Sources & Citations
This book is a synthesis, not an original work. Every strategy claim draws from the community’s public deep-dives, designer interviews, statistical datasets, and authoritative rules references. This page credits them.
Primary strategy authorities
Rei (BGG) — the canonical format source
Rei’s BGG guides for Many Minds, Shroud, and Vengeance define this book’s spirit-chapter template and terminology. When Rei has a guide on a spirit, it is cited as the #1 source.
- Many Minds Move as One — guide
- Many Minds — advanced guide
- Shroud of Silent Mist — guide
- Vengeance as a Burning Plague — guide
- Rei interview — Vengeance on Spirited Discussion podcast
Credit: Rei’s deep-dive format (Framing → Core Mechanics → Strategic Principles → Opening → Card Priority → Adversary Notes → Board Eval → Game-Phase) is the spine of every spirit chapter in this book.
latentoctopus (Spirit Island Hub) — openings + glossary
Per-spirit opening guides with per-variant card sequences, and the canonical community notation (Gn, nE, nCP, etc.).
- Site root
- Glossary — canonical notation
- Q&A — author philosophy
- Per-spirit opening guides: indexed at the site root.
Credit: notation standards (Gn, nE, nCP, x/y, CE), opening classification vocabulary (Full top/bottom, Hybrid, Minor/Major/Mixed), and confidence-rating pattern (red/yellow/green).
Cardboard Crew — contemporary tier
Current (2025-Q4) tier list for all 42 spirits + aspects.
Spirited Discussion podcast — ongoing analysis
Weekly podcast with Alex + Thomas covering strategy, adversaries, and guest-interview spirit deep-dives (including Rei on Vengeance).
Statistical datasets
mindwanderer — digital win-rate project
Continuously-updated win-rate stats from Spirit Island Digital play logs.
Credit: per-spirit, per-adversary, per-level win rates; digital-vs-tabletop discussion; card-frequency data.
PlayTracker + SteamSpy (general aggregate stats)
Rules authority
Querki Living FAQ
Authoritative rulings + errata, maintained by Darker (designer-approved).
Spirit Island Wiki
Comprehensive fan wiki, read-only as of writing (accounts closed due to spam).
SICK — Spirit Island Card Katalog
Unofficial but comprehensive card database with element + effect filtering.
Designer + publisher
R. Eric Reuss (designer)
- Personal site / Spirit Island page
- Interviews archive
- Elevation Games interview
- Low Player Count interview
- TCbH Jagged Earth interview
Greater Than Games (publisher)
- Spirit Island product page
- Official forums
- Favorite Spirit Combos forum thread
- High-Level Guides thread
Community forums
BGG — strategic discussion
- Strategy forum root
- Combined Difficulty Chart
- Introducing Spirit Island Guides (hub)
- Improving at Spirit Island
- Tier list thread (BGG)
- Board Theory with Rei
- Stats-Based True Solo Tier List
Spirit of the Island Discord
Discord content is not quoted verbatim in this book; patterns attributed to Discord discussion are summarized + linked to a BGG cross-post where possible.
Steam Community
Video / audio
YouTube strategy channels
- Cardboard Academy — 5 Strategy Tips
- Basic Strategy playlist
- Spectacular Synergies playlist
- Tier List & Matchup Axis playlist
- Tier Ranking All Official Spirits (2025)
Ethical sourcing principles
Per CONTRIBUTING.md:
- Summarize, don’t copy. No verbatim paragraphs from external sources.
- Always credit. Every pattern claim links to source(s).
- Link, don’t mirror. Don’t host copies of community tools’ data.
- Primary over secondary. Querki + designers first; community interpretations second.
- Discord caution. Quote only with user permission; prefer BGG cross-posts.
Reference verification status
| Source | Last verified | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Rei’s three BGG guides | 2026-04-19 | BGG gating may block WebFetch; summaries used |
| latentoctopus site | 2026-04-19 | Active; author accepts PRs |
| mindwanderer stats | 2026-04-19 | Updated continuously |
| Spirited Discussion podcast | 2026-04-19 | New episodes ~weekly |
| Cardboard Crew tier | 2026-04-19 | Updated Dec 2025 per site |
| Querki FAQ | 2026-04-19 | Living document, maintained |
| Spirit Island Wiki | 2026-04-19 | Read-only; last major-edit date varies |
A weekly GitHub Action will re-verify these (with a warn policy) and open issues on rot.
Last revised: 2026-04-19