The six races
Malignus has six playable minion races: goblins, kobolds, orcs, gnolls, bugbears and ogres. Mossbomb says each brings its own strengths and habits, but has not published a racial stat table. The official art is the best evidence of how the races are presented.
That distinction matters. A goblin smith in an apron is not proof that goblins get a crafting bonus. A kobold pyromancer is not proof that kobolds are the designated fire-mage race. The art shows the visual language and the gear variants; the numbers are still unknown.
Goblins
Race
Small, sharp-featured and heavily represented in the official art.
- Official art variants
- Plate-armored sword-and-shield fighter · Female archer in chainmail · Smith with an apron · Worker with a tool harness
- Confirmed
- Listed by Mossbomb as one of the six playable minion races. Official art shows goblins in combat, crafting and hauling gear.
- Unknown
- No racial stat modifiers, work bonuses, trait pools or morale rules have been published.
Kobolds
Race
The official art gives the kobolds a strong fire-magic silhouette.
- Official art variants
- Pyromancer in a red robe with a staff · Spear-and-chainmail fighter · Miner with a harvester rig
- Confirmed
- Listed by Mossbomb as one of the six playable minion races. The official character set includes a kobold pyromancer and a kobold with mining equipment.
- Unknown
- Whether the pyromancer art reflects a starting class, a gear loadout or a promotion path has not been explained.
Orcs
Race
Armored, axe-carrying and visually the most front-line of the six.
- Official art variants
- Plate-armored axe fighter · Female cook or butcher with a cleaver and apron · Worker carrying stone
- Confirmed
- Listed by Mossbomb as one of the six playable minion races. Official art shows orcs in heavy armor and in kitchen or hauling roles.
- Unknown
- No published information separates orc work speed, combat stats, morale or trait biases from the other races.
Gnolls
Race
Masked, spear-armed and shown in both martial and occult dress.
- Official art variants
- Masked javelin skirmisher · Female necromancer with a staff · Female worker carrying metal
- Confirmed
- Listed by Mossbomb as one of the six playable minion races. The official set includes a gnoll necromancer, so at least some gnolls can be shown with occult gear.
- Unknown
- The relationship between art variants and in-game classes, stats or job aptitudes is not documented.
Bugbears
Race
Large, heavy-weapon minions with a dark-armor variant in the art set.
- Official art variants
- Male maul fighter in dread armor · Female cudgel fighter in a coat
- Confirmed
- Listed by Mossbomb as one of the six playable minion races. Official art shows bugbears with two-handed blunt weapons.
- Unknown
- No public data covers their size, carrying capacity, combat stats or whether they have any special work restrictions.
Ogres
Race
The largest silhouettes in the minion art set, including an occult variant.
- Official art variants
- Male club fighter in dread armor · Male shadowmancer with a staff · Female worker in rags
- Confirmed
- Listed by Mossbomb as one of the six playable minion races. The official art includes an ogre shadowmancer and an ogre labourer, so the race is not limited to melee visuals.
- Unknown
- No racial abilities, food requirements, stat spread or job modifiers have been published.
What is confirmed about the races
Race facts, without invented bonuses
Confirmed
- Six races: goblins, kobolds, orcs, gnolls, bugbears and ogres.
- Each race is described by Mossbomb as having its own strengths and habits.
- The official art includes combat, crafting, cooking, hauling and occult variants across the six races.
- All minions use the same six-stat frame: Battle, Hunt, Labor, Craft, Occult and Cruelty.
- Minions have traits, grumbles, a buddy, a nemesis, a favorite haunt and a life story.
Not announced
- Racial stat modifiers or job aptitudes.
- Race-specific traits, morale rules or dietary needs.
- Whether any race is locked out of a class, weapon or workstation.
- Starting race options and how the preferred-race setting affects recruitment.
The six stats, and the jobs they rate
Every minion's Status tab uses the same six-stat frame. The Dungeon Duties table then turns those stats into work priorities. The official screenshot groups the columns under the same six headings.
| Stat | What it rates | Evidence in the official UI |
|---|---|---|
| Battle | The combat stat visible on every minion's Status tab. | Official minion panel: Battle 2 on a goblin cook; prisoner panels use a different stat set. |
| Hunt | Rates hunting and the related gathering jobs in the duties table. | The Dungeon Duties table lists Hunting, Foraging, Fishing and Scrapping under the Hunt heading. |
| Labor | Rates mining and building work. | The duties table places Mining and Building under Labor. |
| Craft | Rates crafting, cooking and trap work. | The duties table groups Crafting, Cooking and Traps under Craft. |
| Occult | Rates lore, worship and healing duties. | The duties table groups Lore, Worship and Healing under Occult. |
| Cruelty | Rates overseeing, wrangling and torture. | The duties table places Overseeing, Wrangling and Torture under Cruelty. Hauling, Drudgery and Guard Duty appear as separate priority columns without a colored stat group. |
The practical read is straightforward: a minion with high Craft should be encouraged toward crafting, cooking and traps; a high-Occult minion toward lore, worship and healing; a high-Cruelty minion toward overseeing, wrangling and torture. The exact numbers behind the priorities are not published, so the right approach is to set a clear primary job and watch the results rather than distributing every job evenly.
Duties and behavior
The duties table is only half the control system. Each minion also has a Behavior tab with combat and work settings. The official screenshot shows:
- Combat stance on a slider, set to “Steady” in the example.
- Sneak toggled off.
- Seek healing set to “Default (Major wounds)”.
- Stick to work enabled.
- Confine to Domain enabled.
- Retreat on invasion enabled.
- Slow weapon enabled.
- Choose own gear enabled.
These are powerful defaults for a non-combat worker: stay in the dungeon, keep working, flee an invasion, and let the minion pick its own equipment. The Behavior tab is where you stop a cook from charging an adventurer party with a ladle.
Grumbles, buddies and nemeses
Minions are not a resource bar with legs. The official Grumbling screen lists specific complaints and how many minions share them. The examples visible in the screenshot include:
Argued
Had an argument with another minion.
A friend bleeds
One of their buddies took an Extreme wound.
Too many faces
A Loner spent too long around too many minions.
Saw the Boss get wounded
The Boss took an Extreme wound in front of them.
Ate like a dog
Ate on the floor, away from any table or campfire.
Ate it raw
Ate an uncooked meal.
Lost at dice
Lost gold to another minion at the gambling table.
The lesson is not “keep everyone happy” — that is not a colony sim. The lesson is that morale has causes you can see. A minion who ate on the floor needs a table. A minion whose buddy is wounded may need a safer job or better healing. A boss who takes an Extreme wound in front of the crew creates a dungeon-wide morale event. The Grumbling screen is the diagnostic tool; the minion management guide covers the workflow.
Food, beds, gear and lockboxes
The store description confirms that minions need feeding, beds, crafted gear and order. The official UI adds storage filters, a lockbox slot on the Gear tab and a “Minions want lockboxes” alert. Those are real pressures, not decoration: a minion without a bed or a proper meal has a reason to complain.
The current build shows food on tables, a cooking table with recipe orders, a kitchen shelf with a storage filter tree and a forge workstation. The exact nutrition values, sleep times and gear stats are not public. Build the basic rooms first and use the Grumbling list to find the next bottleneck.
A good default for a new player
Set one clear primary job per minion, enable “Stick to work” and “Retreat on invasion” for non-combatants, and keep a cook and a hauler near the top of the duty list. Then read the Grumbling screen after every invasion. It will tell you which system is failing before the next raid does.
Go deeper
Sources
Sources for this page
- 01Malignus press kit and fact sheet — Mossbomb
Fact sheet, development history, feature list, character and creature art, screenshot captions, and permission for press and content creators to use the kit's media in coverage of Malignus.
- 02Official Malignus interface screenshots — Mossbomb
The press kit's 'Screenshots with the interface' set documents the New Dungeon flow, boss select, minion stats, duties, grumbles, behavior settings, trap build menu, wiring, Dark Arts, boss upgrades, prisoners, altar and overworld map. Used for observations that are not spelled out in the store copy.
- 03Malignus on Steam — Valve / Mossbomb
Store description, Early Access Q&A, tags, supported languages, features, system requirements and the storefront's November 12, 2026 date display.
- 04Mossbomb — the studio making Malignus — Mossbomb
Developer site. Confirms the November 13, 2026 Early Access date, $19.99 Early Access price, $29.99 planned 1.0 price, monthly updates, demo status, platforms, co-op and headline features.
Accessed 1 November 2026. Full source log and verification notes: Malignus Wiki sources.