Songs of Syx Race Tier List — Best Races

Author: Verdict Games Editorial Team Last Updated: September 2, 2026

The Bottom Line

In Songs of Syx, the best city is built from a complementary mix of races, not a single best one. Humans and Cretonians make an easy, food-secure foundation; Dondorians and Tilapi add industry, war and morale; Garthimis and Cantor are powerful specialists with quirks. This tier ranks value and ease for a growing city — but managing race relations matters more than any single pick.

Summary

This Songs of Syx race tier list ranks the species — Humans, Cretonians, Dondorians, Tilapi, Garthimis and Cantor — by how valuable and beginner-friendly each is for a growing city. Because a thriving city wants a complementary mix, this ranks roles and reliability, not raw power. Humans and Cretonians anchor an easy start; Dondorians and Tilapi add industry, war and happiness; Garthimis and Cantor are powerful specialists. Above all, mind race relations.

Who This Is For: Songs of Syx players choosing which races to build their city around Intermediate

Key Points

Humans and Cretonians are the easiest foundation — flexible and food-secure.

Dondorians and Tilapi add industry, military and the highest happiness potential.

Garthimis and Cantor are strong specialists — breeding and elite research/crafting — with quirks.

Mind race relations — mixing species that dislike each other tanks happiness across your city.

How to read this tier list

Songs of Syx is built around several playable races — Humans, Cretonians, Dondorians, Tilapi, Garthimis and Cantor — each with their own aptitudes, food preferences, happiness potential and relationships with one another. The crucial thing to understand is that the game rewards a complementary mix of races, not a single dominant one: a great city usually blends farmers, industrialists, herders, soldiers and specialists. So this tier list does not crown one "best race"; instead it ranks each species by how valuable and beginner-friendly it is for a growing city — how easily it slots in, how reliably it contributes, and how much management it demands. Use it to decide which peoples to build your foundation around and which to add as specialists, rather than as a hunt for a single winner.

Treat the tiers as a guide to ease and general value. Higher-tier races are flexible, dependable foundations that suit new and growing cities; lower tiers are powerful but demand more management or fill narrower roles. And whatever you choose, remember the golden rule at the bottom: race relations can make or break your city's happiness, so who you combine matters as much as who you pick.

This ranks races by value and ease for a growing city, not by raw power, because Songs of Syx rewards a complementary mix. Every race here is useful in the right role — the art is combining them well and managing the relations between them.

The tier list

Humans The flexible, beginner-friendly all-rounders. Balanced aptitudes and easy relations make them the smoothest race to build a first city around, capable of filling almost any role while you learn the game. Cretonians Outstanding farmers who make securing food — the number one early challenge — far easier. A Cretonian grain-farming backbone stabilises almost any city, which is why they pair so well with a Human core.

Dondorians The industrial and martial backbone: adept fighters who also excel at mining, refinement and masonry, with a big stone-cutting speed bonus. Superb for a war-ready, industry-heavy city — just mind their dislike of Tilapi and Garthimis. Tilapi The happiness and nature specialists, with the highest happiness potential of any race, excellent herding and tree farming, and the best archery in the game. Great for morale and ranged war, though they clash with Dondorians and Garthimis.

Garthimis Insectoid specialists who breed fastest of all races and excel at fishing and mining, with exoskeletons that grant battle and weather resilience. Powerful for population and durability, but disliked by Dondorians and Tilapi, so relations need care. Cantor Elite giant specialists whose research and high-end crafting are extraordinary — one Cantor researcher can out-produce dozens of Humans — but they are rare, hard to recruit and please, and poor farmers. A superb late-game luxury, an awkward early workforce.

Ignoring race relations Not a race but the biggest mistake: mixing species that dislike each other, like Dondorians with Garthimis or Tilapi, drags happiness down across your whole city. Manage who lives together, or pay a steep morale price. Leaning on fussy races too early Building your early city around hard-to-please or hard-to-recruit races, like Cantor, before your economy can meet their demands invites morale trouble. Bring demanding specialists in once you are stable, not at the start.

Why Humans and Cretonians lead

The reason Humans and Cretonians top this list is not that they are the strongest in any single field, but that they are the easiest and most reliable foundation for a growing city, especially for newer players. Humans are versatile all-rounders with balanced aptitudes and no awkward dislikes, so they can staff almost any role while you learn the game and they mix comfortably with others. Cretonians solve the single hardest early problem — food — by being outstanding farmers, so a core of Humans supported by Cretonian grain farms gives you a stable, well-fed city that rarely collapses. Because survival in Songs of Syx hinges on food and morale before anything else, a foundation that secures both easily is worth more to a new city than a specialist's higher ceiling.

The A-tier races earn their place by adding powerful capabilities on top of that foundation. Dondorians bring industry and military muscle, Tilapi bring the game's best happiness potential along with herding and archery, and both dramatically expand what your city can do. They rank just below the foundation races only because they demand a little more care — particularly around the dislikes they carry — but a maturing city will almost always want them in the mix.

Build your foundation with easy, complementary races, then add specialists deliberately. A Human-and-Cretonian core is a forgiving start; layer in Dondorians for industry and war, Tilapi for morale and archers, and save the fussy specialists for when your economy can support them. Plan the mix around the roles your city needs.

Specialists, relations and building your mix

The B-tier races are not weak — they are powerful specialists that reward players who can manage their quirks. Garthimis breed faster than anyone and bring fishing, mining and battlefield resilience, which can supercharge a population and a military, but they are disliked by Dondorians and Tilapi, so folding them in without care hurts happiness. Cantor are perhaps the most extreme case: their research and high-end crafting are unmatched, yet they are rare, hard to please and useless at farming, making them a late-game luxury rather than an early staple. Used at the right time, both can elevate a city enormously; used carelessly or too soon, both cause more problems than they solve.

All of which comes back to the real lesson of the tier list: in Songs of Syx you are not picking a race, you are composing a society. The strongest cities blend races so their strengths cover each other's weaknesses — farmers and industrialists, soldiers and archers, breeders and researchers — while keeping the peace between species that do not naturally get along. Get that composition right and your city thrives; ignore race relations and even the best individual races will make a miserable, unstable home. For the systems that turn that population into power, see our economy guide and military guide, and the beginner guide if you are just starting out.

Never ignore race relations. It is tempting to recruit whichever race offers a useful bonus, but housing species that dislike each other — Dondorians with Garthimis or Tilapi, for instance — quietly wrecks happiness across your city. Plan your racial mix around who gets along, not just who is individually strong.

FAQ

There is no single best race, because Songs of Syx rewards a complementary mix rather than one species. That said, Humans are the most flexible and beginner-friendly all-rounders, and Cretonians are outstanding farmers who make securing food — the number one early challenge — much easier, so those two make the smoothest foundation. From there you add Dondorians for industry and war, Tilapi for herding, archery and happiness, and specialists like Garthimis or Cantor for their unique strengths. The best race is really the best combination for the roles your city needs.

Different races have opinions about each other, and some actively dislike others. For example, Dondorians dislike Tilapi and strongly dislike Garthimis, while Tilapi dislike both Dondorians and Garthimis. When races that dislike each other live together, it drags down happiness across your city, so relations are a real strategic constraint. You can still use disliked pairings, but you must manage the morale cost — often by keeping populations balanced, meeting needs generously, or leaning on races that get along more easily, especially early on.

Cretonians are the standout farmers and the easiest way to secure food, which is why they pair so well with any starting city. Grain and bread are the most efficient food for most races, so Cretonians running grain farms on fertile land, supported by bakers, form a reliable food backbone. Tilapi are excellent at herding and tree farming, adding meat and wood, while some races such as Cantor are poor farmers and herders and are better kept out of food roles entirely.

Cantor are extraordinary specialists but awkward to use, which is why they sit lower for general value. They are rare, hard to recruit, and hard to please, and they are poor farmers and herders. But their talents are exceptional — they excel at mining, refinement and crafting, and their research is staggering, with a single Cantor in a library reportedly out-producing dozens of Humans. Treat them as a late-game luxury: bring them in for research and high-end industry once your city is stable enough to meet their demands, not as an early workforce.

Dondorians are a strong martial race, adept at fighting as well as at mining, refinement and masonry, making them a fine backbone for an industrial, war-ready city. Tilapi bring the best archery, with the highest base accuracy and reload speed with bows, so they excel as ranged troops. Garthimis add resilience thanks to their exoskeletons, which gives them above-average durability in battle, on top of their fast breeding. A war economy often blends a martial race for the line, an archer race for ranged power, and a strong economy to supply it all.

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