Forge of Empires Great Building Tier List: Best and Worst Picks

Only construct and level Great Buildings that offer mechanics modern event buildings cannot replace. As seasonal event rewards now deliver dense bundles of Forge Points, population, and goods per square tile, pure resource generators have dropped in value. Prioritize structures that provide reward scaling, unattached unit generation, double-collection charges, and offensive army boosts, while avoiding outdated space traps.

Essential S-Tier Great Buildings

These three structures provide unique utility that forms the backbone of account progression:

• The Arc (Future): The highest-priority Great Building in the game. At level 80, its bonus boosts contribution rewards on other players' Great Buildings by 90%. This enables participation in 1.9 reward-swapping threads, accelerates personal leveling, and supplies massive goods to your Guild Treasury.
• Alcatraz (Progressive Era): Produces large batches of unattached military units matching the barracks present in your city. It bypasses regular unit training timers and sustains heavy fighting in Guild Battlegrounds and Guild Expeditions.
• Blue Galaxy (Oceanic Future): Grants a set number of chances each day to double the resource yield of collected buildings. Because modern event buildings produce substantial amounts of Forge Points, goods, and fragments in single collections, this multiplier scales directly with newer content.

High-Value Combat and Multiplier Buildings

Offensive combat stats scale without a cap in Guild Battlegrounds, making compact military Great Buildings long-term assets for fighting attrition.

The foundational attack trio—Statue of Zeus, Cathedral of Aachen, and Castel del Monte—remains efficient throughout the game due to low construction costs and modest footprints. Himeji Castle supplements combat with high-value item drops, while the Arctic Orangery adds lethal damage scaling alongside steady Forge Point output.

Situational Progression Picks

Build these structures only when targeted needs match your current game phase:

• Temple of Relics: Costs little space and generates unattached silver, gold, and jade relics while solving Guild Expedition encounters. It yields Store Buildings, Renovation Kits, and Forge Points; leveling it to 10–15 is sufficient for early and mid-game accounts.
• Space Carrier: Functions similarly to Himeji Castle via Diplomatic Gifts during negotiations. Its primary value is producing Special Goods—such as Promethium, Orichalcum, and Mars Ore—to bypass late-era research bottlenecks.
• Space Age Titan Buildings: Saturn VI CENTAURI, Saturn VI PEGASUS, and Saturn VI HYDRA deliver massive offensive and defensive bonuses for Guild Battlegrounds. However, their construction and upgrade costs require massive quantities of Titan goods and Forge Points, restricting them to late-stage accounts.

Outdated Buildings and Traps to Avoid

Before spending blueprints, goods, and Forge Points, evaluate a building's yield per square tile against modern event prizes.

Power-Crept Buildings to Phase Out

Do not build these from scratch. If already leveled, keep them only until you need their city footprint for superior event buildings:

• Hagia Sophia and Cape Canaveral: Pure Forge Point generators with large footprints (7x6 and 4x5). Fully upgraded event buildings match or exceed their daily production in a fraction of the space.
• Innovation Tower and Habitat: Population-focused buildings made redundant by standard event structures that already provide surplus population.
• Lighthouse of Alexandria and St. Mark's Basilica: Basic goods and coin bonuses that are easily surpassed through recurring quests and modern prize buildings.

Trap Tier Buildings to Never Place

These structures offer negligible returns relative to their size and cost:

• Colosseum: A 6x6 footprint that yields trivial medals and happiness.
• Notre Dame: High Middle Ages building with weak happiness and coin output.
• Space Needle and Lotus Temple: Large footprints that only provide saturated resources like coins and happiness.
• Capitol: Inefficient population per tile paired with low supply output.
• Gaea Statue: High goods cost for redundant happiness and defensive stats.