real combat identity. Smite can trigger whenever you attack, bringing a burst of physical damage that helps close out fights quickly. Infinite stamina below low health also lets you escape, pressure, or reposition without being punished. Across mining, PvP, PvE, and mobility, it delivers advantages that stack together rather than conflict with each other, which is why it dominates this tier without competition.

Demon

Demon focuses far more on aggression and pressure than Angel. This race rewards players who want a high-damage, high-speed style and brings the strongest offensive kit in the game.

Its core passive boosts movement speed, attack speed, physical damage, and fire-type damage all at once, immediately giving you a more oppressive combat profile. The built-in burn mechanics allow you to punish enemies simply for hitting you, and the aura damage while in combat adds even more passive DPS.

Where Demon really sets itself apart is mobility during engagements. Its dash becomes a short-range teleport that lets you reposition instantly, opening tech options and creating unexpected angles. The teleport also enables access to the demonic pickaxe area, which makes the race valuable even outside combat.

The hellfire circle created during dashes adds real burst potential when fighting enemies stacked around you, especially when your weapon’s base damage scales up. Demon is a race built for players who want constant offensive pressure, rapid kills, and a playstyle centered around raw power.

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Really Good Tier

These races don’t match the Mythicals, but they deliver standout value, strong passives, and reliable performance.

Dragonborn

Dragonborn sits at the top of this tier because it’s the best legendary by a wide margin. Its passives come with no drawbacks, and the kit is perfectly designed for simple, consistent strength.

Higher max HP, bonus height, and a significant physical damage boost give it a sturdy and reliable baseline. It also has a powerful burn effect that deals a percentage of your weapon’s damage over time. The proc chance is high, lasts several seconds, and works extremely well on strong, slow-swinging weapons.

Dragonborn excels in PvE due to its sustained damage over time and tanky frame, making it a fantastic all-rounder.

Minotaur

Minotaur is a close second in this tier, built for players who thrive in unstable or aggressive situations. The statline is chunky, and even though this race brings some stamina and movement reductions, the moment you fall below half health everything changes.

Rage Mode triggers automatically with no listed cooldown. Once active, you move faster and deal more physical damage, turning disadvantage into pressure. For players who enjoy momentum-based fights or want a race that helps close out battles mid-risk, Minotaur’s passives fit extremely well.

Dwarf

Dwarf earns its placement because it excels in the progression system that drives the entire game loop. Faster mining and a chance at better Forge results make it a top-tier economic and grinding race.

The critical mining effect also provides meaningful speedups during long sessions. Players rushing ore-based progression will notice how much smoother their grind becomes compared to any normal race.

Dwarf also benefits from being relatively easy to obtain, making it a realistic long-term choice for grinders.

Goblin

Goblin has a narrower set of uses, but within those uses, it shines. Its shop discount is the core appeal, reducing the cost of pickaxes and possibly other items, saving players huge amounts of gold over time.

Movement speed and dagger attack speed are situationally useful but not central to its identity. Long-term value depends on future content with more expensive gear, and because of that, Goblin is more of an investment race. Right now, it sits under Dwarf for practical usability but has enormous late-game potential.

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Decent Tier

These races offer real utility but lack the impact needed to reach higher tiers.

Undead

Undead is built for survival and long fights. The revive-style passive that restores half your health once you drop extremely low can absolutely save you during boss fights or heavy encounters. Its consistent damage reflection also gives it a unique defensive identity.

The only real drawback is the reduced max health, but the tradeoff is manageable. This race is one of the most reliable defensive picks and works particularly well for players tackling future bosses or difficult content.

Shadow

Shadow leans toward mobility and agility, offering bonuses to movement speed, attack speed, stamina, and damage, all with a small health reduction. The dodge mechanic can help avoid big hits, but because it triggers on chance and overlaps with evasion ruins, it doesn’t stand out as much as it used to.

Shadow remains fast, smooth, and enjoyable, but Undead typically provides more consistent value across situations.

Golem

Golem’s durability and size make it look intimidating, but its passives are too limited compared to the other legendaries. The health boost is excellent, but the movement speed loss feels heavier than what the numbers suggest, and the heavy-weapon synergy is too narrow to fully capitalize on.

Its defensive reduction proc is helpful, yet the race lacks synergy and flexibility overall. As a result, it settles behind the other two legendaries.

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Meh Tier

Usable, functional races that simply don’t keep up with the competition.

Orc

Orc has a good mixture of size, health, and physical damage, which makes it a solid early-game option. The reduced movement speed and stamina aren’t severe enough to ruin the experience, and the race looks visually strong.

It’s a respectable middle-tier pick with clear benefits, just lacking the extra edge needed to climb higher.

Elf

Elf is almost entirely overshadowed by other options, but the stamina boost and luck bonus give it more practical value than the lower races. It doesn’t excel in any particular direction, but it’s not actively harmful either.

Zombie

Zombie has one major issue: its health reduction is painful in a game where enemies hit hard. The regeneration passive is weaker than alternative methods already available in the game, but the chance to convert damage into healing keeps it barely afloat.

It offers survivability in theory, but not enough in practice, keeping it firmly in the lower half.

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Terrible Tier

These races exist, but that’s all that can be said.

Human

Human provides minor passive bonuses but no identity and no specialization. Once players roll almost anything else, the difference is immediate. It’s simply a starter race with no meaningful strengths.

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Final Overview

Below is the full ranking from strongest to weakest:

Best of the Best
Angel
Demon

Really Good
Dragonborn
Minotaur
Dwarf
Goblin

Decent
Undead
Shadow
Golem

Meh
Orc
Elf
Zombie

Terrible
Human

This list reflects current balance and functionality. Future updates, new pickaxes, new reforges, bosses, or large content expansions will naturally reshape value, especially for races like Goblin or Undead. For now, this ordering reflects the most accurate and practical performance across the entire game.