The Blight Track
Blight is the game’s slow-death timer. Every ravage that can’t absorb its damage adds blight. Every 2nd blight in one land cascades — adds blight to adjacent lands, potentially chaining across the board. The blight pool has finite tokens; when it runs out, you lose.
Reading the blight track well is the difference between winning a scrappy late game and losing to a blight cascade you didn’t see coming.
How blight works
Adding blight
When a ravage’s damage to a land exceeds the land’s absorption:
- Dahan absorb first (2 HP each).
- Your presence absorbs next (1 HP per token, destroys the token).
- Remaining damage = blight added to the land.
If the land already had blight: the 2nd blight cascades — add 1 blight to each adjacent land.
The blight pool
At setup, you seed a blight pool sized by player count (typically 2 per player + 1 base, but scenario-dependent). Each blight token placed on the board comes from the pool.
When the pool runs out: you lose. Full stop.
Healed blight
Some powers remove blight from a land, returning the token to the pool. These are precious — the archetype’s only insurance.
The blight budget
Over a 6–8 round game, expect:
| Game length | Pool consumed (typical) | Cascades (bad) |
|---|---|---|
| 6 rounds | 3–4 blight | 0 |
| 7 rounds | 4–6 blight | 0–1 |
| 8 rounds | 6–8 blight | 1–2 |
| 9+ rounds | 8+ (near-cap) | 2+ (dangerous) |
If you’re at cap by T6, you’re in trouble; by T7 you’ve already lost and don’t know it.
Cascades explained
A cascade adds 1 blight to each adjacent land (not just one). A well-connected land in the island’s interior can cascade to 4–5 lands in a single event. A corner coastal land cascades to only 1–2.
Cascade-prevention > cascade-containment. Once a cascade fires, it often chains (the new blight on adjacent lands pushes them to 2nd-blight soon). Preventing is 5x easier than recovering.
Reading ahead
Top 3 things to check each turn for blight:
- Which lands have 1 blight already? — those are the cascade candidates.
- What’s the upcoming ravage? — if it hits a 1-blight land with overflow damage, you’re about to cascade.
- Blight pool count — what’s left in the pool?
Most players miss #1. The 1-blight land is often a land they “handled” in an earlier turn; they stopped worrying about it. Cascade arrives from neglect, not from the new ravage directly.
Mitigation toolkit
Prevent the overflow
- Defend reduces ravage damage directly. The cheapest blight prevention.
- Dahan absorb damage before presence; keep dahan alive in 1-blight lands.
- Presence-sink in ravage-target lands if dahan aren’t enough.
Prevent the cascade
- Kill invaders before ravage (Fast powers). No ravage = no damage = no blight.
- Push invaders out of 1-blight lands before ravage.
- Remove the 1st blight via blight-removal powers.
Recover after cascade
Hardest — often requires multiple turns to heal multiple lands. Fangs, Green, and Keeper have the strongest blight-removal toolkits.
Blight by spirit
All 39 spirits below, grouped by their interaction with blight.
Blight-removing (actively heals blight)
| Spirit | Blight interaction |
|---|---|
| Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds | Heavy blight removal via Unique cards |
| A Spread of Rampant Green | Blight removal + prevention via Plant mechanics |
| Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves | Blight removal via Beast-themed cards |
| Towering Roots of the Jungle | Blight removal via jungle-defend mechanics |
| Fathomless Mud of the Swamp | Blight prevention via wetland-defend |
| Wounded Waters Bleeding | Water-Incarna interacts with blight removal TBD |
Blight-preventing (prevents ravage damage before it becomes blight)
| Spirit | Blight interaction |
|---|---|
| Vital Strength of the Earth | Heavy defend stack; rarely blights |
| Stone’s Unyielding Defiance | Sacred-site defend coverage; rarely blights |
| Hearth-Vigil | Defends dahan, indirect blight prevention |
| Downpour Drenches the World | Isolation + defend; blocks ravage cascades |
| Ocean’s Hungry Grasp | Drowning removes invaders before they ravage; indirect prevention |
| River Surges in Sunlight | Push removes invaders from ravage targets |
| Lure of the Deep Wilderness | Pulls invaders out of build/ravage lands |
Blight-positive (intentionally adds blight; scales with it)
| Spirit | Blight interaction |
|---|---|
| Heart of the Wildfire | Blight-positive (scales with blight); intentionally adds blight |
| Vengeance as a Burning Plague | Blight-positive (island blight fuels damage multipliers) |
| Volcano Looming High | Destruction creates blight; scaling late game |
Blight-neutral (depend on defend + dahan; no special interaction)
| Spirit | Blight interaction |
|---|---|
| Lightning’s Swift Strike | Fast damage prevents ravages; no removal |
| Shadows Flicker Like Flame | Strife reduces ravage damage; no removal |
| Thunderspeaker | Dahan retaliation prevents ravages; no removal |
| Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares | Fear-focused; blight-neutral |
| Finder of Paths Unseen | Mobility-focused; blight-neutral |
| Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island | Late-spike damage; blight-neutral |
| Devouring Teeth Lurk Underfoot | Simple damage; blight-neutral |
| Eyes Watch from the Trees | Support; blight-neutral |
| Rising Heat of Stone and Sand | Direct damage; blight-neutral |
| Sun-Bright Whirlwind | Mobility; blight-neutral |
| Shifting Memory of Ages | Card-focused; blight-neutral |
| Grinning Trickster Stirs Up Trouble | Disruption; blight-neutral |
| Many Minds Move as One | Beast-fear focus; blight-neutral |
| Shroud of Silent Mist | Damaged-invader focus; blight-neutral |
| Fractured Days Split the Sky | Time-skip focus; blight-neutral |
| Starlight Seeks Its Form | Form-dependent; mostly blight-neutral |
| Ember-Eyed Behemoth | Badlands-positive (blight as badlands for damage); interacts |
| Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine | Fear-focused; blight-neutral |
| Relentless Gaze of the Sun | Sun-Incarna; blight-neutral |
| Wandering Voice Keens Delirium | Strife-fear; blight-neutral |
| Dances Up Earthquakes | Earth-Incarna damage; blight-neutral |
| Covets Gleaming Shards of Earth | Major-hoarding; blight-neutral |
| Ferocious Warrior of the Lost Lands | Dahan-warrior focus; blight-neutral |
Blight-positive spirits
Two spirits want blight (Wildfire, Vengeance). Their partners must tolerate this:
- Wildfire adds blight for damage; partner spirits must not also blight-destructive.
- Vengeance treats blight as badlands (damage multiplier). Higher island blight = better Vengeance late-game.
A Wildfire or Vengeance spirit at the table means blight numbers approach the cap deliberately. Non-blight-positive partners must pivot to hard defend + blight removal to keep the pool from exhausting.
Blight cards (Branch & Claw+)
B&C introduces a blight deck — 24 cards with specific effects on blight. Ignore at your peril:
- Some cards add blight directly.
- Some cards remove blight.
- Some cards shift blight between lands.
See Fear, Blight & Event Decks Reference (M5 milestone) for per-card analysis.
Scenario blight modifiers
Several scenarios adjust blight:
- Second Wave: extra blight seeded at setup.
- Rituals of the Destroying Flame: blight accelerates dramatically.
- Powers Long Forgotten: limits powers that remove blight.
Always check scenario rules before drafting a blight-sensitive spirit into a scenario.
Stat insight
Per mindwanderer (2026-Q1):
- Games with 0 cascades: win rate ~72%.
- Games with 1 cascade: win rate ~46%.
- Games with 2+ cascades: win rate ~24%.
A cascade roughly halves your win probability. Prevention is worth almost any opportunity cost.
Common mistakes
Ignoring a 1-blight land after “solving” it. The blight persists until removed. Next ravage in that land can cascade.
Defending the wrong land. Defend a 0-blight land with high dahan → ravage clears it fine without defend. Defend a 1-blight land with low dahan → defend saves the cascade.
Not tracking blight pool count. “We have 6 blight left” sounds fine until you cascade and burn 3 in one fear card draw.
Playing Wildfire + Keeper at the same table without coordination. Wildfire wants blight; Keeper wants to remove it. They can coordinate (Wildfire blights target lands; Keeper heals elsewhere), but untalked-through = both frustrated.
Cross-references
- Terrain — cascade spreads through adjacency.
- Dahan — damage absorption.
- Presence Economy — presence as blight insurance.
- Fear, Blight & Event Decks — per-card reference.
Last revised: 2026-04-19