How to play Spirit Island

How to play

Setup: Join one island board per player; place the Invaders, Dahan and blight shown in each land. Each player takes a spirit panel, its four unique Power Cards and a colour of presence, set up as the panel says. Put 4 fear markers per player in the fear pool and 9 Fear Cards in three terror levels. Stack the invader deck: 3 Stage I over 4 Stage II over 5 Stage III. For a first game, use the board's printed blight pool and a low-complexity spirit with its Power Progression card, and skip adversaries. Finally reveal an invader card: Invaders Explore in its terrain, then it moves to Build.

The Spirit Phase: Each turn: Spirit Phase, fast powers, Invader Phase, slow powers, Time Passes. Everyone acts at once. Grow first: do all of one Growth option on your panel, such as reclaiming cards, gaining a power or adding presence. Gain energy equal to the highest number showing on your energy track, then play up to as many cards as your card-play track shows, paying for them all now.

Presence and new powers: Placing presence uncovers bigger numbers on your tracks; powers reach from your presence by their range. Two or more of your presence in one land make a sacred site. To gain a Power Card, draw 4 Minor or 4 Major Powers and keep one; after taking a Major, forget one of your cards.

Fast and slow powers: Fast powers resolve before the Invaders act, slow ones after. Innate Powers work when your played cards' elements meet their thresholds. At Time Passes, discard played cards; damage and elements clear.

The invader cycle: After any earned Fear Cards resolve, the Invaders act. Ravage: in each land of the Ravage card's terrain, Invaders deal 1 damage per explorer, 2 per town, 3 per city. Two or more damage adds one blight, every 2 destroys a Dahan, then surviving Dahan deal 2 damage each. Build: in each land of the Build card's terrain with Invaders, add a city if it has more towns than cities, otherwise a town; nothing upgrades. Explore: reveal the next card and add an explorer to each land of that terrain that has a town or city, or touches one or the ocean. Then advance the cards: Build to Ravage, Explore to Build, Ravage to discard.

Blight: Blight added to an already blighted land cascades into one adjacent land, and each blight added destroys one presence of every spirit there. If the blight pool runs out you lose, unless a Blight Card flips to a harsher side.

Fear and terror: Destroying a town makes 1 fear, a city 2; powers add more. When the fear pool empties, earn the top Fear Card and refill the pool. It resolves next Invader Phase at the terror level then in force; each divider reached raises it.

Winning and losing: You win the moment the terror level's condition holds: level 1, no Invaders on the island; level 2, no towns or cities; level 3, no cities. Earning the last Fear Card wins outright. You lose if the blight pool runs out for good, if a spirit has no presence on the island, or if the Invaders must Explore with no invader cards left.

Strategy

Read the invader board first: The Ravage card names the terrain that is about to be ravaged, and the Build card names the one that will build this turn and ravage next turn. Fast powers are for the ravage about to happen, so clear or defend those lands before the Invaders strike. Slow powers resolve after the cards have moved, so aim them at next turn's ravage lands or at explorers that would otherwise build. Stop pieces before they settle: Build adds a new town or city to any land of the shown terrain holding even one explorer, so moving or destroying a lone explorer is cheap prevention. Towns and cities are also where new explorers come from, and destroying them makes fear, so every one you remove slows the whole cycle. Use the Dahan: Dahan that survive a ravage hit back for 2 damage each, and many powers move them or build on them. Gathering Dahan into a land about to ravage, or pushing Invaders into a land full of Dahan, often settles it without a big power. Losing the Dahan early makes later turns much harder. Grow, but place presence with care: Presence is your economy, bringing more energy and card plays every turn. Put it where your powers can reach the Invaders, spread it out so you can help each other, and keep it out of lands about to ravage, because blight destroys presence. If you're always short of energy, take presence from your energy track or a growth option that gives energy for a turn or two. Choose powers deliberately: Minor Powers are cheap and flexible. Major Powers hit much harder but cost more, and taking one means forgetting a card, so take them when your energy and card plays can carry them. Elements matter too: cards whose elements reach your Innate Powers' thresholds give you extra effects for nothing. Play to the terror level: Victory gets easier as fear rises, from clearing every Invader, to clearing towns and cities, to clearing only cities. Late in the game, count the invader cards left and aim at the win you can actually reach. Raise the stakes gradually: Once the base game feels comfortable, add a Blight Card, then an adversary. The rulebook suggests Brandenburg-Prussia first, since it mostly changes setup; England and Sweden change how the Invaders behave.

Tips

- Before choosing powers, check the Ravage and Build cards: they name this turn's targets, and the Build terrain ravages next turn. - Fast powers can stop this turn's ravage; slow powers resolve after the cards move, so aim them at next turn's ravage lands. - Build never upgrades a piece: it adds a new town, or a city where towns outnumber cities, in any land with Invaders, even a lone explorer. - Dahan that survive a ravage deal 2 damage each, so a land full of Dahan can clean itself up. - Blight on an already blighted land cascades to a neighbour, and every blight destroys one presence of each spirit in that land. - You pay for slow cards when you play them, and their elements count for your Innate Powers straight away. - Every terror level eases the win: level 2 needs no towns or cities, level 3 only no cities, and the last Fear Card wins outright. - If the Invaders must Explore and the invader deck is empty, you lose, so keep track of how many cards remain.

Player count & time

1–4 players. The publisher lists about 100 minutes; first games run longer. Each player adds an island board and 4 fear markers to the pool, so the island and the fear you need both grow with the group, and more spirits means more talking. Solo play uses a single board as the whole island and otherwise works like a normal game, though you have no fellow spirits to cover your weaknesses.

Spirits for beginners

The rulebook suggests one of the four low-complexity spirits for your first game or two: Lightning's Swift Strike, Vital Strength of the Earth, River Surges in Sunlight, or Shadows Flicker Like Flame, the trickiest of the four. Use its Power Progression card so new powers arrive in a set order instead of drawing four and keeping one. The other four base-game spirits are rated harder; save them until the turn structure feels familiar.

Expansions

Branch & Claw adds 2 spirits, the France adversary, 25 Event cards, beast, wilds, disease and strife tokens, and 4 scenarios. Jagged Earth adds 10 spirits, the Habsburg Monarchy and Russia adversaries, and 2 more island boards for up to 6 players. Feather & Flame collects the two promo packs: 4 spirits, the Scotland adversary and 5 Aspect cards that change existing spirits. Nature Incarnate adds 8 spirits, 24 Aspect cards and another adversary. Horizons of Spirit Island is a standalone 1–3 player starter with 5 spirits that works with the rest. The designer's next expansion centres on the Dahan and has no release date yet.

Common beginner mistake

Fighting only this turn's ravage. New players often pour every power into the land about to ravage and ignore explorers landing elsewhere; next turn those lands build, and the turn after they ravage with towns and cities. Look one step ahead: a lone explorer in the Build terrain costs little to remove now and a lot later. And remember that Build adds a new town or city rather than upgrading a piece.