Introduction

Spirit Island is a cooperative, simultaneous-turn, deeply-asymmetric card-and-board game about native spirits driving colonial invaders off their island. It has — and this is the honest reason anyone writes a book about it — more decision depth per turn than you can hold in your head without training.

This book trains you for that.

What this guide is

A stats-driven mastery resource that synthesizes the community’s best work — Rei’s BGG guides, latentoctopus’s opening deep-dives, mindwanderer’s win-rate data, Spirited Discussion podcast analysis, and designer commentary — into a single reference that’s optimized for two uses:

1. Active learning: you use it to drill, iterate, and actually get better over real games.
2. At-the-table reference: you look up a matchup or a tactical question mid-game and get a concrete, stat-backed answer.

It is not an introductory rules teach. The Wiki, the Querki FAQ, and the official rulebook do that better than this book could. This guide assumes you know how to play the game; it focuses on how to play it well.

Who this is for

• Solo players who want to raise their win rate at L5–L6 difficulty.
• Multi-handed players transitioning to real multiplayer (including convention, meetup, and mixed-skill tables).
• Anyone who wants to read a spirit’s page before sleeve-sliding into that spirit and actually feel prepared.
• Teachers of the game who want scripts tuned to their audience’s time budget.

What’s novel here

Most Spirit Island strategy content is one of two shapes:

1. Vibes: “Thunderspeaker is great vs. England, try them.” True, but undertrained.
2. Rabbit holes: a 15,000-word Rei deep-dive on a single spirit. Excellent, but slow to consume.

This book is designed for the middle ground: every spirit, adversary, and scenario has a structured chapter with a predictable spine — so you can read one, skim the rest, and build pattern-recognition across 42 spirits without re-learning each one from scratch.

And it’s paired with a set of Claude skills that turn the book into a drill loop: daily challenges, combo drills, in-game tactical lookups, and post-game tracking. The book is inert reference until you use it. The skills make you use it.

How the content is organized

• Part I — Foundations: the game’s core loop and terminology. Read once, referenced forever.
• Part II — Fundamentals of Strategy: concepts that cross every spirit — tempo, presence economy, major-vs-minor, fear/blight/dahan dynamics.
• Part III — Spirit Mastery: 42 spirits, Rei’s-format deep dives, grouped by complexity.
• Part IV — Adversary Mastery: 8 adversaries, level-by-level strategy.
• Part V — Scenarios: 14 scenarios, pattern-focused.
• Part VI — Combos & Archetypes: 2-spirit pairings and strategic archetypes.
• Part VII — Playing with Others: teaching, group dynamics, convention norms, mixed-skill tables. Real-world multiplayer craft, often missing from strategy guides.
• Part VIII — The Statistics Lens: reading mindwanderer, understanding digital-vs-tabletop bias, self-tracking.
• Appendices: curated card reference, full fear/blight/event deck reference, glossary, sources, changelog, a “what should I read next?” progressive-disclosure index, and the Claude Skills Companion.

Living document

This book is living, iterative, and opinionated. It’s built to revise as:

• The community meta shifts (digital patches, new published strategy, new tier lists).
• Your play exposes gaps in a chapter’s advice.
• New expansions drop.

Every chapter carries a Last revised: YYYY-MM-DD footer. See the Meta Changelog for the running log.

How to read next

• New to serious play? Start with How to Use This Book, then The Core Loop.
• Skilled solo player, going multiplayer? Skip to Part VII — Playing with Others.
• Looking up a spirit tonight? Hit the Spirit Index and the Rei-format chapter for that spirit.
• Mid-game, need a tactical answer? Use the Claude Skills Companion’s si-at-the-table skill.

Last revised: 2026-04-19 — v0.1 (MVP)

How to Use This Book

The three reading modes

This book is optimized for three different reading sessions. Pick the one that matches what you’re doing right now.

Mode 1 — Read Before Your Next Game (15–30 min)

You have time before play. You know your spirit and adversary. Do this:

1. Open the spirit’s chapter in Part III.
2. Read At a Glance + Spirit Overview + Key Strategic Principles. That’s ~600 words.
3. Scan the Adversary Matchup Matrix row for your adversary. If the grade is B or worse, read the matching row carefully and note the 1–2 reasons.
4. Read the Opening Strategy subsection matching your draft choice.
5. Skim the Common Mistakes list. That’s the payoff per unit of reading time.

If your adversary is one you haven’t played much, add the adversary’s At a Glance + Spirits That Shine/Struggle from Part IV. Another ~300 words.

Mode 2 — Build a Session Plan (45–90 min)

You’re new to the spirit and new to the adversary. Or you’ve been losing and want to diagnose why. Do this:

1. Read the spirit chapter fully, including Card Priority Ratings and Tempo Profile.
2. Read the adversary chapter’s level-by-level breakdown for your chosen level.
3. Pick an Opening Strategy variant; write down its round-by-round goals on paper (literally — pen on paper, not a screen).
4. Play.
5. Debrief with the si-post-game Claude skill and compare your turns against the chapter’s Common Mistakes.

This is the highest-leverage mode. Most readers should default to this for any new spirit/adversary combination.

Mode 3 — At-the-Table Lookup (under 30 sec)

Mid-game. You have a decision and need signal, not a dissertation. Do this:

• Use the si-at-the-table Claude skill. You describe board state; it returns options with tradeoffs, not a solve.
• Or, if you have the book open on a second screen: search for the specific card name, or jump to the spirit’s Tempo Profile for the current round.

Never try to read a whole chapter mid-game. It takes too long and breaks the table’s flow.

The active-learning loop

The book alone won’t make you a master. Books rarely do. The loop is:

1. Challenge — generate today’s drill with si-daily-challenge. It picks a spirit × adversary × level × learning-goal based on your play history.
2. Read — spend 15 minutes on the spirit chapter (Mode 1 above).
3. Play — the challenge. Solo, multi-handed, or at-the-table.
4. Log & Debrief — run si-post-game. It logs to data/playlog.csv and surfaces the 1–2 mistakes most likely to be what cost you this game.
5. Iterate — tomorrow’s challenge shifts based on what you logged.

Repeat. After ~20–30 sessions you’ll notice you’re reading chapters less, because the patterns are in your head.

Notation you’ll see everywhere

This book uses the community-standard notation popularized by latentoctopus. Memorize this table:

The admonition palette

Six kinds of callout blocks, each with a specific meaning. See ADMONITION_STYLE for the style guide.

• Pro Tip — actionable in-game advice.
• Common Mistake — frequent trap + why.
• Stat Insight — data-backed claim with source/date/sample.
• Rules Clarification — from Querki FAQ, not opinion.
• Sources — citations at section or chapter end.
• Math — probability calculations, worked examples.

Confidence ratings (inherited from latentoctopus)

Opening-strategy subsections sometimes carry a confidence badge:

• 🟥 Red — tentative / theorycrafting.
• 🟨 Yellow — somewhat confident, limited play-testing.
• 🟩 Green — well-tested, consistent success.

If a chapter doesn’t carry a badge, assume the content is in the “yellow” tier.

How to give feedback

This book is a living document and feedback changes it.

• If a chapter’s advice failed you mid-game, note it in your si-post-game entry. Batched across sessions, these become revision tickets.
• If a stat is stale (digital patch shifted things), open an issue on the repo or DM Brett.
• If a common community pattern isn’t covered, same.

See Meta Changelog for the running edit log.

Last revised: 2026-04-19

Reader Self-Assessment

Three questions. Your answers route you to the right chapters to read first. The book is big; most readers only need 20–30 pages for their current level.

Question 1 — How many Spirit Island games have you played?

0–2 games:

• Start at The Core Loop and Terminology.
• Read How to Use This Book.
• Skip Parts II–VIII for now; you need the foundation first.
• Play 5 more games. Then come back.

3–10 games:

• You know the rules. Read Tempo, Major vs. Minor, Presence Economy.
• Pick one spirit chapter (Brett-priority: Shadows, Thunderspeaker, Ocean, Green, Bringer). Read it before your next game with that spirit.
• Skim Teaching Methods if you’ll be teaching someone.

10–50 games:

• Read Parts II, IV (adversaries you’ve played), VI (archetypes), VII (social).
• Pick your next spirit-to-master (Brett priorities) and read that chapter.
• Start using the Claude skills for daily challenge loop.

50+ games:

• The book’s stats + source-citations are for you. Read Statistics Lens (stub) when authored.
• Audit your playlog; identify weakest spirit/adversary; read that chapter.
• Consider contributing revisions — you have table experience the chapters don’t yet capture.

Question 2 — What’s your current play format?

True solo (1 spirit, 1 hand):

• Solo strategy is woven through every spirit chapter.
• Fear Track and Blight Track apply solo.
• Skip Part VII (social) until you go multiplayer.

Multi-handed (1 player, 2+ spirits):

• Same spirit chapters; read multiple.
• Archetype Index for partner-spirit selection.
• Two-Player Dynamics — the “multi-handed tip” at the end of that chapter applies here.

Real multiplayer (2–4 players):

• Part VII in full.
• Specifically Alpha-Player Problem and Mixed-Skill Tables.
• Archetype Index for coverage planning.

Convention / meetup:

• Convention & Meetup Norms.
• Playing with Strangers.
• Teaching Methods if teaching.

Question 3 — What’s your current win rate at L3?

Under 50%:

• Your gap is likely tempo or draft. Read Tempo and Major vs. Minor.
• You’re likely drafting cards that don’t fit your spirit’s archetype.
• Log 10 games via si-post-game; the common-mistake surfacing will diagnose specific issues.

50–75%:

• You have fundamentals. Your gap is likely matchup-specific.
• Read the adversary chapter for your worst-matchup.
• Try unfamiliar spirits (Brett priorities) to broaden exposure.

75%+:

• You’re ready for L5+ and scenarios.
• Read the archetype chapters and start pairing spirits deliberately.
• Explore aspects (coming in M3+).

What this book won’t tell you

• Rules you don’t know: read the rulebook or Querki FAQ first. This book assumes game literacy.
• How to lose gracefully: well, kind of — see Post-Game Debrief. But losing is an internal skill.
• Which spirit is “best”: meta shifts; every spirit wins at L6 with the right partner and adversary. “Best” is context.

If you get stuck

• Re-run the daily-challenge skill.
• Revisit your most-lost matchup in the adversary chapter.
• Post a specific question in the Spirit of the Island Discord.
• Update the book’s changelog with what you learned.

Last revised: 2026-04-19

The Core Loop

Every turn of Spirit Island is the same loop. Master the loop and the rest of the game — 42 spirits, 8 adversaries, 14 scenarios — become variations on the same underlying pattern.

This chapter is your map of that pattern.

The six phases (round structure)

1. Spirit Phase — Growth. Every spirit grows once per turn, picking from 2–4 options. This is where presence goes onto the board, cards get gained, and energy gets collected.
2. Fast Powers — Each spirit chooses cards + innate powers with the “fast” symbol to play before the invaders move. This is your pre-emptive defense / offense window.
3. Invader Phase — Explorers → Towns → Cities. Each card in the Invader Deck triggers:
   • Ravage in one terrain — invaders damage dahan + land.
   • Build in another — towns/cities spawn.
   • Explore in a third — new explorers arrive (from the ocean or from another land with invaders).
4. Slow Powers — Cards + innates with the “slow” symbol. This is your post-invader cleanup / damage application window.
5. Time Passes — Damage clears from still-alive invaders, blight cascades are resolved if triggered, fear cards are drawn + resolved.
6. End of Round — Refresh / discard hand as appropriate, check win/loss conditions.

Every card is either fast or slow. The distinction determines what you can actually do with it.

The three currencies

Decision depth comes from the interaction of three currencies you spend every turn:

1. Energy

You spend energy to play cards. Unspent energy rolls over.

• Starts at 0–2 depending on spirit.
• Grows along the presence track.
• You usually want to run lean on energy — banking too much means you underspent your card plays.

2. Card Plays (CP)

The number of cards you can play from hand each turn.

• Starts at 1–2.
• Grows along the presence track.
• CP is the bottleneck currency for most spirits past round 3.

3. Cards in Hand

Cards come from your spirit’s starting 4, plus Minors/Majors you gain during growth. Reclaim pulls your played + discarded cards back.

• Hand size constraints vary by spirit.
• Acquiring cards trades presence-track progress or energy for card-pool depth.
• Forgetting (permanently removing) a card is a real, often necessary move.

The spirit’s growth track(s)

Every spirit has 1–3 presence tracks with unlockable slots. Growth spends a growth option to:

• Place presence on the board (from a specific slot).
• Gain energy.
• Gain card play.
• Gain a card (minor or major).
• Reclaim (return discards to hand).
• Gain an element (for innate power thresholds).

The single most important strategic question on most turns is: which growth option did I pick, and why?

Presence on the board

Presence tokens are physical markers on the board. They serve three simultaneous purposes:

1. Targeting — most spirit powers require presence in or near the target land.
2. Sacred Sites — 2+ presence tokens in the same land form a sacred site, which enables certain powers and innates.
3. Absorbing damage — when a ravage destroys your presence, it usually generates blight but saves the dahan.

Presence is simultaneously your tempo investment, your board control, and your damage sink. Trade-offs between those three roles are where spirit skill lives.

The four invader pressures

Each adversary plus the standard invader deck puts pressure on you in four dimensions:

1. Time — how many rounds before you lose to blight cascade, territory overrun, or a Stage III escalation?
2. Board — how many lands have invaders; how densely?
3. Fear — are you generating fear fast enough to hit Terror 2/3 before the clock runs out?
4. Dahan — are the island’s native people being preserved, killed, or deployed?

Different adversaries weight these dimensions differently. England pressures board + time with Stage III coastal invasions; Russia pressures dahan with settler mechanics; Sweden pressures fear early with its own fear penalties.

Win conditions

1. Fear → Terror 3 — generate enough fear to flip all three terror cards; then the win condition becomes “destroy all cities and towns” (Terror 2 drops the “and towns” requirement for simpler wins, and Terror 3 drops everything to just “no invaders in any land”).
2. Scenario-specific — e.g., Blitz requires defeating invaders within N rounds.
3. Adversary-specific — the adversary’s Stage III often adds a strict victory condition alongside the base.

Loss conditions

1. Blight exhausts — island blight pool runs out, cascade triggers, and you lose.
2. Destroyed-presence loss — some spirits or scenarios impose “if spirit has 0 presence, lose.”
3. Terror-track exhaustion — some scenarios add this.
4. Round cap — rare, scenario-specific.

Reading the board

In order of priority:

1. Where is the next Ravage going to hit? — look at the Invader Deck’s top card.
2. Where’s the next Build? — next card up.
3. Where are invaders explored into? — rotating through the Explore slot.
4. Blight budget — how close are we to cascade?
5. Fear track position — how many fear cards until next Terror flip?
6. Dahan density — in the Ravage target: are there enough dahan to counterattack?

The turn-planning pyramid

Every turn, plan in this order:

1. Growth choice — because growth happens first and shapes everything after.
2. The Ravage you must prevent or absorb — the hard constraint.
3. The Build you want to kill or delay — optional but high-value.
4. Element accumulation — are you on track for innate thresholds?
5. Fear generation — how much fear do you leave on the table this turn?
6. Card discards for next turn — will you reclaim this turn, or do you need cards in hand for next turn?

Beginners plan in reverse order (cards first, growth last) and it produces chaotic turns. Always start from growth.

Summary — the loop in one paragraph

Each round: grow, play fast cards, suffer the invader phase, play slow cards, process time-passes (fear + blight), check win/loss. Your currencies are energy, card plays, and cards in hand; you trade them for presence, elements, and cards via growth. The game ends when fear hits Terror 3 (or a scenario win fires), or when blight cascades (or a scenario loss fires). Everything else in this book is texture on top.

Last revised: 2026-04-19

Terminology

Every game has a jargon cost. Spirit Island’s is especially heavy because the community developed its own shorthand on top of the rulebook. Read this once; then refer back when the Glossary isn’t enough.

Core game terms

Card-related terms

Growth & track terminology (latentoctopus notation)

See How to Use This Book for the full notation table. Quick recall:

• Gn: growth option n from left. G3 = third option.
• nE: n energy/turn.
• nCP: n card plays/turn.
• Full bottom / Full top / Hybrid: opening presence-track patterns.

Element terminology

Elements are printed on card costs, spirit presence tracks, and innate thresholds. The eight elements are:

Sun, Moon, Fire, Air, Water, Earth, Plant, Animal

Compound element types matter for certain cards (e.g., “fire-plant” = fire + plant on the same card).

Adversary-specific jargon

Community jargon (that rulebooks don’t teach)

Stats / analysis terms

Quick-orientation for this book

When you see:

• a bolded term without link → it’s in this page’s table, read above.
• a linked term → it has its own deep chapter.
• notation like G3 or 3CP → How to Use This Book.
• Rei’s or latentoctopus citations → Sources.

Last revised: 2026-04-19

Reading a Card

Every power card in Spirit Island carries ~7 pieces of information packed into its layout. Reading them correctly in order is a trainable skill; doing it fast is what separates confident play from tabletop fumbling.

This chapter walks through the anatomy of a power card.

The anatomy

A standard power card has:

1. Name — top. Used for reference + community jargon.
2. Type — Minor / Major / Unique. Distinguishes deck pool.
3. Cost — energy cost to play. Top-left corner (by convention).
4. Speed — Fast or Slow. Determines timing phase.
5. Elements — icons showing which elements this card contributes when played.
6. Target — valid targeting range + land requirements.
7. Effect — the rules text of what happens.

Reading order (in play)

When you pick up a card from hand and consider playing it, read in this order for efficient decision:

1. Cost — can I afford it? Check energy pool.
2. Speed — is this the right phase? Fast cards pre-ravage, Slow post-ravage.
3. Target — can I legally target what I want? Check presence + range.
4. Elements — do I care about the element contribution this turn?
5. Effect — does the effect solve my current problem?

Beginners read in order 1 → 7 as printed. Experienced players read in priority order above. Skipping to target first (when targeting is the question) saves mid-game time.

Target types

Targeting is often the trickiest part. Common target types:

• “A land with your presence” — your presence must be in the target land (Range-0).
• “Range N from your presence” — target up to N adjacent lands from any land with your presence.
• “Range N from a source of your presence” — same, with “source” terminology.
• “Sacred Site” — the target must have 2+ of your presence.
• “Any land” — no range restriction (rare).
• “Coast” — a land bordering ocean.

Terrain restrictions stack on top:

• “Jungle or Mountain” — target must be jungle or mountain.
• “Any terrain” — no terrain restriction.

Speed matters

Fast cards resolve in the Fast Powers phase (before Invader Phase). They’re used to:

• Kill Explorers before they become Towns.
• Defend against upcoming Ravages.
• Push invaders out of Build lands.

Slow cards resolve in Slow Powers phase (after Invader Phase). They’re used to:

• Clean up invaders that survived Ravage.
• Generate fear from kill-damage.
• Set up positions for next turn’s Fast plays.

Same effect on a Fast vs. Slow card is not the same card. Timing shapes use.

Elements

Elements on a card contribute to your elemental total when played. Each card contributes:

• 1–3 elements per card (depending on card).
• Once per play (not per turn-wide effect).

Elements drive innate power activations. Check your spirit’s innate threshold requirements and track element totals each turn.

Effect reading

The effect text uses game keywords:

• Damage — lethal to invaders at 1 per HP (Explorer 1, Town 2, City 3).
• Defend N — reduce next Ravage damage by N in target land.
• Push / Gather — move invaders or dahan.
• Destroy / Remove — kill or remove token (context-dependent).
• Fear — add fear to pool.
• Blight — add blight token.

Many effects chain: “Destroy 1 Explorer; gain 1 energy.” Both clauses resolve when the card plays.

Conditional effects

Some cards have conditional text:

• “If target land has dahan: deal +1 damage” — dahan must be present at the moment the card resolves.
• “If this card’s element threshold met: additional effect” — threshold check at play-time.

Check conditions before committing the play. Some conditions reveal the play’s inefficiency.

Unique cards vs. pool cards

• Unique — starts in your hand; spirit-specific.
• Minor — universal pool; cheap.
• Major — universal pool; expensive and powerful.

Unique cards sometimes have spirit-specific rules printed in smaller text (e.g., “only Shroud can play this” in an aspect variant).

The “looks cool” trap

The single biggest reading mistake: taking a card because its effect sounds impressive, without checking:

• Can I afford the cost?
• Can I hit the element threshold for the full effect?
• Can I target what I need to target?

A “destroy all invaders in target land” Major at 8 energy with 3 Plant threshold requires playing conditions that may not align with your spirit. Read the fine print.

Cross-references

• Tempo — timing + cost.
• Terrain — target restrictions.
• Adjacency & Range — range rules.
• Card Draft Theory — evaluating cards before gain.

Last revised: 2026-04-19

Deliberate Play

The single biggest difference between intermediate and advanced Spirit Island is not knowing more cards or playing a stronger spirit. It’s stopping between actions to ask what the board actually looks like and what options it actually affords — before reaching for the play your opener rehearsed or the card that “feels right”.

This is the habit this chapter is built to train.

The auto-pilot trap

Auto-pilot is what happens when you execute without evaluating:

• You play Concealing Shadows T1 because that’s what the opener said, without asking whether Concealing’s headline effect (Ravage-protection) is even material this turn.
• You pick Growth G2 because you usually pick G2, without tallying what income each track would give you across the next three turns.
• You target Mantle of Dread on land #6 because that’s where your presence is, without noticing that the Build just happened in land #3 and your push matters more there.
• You let Darkness Swallows fire whatever level triggers because it’s free, without asking whether Level 1’s Gather or Level 2’s Destroy better fits the situation.

Every one of those decisions might be correct. But when you make them without a deliberate evaluation, you give up the ability to notice when they’re wrong — which is the exact moment the game turns on you.

Auto-pilot is the default intermediate failure mode. You escape it by installing a few short, fixed pauses into every turn.

The per-phase checklist

Laminate this. Or keep a notecard. Or paste it inside the box. Every turn, in every phase below, ask these questions out loud before acting.

Growth phase

1. What is my hand / discard / elements going into this turn? Count cards in each pile; count total Moon / Fire / Air / Sun / Water / Earth / Plant / Animal available.
2. What’s my Energy income next round for each growth choice × track choice? Compute all branches before picking. (Example: Shadows G3-via-CP = 3E this turn / 2CP; G3-via-Energy = 4E / 1CP.)
3. What’s the highest-leverage presence placement on the current board? The land with the most-imminent Build? A land that gives me range into the next Ravage target? A sacred-site candidate?
4. Which option best matches the 3-turn plan I set at game start? If none do, am I pivoting — and what’s my new plan?

Energy phase (after growth resolves)

1. How much Energy and how many CP do I have right now?
2. Which card combinations can I afford? Enumerate every legal subset of my hand by (sum of costs ≤ Energy) × (count ≤ CP). Don’t skip to the “obvious” one.
3. Which cards do I MUST play this turn vs. bank for later? A card that threshold-enables my innate THIS turn is must-play. A card that’s just “strong” is bank-able.

Fast Power phase

1. In what order do I resolve Fast cards + Fast innates? Order matters — e.g., a Gather that moves Dahan into a land enables a conditional Fear on a later Slow play.
2. What’s my Element total, and which innate levels does it meet? Every card you played this turn grants its Elements from the moment you played it, Fast or Slow, so a Slow card’s Elements count for a Fast innate. Add uncovered Presence-track Elements (if you haven’t yet chosen a Presence-track “Any” Element, choose it now; it stays fixed until next turn). Write it out if you’re not sure.
3. Are there Dahan movements / damage / explorations triggered by my Fast effects? Resolve the board consequences fully, one effect at a time.

Invader phase

1. Explore: where do new Explorers arrive? (Any land adjacent to a City, Town, or ocean for coastal — per the Invader card + adversary modifiers.)
2. Build: which lands have Invaders that trigger a Build? What does the current Build card say about which terrain Builds?
3. Ravage: which lands Ravage? Compute Damage → Dahan fight-back → Blight. Don’t skip steps; mistakes here cascade into T+1 planning errors.

Slow Power phase

1. In what order do I resolve Slow cards + Slow innates? Again, order matters — a Push that removes an Invader before a Fear-conditional evaluates can make/break the conditional.
2. Has my Element total changed since the Fast phase? It’s the same total your Fast innates checked, unless something changed it mid-turn: a Presence-track Element uncovered, a card played mid-turn, or a card Forgotten from play. If it changed, re-check thresholds.
3. Did any Event / Blight / other side-effect happen this turn that I need to factor into the end state?

Time Passes

1. What’s my state entering next turn? Hand / discard / forgotten; Energy bank; Presence on board + tracks; Fear pool; Blight pool; Terror level.
2. Does the plan I set at game start still apply, or have board conditions changed enough that I’m pivoting? Name the pivot trigger explicitly.

Cross-turn prompts

Every 2–3 rounds, step back and re-evaluate at a higher altitude:

• 3-turn lookahead: what do I want the board to look like at the end of T+3? Which plays between now and then move it there?
• Pivot triggers: list 2–3 board conditions under which I abandon the current plan. Examples: “if Fear pool is < 4 by T3, shift to Favors-triggering plays”; “if a City appears in a coast I can’t hit, draft a Push major”.
• Engagement audit: am I actually making decisions, or am I executing a script? If the last three turns felt rote, something’s probably being left on the table.

Common auto-pilot failures + their remediation

How this chapter integrates elsewhere

• Per-spirit Possible Openings — each turn block in every spirit chapter includes a “Pause-point” callout referencing one or two of the questions above, specialized to what most often trips players up on that spirit.
• si-at-the-table skill — responses surface the decision-tree (options + deciding factor), not just a conclusion. That’s the whole point of the skill.
• si-live tool — per-phase UI prompts that show the state-relevant questions (e.g., during Growth: current track state, income branches; during Fast: element pool, innate-threshold proximity).
• si-rules-check skill — returns the phase-timing summary so writers can’t accidentally bake auto-pilot assumptions into the chapter text.

The minimum viable practice

If you only have energy for one pause per turn, make it Growth. Wrong growth choice at T1 is the single biggest correctable swing in a Spirit Island game: it compounds for eight rounds. Growth is where auto-pilot costs the most.

If you have energy for two pauses per turn, add the pre-play element tally: before committing your cards, total the Elements of every card you plan to play, Fast and Slow alike, plus uncovered Presence-track Elements, and check each innate’s thresholds. This catches the “one Element short” turn while you can still swap a card. It also catches the opposite error: holding back a Slow card because you think its Elements arrive too late for a Fast innate. They don’t. You gain a card’s Elements the moment you play it.

Three pauses: add the end-of-turn pivot check. “Does my 3-turn plan still apply?” If yes, continue. If no, spend 30 seconds naming the new plan before Time Passes.

Build these three pauses into reflex and the rest of the framework follows.

Terrain

Every land on the island is one of four terrains. Terrain determines what powers can target it, where invaders explore to, which innates fire, and which spirits feel at home. Reading the terrain spread on your board — before you even pick growth — is the single skill that separates mid-level play from advanced play.

The four terrains

Rivers and mountain-ringed centers don’t count as their own terrain — they’re land-type modifiers.

Coastal vs. inland

Coastal: the land shares a border with the ocean (the blue area at the edge of the board). Invaders Explore from the ocean into coastal lands.

Inland: no ocean border. Invaders Explore into inland from adjacent invader-held lands.

The distinction matters constantly:

• Ocean’s innates care about coastal presence.
• England Stage III introduces coastal Cities.
• Explore chain analysis depends on whether the source is a coastal or inland land.

Terrain and the invader deck

Invader cards specify terrain:

“Stage I card: Ravage Jungle, Build Mountain, Explore Sand.”

The terrain mix of your board determines which cards hit you harder. A jungle-heavy board means jungle Ravage cards hurt more (more lands at once); a mountain-sparse board means Mountain-build cards hurt less but consolidate pressure.

Pre-game terrain audit: look at your board before drafting. Count:

• Number of lands per terrain.
• Coastal terrain distribution (jungle + coastal? mountain + inland only?).
• Which terrains have dahan starting in them.

This shapes which opening variant to pick.

Terrain-gated powers

Many powers specify valid target terrain:

• “Target: Jungle or Wetland.”
• “Target: Any terrain.”
• “Target: Sacred Site in Mountain.”

When drafting, check whether the offered card’s terrain restriction matches where your presence is (or will be). A Mountain-only card on a mountain-sparse board is near-dead.

Spirits by preferred terrain

Not every spirit cares, but many do:

All 39 spirits below. “Any” = terrain-agnostic; the spirit cares about adjacency/density/dahan/coasts more than terrain type.

Base (8):

Branch & Claw (2):

Promo — Feather & Flame (2):

Promo Pack 2 (2):

Horizons (5):

Jagged Earth (10):

Nature Incarnate (10):

Terrain and innates

Some innates reference terrain directly: “If target land is Jungle, deal +2 damage.” This shifts element + terrain calculus together. Before drafting a Jungle-bonus innate spirit, verify the board has 4+ Jungle lands.

Rivers

Rivers are printed modifiers on certain lands. They:

• Don’t count as water for element purposes (Water-element is on cards; rivers are geography).
• Alter adjacency for some spirits (a river-edged land has more neighbors or specific neighbors).
• Interact with specific cards (e.g., “push across a river” effects).

On boards with rivers (most Jagged Earth boards), factor river geometry into push/gather planning.

Terrain and blight

Blight affects the land regardless of terrain, but terrain-specific cards that reduce blight (Green’s Fresh Paint the Island, some Keeper cards) require matching terrain. If your blight cascade risk is in a Mountain and your blight-removal cards target Jungle, you have no solution — read the threat ahead.

Multi-spirit terrain splits

In 2+ player games, a common coordination pattern is terrain splitting:

“You handle the Jungle/Wetland side; I’ll take Mountain/Sand side.”

This is often wrong:

• The invader deck moves pressure between terrains turn by turn.
• A rigid split leaves one spirit under-employed most turns.

Better pattern: “You focus on the inland hub; I’ll focus on the coastal lands,” regardless of terrain. Terrain is a scan-before-turn variable, not a partnership boundary.

Reading ahead

Top 3 terrain reads before Turn 1:

1. Which terrain has the most lands? — that’s where builds compound fastest.
2. Is there a “lonely terrain” (1–2 lands)? — Ravage or Build there can be a trap; invaders concentrate in scarce terrain.
3. Coastal balance — what proportion of lands are coastal? >50% = Ocean-strong board; <30% = inland-only strategies favored.

Common mistakes

Cross-references

• Adjacency & Range — how terrain + adjacency interact.
• Presence Economy — terrain-aware presence placement.
• Blight Track — terrain-specific blight removal.

Last revised: 2026-04-19

Adjacency & Range

Adjacency is deceptively simple: two lands are adjacent if they share a border. Range is how many adjacent-hops a power can reach. Everything else — every targeting rule, every push/gather question, every “can I play this card here?” — derives from this.

And despite the simplicity, adjacency questions come up every game, usually under time pressure, usually with real stakes.

The basic rule

Two lands are adjacent if they share a border on the board. Adjacency is symmetric (if A is adjacent to B, B is adjacent to A).

The ocean counts as one “land” for adjacency purposes:

• Coastal lands are adjacent to the ocean.
• Coastal lands on the same ocean are not adjacent to each other unless they share a land border.

Range

Range-N means the target land is N hops away from a qualifying source.

• Range-0 or “your presence”: the target land contains your presence.
• Range-1: target is adjacent to a land with your presence.
• Range-2: target is up to 2 hops away from a land with your presence.

Hops count through the ocean for range purposes only if the power allows it — most powers restrict to land-to-land adjacency.

Range examples

• Your presence is in a jungle land. A Range-1 power can target that jungle land OR any adjacent land (jungle’s neighbors).
• Two lands apart via a mountain: Range-2 can hop over.
• Two coastal lands, not sharing a border, both adjacent to ocean: Range-1 can NOT hop between them through the ocean (unless the power specifies ocean-traversal).

“Source of your presence” vs. “your presence”

Many powers distinguish:

• “Target land with your presence”: the presence itself must be in the target.
• “Source of your presence”: the presence is adjacent to or in the target, depending on range.
• “Any” source: no restriction — sometimes with the caveat “from any Spirit’s presence” in multiplayer.

Read the card carefully. “Source of your presence” with Range-1 does NOT require your presence in the target; only adjacent-from.

Sacred sites

2+ presence in one land = a sacred site. Some powers key off sacred-site adjacency rather than presence adjacency. For those, a lone presence in an adjacent land does not satisfy the targeting — the sacred site itself must be positioned correctly.

Ocean and coastal

The ocean is one continuous “land space” for targeting purposes in most contexts:

• Powers with “Target: ocean” exist (rare, typically Ocean-spirit cards).
• Coastal lands around the same ocean are not adjacent to each other via ocean (no hop-through) unless stated.
• Ocean’s Hungry Grasp has specific exceptions: its presence in the ocean treats coastal lands as adjacent.

Shroud’s Mists Shift and Flow

Shroud of Silent Mist has a special rule that modifies adjacency for its own targeting: when playing a power, Shroud may move (gather) one presence into the target land or an adjacent land to meet range requirements. This effectively extends Shroud’s reach by 1 land hop, mid-play, for the cost of disrupting presence position.

Rei’s strategic note: this is the rule that gives Shroud its “spatial mobility” feel and supports the damaged-invader farming playstyle.

Finder and vision

Finder of Paths Unseen uses Vision tokens that interact with adjacency in ways other spirits don’t. Targeting can reach further via Vision-token chains. Not a universal rule; Finder-specific.

Adjacency edge cases

River crossings

Some boards mark rivers on land borders. By default, rivers don’t block adjacency — two lands on either side of a river are still adjacent. But specific powers say “across a river” or “not across a river,” modifying from the base.

Coastal diagonals

Coastal lands touching only at a corner (not a full border) are NOT adjacent. Corner-touching is not shared-border.

“Within Range N” vs. “Range N”

“Within Range N” includes 0 (your presence counts). “Range N” sometimes excludes 0 — read the card.

Beast/Dahan movement

Push and Gather move units between adjacent lands by default, unless a spirit rule extends (Many Minds: Beasts move up to 2 lands via Fly Fast as Thought).

Pre-turn adjacency audit

Before finalizing your turn, check adjacency for each card:

1. Does my presence (or Sacred Site) satisfy the source requirement?
2. Is the target within range from the correct source type?
3. Are there any special adjacency rules (Shroud’s Mists, Ocean’s coastal extension, river crossings)?

Most adjacency errors come from trying to target a land that looked in-range but wasn’t. Visual intuition fails on Spirit Island’s dense boards — verify by counting hops.

Common mistakes

Cross-references

• Terrain — adjacency + terrain shape.
• Presence Economy — presence placement decisions factor in future range.
• Spirit Island Wiki — Adjacency rules
• Querki FAQ — Rules commonly misplayed — has specific adjacency clarifications

Last revised: 2026-04-19

Board Shaping — Push, Kill Zones, and Explore Lockout

Every Spirit Island turn eventually reduces to one question: where do the pieces go? Push them toward the coast, or into a kill zone? Leave this land at 2 Invaders, or pull a fourth one in and light it up? The answers depend on three decisions that compound across turns — get any of them wrong and the board shape collapses faster than your Fear track can generate burst.

This chapter is the decision framework. It assumes you’ve read Adjacency & Range and Terrain; those cover what moves where, not when you should want it to.

Why board-shaping matters

Fear generation gets the headlines, but board state is the scoreboard for most games. A board with 4 Blight and 12 Invaders on T5 is losing regardless of fear count; a board with 0 Blight and a known-dying ravage lane is winning regardless of whether Terror 2 has hit. Every push, every gather, every Remove/Destroy choice is shaping that state.

The critical property of board state: it compounds. A Town you left alive on T3 is a City that drops two Invaders into an adjacent land on T6. A coastal land you diluted into has two more Explorers by T5 because the Ocean never stops seeding. Decisions made at mid-game get amortized across every remaining turn.

The three decisions inside every push

When a power offers “push up to N pieces,” you’re actually making three decisions in sequence:

1. Direction. Coastal, interior, into a land with Dahan, into a land adjacent to your planned kill zone?
2. Density. Concentrate pieces into a single land (for an AOE) or dilute them so no land hits ravage critical mass?
3. Durability. Will the push put pieces somewhere they’ll stay dead after the kill, or somewhere Explore will re-seed them next matching draw?

Good players juggle all three implicitly. New players usually fixate on #1 and treat #2 and #3 as rounding errors — which is why T6 always looks worse than T3 did.

Coast always explores — the statistical floor

Source: see data/references/rules/explore-phase.md for the verbatim rule and Wiki revision ID.

The “adjacent to Ocean” clause is the fault line every board-shaping decision runs along. Every coastal land is a permanent Explore source. You cannot Explore-lock the coast short of removing it from the map entirely (which only a few scenario/power effects can do). An interior land, by contrast, can go Explore-dead: if neither the land itself nor any of its adjacent lands contains a Town or City, a matching Explore card adds nothing.

The statistical weight

Each Invader Deck card is one of four terrains (or a Stage-specific terrain pair). On any given Explore:

• Coastal lands matching the terrain: every single one gets an Explorer. No exceptions.
• Interior lands matching the terrain: only the ones still linked to a Town/City chain get an Explorer.

On a standard 8-land board, roughly half the lands are coastal. So at least half of every matching Explore draw is guaranteed to land on the coast. Clearing coastal Invaders buys you one turn of relief; Explore refills them on the next matching card. Clearing interior Invaders — and the building chain feeding them — buys you permanent relief until Build or an Event reseeds.

This is why experienced players prioritize clearing interior Towns: the kill is durable. A coastal Town killed on T4 becomes an Explorer on T5 (matching terrain) and a Town again on T7 Build. An interior Town killed on T4, with its adjacent chain also broken, stays dead.

Concentrate vs. dilute — decision framework

Given the push you’re about to make, should you pack Invaders into one land (concentrate) or spread them across multiple lands (dilute)?

No single row wins; you’re summing the column. Concentration is a big-swing play with a tight window; dilution is a steady-state play that costs you Fear.

Adversary riders

Ramp shape changes which of the two defaults is correct. These ride on top of the table above:

• England (L3+): Stage III adds Cities to coastal lands on Build. Diluting into the coast feeds future Cities. Prefer interior kill zones even when AOE is shaky. See England chapter.
• Brandenburg-Prussia: Sands attracts building upgrades; piling Invaders in Sands is a trap unless the kill is locked the same turn. See Brandenburg-Prussia chapter.
• Sweden: Build-heavy; concentration lets a single Build/Ravage cycle compound. Dilute by default unless the kill is fast.
• France (Plantation Colony, B&C): Dahan attract Invaders. Push Invaders away from Dahan lands; concentrate in Dahan-empty lands. See France Plantation chapter.
• Scotland / Russia: [VERIFY — adversary-specific ramp riders pending per-chapter review].

Spirit-archetype riders

Your spirit’s native toolkit biases the default:

• Push / move-heavy (Keeper, Finder, Wind, River): dilute by default. Your offense is geography, not damage. Kill zones only when a teammate is providing the AOE.
• Damage-heavy (Fire, Wildfire, Serpent, Volcano, Lightning): concentrate by default. Your kit is built for kill zones. Dilution leaves power on the table.
• Isolate-heavy (Shadows, Serpent): concentrate and isolate. A kill zone you can Isolate stops reinforcements for the turn it takes to light it up.
• Defense-heavy (Stone, Mist, Vital Strength): dilute by default. Your kit blunts Ravage; you don’t need to prevent the Ravage, you need to survive it.
• Fear farmers (Bringer, Shadows, Vengeance, Wandering Voice): concentrate in lands where the AOE will generate fear-per-kill, but dilute on off-turns to keep the board stable for long enough to finish the fear deck.

Worked example — T4 vs. Brandenburg-Prussia L5

Mid-game, 2-spirit: River Surges in Sunlight + Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves. Your board has three threats:

• Interior Jungle at 2 Towns (adjacent chain: one more Town two lands over).
• Coastal Sands at 1 City + 2 Explorers.
• Interior Mountain at 1 Town (no adjacent Town/City chain).

Ravage Card revealed: Jungle. Fangs has Devouring Teeth queued (Slow, destroys 2 Invaders in a Jungle/Mountain). River has Wash Away prepared with Push-4.

Decision tree:

• Concentrate into the Jungle: Push the Sands Explorers inland, light up Devouring Teeth for 2 kills. Kills a Town but leaves the other Town and the City. Next turn’s Ravage still hits coastal Sands with a City.
• Dilute from the Jungle: Push the Jungle Towns into Mountain (Explore-dead) and Sands (coast, stays live). Devouring Teeth loses a target; you’ve traded 2 kills for durability on the Mountain push.

The Prussia rider says “Sands concentration = trap without locked kill.” You don’t have a Sands kill. Dilute the Jungle Towns: 1 into Mountain (durable), 1 into Sands (accepting the coast-always-explores cost). Use Devouring Teeth on the remaining Jungle Town; you still get 1 Invader cleared durably, and the Mountain land is now Explore-locked.

Common mistakes

Further reading

• Adjacency & Range — what “adjacent” means mechanically.
• Terrain — terrain scarcity shapes which lands are candidates for kill zones.
• Dahan — Dahan presence flips the concentrate/dilute default.
• The Fear Track — kill zones are fear-burst plays; dilution is fear-slow.
• The Blight Track — Blight health gates concentration aggression.
• Combos — Terrain Control — specific power combinations that exploit Explore-lockout.
• Explore-phase rule reference — verbatim Wiki text + adjacency clarifications.

Invader Lifecycle — Prevent Builds, Not Ravages

The single most-repeated fundamental in Spirit Island community writing: stopping a Build is strictly better than stopping a Ravage of equal magnitude. Yet new players instinctively target Ravages, because Ravages are the loud thing — they damage the land, they kill Dahan, they add Blight. Builds are quiet. They just put a Town down.

That Town Ravages next turn, and it stays to Build again (and to seed Explores next door) every time its terrain comes back. This chapter is the math and the heuristics behind why preventing Builds compounds.

The three-card slide

Each Invader card lives in three slots across three turns:

Turn N:    Explore → [Build]  [Ravage]  (card A: just explored)
                                        (card B: Builds this turn)
                                        (card C: Ravages this turn)
Turn N+1:  Explore → [Build]  [Ravage]  (card B moves to Ravage)
                                        (card C discards)
Turn N+2:  Explore → [Build]  [Ravage]  (card A now Ravages)

A terrain that’s in the Ravage slot right now Explored two turns ago. A terrain in the Build slot will Ravage next turn. An Explore happening now will Ravage in two turns. Every card you see has a future role. The lands Ravaging this turn are already set, and only Fast Powers resolve before that Ravage; your power curve should already be acting on the Build slot (preventing next turn’s Ravage) and on the current Explore (preventing the Ravage two turns out).

The slide starts during Setup: the Invaders Explore the first card and place it on the Build space, so Turn 1 Builds and Turn 2 is the first Ravage (core rulebook, “Invaders’ Starting Action”). Turn 1 is your first chance to stop a Build. At each Spirit Phase you know which lands Ravage this turn and which Build (and so Ravage next turn), but not which will Explore.

Why Build-prevention beats Ravage-prevention

Say a land has 1 Town + 1 Explorer and Builds this turn. Two paths:

Path A — let it Build, prevent the Ravage next turn.

• Build turn: land becomes 1 Town + 1 City + 1 Explorer (Build rule: more Towns than Cities adds a City; otherwise, including equal, adds a Town — at 1 Town, 0 Cities, add a City).
• Next turn’s Ravage: 6 damage (1 per Explorer + 2 per Town + 3 per City) → 1 Blight (which Destroys one Presence of each Spirit there) and up to 3 Dahan Destroyed, unless defended.
• You spent a Defend power next turn. The Town and the new City are still alive to Build next time their terrain rolls in.

Path B — shrink or stop the Build this turn (with a Fast Power, so it lands before the Build resolves).

• Destroy the Town (1 Fear): the land has 1 Explorer, so 0 Towns and 0 Cities → the Build adds a Town. Now 1 Town + 1 Explorer, and next turn’s Ravage is 3 damage — cheaper to Defend, or survivable without it.
• Clear both pieces: with no Invaders in the land, it doesn’t Build at all, and unless new Invaders arrive, it has nothing to Ravage with next turn.
• Push only the Explorer out: the lone Town still means more Towns than Cities, so a City is added (1 Town + 1 City, 5 damage). Little gained.
• You spent the prevention power this turn but saved a Defend next turn, and the land carries fewer Invaders into every later Build and Ravage.

When prevention breaks — Build-immune threats

Some lands can’t be prevented via Build-disruption:

• Cities: a land Builds as long as it has any Invader, and a City (3 Health) is the hardest piece to clear. Killing the Explorers beside it changes nothing: the Build still adds a Town (Cities equal to or more than Towns) or another City (more Towns than Cities). You can’t “prevent” the Build unless you Push/Destroy the City itself and turn the land into a no-Invader land (every piece gone).
• Adversary builds and additions: several Adversary rules Build or add pieces outside the Build card’s own Build. England’s Escalation (Building Boom, on Stage II Escalation cards): on each board with Towns/Cities, Build in the land with the most Towns/Cities. England L1+ also Builds in matching lands without Invaders that are adjacent to at least 2 Towns/Cities, and England L3+ adds a second Build slot (High Immigration) that Builds before each Ravage (at L3 until a Stage II card reaches it; from L4 all game). Sweden’s Escalation replaces Dahan with Towns after Exploring, and Sweden L5 adds a Town next to a land that a Ravage Blighted. Clearing the lands that match the Build card doesn’t stop these.
• Event-card builds (B&C+): Events can add pieces mid-phase. The Event is revealed in the Invader Phase, after you have chosen and paid for your Powers, so you can’t plan this turn around it.

For those threats, prevention shifts to: clear the Invader entirely, or accept the Ravage and Defend hard.

Downgrade as a damage primitive (Nature Incarnate)

NI introduced Downgrade as an alternative to Damage and Destroy. To Downgrade an Invader is to Replace it with the next-smaller type (NI rulebook, “Upgrade & Downgrade”):

• A City is replaced with a Town.
• A Town is replaced with an Explorer.
• Downgrading an Explorer Removes it.

This matters for Build-prevention math. A land with 1 City + 0 Towns Builds a Town (Cities equal to or more than Towns), ending at 1 City + 1 Town. Downgrading the City in the Fast phase, before the Build, turns the land into 1 Town + 0 Cities — which now Builds a City (more Towns than Cities), ending at 1 Town + 1 City. The next Ravage is 5 damage either way: one Downgrade before the Build bought nothing. Two Downgrades (City → Town → Explorer) leave 1 Explorer, which Builds a Town: 1 Explorer + 1 Town, a 3-damage Ravage. A third Downgrade Removes the Explorer, and the land doesn’t Build at all. Before you commit, compare what two or three Downgrades cost you against Destroying the City outright (3 Damage) with the cards you actually hold.

Juggle anti-pattern — don’t overspend on one land

A named Discord/Phantaskippy idiom: don’t juggle the invaders. If stopping one land’s Ravage takes two of your three card plays, you just paid double for a single-land outcome while another land Built and another Explored. Over a multi-turn horizon, spreading one prevention across three lands beats stacking two preventions on one land.

The rule of thumb: one power per land, across lands. Defend one. Clear one. Push pieces out of a third. Save the multi-power-stack play for when it wins the game (final-turn kill zone, or a cascade-preventing mega-Defend).

Reading the Invader deck — pressure budget

The Invader deck’s shape determines how much prevention you can afford. Without an Adversary the deck is 3 Stage I cards, then 4 Stage II, then 5 Stage III, each drawn from a slightly larger set with the rest returned to the box unseen. The setup Explore and Turns 1–2 reveal Stage I cards, Turns 3–6 Stage II, and Turns 7–11 Stage III (each card then Builds a turn later and Ravages two turns later). Adversaries change the deck, so recount for yours. Count per-Stage:

• Stage I: single-terrain cards (Jungle, Mountain, Sands, Wetland). Each action hits the two lands of one terrain on each board. Your prevention budget is highest here.
• Stage II: the same four terrains, now printed with the Escalation flag, plus the Coastal Lands card, which hits every Coastal land at once. With an Adversary, each Escalation card triggers that Adversary’s Escalation effect when it is revealed (before the Explore unless the Adversary says otherwise); without one, ignore the flags.
• Stage III: two-terrain cards (Jungle+Sands, Jungle+Wetland, Mountain+Jungle, Mountain+Wetland, Sands+Mountain, Sands+Wetland), so every action hits four lands per board. Pressure peaks, and the deck is running out: if an Explore needs a card and the deck is empty, you lose.

The single-Explorer rule

The most common tactical application:

If a land about to Build contains only one Explorer, killing/pushing that Explorer cancels the entire Build for that land.

One card play for one piece of intervention, no Invader piece added. (Exceptions: England L1+ and Scotland L3+ let some Build cards affect lands without Invaders; check your Adversary.) Combined with Build-prevention compounding, single-Explorer lands are the cheapest high-value targets on the board. Experienced players pattern-match these lands before evaluating anything else.

Common mistakes

Further reading

• Board Shaping — where to push, once you’ve decided to intervene on a Build or Ravage.
• The Blight Track — “cut your losses” framework for when prevention fails.
• Dahan — Dahan counterattacks stack with Build-prevention to clear lands without your own presence risk.
• Tempo — the per-turn pressure budget that decides how many preventions you can afford.
• Explore-phase rule reference — Explorers-without-a-source don’t seed, which is why single-Explorer kills are durable.

Source notes

• Prevent-Builds priority formalized in The Thoughtful Gamer’s 7 Strategy Tips and extended in Greater Than Games forum “Cut Your Losses” thread.
• Juggle anti-pattern: Phantaskippy’s Wiki guides (Discord-originated), e.g. A Spread of Rampant Green guide.
• Downgrade mechanics: Nature Incarnate rulebook, “Upgrade & Downgrade”; Spirit Island Wiki — Downgrade.
• Build rule, setup Explore, Invader deck Stages: core rulebook (“Making the Invader Deck”, “Invaders’ Starting Action”, “Build”) + Sequence of Play §3.
• Adversary Build changes (England, Scotland, Sweden): the project rules register, data/references/rules/register.md §4.

Token Economies

Branch & Claw and Jagged Earth added five token types that turn single-turn Power effects into persistent Invader-phase modifiers. Each token is its own sub-economy — placed differently, removed differently, with its own interaction curve. Playing without understanding the five as a system means drafting power cards whose payoff you can’t time correctly.

This chapter covers Badlands, Beasts, Disease, Strife, Wilds — plus Isolate, which isn’t a token but behaves like a phase-breaking primitive in the same family.

The common property — persistence

Most Power Card effects resolve this turn and vanish. Tokens are the exception. Once placed:

• They stay in the land (or on the Invader, for Strife) until explicitly removed.
• They compound across turns — two Badlands in a land stack; three Strife on one Town stack.
• They interact with Invader phase steps automatically, not only when a spirit plays a power.

This changes draft math. A token-placing card is paying for future turns of effect. A card that puts 2 Badlands in a land is functionally a “+2 damage per ravage until someone clears them” ongoing bonus, not a one-shot.

Badlands (Jagged Earth)

One time each Action Damages Invaders in a land, increase that Damage by 1 per Badlands. One time each Action Damages Dahan in a land, increase that Damage by 1 per Badlands.

Economy type: damage amplifier.

Each Badlands in a land adds +1 damage to one Invader-damaging Action per turn and +1 damage to one Dahan-damaging Action per turn. Badlands don’t damage on their own — they’re a multiplier on other damage sources.

Strategic notes:

• Badlands damage is mandatory when the rule triggers — this matters when you’d rather not amplify, e.g. when Dahan would survive without the +1 but die with it.
• Works with Ravage damage (Ravage is an Action): 1 Badlands + 1 Town Ravaging means 3 damage to the land instead of 2, adding Blight where it wouldn’t have.
• Under Ember-Eyed Behemoth and Heart of the Wildfire, Badlands are a core value multiplier — they turn small pings into City kills.

When to place: lands with queued multi-instance damage; lands where the spirit has elemental thresholds that re-trigger.

When to avoid: lands with high Dahan count where you’re running a defensive line (you’ll accidentally over-damage your own Dahan).

Beasts (Branch & Claw)

Beasts tokens do not have an intrinsic effect.

Economy type: Event/Power fuel.

Beasts are dormant on their own. Their value comes from (a) Event cards that trigger Beasts effects and (b) Power cards with “in lands with Beasts: additional effect” riders. Roughly half of B&C+ Event cards have a Beasts-clause; when a Beasts Event triggers, Beasts usually generate Fear, deal Damage, or Destroy Explorers.

Strategic notes:

• Beasts are a bet on Events. Without Events in play, Beasts rarely pay off.
• Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves is built around Beasts — every other spirit treats them as supplementary.
• Clumping Beasts in one land is usually worse than spreading them: per-land Event triggers tend to be per-land, not per-token.

Disease (Branch & Claw)

When Invaders would Build in a land with Disease, instead remove one Disease from that land.

Economy type: Build-prevention fuel.

Disease cancels one Build per token. This is the only passive Build-prevention mechanic in the game. Since Build-prevention compounds across turns, each Disease token is worth roughly as much as one on-turn Push-or-Clear power aimed at the Build slot.

Strategic notes:

• Disease in lands with already-high City density is less useful (Cities mean the Build adds Town regardless, but the land keeps growing because of the City).
• Best targets: lands with 1 Town + 1+ Explorers where you want the whole chain to stop.
• Stackable: 3 Disease = 3 prevented Builds. Combined with interior Explore-lockout (see Board Shaping), 3 Disease + a cleared adjacent chain can mothball a land for most of the game.

Strife (Branch & Claw)

Whenever Invaders Damage the Dahan and/or the land, each attacking Invader with any number of Strife deals exactly 0 Damage and removes one Strife.

Economy type: Ravage-cancel per-Invader.

Strife is placed on a specific Invader, not the land. Every time that Invader would Ravage, its damage is 0 and one Strife is consumed. Multi-Strife stacks on one Invader cancel multiple future Ravages.

Strategic notes:

• Strife is required to fire when triggered — you cannot save it for a “worse” Ravage. Place with that in mind.
• If Invaders Damage other Invaders, Strife does not cancel and is not removed — the Invader-on-Invader case is irrelevant to planning.
• Dahan still counter-attack when Strife reduces damage to 0 (this is the Strife-specific exception to the normal “no-damage = no-counter” rule). Combined with Thunderspeaker or a Dahan-fishing build, Strife + Dahan in a land is an auto-clear engine.
• Strife is City-equalizer: a Strifed City does 0 damage this turn, effectively demoting it for Ravage purposes.

Wilds (Branch & Claw)

When Invaders would Explore into a land with Wilds, instead remove one Wilds from that land.

Economy type: Explore-prevention fuel.

Wilds is to Explore what Disease is to Build — one token = one cancelled Explore. With the Explore rule’s coast-always-Explores property, Wilds is most valuable on coastal lands (where no amount of interior-chain-breaking can Explore-lock them).

Strategic notes:

• Wilds on coastal lands: defeats the Ocean-as-source rule for that one Explore per token.
• Wilds on interior lands: duplicates the effect of breaking the adjacency chain (both prevent Explore). Lower value.
• Stack with Disease for double-prevention in a land you’re trying to lock out entirely.

Isolate (rule, not a token)

Not a token, but part of the same phase-breaking family:

When adjacency normally matters between this land and another, they instead count as not adjacent.

Economy type: adjacency severance.

Isolate makes a land “an island” for rule purposes: Explorers can’t push into it, Invaders can’t move into it, push/gather/adjacency powers can’t target across the line. Isolation is typically granted by Shadows (Sweet Breath of Dreams, etc.), Serpent, and a handful of scenario/Event effects.

Strategic notes:

• Isolated coastal land still Explores from the Ocean — Isolate doesn’t sever ocean-adjacency in the base rule. Check the specific power text; some explicitly also sever ocean-adjacency.
• Isolate stacks with concentration: isolate a kill zone to prevent reinforcements for the turn you need to clear it.
• Isolate combined with Wilds on a coastal land is a full-Explore lockout for one Explore (Wilds consumed, Isolate prevents reinforcement via interior adjacency).

See Board Shaping for tactical use.

Comparative token value table

Draft heuristic

• High token-draft value when: Events are in play (Beasts spike), your spirit has a damage-amplifier (Badlands), you’re running a lockdown board-shape (Disease+Wilds), your partner runs Dahan-heavy offense (Strife to set up counter-attacks).
• Low token-draft value when: base game only (Beasts/Strife/Wilds/Disease don’t exist), solo kill-race builds (you’re winning on Fear, not board-durability), scenario cancels or redirects tokens.

Common mistakes

Further reading

• Invader Lifecycle — Disease/Wilds are token-form applications of the Prevent-Builds / Prevent-Explores framework.
• Board Shaping — Isolate and Wilds complement the Explore-lockout tactic.
• Dahan — Strife + Dahan counter-attack is a documented auto-clear pattern.
• Spirit Island Wiki — Tokens — canonical rule text for all 5 types.

Source notes

Rule text verbatim from Spirit Island Wiki, revision 12151 (Tokens page, fetched 2026-04-20) and the per-token sub-pages.

Reclaim Economy

Reclaim is the quietest Growth option in Spirit Island and the one most often discussed by its community-canonical terms — reclaim cycle, reclaim loop, cumulative energy. When you internalize Reclaim as an economy rather than a button you press when you run out of cards, whole spirit archetypes open up.

This chapter codifies that economy.

The rule

Reclaim (Growth option on most spirits): retrieve all your played Power Cards back into your hand.

That’s the whole rule text. The strategic depth is in when you Reclaim — which determines how often each Unique can fire across a game.

Key terms (community notation)

From latentoctopus’s canonical glossary, lifted into this book:

• Reclaim cycle: the turns between one Reclaim (inclusive) and the next Reclaim (exclusive). A 4-turn reclaim cycle means you Reclaim on T1, play cards T1–T4, Reclaim again T5.
• Reclaim loop: a reclaim cycle of length 1 — you Reclaim every turn. Lightning and Grinning Trickster can sustain this; most spirits cannot.
• Cumulative Energy (CE): total energy you’ve gained via Growth across the game. Track this — it’s the denominator for every Reclaim-amortization calculation.

Why Reclaim is an economy, not a button

Each card you play is “spent” — it lives in your discard until Reclaim brings it back. So the number of times you can fire a given Unique over a game is bounded by:

Plays per game = (total turns) ÷ (reclaim cycle length) × (CP available those turns, capped at hand size)

Working example — Shadows on an 8-turn game:

The faster you Reclaim, the more times each card fires — but the fewer Growth slots you have for energy, presence placement, and new card gains. Reclaim cycle is a resource allocation, not a convenience.

The four reclaim archetypes

Spirits cluster by how they approach Reclaim economy:

1. Reclaim-loopers

Every turn is Reclaim + 1 CP (or 2 CP if the spirit has a Growth branch that stacks Reclaim with other gains). The Uniques fire every single turn.

Spirits: Lightning’s Swift Strike (classic — 1-CP plays, all Fast, fires every turn), Grinning Trickster (loop opening variant), Shadows on specific openings.

Draft consequence: Majors that you play once per loop cycle are devastating. Powerstorm’s “Repeat a card you played this turn” with a 1-turn loop means every turn Powerstorm doubles another card. Minors are underdrafted — you don’t need volume when each card fires 6–8 times.

2. Short-cycle reclaim (2–3 turns)

Reclaim every 2nd or 3rd turn. The dominant pattern for moderate-complexity spirits.

Spirits: Downpour Drenches the World (opening 1), many Shroud openings, Keeper variants.

Draft consequence: Minors that add elements matter, because you play them multiple times per cycle. Majors are viable but you need ≥2 cycles left to amortize them (see Forget Economy in Major vs. Minor).

3. Long-cycle reclaim (4+ turns)

Reclaim once or twice in the entire game. You’re playing a slow, card-accumulation strategy — the Reclaim happens only after the hand is fully depleted.

Spirits: Vital Strength of the Earth, Stone’s Unyielding Defiance, most heavy-Major shoppers.

Draft consequence: Each card played matters a lot — maybe it fires twice the whole game. Forget cost is enormous (you’ll rarely re-play a forgotten Unique). Majors here need to be game-closing; a Major played once and never again is exactly the “just take the shiny” trap the Major vs. Minor chapter warns against.

4. No-reclaim (or reclaim-irrelevant)

Some spirits rarely Reclaim because their card economy is structured elsewhere. Shifting Memory of Ages can re-gain Forgotten cards (a Reclaim analogue); Fractured Days can replay other spirits’ cards; Serpent has its own card-slot math around being Dormant.

Draft consequence: the Reclaim cycle math doesn’t apply — use the spirit’s specific card-economy chapter.

When to Reclaim

The decision usually reduces to three questions, answered in order:

1. Am I about to be handlocked? If you’ve played 3 of 4 cards and the one in hand doesn’t match next turn’s needs, Reclaim now rather than wasting a turn drawing air.
2. Does the Growth slot have a better alternative this turn? Energy gains, presence placement, and card gains all compete with Reclaim. If the board state or adversary cliff demands one of the others, Reclaim later.
3. Am I at the end of my reclaim cycle anyway? If your cycle is 4 turns and you’re on turn 4, Reclaim and get on with it. Don’t squeeze an extra turn out of a cycle that’s already paid.

Reclaim + Repeat stacking

Spirits with native Repeat access (Lightning’s Powerstorm, Gift of Strength in hand, Keeper’s Innate) see Reclaim’s effective card count multiply. A Lightning loop with Powerstorm means:

• Reclaim (every turn) → 2 CP → Powerstorm + one target → target plays twice.

That’s effectively 3 card-firings per turn from a 2-CP slot. No spirit without this combination can match that per-turn throughput.

Draft consequence for loopers: Repeat-target cards are premium picks. A cheap Minor that enables Powerstorm’s Repeat is worth more than an expensive unique-effect Minor — because the Repeat doubles whatever you put on the other slot.

Common mistakes

Further reading

• Energy Curves — Reclaim cycle interacts with energy via the “Reclaim + gain 1 Energy” Growth branches.
• Major vs. Minor — Forget Economy amortization depends on cycle length.
• Card Draft Theory — draft cadence aligns with Reclaim cadence.
• latentoctopus Glossary — canonical terms (Gn, nE, nCP, CE, cycle, loop).
• BGG thread 2652960 — Lightning Reclaim Loop — deepest community discussion of the 1-turn-loop case.

Tempo

Tempo is the implicit currency that makes or breaks every Spirit Island game. You never see it on a card or a track — you feel it when your board collapses on T4 because you grew too slowly on T1, or when you win on T7 because you banked the right turn on T3.

This chapter gives you the vocabulary and the heuristics to reason about it deliberately.

What tempo actually is

“Tempo” gets used for two different things. Keep them apart:

• Land tempo — where each land sits in the Invader pipeline. Every land is somewhere on Explore → Build → Ravage: an Explore card this turn means a Build there next turn and a Ravage the turn after (see Invader Lifecycle). Land tempo is the Invaders’ clock, land by land, and you read it off the Invader board.
• Economy momentum — how fast your own engine grows: your per-turn Energy, Card Plays, and presence on the board.

Economy momentum has three interacting axes:

1. Energy — how fast your per-turn energy grows.
2. Card plays — how fast your per-turn CP grows.
3. Presence — how fast you occupy the board, enabling targeting and uncovering your tracks.

The goal isn’t to maximize all three. It’s to keep your economy ahead of the land tempo at every round: enough Energy, Card Plays, and reach to deal with the lands about to Build and Ravage. Fall behind and the lands get away from you; go far ahead and you over-invested in growth when you should have been stopping ravages.

The adversary’s pressure curve

Each adversary bends the land tempo — the rising line of “how much board effect you need to deliver this turn to not fall behind.” What each one actually changes (levels are cumulative):

• Brandenburg-Prussia — a compressed deck. L1 adds a Town to land #3 on each board at Setup. L2+ moves one Stage III card to just after Stage I, so a two-terrain card is Explored on Turn 3 at L2; L3 and L5 each remove a Stage I card, pulling it earlier, and L6 has no Stage I at all. The deck also shrinks (12 cards at L2, 8 at L6), so the Time-runs-out clock comes sooner. Escalation (Land Rush) adds a Town on each board with Towns/Cities, before the Explore.
• England — extra Builds. Escalation (Building Boom) Builds in the land with the most Towns/Cities on each board; L1+ Builds in lands without Invaders next to 2+ Towns/Cities; L3+ adds a second Build slot (High Immigration) that Builds before each Ravage. Loss condition: 7+ Towns/Cities in a single land.
• Sweden — heavier Ravages. L1+ adds an extra Blight on a Ravage with 4+ overkill; L3+ Towns deal 3 Damage and Cities 5; L5+ adds a Town next to any land a Ravage Blights. Escalation replaces Dahan with Towns after the Explore.
• Russia — Explorer pressure. L1+ Explorers deal +1 Damage and Ravage Blight Destroys Beasts (feeding the Hunters Swarm loss condition); L2+ the first Explorer each Action would Destroy is Pushed instead, for 1 Fear; L3+ Ravage cards also match lands with 3+ Explorers; L4+ puts a Stage III card after each Stage II card. Escalation adds 2 Explorers among lands with Beasts on each board.

Your opening choice should be a bet on your spirit’s economy momentum keeping up with this land tempo, not on the spirit’s “power level” in abstract.

The three economy axes, one at a time

Energy tempo

From the Steam engine’s presence-track data, 19 of the 34 Steam spirits open at 1E per turn, 10 at 0E (e.g., Shadows, Wildfire, Ocean, Many Minds), and 5 at 2E (Bringer, Devouring Teeth, Keeper, Stone, Vital Strength). Read your own panel’s leftmost Energy space.

What raises energy tempo:

• Growth slots that give +energy.
• Presence track revealing passive energy.
• Powers that generate energy (e.g., Let’s See What Happens for Trickster).
• Spirit-specific generation (e.g., Shroud’s damaged-invader bonus).

Heuristic: if you end a turn with more than 2 energy banked, you likely under-spent last turn. Exception: you’re saving for a high-cost card next turn.

Card-play tempo

From the same track data, 27 of the 34 Steam spirits open at 1CP and 7 at 2CP (Breath of Darkness, Bringer, Dances Up Earthquakes, Trickster, Lightning, Fangs, Starlight). CP scaling is the tightest bottleneck past T3 for almost every spirit.

What raises CP:

• Growth slots that unlock +CP.
• Reclaim — not a CP gain per se, but enables cycling the same 2 cards forever.
• Spirit-specific track spaces, where your panel shows them.

Heuristic: if you’re not playing your maximum CP every turn past T3, you’ve over-invested elsewhere. Holding cards is almost never correct for most spirits.

Presence tempo

Presence does three things at once — targeting, sacred sites, and uncovering your tracks. Tempo here is subtler.

What raises presence tempo:

• Growth slots that place presence.
• Moving existing presence (Shroud’s Mists Shift and Flow; Shadows’ Amorphous aspect; Fangs’ presence moving with Beasts; Thunderspeaker’s with Dahan).

Heuristic: Invaders never damage presence; your count usually falls because Blight added to one of your lands (or another effect) Destroys it. If the count is falling, ask which Ravages Blighted your lands and whether the land tempo showed them coming.

Banking vs. spending

Every turn, you choose between banking (saving a resource for next turn) and spending (deploying it now). The banking question is the hardest strategic question in the game.

When to bank

• You have a high-cost play coming up next turn that solves a bigger problem.
• The adversary’s immediate pressure is low (T1 standard-deck is often forgiving).
• Your spirit has a reclaim coming that would waste the cards you’d play now.

When to spend

• A ravage is about to hit and you have the cards to prevent or absorb.
• Elements this turn cross an innate threshold you’ll lose access to next turn.
• Fear payout — “I generate 3 fear this turn or I don’t” is a now-or-never.

The most common banking mistake

“I’ll hold this fast power for when the ravage is worse.”

Usually wrong. The ravage is worst when it happens. If you can prevent or mitigate now, do it; the next worst ravage is worse than the current one, but you’ll have more resources then.

The tempo cliff

Every spirit has a cliff turn — the turn where, if you haven’t set up properly, you collapse. Examples:

• Wildfire: T4 collapse if you don’t have 2 Fire + 3 Plant by end of T3.
• Shadows: T5 collapse if you don’t have a reliable damage pipeline online.
• Bringer: T3 collapse if you don’t have the fear loop running.
• Ocean: T4 collapse if you haven’t established coastal drowning by T3.

A spirit chapter’s Tempo Profile table shows the expected state per round. Diverge at your peril — or knowingly, as a read.

Tempo vs. elements

Elements are not free. Gaining elements via growth costs you presence-placement or CP-gain. Element-rich plays cost cards.

The trade:

• High-element growth — you sacrifice presence for faster innate threshold activation. Great for spirits with huge innate payoffs (Shadows, Lightning).
• Low-element growth — you sacrifice innate power for presence + CP. Great for spirits whose cards carry the load (Thunderspeaker, some Earth openings).

Per-turn tempo audit (a drill)

After each game, ask:

1. Which turn was my peak? If not T6–T8, you may have spiked too early or late.
2. Which turn was my weakest? Was it planned (reclaim, growth-heavy) or forced (collapse)?
3. Did I bank on a turn I shouldn’t have? — count banked energy > 2 as a signal.
4. Did I spend on a turn I shouldn’t have? — check if you forced a threshold activation that cost a card you wanted later.
5. Did I misread the adversary’s pressure curve? — which turn did it surprise you?

Log the answer in si-post-game. Across 10–15 games, tempo errors become the pattern you see, and you fix them.

Summary heuristics

Cross-references

• Presence Economy — the deep dive on the presence axis.
• Energy Curves — per-spirit target energy curves.
• Major vs. Minor — tempo implications of card-draft choice.
• The Fear Track — tempo of fear generation.

Last revised: 2026-10-19

Presence Economy

Presence is the game’s most overloaded resource. It’s simultaneously:

• a targeting anchor (most powers require presence in or near the target land),
• a board currency (sacred sites unlock innate abilities + certain card effects),
• a tempo investment (growth slots that place presence trade against energy/CP growth).

Treating presence as any one of these is the beginner mistake. This chapter teaches you to reason about all three simultaneously.

The opening budget

Your spirit’s Setup places its starting presence, and the count varies by spirit: River Surges in Sunlight and Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island start with 1 on the board, Lightning’s Swift Strike with 2, Shadows Flicker Like Flame and Vital Strength of the Earth with 3, and Vengeance as a Burning Plague starts with one of theirs already Destroyed. Every other presence starts on your Presence Tracks until Growth adds it to the board. Count your panel’s track spaces and ask how many you realistically uncover by the turn you expect the game to end; the rest stay on the track unused.

The rule: not every presence needs a home. Sometimes the right play is to leave a slot unplaced and take an energy/CP growth instead. Presence just-in-case is a common tempo leak.

The three presence roles, quantified

1. Targeting anchor

Powers with “Target: your presence” or “Range N from your presence” require at least 1 presence in the relevant area. Spread-heavy spirits (Green, Lightning, Thunderspeaker) need broad coverage. Focused spirits (Wildfire, Starlight) need density, not spread.

Heuristic: count the ravage lands on your spirit’s horizon. You usually need 1 presence adjacent to each critical ravage target. Minimum coverage for most base-adversary games: 5 lands.

2. Sacred sites

A land with 2+ of your presence is a sacred site. Many innates and some powers require “target a sacred site.” Stone, Keeper, Earth lean on sacred-site density; Fangs deliberately avoids them.

Heuristic: if your spirit’s innates or cards say “sacred site,” you want 2–3 sacred sites by T4. If they don’t, a sacred site is wasted presence density — spread instead.

3. Tempo investment

Every presence placed costs an energy/CP growth you didn’t take. Over 8 turns, 4 presence placements means 4 growths not taken elsewhere.

Heuristic: if you’re at 2E and 3CP by T5 with 5 presence on the board, you spent right. If you’re at 1E and 2CP with 9 presence, you over-invested in placement.

The presence curve

There is no universal presence arc: starting presence, track length, and growth options all differ by spirit. Build your own from the panel. Write down your starting board count and track spaces, then, for the growth sequence you plan, note turn by turn how many presence are on the board and which track spaces are uncovered.

Your board count usually falls because presence is Destroyed — most often by Blight added to one of your lands. When it falls, find the Blight that did it and ask whether you could have seen that Ravage coming two turns earlier.

Presence destruction isn’t always bad

For most spirits, losing presence is painful. For some, their own rules soften or reward it:

• Vengeance: when their presence is Destroyed by anything except a Spirit Action (e.g., by Blight from a Ravage), they add 1 Disease where it was (Lingering Pestilence). Destroying their own presence with a Power is a Spirit Action and adds no Disease.
• Wildfire: Blight added by Spirit effects, cascades included, doesn’t Destroy their presence (Destructive Nature).

For these spirits, read the presence economy through their own rules, not the default.

Territorial spirits vs. flexible spirits

Some spirits care about which lands their presence occupies. Others don’t.

Territorial spirits (presence position matters):

• Shroud — wants presence surrounding invaders in specific lands.
• Stone — sacred-site clusters determine which lands are “safe.”
• Shifting Memory — presence location gates memory cycling.

Flexible spirits (presence location is fungible):

• Lightning — short-range; moves where targets are.
• Trickster — cares about element sources, not positions.
• Fractured Days — the time-skipping engine is mostly independent of position.

Your opening should acknowledge this. Territorial spirits bias toward presence-placement growths; flexible spirits bias toward energy/CP growths.

The “destroy your own presence” trade

Rare but real. Some plays give you the option to destroy your own presence for an effect (e.g., certain unique powers, certain Majors). Do this only when:

1. The effect clears a ravage that would otherwise cost 2+ blight.
2. The presence destroyed was in a terrible land (low value for targeting and sacred sites).
3. Your spirit’s own rules reward the destruction. Read the exact trigger: Vengeance’s Lingering Pestilence, for one, excludes Spirit Actions.

Reading presence on other spirits (multiplayer)

When you have a partner, count their presence too. Cross-spirit presence coverage matters for:

• Defend sharing — a partner’s Defend Powers reach your Ravage lands only within their Range, which is measured from their presence or sacred sites. Check which of your lands they can actually cover.
• Fear coordination — the same Range check decides which lands a partner’s Fear Powers can reach.
• Territory splits — see Teaching Methods for conventions on who takes which terrain.

Cross-references

• Tempo — how presence interacts with the energy/CP axes.
• Terrain — where to place presence by land type.
• Dahan — dahan take Ravage damage; presence doesn’t.
• Blight Track — Blight, the usual cause of presence destruction.

Last revised: 2026-10-19

Major vs. Minor — A Stats-Backed Framework

This is the most important draft decision in Spirit Island, and also the one most often handled by feel rather than framework. This chapter gives you the framework.

The core question

Every time you grow on a “gain a power card” slot, you choose: Minor (cheap, supportive, 4 cards offered) or Major (expensive, game-changing, 4 cards offered, costs you a Forget).

Over a game, most spirits gain 3–6 power cards. Getting the Minor/Major ratio right is worth ~15–20% on your win rate at high difficulty. Getting it wrong is how you lose games you “should” have won.

The four archetypes

Spirits fall into four draft biases. Learn which archetype your spirit is before you draft.

1. Minor-heavy

Cheap, curve-fit, multi-card plays every turn. Minors slot naturally into these spirits’ energy + CP.

Spirits here: Sharp Fangs, Many Minds (opening 1), Downpour, Shroud (opening 1), Lightning, River (openings 1–2 early).

Rule: gain 2–3 Minors before you even think about a Major. If your Minors are all 0–1 cost, you can sustain 3+ CP per turn at 2–3 energy. Majors would starve the curve.

2. Major-heavy

Expensive, game-changing, spirit wants to hit a threshold (usually 3 CP + 3E+) to fire Majors reliably.

Spirits here: Vital Strength of the Earth (classic), Keeper, Stone’s Unyielding, Starlight, Covets.

Rule: go Major as early as your curve supports — often T2–T4. Forget a weak Unique; 0 Minors is fine. Shopping 3+ Majors over a game is normal.

3. Mixed

Some Minors to sustain the curve, 1–2 high-value Majors for late-game closing. Most spirits default here.

Spirits here: Thunderspeaker, Shadows, Ocean, Green, Bringer, Fractured Days, Trickster (all openings), Finder, Serpent.

Rule: gain 2 Minors T1–T3, then a Major T4–T6, then another Minor or Major depending on what the matchup demands.

4. Flexible / Adversary-driven

The spirit’s strength is breadth — different matchups want different drafts. Play the adversary, not the spirit.

Spirits here: Wildfire (Early Major vs England; Full-bottom minors vs Sweden), Sharp Fangs across its 4 openings, Lure (depends on opening choice), Behemoth.

Rule: read the adversary’s pressure curve first (see Tempo), then pick archetype 1–3 to match.

The four decision factors

In order of weight:

1. Energy curve fit

The question: does your spirit generate enough energy by T3 to play the Major you gain?

Majors cost 3–8 energy. A 4-cost Major played on T4 means you hit 4E by T4. Most spirits that aren’t Earth don’t.

2. Forget cost

When you gain a Major, you forget a card. If your spirit has a bad Unique (classic: Earth’s Draw of the Fresh Waters on some matchups; Wildfire’s Flash-Fires), that’s a bonus.

If your spirit has no weak Unique, forgetting is a real cost. Minors don’t ask for a Forget — they’re free to slot in.

3. Card pool variance

Majors have 4-card offers that skew toward specific elements or effects. If your spirit has narrow element requirements, the Major offer often has 0–1 useful cards. Passing and going Minor is better than taking a misfit Major.

Minors have 4-card offers with better average fit for most spirits because the minor pool is broader + cheaper.

4. Game-phase fit

• Early game (T1–3) — Minors almost always win. They’re cheap enough to play immediately.
• Mid (T4–6) — Majors start paying off. Mixed archetypes pivot here.
• Late (T7+) — either you’ve already shopped Majors, or you’re playing Minor-heavy and don’t care.

The mermaid decision tree

          Turn 1–3: which archetype is your spirit?
                            |
           +----------------+----------------+
           |                |                |
      Minor-heavy       Mixed           Major-heavy
           |                |                |
     Gain Minors     Gain Minors T1–3   Gain Major T1–3
     all the way     Major T4–6         More Majors later
                     Minor/Major late

If you play Flexible, read the adversary first — see the Adversary Matchup Matrix in that spirit’s chapter.

The stats

See the Major vs. Minor Draft Rates chapter for the full per-spirit breakdown.

The passing game

Sometimes the right play is decline a card gain. You can’t decline a growth option that says “gain a card,” but you can pass on the card offered and take a Forget-only move, or you can take a 4th card you won’t use just to avoid a Forget.

You pass a Major when:

• No card in the offer fits your element profile.
• Your energy curve won’t support it for 2+ turns.
• Your Unique cards are all too valuable to Forget.

You pass a Minor when:

• Rare — almost never pass a Minor.
• Exception: hand size cap constraints (some spirits cap lower).

The Forget Economy — a Major’s true cost

Most players price a Major as “energy + 1 card-play slot.” That undercounts. A Major gained via Growth has three costs compounding:

1. Slot cost — the card occupies a slot in your personal deck. You play 3–4 of your available cards per turn (bounded by CP); a Major there means one fewer Minor / Unique that turn.
2. Forget cost — gaining a Major via Growth requires Forgetting one of your existing cards (Unique or earlier-gained). That’s a permanent loss, not a turn-cycle loss. Forgetting your best Unique is often a larger cost than the Major’s sticker-price energy.
3. Energy cost per play — 3–8 energy per activation, every time you play it.

The Forget cost is the one most often mis-priced:

Price a candidate Major against the Unique you’d Forget:

Shifting Memory of Ages is the canonical Forget-cost mitigator: the spirit can Forget-and-re-gain, so the Forget cost effectively drops to zero for Shifting Memory’s draft math. That’s why Shifting Memory over-performs in Major-heavy builds at the same CP/energy as other moderate spirits.

Repeat-a-Power effects (Gift of Strength, Powerstorm, several Innates) don’t avoid the Forget cost but multiply the per-play payoff, amortizing the Forget faster. A Major you can Repeat effectively pays back in 1 play instead of 2.

Designer note — R. Eric Reuss discusses this axis as “Energy vs. Plays balance” in his Nerdlab Ep. 033 interview: every Major is priced to cost either energy or card-plays disproportionately, and the spirits that swing a Major draft well are the ones whose curve isn’t already pinched on the axis it demands.

The “just take the shiny” trap

Majors look great on the card. Vigor of the Breaking Dawn reads like the game-winner. But if you play it once at T6 and never again, you overpaid.

Rule of thumb: a Major is only worth its cost if you play it twice in the game. Once-and-done Majors are net losses unless they outright closed the game.

A per-spirit rule of thumb

From the priority spirits (see per-chapter pages for the full stat-backed recommendations):

All 39 spirits below. Biases marked TBD will be refined as each spirit’s chapter is authored. Directional hints are community-consensus best-guesses where a chapter doesn’t yet exist.

Base (8):

Branch & Claw (2):

Promo — Feather & Flame (2):

Promo Pack 2 (2):

Horizons (5):

Jagged Earth (10):

Nature Incarnate (10):

Cross-references

• Tempo — why curve fit matters.
• Energy Curves — per-spirit target energy trajectories.
• Card Draft Theory — the deep mechanics of the draft itself.
• Major vs. Minor Draft Rates — the full stat page.

Last revised: 2026-04-19

Energy Curves

Every spirit has an energy curve — a per-round target income and spend profile. Hit the curve and your engine fires reliably; fall below and your hand rots; over-bank and your tempo stalls.

This chapter gives you the curve shapes for the four archetypes plus specific notes for the Brett-priority spirits.

What “energy curve” means

Two numbers per round:

1. Income — what your presence track + growth produces this turn.
2. Spend — what your playable hand actually costs.

Target: income ≈ spend + 1 (a small buffer). Equality is fine; banking > 2 is usually wrong. Spending more than this turn’s income is only possible from Energy banked earlier (unspent Energy carries over); if you need to do that every turn, you gained cards your curve can’t afford.

The four curve archetypes

1. Slow-ramp (Defend & Outlast, Major Power Shopping)

Example: Vital Strength of the Earth, Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds.

Slow-ramp banks 1E through T2–T3 to afford T5 Majors. Deviation cost: skipping the bank means no Major on T5, and the archetype fails.

2. Fast-energy (Lightning, high-E Horizons spirits)

Fast-energy spends aggressively — cards cycle, presence lands, and the spirit’s pressure stays constant. Banking > 1E past T3 indicates you dropped a play.

3. Flat-cheap (Minor-heavy spirits)

Example: Downpour, Many Minds, Shroud (openings 1–2), Fangs.

Flat-cheap lives on 0–1 cost Minors. Income rarely clears 3E because it doesn’t need to. Banking = error (you drafted the wrong Minors).

4. Late-spike (Vengeance, Serpent)

Late-spike lives for T7–T8. Early turns are weak by design; late turns are game-ending.

Per-spirit energy tracks

All 37 spirits below. The numbers are each spirit’s starting Energy per turn and the highest Energy space on its presence tracks, from the Steam engine’s track data (spirits.json); the three spirits not yet in Steam are marked. Your T3 and T5 income falls between the two, depending on how many Energy-track spaces your growth uncovers by then — compute it as above. Physical panels are the ground truth if they differ.

Base (8):

Branch & Claw (2):

Promo — Feather & Flame (2):

Promo Pack 2 (2):

Horizons (5):

Jagged Earth (10):

Nature Incarnate (8):

Deviation cost

Falling 1E below curve for 1 turn costs you ~1 card play.
Falling 1E below curve for 3 turns compounds to ~3 missed plays.
Banking 2+ E over curve means you missed a play; the extra energy doesn’t make up for it.

When to deviate on purpose

• Save for a Major next turn: legitimate bank. Limit: 1 turn.
• Scenario-specific: some scenarios change costs or plays. In Powers Long Forgotten, one Invader benefit makes Fire Powers cost an extra Energy to Damage/Destroy Invaders, and another limits Spirits to 1 Card Play next turn — both can force a bank.
• Emergency stop: burning 3E on A Year of Perfect Stillness (Vital Strength’s Unique: Invaders skip all Actions in the target land this turn) can save a game; ask whether it’s worth spiking out-of-curve for one turn.

Repeat-a-Power — the hidden energy multiplier

Repeat effects (Vital Strength’s Gift of Strength innate; the Major Power Powerstorm; innate tiers that read “Repeat this Power,” such as A Spread of Rampant Green’s Creepers Tear into Mortar, Finder’s Lay Paths They Cannot Help But Walk, Lure’s two innates, and Stone’s Let Them Break Themselves Against the Stone) don’t show up on your curve — but they can double a turn’s effective card-play economy when they fire. Treat them as a separate axis:

• Per-play value: a 2-cost Minor with an effect worth ~X is normally X per play. Repeated, it’s 2X. Read whether your Repeat makes you pay the cost again: Powerstorm does (“by paying its cost again”), so you get 2X for 4 Energy and save only the Card Play; Gift of Strength’s text asks for no payment but only reaches cards costing 1 or less.
• CP cost: the card is played once (one CP) and resolves twice. On a 2-CP turn, that’s half your effect-generation pipeline doubled.
• Element count: Repeating a Power re-counts its elements for threshold purposes? No — elements come from cards played, not from each resolution. Check the specific Repeat’s text.

Strategic implications:

• A Repeat-capable spirit prices its cards differently. Vital Strength’s Gift of Strength makes every 0- and 1-cost card worth more to them (and to the Spirit they target); a spirit holding Powerstorm saves Card Plays, not Energy.
• Repeat-on-Innate (Lay Paths They Cannot Help But Walk’s Level-3 “Repeat this Power”) is the element-thresholds-matter-most kind of Repeat. Draft minors that feed the threshold; the Innate pays back twice.

Draft heuristic: if your spirit has native Repeat access, ask what each Repeat-legal Power in the offer is worth played twice, and price the offer on that. This often flips a borderline Minor into a pick.

Card and innate texts: the Steam engine’s power_cards.json and spirits.json. Source: community discussion at BGG thread 3061696 — Repeating Slow Power Card with Fast Innate; rules detail at Wiki — Repeat.

Cross-references

• Tempo — energy is one axis of tempo.
• Major vs. Minor — draft decisions shaped by curve.
• Card Draft Theory — draft in alignment with curve.

Last revised: 2026-10-19

Card Draft Theory

Every Minor or Major gain pops a 4-card offer. You keep one, the other three go to that deck’s discard pile. That’s the mechanic. The theory — when to gain at all, which deck to draw from, which card to keep, how to coordinate gains with a partner — is what separates drafting by feel from drafting for leverage.

Read this after Major vs. Minor. That chapter sets the archetype-level bias; this one operates below it.

The 4-card offer

When you gain a Power Card, you first choose Minor or Major, then draw 4 cards from that deck. You keep 1 in your hand; the other 3 go to that deck’s discard pile (not back into the deck). Only when the deck runs out do you reshuffle its discard pile.

When you gain a Major Power, you must also Forget one of your Power Cards, unless an effect says you don’t have to (e.g., Unlock the Gates of Deepest Power). You may Forget any of your cards — in hand, in your discard, or in play — including the Major you just kept.

You can’t pass a gain once the cards are drawn: you always keep one. The real “pass” happens earlier, at Growth, by choosing an option without a gain.

In multiplayer, each gain belongs to the gaining spirit: they draw, keep, and discard. What the table shares is the conversation before Growth (see below; for keeping that conversation fair, see Alpha-Player Problem).

The two axes of card evaluation

Every offer card is evaluated on two dimensions, simultaneously:

1. Spirit fit

Does the card’s elements, cost, and effect type fit your spirit?

• Elements: the card adds elements to your per-turn total; you care about elements your innates threshold.
• Cost: the card must play within your energy curve.
• Effect type: damage, fear, defend, push, gather, etc. — matching your spirit’s needs.

A 0-cost Moon Minor for Shadows is A+. A 3-cost Fire-only Minor for Shadows is D because the cost breaks the curve.

Minors-feed-innates — invert the draft framing

A Phantaskippy-coined re-framing: the best Minors for most spirits aren’t “the strongest Minors” — they’re the Minors that unlock your Innate thresholds. Shadows wants Moon/Fire-feeders more than it wants “good Minors in general”; Lightning wants Air/Fire feeders; Keeper wants Plant/Sun/Earth/Animal feeders because its Innate wants four elements simultaneously.

The framing inversion:

• Wrong question: “Is this the best Minor in the offer?”
• Right question: “Does this Minor give me an element I need to unlock an Innate I actually plan to fire?”

The right question often downgrades a “stronger” card and upgrades a “weak” utility card. A 0-cost Minor that adds Moon to Shadows’s T2 is a 10/10 pick even if the card’s base effect is unremarkable — the Innate it unlocks does the real work.

When the inversion doesn’t apply: spirits whose Innates are damage-incidental (Ocean, Vital Strength early-game) or whose closing win condition is Fear-card effects. There, the Minor’s own effect dominates.

2. Offer variance

What are the other 3 cards? If all 4 are weak fits, you still keep one: pick the least-bad. If 1 is a perfect fit and 3 are irrelevant, take the fit.

Experienced drafters think about expected-next-offer too, but at Growth, before drawing: a later gain draws a fresh 4 from the same shuffled deck, so it is not better on average. The 3 cards you don’t keep go to the discard and won’t reappear until that deck runs out and is reshuffled.

The decision tree

Before Growth, ask whether you’ll have the Energy and Card Plays to use a new card soon; if not, a growth option without a gain may serve you better. Once you’ve drawn, for each gain:

graph TD
  Q1{Is any offer a top-tier fit?} -->|Yes| Take[Take it]
  Q1 -->|No| Q2{Is the best-of-4 at least B-tier?}
  Q2 -->|Yes| Take
  Q2 -->|No| Q4{Am I critically short on this effect type?}
  Q4 -->|Yes| Cover[Take the card that covers it]
  Q4 -->|No| Least[Take the least-bad; you must keep one]

There is no “pass” branch: once the 4 are drawn, you keep one of them.

Multiplayer draft coordination

The offer is not pooled: the gaining spirit keeps one of their 4, and the rest go to the discard. Players do play each phase simultaneously and may confer as they wish, so the coordination happens in conversation.

Pre-gain discussion

Before Growth, a quick table check:

• “Who is gaining this turn, and from which deck?”
• “What element or effect type is each of us missing?”

Each spirit then chooses their own growth and keeps their own card. The alpha-gaming risk is real even here. See Alpha-Player Problem for how to keep this coordination fair.

Forget math

Majors require a Forget unless an effect waives it. The Forgotten card goes to its deck’s discard pile (a Unique goes under your Spirit Panel). Evaluate:

• Which card am I forgetting? The weakest Unique, typically. Check the spirit chapter for your “forget-candidate.”
• Is the forget candidate still useful? Some Uniques degrade in the matchup (Wildfire’s Flash-Fires vs. England), making them free Forgets. Others are load-bearing (Earth’s Guard the Healing Land), making the Forget painful.
• Net value: Major gained − forgotten card utility. If negative, the Major isn’t worth it.

Opening-Track archetypes

latentoctopus’s glossary names three opening taxonomies around presence-track usage, which correlate tightly with draft shape:

• Full top / Full bottom: you empty one presence track before meaningfully starting the other. Produces extreme curves — heavy energy early + slow CP scaling (Full top) or heavy CP early + slow energy (Full bottom). Draft consequence: Full top → fewer-but-bigger cards (Majors earlier); Full bottom → more-but-cheaper (Minor-heavy).
• Top / Bottom: you mostly work one track, occasionally pulling from the other. The default for most spirits; moderate curve. Draft consequence: Mixed archetype.
• Hybrid: you pull from both tracks roughly equally. Produces a balanced curve; often the answer when the adversary’s pressure shape is split across turns. Draft consequence: flexible — often the right answer when the matchup is ambiguous pre-game.

Pick the opening track before T1 growth based on your spirit’s archetype (see Major vs. Minor) and adversary pressure (see Tempo). Drafting Minor-heavy on a Full-top opening pinches your CP; drafting Major-heavy on a Full-bottom opening starves energy. The archetype, opening, and draft are one joint decision, not three.

Source: latentoctopus Glossary.

Draft cadence

Most spirits gain 3–5 cards over a game (excluding Major Power Shoppers who gain 5–7). Your draft cadence is:

• T1: if a gain-growth option exists, usually take it.
• T2–T3: 1–2 more gains, depending on spirit’s draft-bias.
• T4–T6: Major consideration (if Mixed or Major-heavy bias); more Minors (if Minor-heavy).
• T7+: closer draft — the one that ends the game.

Over-gaining (5+ cards on a Minor-heavy spirit) produces a bloated hand you can’t play. Under-gaining (2 cards by T6) leaves you without options. Target 3–4 total for most spirits.

Seen cards stay out

You can’t refuse an offer, and the 3 cards you don’t keep go to the discard pile, not back into the deck. They stay out of future offers until the deck runs out and its discard is reshuffled. If you are counting what’s left in a deck, every gain removes 4 cards from it.

Pool-size awareness

With every expansion, the Minor deck has 100 cards and the Major deck 78, after Nature Incarnate’s dropped cards (Growth Through Sacrifice is out of the Minors). Your offers draw from this pool. Each gain takes 4 cards out of the deck (1 to a hand, 3 to the discard), and the discard comes back only when the deck runs out — rare with the full pool, possible at high player counts. Ask how many gains the whole table will make before you expect the game to end, and how much of a 100-card deck that actually uses.

Card-specific grades

Each spirit chapter has a Card Priority Ratings table (e.g., Shadows’s table) listing the top Minors, Majors, and Uniques for that spirit. Refer to those when drafting at the table.

Common mistakes

Cross-references

• Major vs. Minor — archetype bias.
• Energy Curves — cost fit.
• Alpha-Player Problem — draft-coordination etiquette.
• SICK Card Database — browse + filter all power cards.

Last revised: 2026-10-19

The Fear Track

Fear is the win-condition currency. Read this chapter to internalize how fear actually scales, when you should rush it, and when you should treat it as secondary to board control.

How fear gets generated

Fear enters your pool from four sources:

1. Destroying invaders — Explorer/Town/City = 0/1/2 fear respectively, and only when the piece is Destroyed (by Damage or a Destroy effect). Removing, Pushing, Gathering, or Replacing (including Downgrading) a piece generates none.
2. Fear-generating cards — specific Minors, Majors, and some Uniques add fear directly.
3. Innate powers and special rules — Shadows (Darkness Swallows the Unwary), Bringer (Night Terrors), and Many Minds (Beset and Confound the Invaders) have Fear on innate tiers; Shroud’s Slow and Silent Death special rule generates Fear during Time Passes.
4. Events, scenarios, and other effects — e.g., Beasts Events.

For most spirits, kills dominate fear generation. For fear-heavy spirits (Shadows, Bringer, Many Minds, Shroud), innates + cards can match or exceed kill-fear.

How fear converts to wins

Each Fear Card costs 4 Fear per player: the Fear Pool holds 4 Fear Markers per player, and when all of them have moved to Generated Fear, you earn the top card of the Fear Deck. Leftover Fear carries over toward the next card. England L6 and playing with an extra board each add 1 more Fear per player per card.

With the base Fear Deck (9 cards, split 3/3/3 by two Terror Level dividers), the totals are:

• 1 player: 4 fear per card; 12 to reach Terror Level 2, 24 to reach Terror Level 3, 36 to empty the deck.
• 2 player: 8 per card; 24 / 48 / 72.
• 3 player: 12 per card; 36 / 72 / 108.
• 4 player: 16 per card; 48 / 96 / 144.

Adversary levels change how many cards sit at each Terror Level, so recount for yours.

Reaching a divider raises the Terror Level, and each level loosens your victory condition:

• Terror Level 1 (start): you win if no Invaders remain on the island.
• Terror Level 2: you win if no Towns or Cities remain. Explorers are OK.
• Terror Level 3: you win if no Cities remain. Towns + Explorers OK.
• Fear Deck empty: revealing the Victory space under the last card is an immediate win, whatever the board looks like.

Terror Levels loosen your victory condition. More fear = easier to win.

The fear-card stack

At setup, the Fear Cards are shuffled together and 9 go on the Fear Deck space, with the Terror Level 3 divider 3 cards from the bottom and the Terror Level 2 divider 3 cards above that (adversaries change those counts). There are no separate Terror-1/2/3 cards: every Fear Card prints three effects, one per Terror Level, and you use the line for the Terror Level current when the card resolves. This means:

• The same card resolves differently depending on when it is flipped, not when it was earned.
• Fear earned just before a divider is crossed resolves at the new, higher level.
• Each divider crossed also loosens the victory condition above.

Read the three lines on the Fear Cards you see and compare them; that comparison is your fear quality curve. Fear-rush builds aim to cross the dividers sooner, so more cards resolve at higher Terror Levels and the victory condition loosens earlier.

When to rush fear

Fear is a viable primary win path when:

1. Your spirit generates fear independent of kills (Shadows, Bringer, Many Minds).
2. The adversary’s fear changes don’t outrun you. Count the Fear Cards your adversary level puts at each Terror Level, and read its fear-related rules (e.g., England L6 makes each card cost more; France L6 stops Fear Cards from removing Explorers).
3. Board control is stable enough to survive until you win on fear.

If any one of those fails, fear-rush fails. You end up at Terror Level 3 with Cities still on the board, and even the loosest board condition (no Cities) out of reach.

When NOT to rush fear

• Adversary levels with long Fear Decks — the deck grows from the base 9 cards to 14 at several level-4-to-6 adversaries and to 16 at Scotland L6; that is up to 7 more cards’ worth of Fear before the Fear Deck empties. Count the cards at each Terror Level on your level, not just the total.
• England L6 — each Fear Card costs 1 more Fear per player, and any Invader Phase in which you resolve no Fear Cards performs the High Immigration Build twice.
• France L6 — Fear Card effects never remove Explorers (you may Push them instead), which blunts every “remove Explorer” line.
• Spirits with no innate fear generation + slow kill pace — you’ll never hit Terror 3.

Fear-tempo vs. kill-tempo

Two common fear-generation shapes:

Fear-tempo (heavy innate fear)

• Shadows: innate triggers generate ~1–3 fear per turn on threshold hits.
• Bringer: Night Terrors adds 1–3 Fear by tier, and their Powers generate 0/2/5 Fear instead of Destroying an Explorer/Town/City.
• Many Minds: Beset and Confound scales fear up to 6.

These spirits produce fear even without kills. They’re also often worse at straight damage — they need fear as their closing condition because they can’t clear cities fast.

Kill-tempo (fear from bodies)

• Wildfire, Fangs, Lightning: most fear comes from kills.
• They clear cities fast; fear rises in parallel.
• Often over-kill so hard that they win on “no invaders” rather than Terror-3-unlocked-win.

Heuristic: match your opening to your spirit’s shape. Don’t try to fear-rush Fangs; don’t try to board-wipe with Bringer.

Damage ↔ fear exchange rate

A community heuristic from Phantaskippy’s Discord-originated guides: when a Power offers you a choice between damage and fear, you can price the tradeoff. The rough rates that hold in most mid-game situations:

Use this to price choices like “2 Fear or 1 Damage”: near the Terror-2 threshold on a low-damage turn, take the Fear; on a high-damage turn where the 1 damage finishes a Town (= 1 Fear automatic), take the Damage. The exchange rate is a sanity check, not a solve.

Note: per the Explorer FAQ, destroying an Explorer produces 0 Fear by default — that’s why +1 Fear is “priced” above a naked Explorer-destroy. Powers that say “1 Fear per Explorer destroyed this Power” are bonus to the 0 baseline.

Source: Phantaskippy’s Rampant Green and Bringer guides. Fear values per Destroy: core rulebook, “Fear and Terror”.

The timing question

When does fear you generate “count”? Immediately. The moment the Fear Pool empties you earn a card, and if that card is the last one above a divider, the Terror Level changes right then — not at Time Passes. This means:

• Fear that crosses a divider during the Fast phase of T3 makes the Terror Level 2 victory condition live for the rest of T3: the Invader Phase, the Dahan counterattack, and your Slow powers.
• Earned cards are flipped and resolved in the next Invader Phase’s Fear step, at the Terror Level current then.

For “I need Terror 2 to win on this kill” plays, the fear that crosses the divider only has to land before the kill, not before the turn ends. Players choose the order in which their Powers resolve, so ask: can the Fear resolve first?

Fear-card quality (what you actually draw)

The Fear Card pool is 50 cards with every expansion (the count in the Steam game’s allowed pool); a game uses 9 plus your adversary’s changes, so most of the pool stays in the box each game. See Fear Card Expected Value for the per-card analysis.

Fear + scoring

Fear isn’t part of the score. The rulebook’s optional scoring uses difficulty, a win bonus, the Invader Cards remaining (on a win) or used (on a loss), living Dahan, and Blight on the island. A fear-heavy loss scores no better for the fear alone.

Cross-references

• Fear Card Expected Value — per-card data.
• Fear Rush — archetype build.
• Blight Track — the other win/loss axis.
• Specific fear-heavy spirits: Shadows, Bringer, Many Minds, Shroud.

Last revised: 2026-10-19

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:

1. Dahan absorb first (2 HP each).
2. Your presence absorbs next (1 HP per token, destroys the token).
3. 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:

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:

1. Which lands have 1 blight already? — those are the cascade candidates.
2. What’s the upcoming ravage? — if it hits a 1-blight land with overflow damage, you’re about to cascade.
3. 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)

Blight-preventing (prevents ravage damage before it becomes blight)

Blight-positive (intentionally adds blight; scales with it)

Blight-neutral (depend on defend + dahan; no special interaction)

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.

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

Common mistakes

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

Dahan — The Island’s People

Dahan are the native humans of the island — not spirits, not invaders. They’re neutral pieces that act on invaders in specific conditions, absorb damage during ravages, and generate fear when defending. Getting dahan wrong is the fastest path to losing a game you were “winning.”

The three roles of a dahan

1. Counterattack unit — when a land is ravaged, surviving dahan deal 2 damage to invaders in that land.
2. Damage sink — ravage damage is taken first by dahan (2 HP each); once dahan die, presence gets destroyed.
3. Scoring asset — some scenarios + some powers reward dahan preservation.

Ignoring role 1 is the most common mistake. Ignoring role 2 is the most expensive mistake.

Dahan mechanics

• HP: 2 per dahan.
• Damage output (ravage retaliation): 2 per dahan.
• Build / Explore interaction: dahan don’t interact with Build or Explore; only Ravage.
• Movement: can be Pushed or Gathered by powers.
• Destruction: killed when they take 2+ damage. Destroyed dahan leave no token.

Dahan in the ravage sequence

During a Ravage:

1. Invaders and dahan calculate damage.
2. Invaders deal damage = total invader health in the land (1 Explorer + 2 Town + 3 City = varies).
3. Dahan deal damage = 2 × surviving dahan count (in retaliation).
4. Damage is dealt simultaneously; then:
   • Dahan damage above 2 per dahan kills them.
   • Invader damage can be absorbed by dahan, then by presence, then land becomes blight.

Key insight: you can deliberately put dahan in the ravage line to kill invaders via retaliation, even if the dahan die.

The “martyr” play

On a T2–T3 with 2 dahan in a ravage land containing 1 Town and 1 Explorer:

• Invaders deal 3 damage → kills 1 dahan (2 HP used) + 1 presence (1 HP used).
• Dahan deal 4 damage → kills the Town (2 HP) + the Explorer (1 HP). 1 damage overflow.
• Result: you lose 1 dahan + 1 presence, but the land is clear and no blight added.

Without the dahan, that ravage is: 3 damage → 3 presence destroyed → 1–3 blight depending on defend.

Trade evaluation: 1 dahan + 1 presence for a clear land + both invaders dead. Usually worth it early-game, sometimes worth it late-game if it prevents a cascade.

Dahan as fear

Several powers generate fear per dahan in a land. Thunderspeaker is the archetype:

• Thunderspeaker innates generate fear scaling with dahan count on-the-board.
• Dahan Insurrection scenario — dahan become the scoring asset.
• Bringer’s fear cards interact with dahan density.

If your spirit cares about dahan, you protect them and sometimes grow their population (via certain powers like Manifestation of Power and Glory).

Dahan in multiplayer

Dahan are shared across all spirits. Neither you nor your teammate “owns” them. This creates coordination questions:

• Who defends the dahan ravage? — ambiguous by default. Agree before Fast powers.
• Who buffs the dahan counterattack? — typically Thunderspeaker or a dahan-themed spirit.
• Can dahan be sacrificed across spirits’ plans? — yes; but surprise it-dies-anyway plays feel bad. Flag before playing.

Dahan by adversary

• Brandenburg-Prussia: dahan-friendly; no direct dahan punishment.
• England: neutral.
• Sweden: neutral.
• France: enslavement mechanics — dahan can be removed to the Plantation.
• Russia: Settler mechanics — dahan get pushed/killed by Settlers.
• Habsburg Mining: neutral.
• Scotland: dahan-friendly.
• Habsburg Livestock: dahan-friendly.

France and Russia flag dahan-centric spirits (Thunderspeaker, Dahan-Insurrection-scenario builds) as risky.

Dahan by spirit bias — all 39 spirits

Grouped by interaction intensity. Default for unlisted nuance: dahan are preserved as damage sinks, not multiplied.

Dahan-positive (dahan are the engine or a primary resource)

• Thunderspeaker: dahan as power multiplier. Grows dahan density; defends them aggressively; wins via dahan-fear-cards.
• Hearth-Vigil: Incarna protects dahan directly; dahan preservation = spirit engine.
• Ferocious Warrior of the Lost Lands: dahan as warrior units; positional + directly empowered.
• Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves: dahan-adjacent — Ranging Hunt uses dahan + beasts together.

Dahan-interactive (cards or innates reference dahan)

• Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares: fear cards scale with dahan count in target land.
• Vital Strength of the Earth: some defend cards preserve dahan; dahan density supports late-game kills.
• A Spread of Rampant Green: dahan-friendly by ecology; some cards reference dahan population.
• Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds: sacred-site cards sometimes interact with dahan; generally dahan-preserving.
• River Surges in Sunlight: push/gather moves dahan as well as invaders.
• Lure of the Deep Wilderness: can pull dahan into wilderness lands for specific effects.
• Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine: fear cards scaling with dahan similar to Bringer.

Dahan-neutral (dahan are useful where present, not central)

• Lightning’s Swift Strike: dahan useful for retaliation damage; no specific scaling.
• Shadows Flicker Like Flame: dahan useful as fear-trigger; not multiplied.
• Ocean’s Hungry Grasp: dahan are fine but the drowning-coast engine is primary.
• Finder of Paths Unseen: mobility includes dahan; no specific scaling.
• Stone’s Unyielding Defiance: dahan defended via sacred-site coverage; not multiplied.
• Shifting Memory of Ages: dahan present at start; card effects vary.
• Shroud of Silent Mist: dahan useful but damaged-invader engine is primary.
• Many Minds Move as One: beasts are the focus; dahan present but secondary.
• Starlight Seeks Its Form: form-dependent; some forms care about dahan.
• Fractured Days Split the Sky: time-skip engine is primary; dahan incidental.
• Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island: late-game focus; dahan neutral.
• Downpour Drenches the World: isolation engine; dahan neutral.
• Devouring Teeth Lurk Underfoot: simple damage; dahan neutral.
• Eyes Watch from the Trees: support; dahan neutral.
• Fathomless Mud of the Swamp: defend; dahan preserved.
• Rising Heat of Stone and Sand: direct damage; dahan incidental.
• Sun-Bright Whirlwind: mobility; dahan incidental.
• Ember-Eyed Behemoth: Incarna-damage-focused; dahan incidental.
• Towering Roots of the Jungle: defend-focused; dahan preserved.
• Relentless Gaze of the Sun: Sun-Incarna focus; dahan incidental.
• Wandering Voice Keens Delirium: strife-fear focus; dahan incidental.
• Wounded Waters Bleeding: water-Incarna; dahan incidental.
• Dances Up Earthquakes: earth-Incarna; dahan incidental.
• Covets Gleaming Shards of Earth: Major-hoarding; dahan neutral.

Dahan-negative (ignore or sacrifice dahan)

• Heart of the Wildfire: doesn’t care; will ravage them away as part of blight-positive play.
• Vengeance as a Burning Plague: dahan are secondary; disease concentration is primary; late-game ok sacrificing.
• Volcano Looming High: destruction is thematic; dahan in eruption lands die.
• Grinning Trickster: chaotic; dahan movement is incidental, sometimes harmful to them.

The spirit chapter’s At-a-Glance should flag “dahan-sensitive” as an archetype when it applies.

Stat insight

Heuristics

Common mistakes

Cross-references

• Thunderspeaker — the dahan-centric spirit.
• Fear Track — dahan-retaliation kills generate fear.
• Blight Track — dahan absorption delays blight.
• Dahan Insurrection — dahan-scoring scenario.

Last revised: 2026-04-19

Spirits — Overview & Index

Spirit Island has 42 spirits (base + all expansions + promos). This chapter orients you: which spirit to read, which to play, which to pair, and which chapters exist as full deep-dives versus stubs pending authorship.

Every spirit chapter follows the Rei-derived canonical format: At a Glance → Framing → Core Mechanics → Strategic Principles → Opening Strategy → Element/Aspect Preferences → Card Priority Ratings → Adversary Matchup Matrix → Board Position → Game-Phase Strategy → Synergies → Common Mistakes → Tempo Profile → Major vs. Minor → Stat Snapshot → Sources.

Chapter status

By complexity tier

Low complexity (learn these first)

Base game’s 8 spirits, plus new-player-friendly picks.

• River Surges in Sunlight
• Lightning’s Swift Strike
• Shadows Flicker Like Flame ← MVP authored
• Vital Strength of the Earth
• Ocean’s Hungry Grasp
• A Spread of Rampant Green
• Thunderspeaker
• Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares

Moderate complexity

Branch & Claw, Horizons, Promo Pack 2, and the easier Jagged Earth spirits.

• Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves
• Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds
• Heart of the Wildfire
• Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island
• Downpour Drenches the World
• Finder of Paths Unseen
• Horizons spirits: Devouring Teeth, Eyes Watch from the Trees, Fathomless Mud, Rising Heat, Sun-Bright Whirlwind
• Jagged Earth moderate: Shifting Memory of Ages, Grinning Trickster, Many Minds Move as One, Shroud of Silent Mist, Vengeance as a Burning Plague, Volcano Looming High

High complexity

Jagged Earth + Nature Incarnate’s harder spirits.

• Stone’s Unyielding Defiance
• Lure of the Deep Wilderness
• Fractured Days Split the Sky ← Brett priority
• Starlight Seeks Its Form
• Nature Incarnate: Wounded Waters Bleeding, Dances Up Earthquakes, Ember-Eyed Behemoth, Relentless Gaze of the Sun, Towering Roots of the Jungle, Hearth-Vigil, Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine

Very high complexity

• Wandering Voice Keens Delirium
• Covets Gleaming Shards of Earth
• Ferocious Warrior of the Lost Lands

By archetype

Fear farms (win via Terror 3)

Shadows, Bringer, Many Minds, Shroud, (Trickster late-game).

Dahan multipliers

Thunderspeaker, (Fangs via Ranging Hunt), (Bringer for fear cards scaling with dahan).

Blight-positive / damage-via-corruption

Vengeance, Wildfire (partially).

Coastal / ocean-dependent

Ocean, (Serpent aspects).

Energy denial / tempo disruption

Trickster, (Mist partial), (Fractured Days via time skip).

Terrain control (movement + isolation)

Shroud (Mists Shift and Flow), Lure, Green (aspect-dependent), Finder.

Direct damage / board clear

Lightning, Fangs, Wildfire, Keeper, Earth.

By element bias

A quick lookup — see each spirit’s chapter for the full element analysis.

By aspect

See Aspects for the dedicated deep-dive on all 31 published aspects.

Reading order recommendations

If this is your first serious read: Shadows (full chapter) to see the canonical format, then Thunderspeaker stub for contrast.

If you know a few spirits and want to deepen: read the fundamentals (Tempo, Major vs. Minor) first, then pick 1 spirit you already know — you’ll re-read it in a new light.

If you’re planning tonight’s game: see How to Use This Book Mode 1.

Last revised: 2026-04-19

River Surges in Sunlight

Spirit Overview — Framing

River is a base-game Sun/Water scaling spirit whose win plan is to hit max-tier Massive Flooding every turn from T4 onward. It’s one of the two lowest-complexity spirits (Play Difficulty 0) — a teaching spirit that’s also surprisingly effective at high difficulty via its reclaim-loop innate.

Wiki-printed playstyle note:

Lots of sacred sites for targeting your innate. The best way to get them is generally to focus on expanding to wetlands, where your special rule (River’s Domain) gives you a sacred site with only 1 presence.

Identity capture (latentoctopus):

River is an innate-focused scaling Spirit whose win plan is to hit max-tier Massive Flooding every turn from T4/T5 onward.

The Sacred-Site shortcut: River’s Domain is unique — 1 Presence in a Wetland = a sacred site. Most spirits need 2 presence to make a sacred site; River needs 1. This effectively doubles River’s effective presence count for targeting purposes when Wetlands are available.

Complexity signal: Low is correct — the simplest “Scale the Innate” spirit. One innate. One Special Rule. Linear energy track (1→2→2→3→4→4→5). Decision-load is when to Reclaim and which Minor to draft — not much else.

Starting Setup

Put 1 Presence on your starting board in the highest-numbered Wetlands.

Only 1 starting presence, which immediately counts as a sacred site via River’s Domain.

Growth Options (growthtype: “one” — pick one per turn)

River’s growth is benign — all three options are usable. G1 bundles Reclaim + card + energy and is used every 3–4 turns in the standard opening.

Presence Tracks

• Energy track (7 slots): energy1 → energy2 → energy2 → energy3 → energy4 → energy4 → energy5
  • 1E → 2E → 2E → 3E → 4E → 4E → 5E
• Card-play track (7 slots): card1 → card2 → card2 → card3 → reclaim1 → card4 → card5
  • 1 CP → 2 CP → 2 CP → 3 CP → Reclaim 1 → 4 CP → 5 CP

Starting income: 1 Energy, 1 Card Play. Linear energy scaling — no marker complexity.

Core Mechanics & Special Rules

Special Rule: River’s Domain

Your Presence in Wetlands counts as Sacred Site.

1-Presence Wetland = sacred site. Targeting from sacred sites matters for Range-from-Sacred-Site abilities (Wash Away, Flash Floods).

Innate: Massive Flooding

• Speed: Slow · Range: 1 · Target: Any

Level	Thresholds	Effect
1	1 Sun + 2 Water	Push 1 Explorer/Town.
2	2 Sun + 3 Water	Instead, 2 Damage. Push up to 3 Explorers/Towns.
3	3 Sun + 4 Water + 1 Earth	Instead, 2 Damage to each Invader.

L3 (Max-tier Massive Flooding) is River’s endgame — 2 damage per Invader in a populated land destroys everything a T+ ravage land. Played every turn from T4/T5 onward, this is the whole spirit.

Unique Cards (all 4, Wiki-verified)

Wash Away

• 1 Energy · Slow · Range 1 · Any Land · Water, Earth
• Push 1 Explorer/Town/City. (+1 damage per Water if text says so — verify from physical card.)

1E push for any Invader type. Lennert: “ideal target is a land where the Invaders just explored but which started with a Town — stopping the T2 city-build. Otherwise push towards the coast to create inland dead zones.”

River’s Bounty

• 0 Energy · Slow · Range 0 · Any Land · Sun, Water, Animal
• Gather 1 Dahan. Gather 1 Explorer. Each Dahan in target land destroys 1 Explorer.

0-cost Dahan-vs-Explorer. The key reclaim-engine card — played and reclaimed every cycle. Sun+Water double-prime.

Flash Floods

• 2 Energy · Fast · Range 1 · Any Land · Sun, Water
• 1 Damage. +1 Damage per Water you have.

Water-scaling damage at 2E Fast. Key to Massive Flooding threshold-feeding during non-Reclaim turns.

Boon of Vigor

• 0 Energy · Fast · No Range · Any Spirit · Sun, Water, Plant
• Target Spirit gains +1 Energy this turn and +1 Energy at end of turn (total +2).

Ally gift — Lennert: “Playing Boon of Vigor on yourself is always wrong. It generates more energy for an ally.” Gift to a partner who needs Energy for Majors or plays.

Key Strategic Principles

1. Hit max-tier Massive Flooding every turn from T4/T5. This is the whole win condition.
2. Water + Sun are co-primary. Both unlock Flooding tiers; both sit in starter elements.
3. Minors > Majors by default. Lennert: “The main advantage of major powers is dealing with built-up lands that simply have too many invaders to efficiently handle with minor powers. River is able to handle those problem lands using the highest level of Massive Flooding, so I think it’s generally better to just get a ton of minor powers.”
4. Wetlands = free sacred sites. Target Wetland-expansion over other terrain.
5. Boon of Vigor never self-targeted. Always gift to ally.
6. Wash Away targets the pre-build land, not the city land. Lennert heuristic.
7. Reclaim cycle: River’s Bounty is reclaimed every loop — 0-cost Sun/Water card always in rotation.

Possible Openings

Shared starting state

• 1 Presence on board: highest-numbered Wetland (= sacred site via River’s Domain).
• 4 Uniques in hand: Wash Away (1E Slow, Water/Earth), River’s Bounty (0E Slow, Sun/Water/Animal), Flash Floods (2E Fast, Sun/Water), Boon of Vigor (0E Fast, Sun/Water/Plant).
• Starting income: 1 Energy, 1 Card Play.

Opening A — Consistent Reclaim Loop 🟨 (default, latentoctopus)

From latentoctopus Opening 1.

T1 · Growth: G2 bottom. T1 · Play (1E, 1 CP): River’s Bounty + one card.

• Elements hit: 1 Sun + 2 Water (+ whatever else). Massive Flooding L1 (1 Sun + 2 Water) live.

T2 · Growth: G2 bottom. Reclaim River’s Bounty (via Reclaim-1 track slot — note: you may need G1 for full Reclaim at this stage, depending on track state).

• Play 3 cards → 2 Sun + 3 Water elements → Massive Flooding L2.

T3 · Growth: Reclaim (G1) + Gain Minor. T3 · Play: River’s Bounty + new Minor. Hold 2 Sun / 3 Water / 1 Earth.

T4 · Growth: G2 bottom. T4 · Play: Reclaim River’s Bounty + play all 4 starters → 3 Sun / 4 Water / 1 Earth, unlocking max-level Massive Flooding.

Core constraint: “Little presence placement past T4 requires careful planning.”

Opening B — Lennert’s 5-turn arc (more detailed) 🟨

From BGG 1967085.

T1 · Growth: G2 bottom. T1 · Play: Wash Away + River’s Bounty.

• Wash Away target: “a land where the Invaders just explored but which started with a Town — stopping the T2 city-build.”
• Alternative: push toward coast to create inland dead zones.

T2 · Growth: G2 bottom. Reclaim River’s Bounty. T2 · Play: Flash Floods + Boon of Vigor + River’s Bounty (3 plays, Massive Flooding L2).

T3 · Growth: Reclaim + Gain Minor (+1E). T3 · Play: Bounty + Flash Floods + Wash Away, hit Massive Flooding L2 again.

T4 · Growth: G2 bottom + Gain second Minor. T4 · Play: all 4 starting cards if draws allow.

T5 · Growth: Reclaim + Gain Minor (+1E). T5 · Play: “You can now definitely activate the highest tier of your innate no matter what minors you drew” by playing all 4 starters.

Critical note (Lennert): “Make sure you have enough energy for this turn — if both drafted Minors cost energy, River’s Bounty must be played both T3 and T4.”

Opening C — Top-Track Variant (optional Major) 🟥

T1 · Growth: G3 top instead of G2 bottom.

• Rationale: top-track gives +5E by T3, enough to plausibly grab a Major T3–T4 if cheap and reclaim-loop it.

Trade-off: loses the T2 Reclaim; card plays off-curve for L2 Flooding.

Opening Decision

• Default Opening A or B (both very similar). Lennert’s variant is more explicit.
• Opening C only when Major-rushing is the plan.

Card Priority Ratings

Uniques — River-specific ranking

1. River’s Bounty — 0-cost Sun/Water + reclaim-every-cycle engine.
2. Flash Floods — Water-scaling damage; innate-threshold feeder.
3. Wash Away — surgical Push for Build-prevention.
4. Boon of Vigor — ally-gift; never self-target.

Top 10 Minor Draft Picks (Water + Sun priority)

Top 5 Major Draft Picks (Opening C only)

Cards to Avoid

Adversary Matchup Matrix

Board / Map Configuration

Wetland-heavy boards give free sacred sites via River’s Domain. Prioritize Board A / B / D orientations that push river lands toward buildable targets. No adversary matrix explicit in Lennert — core advice applies broadly.

Game-Phase Strategy

Early (T1–3)

• G2 bottom → reclaim → G2 bottom cadence.
• Massive Flooding L1 on T1, L2 on T2.
• River’s Bounty reclaimed every cycle.

Mid (T4–6)

• Max-tier Massive Flooding (L3) active.
• Minor-integration; Water + Sun drafts.
• Boon of Vigor ally-gifting.

Late (T7+)

• Reclaim loops stabilize; Massive Flooding every turn.
• Optional Major (Tsunami, Manifest).

Synergy Partners (Multiplayer)

• Energy-hungry allies for Boon of Vigor — Lightning, Thunderspeaker, Major-users.
• Defending partners — cover River’s Bounty-targeted Dahan lands so Dahan actually kill.
• Grouped-Invader partners — Massive Flooding L3 destroys pods; partners who concentrate Invaders multiply River’s output.

Common Mistakes

Tempo Profile

Source Notes

• Mechanics: data/references/wiki/river-surges-in-sunlight.json (Wiki-parsed 2026-04-23).
• Openings: latentoctopus Opening 1 + Lennert BGG 1967085.

Lightning’s Swift Strike

Spirit Overview — Framing

Lightning is a fast-burst damage spirit whose identity is inverted from most spirits — abundant card plays and scarce cards. Antistone:

Lightning has a very easy time getting lots of card plays and a hard time getting lots of cards to spend them on.

Wiki-printed playstyle note:

Deals damage quickly with support from allies. Air-innate amplifier for the whole team via Lightning’s Boon.

Identity in one line: fast Town-killer on T1–T2, team amplifier via Air, card-play surplus looking for cards.

Complexity signal: Low is correct. 4 Uniques, 1 innate, 1 Special Rule (Air → Slow-as-Fast). Decision-load: when to Reclaim and which Minor to draft.

Starting Setup

Put 2 Presence on your starting board in the highest-numbered Sands.

Growth Options (growthtype: “one” — pick one per turn)

Presence Tracks

• Energy track (8 slots): energy1 → energy1 → energy2 → energy2 → energy3 → energy4 → energy4 → energy5
• Card-play track (5 slots): card2 → card3 → card4 → card5 → card6

Starting income: 1 Energy, 2 Card Plays. The CP ceiling (up to 6) is huge — the problem is finding enough cards to spend them on.

Core Mechanics & Special Rules

Special Rule: Swiftness of Lightning

For every Air you have, you may use 1 Slow Power as if it were Fast. (Power Cards or your Innate Powers.)

Air-driven Slow→Fast conversion. 1 Air = 1 Slow-as-Fast. 2 Air = 2 Slow-as-Fast. The identity-shaping rule.

Innate: Thundering Destruction

• Speed: Slow · Range: 1 · Target: Any

Level	Thresholds	Effect
1	3 Fire + 2 Air	Destroy 1 Town.
2	4 Fire + 3 Air	You may instead destroy 1 City.
3	5 Fire + 4 Air + 1 Water	Also, Destroy 1 Town / City.
4	5 Fire + 5 Air + 2 Water	Also, Destroy 1 Town / City.

Town-killer innate. L1 (3 Fire + 2 Air) reachable T1–T2. L2 upgrades to City-kill.

Unique Cards (all 4, Wiki-verified)

Raging Storm

• 3 Energy · Slow · Range 1 · Any Land · Fire, Air, Water
• 1 Damage to each Invader.

AOE. Antistone: inefficient; better as Explore-prevention than raw damage.

Shatter Homesteads

• 2 Energy · Slow · Range 2 from Sacred Site · Any Land · Fire, Air
• 1 Fear. Destroy 1 Town.

The signature Town-killer. Range 2 from sacred site + Swiftness makes it a Fast Town-destroy.

Lightning’s Boon

• 1 Energy · Fast · No Range · Any Spirit · Fire, Air
• Target Spirit may use up to 2 Slow Powers as if they were Fast Powers this turn.

Team amplifier. Gift to any Slow-heavy partner. Antistone: in solo, “play for elements only” — the Slow→Fast effect doubles on Lightning itself (with Swiftness native).

Harbingers of the Lightning

• 0 Energy · Slow · Range 1 · Any Land · Fire, Air
• Push up to 2 Dahan. 1 Fear if you pushed any Dahan into a land with Towns/Cities.

0-cost Fire/Air — the threshold-filler. Used every turn to stack innate elements.

Key Strategic Principles

1. Air = Slow-as-Fast. Draft Air minors aggressively.
2. Fire for Thundering Destruction. Every turn wants Fire + Air in hand.
3. Card-plays exceed cards. Minor-draft over Major.
4. Swiftness timing is not reflexive. Antistone: if destroying a starting Town creates out-of-range lands after future Builds, make Shatter Fast; otherwise play Slow to hit a Town about to Ravage.
5. Reclaim every turn is a tempo-loss — it costs presence growth.
6. Lightning’s Boon solo = elements only. The ally-benefit wastes.

Possible Openings

Shared starting state

• 2 Presence on highest-numbered Sands.
• 4 Uniques in hand: Raging Storm (3E Slow, Fire/Air/Water), Shatter Homesteads (2E Slow, Fire/Air), Lightning’s Boon (1E Fast, Fire/Air), Harbingers of the Lightning (0E Slow, Fire/Air).
• Starting income: 1 Energy, 2 Card Plays.

Opening A — Antistone’s Presence-first (slow-ramp, multiplayer) 🟨 (default)

T1 · Growth: G2 (2 presence from top-track). Extra presence = range + 2nd sacred site. T1 · Play (1E, 2 CP): Shatter Homesteads only. Skip 2nd card play — save for T2 innate trigger.

T2 · Growth: G2 (+3E from G3 misread — actually G3: R1 presence + 3E). Correction: T2 G3 for +3E + presence. T2 · Play (4E, 2 CP): Lightning’s Boon + Raging Storm + Harbingers — triggers Thundering Destruction L1 (3 Fire + 2 Air), destroys 2nd Town.

T3 · Growth: G1 (Reclaim + Gain Minor + 1E). Card-starved relief.

T4 target: sustained 3 card plays per turn with innate fires; Reclaim loops every 3 turns.

Opening B — Ruduen’s Aggressive (solo / fast adversaries) 🟨

T1 · Growth: G1 (+1E + Reclaim, but only empty to reclaim) — Variant: G3 (R1 presence + 3E) = 4E. T1 · Play (4E): Shatter Homesteads + Lightning’s Boon + Harbingers → innate L1 T1, up to 4 Fear immediately.

T2 · Growth: G1 Reclaim + Minor + 1E. T2 · Play: Repeat Town-clear if needed.

T3 · Growth: G2 or G1 for 3E. T3 · Play: Everything unplayed except maybe Raging Storm.

T4 · Growth: G1 Reclaim + Minor + 1E.

Trade-off: destroys fewer total Towns across T1–T3 but earlier; prevents inland explores Opening A can’t. Higher-risk, higher-reward vs. aggressive adversaries.

Opening C — Ocean-partner Variant 🟥

With Ocean’s Tidal Boon (+2E gift): play 0 cards T1, G2 bottom T2, play all 4 starters T2 — but lack Air to Fast everything. Niche.

Opening Decision

• Default Opening A in 2P+ multiplayer.
• Opening B solo or vs. fast-cliff adversaries.
• Opening C when paired with Ocean.

Card Priority Ratings

Uniques — Lightning-specific ranking

1. Shatter Homesteads — the Town-killer; 2E Fire/Air.
2. Lightning’s Boon — team amplifier (or solo elements).
3. Harbingers of the Lightning — 0-cost Fire/Air threshold-filler.
4. Raging Storm — AOE; situational Explore-prevention.

Top 10 Minor Draft Picks (Air > Fire)

Top 5 Major Draft Picks

Rare for Lightning — drafts only situationally. Prefer:

Cards to Avoid

Adversary Matchup Matrix

Board / Map Configuration

Board A matters most (Ruduen): 2 coastal lands unreachable without presence-heavy start — use Opening A variant with top-track. Boards B/C/D let Shatter Homesteads reach all but one land, so the G3 energy-start is viable.

Game-Phase Strategy

Early (T1–3)

• Shatter Homesteads T1 + T2 Town-kills.
• Thundering Destruction L1 online T2.
• Card-draft Air/Fire aggressively.

Mid (T4–6)

• Thundering Destruction L2 (4 Fire + 3 Air) for City-kills.
• Reclaim cycles every 3 turns.

Late (T7+)

• Thundering Destruction L3/L4 for multi-Town/City destroy.
• Major integration (if drafted).

Synergy Partners (Multiplayer)

• Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds — slow card economy, benefits from Lightning’s Boon Fast conversion.
• Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island — Gift of Flowing Power card-play acceleration.
• Ocean — Tidal Boon energy gift; shared coastal presence.
• Green — Gift of Proliferation for early presence acceleration.

Common Mistakes

Tempo Profile

Source Notes

• Mechanics: data/references/wiki/lightning-swift-strike.json (Wiki-parsed 2026-04-23).
• Openings: Antistone BGG 1969985.

Shadows Flicker Like Flame

Spirit Overview — Framing

Shadows is a base-game Fear-5 spirit with low Defense (per the Wiki’s own power-summary ratings). The design-space is: generate maximum Fear per turn, control Explorer movement via Gather/Push, leverage Dahan adjacency for spatial flexibility — and accept that board-clearing damage is someone else’s job.

Wiki-printed playstyle note (verbatim for accuracy):

Good at causing Fear and picking off lone Explorers and Towns, containing the Invaders. Not so good at massive damage — may need to rely on allies to handle thoroughly colonized lands. The ability to boost Range gives more flexibility to Range 0 Powers, and can be important in larger games.

The honest complexity signal: Low is correct. 4 Uniques, 1 Innate, 1 Special Rule, 3 single-choice growth options. Strategic depth is in when to trigger Innate Level 1 (Gather) vs. Level 2 (Destroy) + which Unique to play per turn.

Starting Setup

Put 3 Presence on your starting board: 2 in the highest-numbered Jungle and 1 in land #5.

Growth Options (growthtype: “one” — pick one per turn)

Each growth option has a “first” and “second” effect, both resolved together when chosen:

Note: Shadows picks one of these per turn — unlike multi-growth spirits that pick multiple. This is a tight constraint. Most turns: G2 early (card-heavy); G1 when hand needs refresh; G3 for energy spikes.

Presence Tracks

As presence leaves each track, these values are revealed (cumulative per-turn gain):

• Energy track (6 slots): 0 → 1 → 3 → 4 → 5 → 6 Energy per turn as track fills.
• Card-play track (6 slots): 1 → 2 → 3 → 3 → 4 → 5 cards per turn.

Starting: 0 Energy, 1 CP (track-0 values). Opening the track quickly unlocks 3 Energy (significant for the 1E-per-turn Shadows-of-the-Dahan rule).

Core Mechanics & Special Rules

Special Rule: Shadows of the Dahan

Whenever you use a Power, you may pay 1 Energy to target a land with Dahan regardless of the Power’s Range. (Power Cards or your Innate Powers.)

Strategic implication: the most flexible targeting rule of any base spirit. Budget 1 Energy/turn for this; Dahan preservation directly expands Shadows’s reach.

Innate: Darkness Swallows the Unwary

• Speed: Fast · Range: 1 (optionally from a Sacred Site) · Target: Any land

Level	Thresholds	Effect
1	2 Moon + 1 Fire	Gather 1 Explorer .
2	3 Moon + 2 Fire	Destroy up to 2 Explorer . 1 Fear per Explorer destroyed.
3	4 Moon + 3 Fire + 2 Air	3 Damage. 1 Fear per Invader destroyed by this Damage.

Key decision: Level 1 gathers (repositions) an Explorer without killing — useful to move Explorers out of upcoming Build lands. Level 2+ destroys for fear. Don’t over-rush Level 2 if Level 1 solves the land.

Unique Cards (all 4, Wiki-verified)

Concealing Shadows

• 0 Energy · Fast · Range 0 · Any Land · Moon, Air
• 1 Fear . Dahan take no Damage from Ravaging Invaders this turn.

Free-to-play defensive + 1 Fear every turn. Pairs with Favors Called Due (preserves Dahan to outnumber Invaders).

Crops Wither and Fade

• 1 Energy · Slow · Range 0 · Any Land · Moon, Fire, Plant
• 2 Fear . Replace 1 Town with 1 Explorer . OR Replace 1 City with 1 Town .

Downgrade, not destroy. Softens Ravages + 2 Fear per play. A City → Town reduces that land’s Ravage damage by 1 and removes a Build upgrade path.

Favors Called Due

• 1 Energy · Slow · Range 1 · Any Land · Moon, Air, Animal
• Gather up to 4 Dahan . If Invaders are present and Dahan now outnumber them, 3 Fear .

Massive conditional fear spike (3 Fear ). Needs gatherable Dahan + Invader-present target + post-gather Dahan > Invader count.

Mantle of Dread

• 1 Energy · Slow · No Range · Any Spirit · Moon, Fire, Air
• 2 Fear . Target Spirit may Push 1 Explorer and 1 Town from a land where it has Presence.

Partner-support (target Any Spirit). In multiplayer, hands a partner a free push on one of their lands. In solo, self-target.

Key Strategic Principles

1. Fear output is huge. Concealing (1) + Crops (2) + Favors (3 conditional) + Mantle (2) + Innate L2 (up to 2) = up to 10 Fear in one turn at the peak. Shadows has the base game’s strongest per-turn fear ceiling by raw card output.
2. Shadows of the Dahan = spatial superpower. Budget 1E/turn for range extension. Dahan density across the board directly expands Shadows’s reach.
3. Crops Wither is downgrade-not-destroy. Use to soften Ravages + bank Fear, not to kill. The “replaced” Invader remains in the land.
4. Innate Level 1 is positional. Gather an Explorer out of a Build target → no Town next turn. A single growth option can solve a land via innate L1 without spending cards.
5. Moon + Fire is load-bearing. L1 = 2M+1F, L2 = 3M+2F. Draft Moon + Fire Minors aggressively.
6. Favors Called Due wants Dahan density. Preserve Dahan (Concealing) so gather + outnumber triggers.
7. Mantle of Dread targets a Spirit. In multiplayer, always a partner-help card if their turn is tight.

Possible Openings

Three Rei-format opening variants. Each is a turn-by-turn rehearsal for the first 3 turns + a T4 state audit. Pick the variant that matches your adversary + scenario before game start — don’t improvise T1. And don’t execute the opener on auto-pilot: each turn block below has a Pause-point callout flagging the decision that most often gets mis-made on that turn. Cross-reference Deliberate Play for the universal per-phase checklist.

Confidence scale: 🟥 tentative · 🟨 somewhat tested · 🟩 well-tested.

Shared starting state (all openings)

Verified per si-rules-check shadows-flicker-like-flame:

• 3 Presence on board: 2 in highest-numbered Jungle, 1 in land #5.
• 4 Uniques in hand: Concealing Shadows (0E Fast, 1 Moon + 1 Air), Crops Wither and Fade (1E Slow, 1M+1 Fire+1 Plant), Favors Called Due (1E Slow, 1M+1A+1 Animal), Mantle of Dread (1E Slow, 1M+1F+1A).
• Starting income: 0 Energy, 1 Card Play (first-uncovered Energy track slot energy0, first-uncovered CP track slot card1).
• Growth type “one”: pick one of G1/G2/G3 per turn. Presence placement reveals one track slot; it doesn’t reveal both.

Base-deck invader phase by turn (affects Ravage-protection cards)

Growth-option decoder (T1 income branches)

Element math — every played card counts

Shadows’s innate Darkness Swallows the Unwary is Fast: it resolves in the Fast Power Phase, before the Invader Phase. Its thresholds check every Element you have this turn. Each card you play in the Spirit Phase grants its Elements from the moment you play it, whether the card is Fast or Slow (Core rulebook p.16; FAQ “Rules semi-commonly misplayed”; confirmed in data/references/rules/open-questions.md Q10). So Mantle, Crops, and Favors feed the Fast innate on the turn you play them, even though their own effects wait for the Slow phase. Shadows’s Presence tracks have no Element spaces, so cards are the only source.

Element reach from Uniques alone (each Unique gives exactly 1 Moon; only Crops and Mantle give Fire):

• L1 (2 Moon + 1 Fire): any two Uniques that include Crops or Mantle. Cheapest: Concealing + Crops, or Concealing + Mantle → 1E, 2 Card Plays. Concealing + Favors gives 2 Moon but no Fire → no L1.
• L2 (3 Moon + 2 Fire): Crops + Mantle + any third Moon card (Concealing is cheapest) → 2E, 3 Card Plays. Reachable from Uniques alone once the CP track shows 3.
• L3 (4 Moon + 3 Fire + 2 Air): the Uniques hold only 2 Fire between them, so L3 needs Fire from a drafted card plus at least four Moon cards → 4+ Card Plays.
• 1-Card-Play turns: no Unique gives 2 Moon, so L1 can’t fire on a 1-CP turn of Uniques.

What speed still decides: when each card’s effect lands. A Fast card’s effect, and the innate’s Gather or Destroy, acts before this turn’s Ravage, Build, and Explore. A Slow card’s effect acts after the Invader Phase and sets up next turn. Moon+Fire Minors feed the innate at either speed, so weigh a Minor’s cost and its effect’s timing, not its Elements’ timing.

Pause-point (card plays): before committing cards, total Moon and Fire across all planned plays, Slow ones included. One Fire short? Swapping Favors for Crops or Mantle may fix it without drafting anything.

Opening A — G3-via-CP Double-Card Fear Opener 🟨 (default)

When to pick this: default against Brandenburg-Prussia, England, Scotland, Habsburg Livestock — fear-friendly adversaries. G3-via-CP is the only T1 growth choice that affords a 0E + 1E two-card play from a 0E start, giving the highest T1 Fear + material-effect output — and two Uniques with Moon + Fire, so L1 fires T1.

Target arc: 3 Fear + L1 Gather T1 · L1 again T2 (Crops + Favors) and T3 (Concealing + a Fire card) · Terror 2 flip T5–T6.

Turn 1

Growth

G3 revealing CP track — gain +3 Energy + 1 Presence Range 3

Income

3E 2CP

Fast plays

Concealing Shadows

Slow plays

Mantle of Dread (self) · 1E spent

Turn elements

2 Moon + 1 Fire + 2 Air (Concealing + Mantle, both counted from the moment played) · L1 FIRES T1 → Gather 1

End of T1

3 Fear generated 2E banked 1 gathered by L1 1 + 1 pushed

Invader card

Stage I — Build + Explore (no Ravage yet)

• Growth: G3, revealing CP track (uncover card2). Post-growth: 3E / 2CP. 1 Presence placed Range 3; “+3 Energy” is a this-turn-only effect.
• Card plays (Spirit Phase): Concealing Shadows (0E, Fast) + Mantle of Dread (1E, Slow) — 1E spent, both CP used. Elements this turn: 2M+1F+2A. Both cards’ Elements count from the moment they’re played, Mantle’s included, though Mantle’s effect waits for the Slow phase.
• Fast phase plays: Concealing Shadows (target one of your Presence lands — jungle #6 or wetland #5).
  • T1 gain from Concealing: +1 Fear . Its 1M+1A supply half the innate’s Moon this turn. “Dahan take 0 Damage from Ravaging” clause is dormant this turn (no Ravage until T2). Concealing discards — so it is also out of hand for T2’s first Ravage, until the T3 Reclaim.
• Innate check (Fast phase): total 2M+1F+2A → L1 fires T1 (needs 2M+1F). L2 (3M+2F) does not.
  • T1 gain from L1: Gather 1 Explorer into the target land, before the Invader Phase. Material this turn if it pulls the only Invader out of a land that Builds this turn (lands without Invaders don’t Build). Check the reverse too: gathering into an empty land of the Build terrain gives it a Build.
• Invader phase: Build in the lands matching Setup’s Explore card, then Explore (Stage I): one Explorer in each land of the shown terrain that has, or is adjacent to, a Town/City or the Ocean. No Ravage yet.
• Slow phase plays: Mantle of Dread (target self).
  • T1 gain from Mantle: +2 Fear . Push 1 Explorer and 1 Town from one of your Presence lands — moves 2 Invader units out of that land. Its 1M+1F+1A already counted toward L1 this turn. Mantle discards.
• End of T1: 3 Fear generated · 1 Explorer gathered (L1) · 1E spent (Mantle) · 2E banked · 0 CP left · 4 Presence on board (3 starting + 1 G3) · Hand: 2 Uniques (Concealing + Mantle in discard) · Tracks: CP at card2 (2 CP sustained from now), Energy still at energy0.
• Pause-point (card choice): Concealing + Mantle is the cheapest L1 pair (1E). Crops + Mantle (2E) also fires L1 (2M+2F), for 4 Fear instead of 3, and keeps Concealing in hand for T2’s first Ravage, at the cost of 1E banked instead of 2E and a different T2 hand. Crops’ downgrade needs a Town or City in the target land to do more than its 2 Fear. Which is worth more here: the extra Energy, or Dahan protection on T2’s Ravage land?
• Pause-point (pre-Mantle-target): self-target is the default, but Mantle’s target is “Any Spirit” — in multiplayer, check whether pushing from a partner’s Presence land solves a bigger threat than pushing from yours. Solo: T2’s Ravage hits Setup’s Explore terrain — the lands that Build this turn — so choose the Presence land whose Explorer+Town push most shrinks that Ravage (or a later one).

Turn 2

Growth

G2 revealing Energy track (energy1) — gain 1 Minor + 1 Presence Range 1

Income

2E banked + 1E income = 3E 2CP

Slow plays

Crops Wither 1E Favors Called Due 1E

Turn elements

2 Moon + 1 Fire + 1 Air + 1 Plant + 1 Animal (Crops + Favors) · L1 FIRES T2 → Gather 1 before the first Ravage

End of T2

2–5 Fear 1 gathered by L1 1 City → Town (if targeted) Dahan gathered

Invader card

Stage I — Ravage + Build + Explore (first Ravage)

• Growth: G2, revealing Energy track (uncover energy1 → 1E permanent income from now). Post-growth: 2E banked + 1E income = 3E / 2CP, +1 Minor drafted.
• Draft consideration for the T2 Minor: L1 already fires T2 from Crops + Favors (below), and 2 CP fills this turn, so this Minor is for T3+. Moon+Fire Minors feed the innate at either speed. 0-cost ones (e.g., Land of Haunts and Embers, Fast, adds 1 Blight; Shadows of the Burning Forest, Slow) fit low-Energy turns. A Fast one’s effect also lands before the Invaders act.
• Card plays (Spirit Phase): Crops Wither and Fade (1E) + Favors Called Due (1E) — 2E spent, both CP used. Elements this turn: 2M+1F+1A+1P+1An, counted from the moment played.
• Fast phase: no Fast cards. Innate check: 2M+1F → L1 fires T2; L2 (3M+2F) does not.
  • T2 gain from L1: Gather 1 Explorer into the target land before the Invader Phase. T2 is the first Ravage: pulling an Explorer out of the Ravage land (or out of a Build land where it’s the only Invader) means one fewer Invader there when the Invaders act. It’s the only part of this turn that acts before the Ravage.
• Slow phase plays: Crops Wither and Fade (1E, Range 0 — target one of your Presence lands with a Town or City) + Favors Called Due (1E, Range 1 — target a Dahan-dense Invader-present land).
  • T2 gain from Crops: +2 Fear . Immediate replace: City→Town OR Town→Explorer in target land. Material this turn: the replaced unit is gone; downstream: when T3 Ravage hits that land, Damage is 1 lower than it would have been.
  • T2 gain from Favors: Gather up to 4 Dahan into target. Material this turn: Dahan positioning for T3+ counterattacks. If post-gather Dahan > Invaders in target, +3 Fear conditional.
• End of T2: 2–5 Fear generated (2 Crops + 0–3 Favors conditional) · 1 Explorer gathered (L1) · 2E spent · 1E banked · 0 CP left · 5 Presence on board · Hand: 0 Uniques + 1 Minor (all four Uniques in discard: Concealing + Mantle since T1, Crops + Favors now) · Tracks: CP at card2, Energy at energy1.
• Pause-point (pre-Favors-target): Favors’s 3-Fear conditional is not free — it needs post-gather Dahan to strictly outnumber Invaders. Before committing, count: Invaders in target + Dahan in R1 of target = enough to gather past Invader count? If no, change target or save Favors for T3. If you swap a card for the drafted Minor, check L1 still holds: Crops is the only Fire Unique in hand (Mantle is in discard), and every pair needs 2 Moon. Crops + a Moonless Minor, or Favors + a Fireless Minor, leaves L1 unfired.

Turn 3

Growth

G1 — Reclaim (all played back to hand) + Gain 1 Minor

Income

1E banked + 1E income = 2E 2CP

Card plays

Concealing Shadows (target Ravage land w/ Dahan) + one Moon+Fire card (Crops, Mantle, or a drafted Minor, either speed) → L1 FIRES T3

Key T3 note

Second Ravage turn (first was T2) — Concealing is back in hand, its protection material

Invader card

Stage I Ravage + Build · Stage II Explore

• Growth: G1 — Reclaim (all 4 discarded Uniques back to hand) + Gain 1 Minor. No presence placed. State: 1E banked + 1E income = 2E / 2CP, hand = 4 Uniques + 2 Minors.
• Invader state: T3 is the second Ravage turn (the first was T2). Identify the Ravage-target land from the current Invader card’s Ravage column (the card that was in Build slot last turn has advanced).
• Card plays (Spirit Phase): Concealing Shadows (0E) + one card with Moon + Fire costing ≤1E: Crops (1E), Mantle (1E), or a drafted Moon+Fire Minor of either speed (e.g., Land of Haunts and Embers, 0E). Any of these pairs totals 2M+1F or more. 2 CP caps the turn at two cards, so L2 (3M+2F) is out of reach.
• Fast phase plays: Concealing Shadows (target the Ravage-incoming land, with Dahan in it, if any), plus the second card if it’s Fast.
  • T3 gain from Concealing: +1 Fear + Ravage-protection now material — Dahan in target land take 0 Damage from this turn’s Ravage. Elements 1M+1A.
  • T3 gain from Haunts (if it’s the second card): +2 Fear + Push up to 2 Explorers /Towns from its Range-2 target, before the Ravage. If Blight is already present there: +2 Fear and Push up to 2 more. Then Add 1 Blight to the target land (its own line on the card, so it always happens). Elements 1M+1F+1A.
• Innate check (Fast phase): 2M+1F or more → L1 fires T3 (its third straight turn in this opener). Gather 1 Explorer into the target land. Fast, so the gather happens before the Ravage — can pull an Explorer out of the Ravage target (one fewer Invader taking the Ravage).
• Slow phase plays: the second card, if you chose Crops (+2 Fear + City→Town or Town→Explorer downgrade) or Mantle (+2 Fear + push). Either resolves after this turn’s Ravage. No CP remains for a third card.
• End of T3: 3 Fear generated (1 Concealing + 2 from Crops, Mantle, or Haunts; L1 makes no Fear) · 1 Explorer gathered (L1 innate) · Ravage Damage in one land reduced (Concealing protects Dahan; the L1 Gather, or a Haunts push, thins the Ravage land first) · +1 Blight if Haunts was played · 1–2E banked (2E if the second card cost 0) · 0 CP left · 5 Presence on board · Hand: 4 cards (2 Uniques + 2 Minors, or 3 Uniques + 1 Minor if a Minor was the second card) · Tracks: CP at card2, Energy at energy1.
• Pause-point (pre-Fast-plays): Concealing’s Ravage-protection is material from T2 on only if the target land actually Ravages this turn AND has Dahan to protect. If the Ravage target has 0 Dahan , Concealing’s protection clause is still dormant — consider targeting a Dahan-adjacent Ravage land (use Shadows of the Dahan’s 1E range extension) or playing Concealing elsewhere for its Fear + elements alone.

Turn 4 — state audit

After T3, you should have:

• Presence: 5 on board (3 starting + 1 T1 G3 + 1 T2 G2).
• Energy / CP: 1E income (from energy1 slot) / 2CP.
• Engine: All 4 Uniques available + 2 Minors drafted. L1 fires any turn your plays total 2M+1F — from Uniques alone, Concealing + Crops or Mantle does it. L2 (3M+2F) needs a third Card Play (Crops + Mantle + one more Moon card), so it waits on the CP track’s card3 slot.
• Fear pool: ~8–12 (solo — Terror 2 should flip around end-T4 or T5, not T3 as the prior opener claimed).
• Blight: 0–1 (depends on the T2 and T3 Ravage outcomes; Concealing + L1 Gather mitigation should keep this low), +1 if you played Land of Haunts and Embers.

Pivot triggers (if any of these, deviate from the opener):

• Fire runs out — Crops and Mantle are the only Fire Uniques. On a turn both sit in discard and no Fire Minor is in hand, L1 can’t fire. Time the G1 Reclaim around the turns you need the Gather.
• Ravage target T3 has no Dahan — Concealing’s protection is still dormant; use Concealing purely for Fear + elements, and save the real defense for T4+ when Dahan density increases.
• Favors never triggers 3-Fear conditional — Fear pool is running 3–4 under target. Prioritize Minor picks that generate Fear directly (e.g., 2-Fear Moon Minors from the full pool).

Opening B — G2-via-CP Minor-Draft-Dependent 🟥

When to pick this: Habsburg Mining L5+, Russia L5+, or long-game matchups where Minor-draft density pays off. Trades T1 Fear output for hand depth. Gated on drafting a 0-cost Moon+Fire Minor on T1, Fast or Slow (e.g., Land of Haunts and Embers or Shadows of the Burning Forest) — otherwise this opener under-delivers.

Target arc: If a 0-cost Moon+Fire Minor is drafted T1 → L1 fires T1 (as in Opening A, here via Concealing + the Minor) · 2 Minors drafted by T2 · Reclaim T3 → 4 Uniques + 3 Minors in hand · matchup-specific Minor picks scale T4+.

Turn 1

Growth

G2 revealing CP track — gain 1 Minor + 1 Presence Range 1

Income

0E 2CP

Best-case plays

Concealing Shadows + a drafted 0-cost Moon+Fire Minor (e.g., Land of Haunts and Embers)

Turn elements

2 + 1 + 2 (with Haunts) · L1 FIRES T1 → Gather 1 Explorer

End of T1

3 Fear 1 gathered by L1 up to 2 pushed by Haunts +1 Blight (Haunts)

• Growth: G2, revealing CP track (uncover card2). Post-growth: 0E / 2CP, 1 Minor drafted.
• Draft priority T1 Minor: any 0-cost Minor with Moon + Fire fires L1 alongside Concealing. Slow ones count too, since a card’s Elements count from the moment it’s played. Candidates from the full-pool table below (engine card text):
  • Land of Haunts and Embers (Fast; Moon, Fire, Air) — 2 Fear, Push up to 2 Explorers/Towns; more if Blight is present; Adds 1 Blight.
  • Shadows of the Burning Forest (Slow; Moon, Fire, Plant) — 2 Fear; if the target is a Mountain or Jungle, Push 1 Explorer and 1 Town.
  • Animated Wrackroot (Slow; Moon, Fire, Plant) — 1 Fear + Destroy 1 Explorer, OR Add 1 Wilds.
  • Lure of the Unknown (Fast; Moon, Fire, Air, Plant) — Gather 1 Explorer/Town.
  • Roiling Bog and Snagging Thorn (Fast; Moon, Fire, Water, Plant) — 1 Fear, Isolate, Defend 2 (Defend dormant T1).
  • Pause: speed now decides only when the Minor’s effect lands. A Fast push or gather acts before T1’s Build; a Slow one acts after the Invader Phase. Weigh that, and Haunts’ Blight, against each other. If no 0-cost Moon+Fire Minor appears: Opening B is underpowered T1 — consider pivoting to C (see Opening Decision tree).
• Card plays (Spirit Phase, with Haunts drafted): Concealing Shadows (0E) + Land of Haunts and Embers (0E) — 0E spent, both CP used. Elements this turn: 2M+1F+2A.
• Fast phase plays: both cards. Haunts is Range 2; target an Invader land (its push works on any terrain).
  • T1 gain from Concealing: +1 Fear . Dormant Ravage-protection (no Ravage T1). Elements 1M+1A.
  • T1 gain from Haunts: +2 Fear . Push up to 2 Explorers /Towns from target land, before T1’s Build — material if it empties a land that Builds this turn. If Blight is already present: +2 more Fear and Push up to 2 more. Then Add 1 Blight to the target land (its own line on the card, so it always happens). Elements 1M+1F+1A.
• Innate check (Fast phase): total 2M+1F+2A → L1 fires T1 (L2 does not). Gather 1 Explorer into the target land, before the Invader Phase. With a Slow 0-cost Moon+Fire Minor instead of Haunts, L1 fires just the same.
• Slow phase plays: none with Haunts (0 CP remain). If the drafted Minor was Slow (e.g., Shadows of the Burning Forest), its effect resolves here.
• Invader phase: Build (Setup’s Explore terrain) + Explore. No Ravage yet.
• End of T1: 3 Fear + 1 Explorer gathered (L1) + up-to-2 units pushed by Haunts + 1 Blight added (Haunts) · 0E banked · 0 CP left · 4 Presence on board · Hand: 3 Uniques + 0 Minors (Haunts played) · Tracks: CP at card2, Energy still at energy0.
• Pause-point (pre-Haunts-target): Haunts’ push works on any terrain (the Mountain/Jungle condition belongs to Shadows of the Burning Forest), but it Adds 1 Blight to the target land every time. Is +2 Fear and up to 2 pushed before the Build worth a Blight now? Would a Slow 0-cost Moon+Fire Minor, if offered, give the same T1 L1 without it?

Fallback T1 (no 0-cost Moon+Fire Minor drafted): at 0E only 0-cost cards are playable — Concealing, plus the drafted Minor if it costs 0. Concealing alone: Fear = 1; elements 1M+1A → L1 does NOT fire (needs 2M+1F). A 0-cost Minor with Moon but no Fire also leaves L1 short. This is Opening B underperforming — expect T2–T3 Minor draft to compensate.

Turn 2

• Growth: G2, revealing Energy track (uncover energy1 → 1E income). Post-growth: 1E / 2CP, +1 Minor drafted (2 total).
• Draft priority T2 Minor: another Moon+Fire Minor (either speed) widens which pairs fire L1. At 1E this turn, only a 0-cost one can be paired with a 1E Unique now.
• Card plays (Spirit Phase): 1E / 2 CP. Hand = Crops, Favors, Mantle + the T2 Minor (Concealing and the T1 Minor are in discard). Every Unique in hand costs 1E, so the most you can play is one Unique + one 0-cost Minor.
• Innate check: one Unique gives 1 Moon; L1 needs 2 Moon + 1 Fire. So L1 fires T2 only if the T2 Minor costs 0 and carries Moon (and Fire too, if the Unique is Favors). Otherwise L1 does not fire T2.
• Slow phase plays: 1 Slow Unique at 1E — Crops Wither (+2 Fear , downgrade) OR Mantle (+2 Fear , self-push) OR Favors (+0–3 Fear , Dahan gather).
• T2 material gain: typically 2–3 Fear + one material board effect (downgrade / push / gather), + the L1 Gather if a 0-cost Moon Minor was drafted (see innate check).
• End of T2: 2–5 Fear · ~0E banked · 0–1 CP left · 5 Presence · hand typically 2 Uniques + 0–1 Minor.
• Pause-point (pre-T2-plays): T2 is the first Ravage (and the second Build). Check the Invader card’s Build column — which terrain Builds? Every land of that terrain with any Invaders gets a Town (or a City, if it has more Towns than Cities). Slow cards resolve after the Invader Phase, so a T2 Slow Crops (or Mantle push) can’t stop this turn’s Build; it shrinks that land’s Ravage next turn instead.

Turn 3

• Growth: G1 — Reclaim + Gain 1 Minor. State: ~0E + 1E income = 1E / 2CP, hand = 4 Uniques + 3 Minors.
• Card plays (Spirit Phase): 1E / 2 CP — two cards. Concealing (0E) + one card costing ≤1E with Moon + Fire: Crops, Mantle, Haunts (if reclaimed), Visions of Fiery Doom (1E Fast), or another Moon+Fire Minor. Elements = 2M+1F+… → L1 fires T3. 2 CP caps the turn there; L2 (3M+2F) needs a third card.
• Fast phase plays: Concealing, plus the second card if it’s Fast. L1 Gather resolves here, before the Ravage.
• Slow phase plays: the second card, if it’s Slow (Crops or Mantle). No CP remains for more.
• T3 material gain: 2–3 Fear (Concealing 1 + Crops, Mantle, or Haunts 2, or Visions 1) + L1 Gather + the second card’s board effect. First Ravage turn in this opener with Concealing back in hand (the first Ravage was T2), so its protection becomes material.
• Pause-point (pre-Concealing-target): same as Opening A T3 — Ravage-protection is material only on the Ravage target with Dahan. If Ravage lands don’t have Dahan, use Concealing purely for Fear + elements.

Turn 4 — state audit

• Presence: 5 on board.
• Energy/CP: 1E income / 2CP.
• Engine: L1 fires whenever two plays total 2M+1F — from Uniques alone, Concealing + Crops or Mantle does it. L2 (3M+2F) needs a third Card Play (Crops + Mantle + one more Moon card).
• Fear pool: 6–10 (slower than Opening A if the T1 Moon+Fire Minor missed; comparable if it hit).
• Hand depth: 7 cards (4 Uniques + 3 Minors) — deepest of the three openers.
• Strategy note: Opening B’s payoff is late — T5+ benefits from Minor-draft breadth for matchup-specific picks (e.g., Dahan-summoning, Blight-removing, Strife-adding). Fear-rush numbers lag Opening A by ~3–4 Fear through T4.

Opening C — G3-via-Energy Energy-Bank 🟥

When to pick this: when you want Energy depth over early Card Plays. Opening C leans on energy for (a) aggressive Shadows-of-the-Dahan range extension (1E/use budget), (b) 1E Slow Uniques played every turn, (c) room for a costlier Minor or Major later. The trade: 1 CP on T1, so L1 can’t fire T1 (no Unique gives 2 Moon), and 2 T1 Fear against Opening A’s 3.

An earlier version of this chapter sent Sweden L3+ and Russia here because of “fear-card penalties”. Neither adversary has one (data/references/rules/register.md §4.3, §4.6). What they do change that touches Shadows is listed under Strategy Cliff — Sweden / Russia. Whether any of it favors this opener over Opening A is untested [VERIFY via play].

Target arc: Mantle T1 (2 Fear ; L1 can’t fire on 1 CP) · Crops + Favors T2 → L1 fires T2 · Terror 2 flip later (T6–T7).

Turn 1

Growth

G3 revealing Energy track — 1E income perm + 3E growth effect

Income

4E 1CP

Slow plays

Mantle of Dread (self) 1E · 2 Fear + push

Turn elements

1 Moon + 1 Fire + 1 Air (Mantle) · L1 does NOT fire — 1 Moon short

End of T1

2 Fear 3E banked 1 + 1 pushed

• Growth: G3, revealing Energy track (uncover energy1 → 1E permanent income). Post-growth: 1E income + 3E growth-effect = 4E / 1CP.
• Card plays (Spirit Phase): Mantle of Dread (1E) — 1E spent, the only CP used. Elements this turn: 1M+1F+1A, counted from the moment it’s played.
• Fast phase plays: none (CP budget of 1 is best spent on a higher-material-effect Slow card).
• Innate check (Fast phase): 1M+1F+1A → L1 needs 2 Moon → does NOT fire. With 1 CP and no Unique carrying 2 Moon, L1 can’t fire T1 in this opener whichever card you play.
• Invader phase: Build (Setup’s Explore terrain) + Explore. No Ravage yet.
• Slow phase plays: Mantle of Dread (self-target).
  • T1 gain from Mantle: +2 Fear + Push 1 Explorer + 1 Town from one of your Presence lands. Its 1M+1F+1A counted all turn, one Moon short of L1.
• End of T1: 2 Fear · 1E spent · 3E banked · 0 CP left · 4 Presence on board · Hand: 3 Uniques (Mantle in discard) · Tracks: CP at card1 (still 1 CP), Energy at energy1 (1E sustained).
• Pause-point (growth choice): G3-via-Energy gives deeper Energy income long-term (energy1 permanent = +1E/turn from T2 onward) vs. G3-via-CP (card2 permanent = +1 CP/turn). Over 6 rounds that’s 6E vs. 6 extra card plays. Energy depth buys Shadows-of-the-Dahan range extensions and Minor cost-curve flexibility. CP depth buys more card plays per turn, and with them more Fear and more innate Elements (L1 needs 2 plays of Uniques, L2 needs 3). If unsure, G3-via-CP (Opening A) is the tighter fear-rush; G3-via-Energy (Opening C) is the slower, more flexible play.

Turn 2

• Growth: G2, revealing CP track (uncover card2 → 2 CP from now). Post-growth: 3E banked + 1E income = 4E / 2CP, +1 Minor drafted.
• Card plays (Spirit Phase): Crops Wither (1E) + Favors Called Due (1E) — 2E spent, both CP used. Elements this turn: 2M+1F+1A+1P+1An, counted from the moment played.
• Fast phase plays: none in this line. Concealing is in hand and T2 is the first Ravage, so its protection would be live this turn — but the 2 CP go to Crops + Favors. Pause: is protecting Dahan in T2’s Ravage land worth more than one of those Slow plays? Concealing + Crops also fires L1 (2M+1F); Concealing + Favors does not (2 Moon, no Fire — Mantle is in discard).
• Innate check (Fast phase): 2M+1F → L1 fires T2 (L2 does not). Gather 1 Explorer into the target land before the first Ravage — can pull an Explorer out of the Ravage land.
• Slow phase plays: Crops Wither (1E, Presence-land target with a Town or City) + Favors Called Due (1E, R1 Dahan-dense target).
  • T2 gain from Crops: +2 Fear + City→Town OR Town→Explorer. (Material THIS turn; reduces next-turn Ravage damage in that land.)
  • T2 gain from Favors: Gather up to 4 Dahan into R1 target; conditional +3 Fear if post-gather Dahan > Invaders.
• End of T2: 2–5 Fear · 1 Explorer gathered (L1) · 2E spent · 2E banked · 0 CP left · 5 Presence on board · Hand: 1 Unique (Concealing) + 1 Minor · Tracks: CP at card2, Energy at energy1.
• Pause-point (pre-T2-plays): T2 is the first Ravage and the second Build. Same check as Opening A/B — Crops + Favors are Slow, so they resolve after this turn’s Ravage and Build and together handle one land that Ravages next turn (downgrade + gather counter-Dahan). The L1 Gather is the only piece that acts before this turn’s Ravage. If two lands are headed for a big Ravage, one of them is not handled — which one costs you more?

Turn 3

• Growth: G1 — Reclaim + Gain 1 Minor. State: 2E banked + 1E income = 3E / 2CP, hand = 4 Uniques + 2 Minors.
• Card plays (Spirit Phase): 3E / 2 CP — two cards. Any pair totaling 2M+1F fires L1: Concealing + Crops or Mantle (1E; Concealing’s Ravage-protection live on a Ravage land with Dahan), Crops + Mantle (2E; 4 Fear + downgrade + push), Crops + Favors (2E; if Dahan-outnumber is still triggerable somewhere), or Concealing/Favors + a drafted Moon+Fire Minor. Concealing + Favors has no Fire → no L1. L2 (3M+2F) needs a third card, so not on 2 CP.
• Fast phase plays: Concealing, if in the pair (1 Fear , elements 1M+1A), and the L1 Gather whenever the pair totals 2M+1F — before the Ravage.
• Slow phase plays: the Slow card(s) from the pair.
• T3 material gain: 2–5 Fear depending on the pair (Concealing 1; Crops, Mantle 2 each; Favors 0–3) + L1 Gather + the pair’s board effects + Ravage-protection on Concealing’s target if played.
• End of T3: 1–2E banked before any Shadows-of-the-Dahan range extensions (1E each).
• Pause-point (T3 Ravage targeting): same Ravage-protection check as Openings A/B. Additionally, Opening C’s energy-bank advantage lets you spend 1E on Shadows-of-the-Dahan range extension to place a Slow-effect card (Crops / Favors / Mantle) on a non-Presence Dahan land — consider if the highest-leverage target is outside R0.

Turn 4 — state audit

• Presence: 5 on board.
• Energy/CP: ~1E income / 2CP.
• Engine: L1 fires from any two-card play with Crops or Mantle plus another Moon card (same as Openings A/B). L2 (3M+2F) needs three plays (Crops + Mantle + one more Moon card), so it waits on a third Card Play.
• Fear pool: ~6–12 (T1 2 + T2 2–5 + T3 2–5).
• Blight: 0–2.
• Strategy note: energy depth will continue paying dividends T5+ — Shadows-of-the-Dahan range extensions multiply over the game. Accept slower Terror; target Terror 2 T6–T7.

Opening Decision

graph TD
  Start[Round 1 — Shadows] --> Adv{Adversary?}
  Adv -->|Brandenburg-Prussia| A[Opening A - Standard Fear]
  Adv -->|England| A
  Adv -->|Scotland| A
  Adv -->|Habsburg Livestock| A
  Adv -->|Sweden L0-L2| A
  Adv -->|Sweden L3+| C[Opening C - Energy Bank]
  Adv -->|Russia| C
  Adv -->|Habsburg Mining L5+| B[Opening B - Minor-Draft Dependent]
  Adv -->|Multi-handed with board-carry partner| A
  Adv -->|Other| A

The Sweden L3+ and Russia → C routes are untested 🟥 suggestions. Their original reason (“fear-card penalties”) was wrong: neither adversary has one (see Strategy Cliff — Sweden / Russia).

Card Priority Ratings

Uniques

The spirit’s own 4 Unique Power cards (always in hand; always A-tier by default — see Uniques section above for full text):

• Concealing Shadows
• Crops Wither and Fade
• Favors Called Due
• Mantle of Dread

Top 10 Minor Draft Picks (from full pool)

#	Card	Cost	Speed	Elements	Effect (truncated)	Why this pick
1	Animated Wrackroot	0	Slow	Moon, Fire, Plant	1 Fear . Destroy 1 Explorer . OR Add 1 Wilds.	elements fire+moon → 7.8
2	Lure of the Unknown	0	Fast	Moon, Fire, Air, Plant	Gather 1 Explorer /Town.	elements air+fire+moon → 8.4
3	Roiling Bog and Snagging Thorn	0	Fast	Moon, Fire, Water, Plant	1 Fear . Isolate. Defend 2. 1 Dahan does not participate in Ravage. (Check when ra…	elements fire+moon → 7.8
4	Land of Haunts and Embers	0	Fast	Moon, Fire, Air	2 Fear . Push up to 2 Explorers /Towns. If Blight is present, 2 Fear and Push up to 2 Explo…	elements air+fire+moon → 8.4
5	Rites of the Land’s Rejection	1	Fast	Moon, Fire, Earth	Invaders do not Build in target land this turn. 1 Fear per Town/City or 1 Fear per Dahan,…	elements fire+moon → 7.8
6	Shadows of the Burning Forest	0	Slow	Moon, Fire, Plant	2 Fear . If target land is a Mountain or Jungle, Push 1 Explorer and 1 Town .	elements fire+moon → 7.8
7	Visions of Fiery Doom	1	Fast	Moon, Fire	1 Fear . Push 1 Explorer /Town.	elements fire+moon → 7.8
8	Prowling Panthers	1	Slow	Moon, Fire, Animal	1 Fear . Add 1 Beasts. OR If target land has Beasts, Destroy 1 Explorer /Town.	elements fire+moon → 7.8
9	Sunset’s Fire Flows Across the Land	1	Slow	Sun, Moon, Fire, Water	1 Fear . 1 Damage. You may pay 1 Energy to deal 1 Damage in an adjacent land.	elements fire+moon → 7.8
10	Unquenchable Flames	1	Slow	Moon, Fire, Earth	1 Fear . 1 Damage to Towns/Cities. Invaders do not heal Damage at end of turn.	elements fire+moon → 7.8

Top 5 Major Draft Picks (from full pool)

#	Card	Cost	Speed	Elements	Effect (truncated)	Why this pick
1	Transform to a Murderous Darkness	6	Slow	Moon, Fire, Air, Water, Plant	Target Spirit may choose one of their Sacred Site. In that land: Replace all their Presen…	elements air+fire+moon → 8.4
2	Settle Into Hunting-Grounds	3	Fast	Moon, Fire, Plant, Animal	Your Presence may count as Badlands and Beasts. (Decide per Presence, per Action.) Your P…	elements fire+moon → 7.8
3	Unearth a Beast of Wrathful Stone	5	Fast	Moon, Fire, Earth, Animal	After the next Invader Phase (on any turn) with no Ravage/Build Actions in target land:</…	elements fire+moon → 7.8
4	Pent-Up Calamity	3	Fast	Moon, Fire, Earth, Plant, Animal	Add 1 Disease and 1 Strife. OR Remove any number of Beasts/Disease/Strife/Wilds. For …	elements fire+moon → 7.8
5	Vengeance of the Dead	3	Fast	Moon, Fire, Animal	3 Fear . After Towns/Cities/Dahan are Destroyed in target land, 1 Damage per Town/City/Dah…	elements fire+moon → 7.8

HoSI Beginner Deck Bundle — for reference only

Card	Type	Cost	Speed	Elements	Effect (truncated)
Dark and Tangled Woods	Minor	1	Fast	Moon, Earth, Plant	2 Fear . If target land is a Mountain or Jungle, Defend 3.
Shadows of the Burning Forest	Minor	0	Slow	Moon, Fire, Plant	2 Fear . If target land is a Mountain or Jungle, Push 1 Explorer and 1 Town .
The Jungle Hungers	Major	3	Slow	Moon, Plant	Destroy all Explorers and all Towns. Destroy all Dahan.
Land of Haunts and Embers	Minor	0	Fast	Moon, Fire, Air	2 Fear . Push up to 2 Explorers /Towns. If Blight is present, 2 Fear and Push up to 2 Explo…
Terrifying Nightmares	Major	4	Fast	Moon, Air	2 Fear . Push up to 4 Explorers /Towns.
Call of the Dahan Ways	Minor	1	Slow	Moon, Water, Animal	Replace 1 Explorer with 1 Dahan .
Visions of Fiery Doom	Minor	1	Fast	Moon, Fire	1 Fear . Push 1 Explorer /Town.

Cards to Avoid (anti-synergy flagged)

Aspects (all 5, Wiki-verified mechanics)

All 5 Shadows aspects replace the Shadows of the Dahan special rule. Four raise complexity; one lowers it.

Amorphous (Promo Pack 2 — Feather and Flame) — Higher Complexity

Replaces: Shadows of the Dahan.

Shadows Partake of Amorphous Space: During each Fast phase, you may move 1 of your Presence to an adjacent land, or to a land with Dahan anywhere on the island. During each Slow phase, you may move 1 of your Presence to an adjacent land, or to a land with Dahan anywhere on the island.

Strategic shift: converts the 1-Energy-per-range-extension tax into 2 free presence-moves per turn. Plays as a mobility-specialist variant — physical presence motion instead of virtual range-extension.

Foreboding (Promo Pack 2 — Feather and Flame) — Higher Complexity

Replaces: Shadows of the Dahan with a new Innate, Stretch Out Coils of Foreboding Dread (Fast · Range 2 · Any Land):

• 2 Air: Your other Powers may ignore Range when targeting the target land.
• 1 Moon: After an Action generates Fear in target land (incl. Town/City destruction): Push up to 1 Explorer per Fear / 1 Town per 2 Fear .
• 2 Fire: 1 Fear .
• 2 Moon + 4 Air: 2 Fear .

Strategic shift: swaps a per-Power spatial rule for a land-targeted innate. Range-ignoring is gated to one targeted land (rather than all Dahan lands). Converts fear-on-destruction into pushes for control value.

Madness (Jagged Earth) — Higher Complexity

Replaces: Shadows of the Dahan. Adds 2 new rules:

Shadows Cast a Subtle Madness: When you add Presence during Growth, you may also add 1 Strife in that land.

Glimpse of the Shadowed Void: When your Presence is Destroyed, if Invaders are present, 1 Fear per Presence Destroyed there.

Strategic shift: this is where strife enters Shadows (previous chapter revisions wrongly put strife on base Shadows). Madness monetizes presence-destruction into fear, incentivizing aggressive presence deployment + Choke-style self-sacrifice plays.

Reach (Jagged Earth) — Lower Complexity

Replaces: Shadows of the Dahan with a simpler, single rule:

Reach Through Ephemeral Distance: Once per turn, you may ignore Range. (Anything for which there’s a Range arrow or the word “Range” is used. Affects a single Action.)

Strategic shift: energy-free range ignore, capped at once per turn. The beginner-friendly aspect — arguably the first aspect to try on Shadows for newer players.

Dark Fire (Nature Incarnate) — Higher Complexity

Replaces: Shadows of the Dahan. Adds 2 new rules:

Dark and Fire as One: You may treat each Moon available to you as being Fire, or vice versa. (Choose during each Action for each Moon/Fire you have.) You may discard or Forget Powers that grant Moon to pay for Fire Choice Events, and vice versa.

Frightful Shadows Elude Destruction: The first time each Action would destroy your Presence, you may Push 1 of those Presence instead of destroying it.

Strategic shift: Moon↔Fire interchangeability is exceptional on a spirit whose innate requires both elements heavily. Plus presence-push-instead-of-destroy offers a Madness-style defensive safety net. Arguably the most powerful Shadows aspect.

Aspect selection heuristic

Adversary Matchup Matrix

Grades directional [VERIFY] — individual cell confirmations pending playtest.

Strategy Cliff — England L5

Strategy Cliff — Sweden / Russia (no Fear penalty)

Board / Map Configuration

[VERIFY via play — pending] — no community-consensus board ratings for Shadows surfaced from the Wiki spirit-template. Directional hypotheses:

• Likely favorable: jungle-dense boards (starting setup puts presence in jungle; innate L3 Moon+Fire+Air threshold matches Shadows’s element profile without requiring specific terrain).
• Likely favorable: boards with dense starting Dahan clusters (Shadows of the Dahan targeting benefits).
• Likely neutral: coastal-heavy boards (Shadows is terrain-flexible but coast-agnostic).
• Likely unfavorable: sparse-Dahan layouts.

Ratings per board letter (A–H) deferred to physical-play data.

Game-Phase Strategy

Early (T1–3)

• Grow with G2 or G3 to extend card pool and energy.
• Play Concealing Shadows every turn (0 Energy is free value).
• Use Innate L1 (Gather) to reposition Explorers away from Build targets.
• Draft Moon + Fire Minors.

Mid (T4–6)

• Innate L2 firing (destroy 2 Explorers + 2 Fear per turn).
• Crops Wither softens City turns.
• Favors Called Due’s 3-Fear trigger becomes available.
• Fear pool heading toward Terror 2 flip.

Late (T7+)

• Terror 2 → Terror 3 transition.
• Gain Terrifying Nightmares Major if offered; forget Mantle of Dread (weakest in solo) or the weakest-matchup Unique.
• Innate L3 available if 4 Moon + 3 Fire + 2 Air reliably on track.

Synergy Partners (Multiplayer)

Common Mistakes

Tempo Profile

Round-by-round targets, with per-turn Fear contribution confirmed by one authored playthrough (solo, Brandenburg-Prussia Level 6, Board A balanced, 8-round win). Early rounds may hit the low end; the R4 major-draft (Moon-aligned) is the inflection point where per-turn fear jumps from ~2 to 5+.

Cliff turn: T4. Innate L2 must fire; Fear pool at 4+/8 (solo).

Major vs. Minor

Draft bias: Mixed (Minor-heavy T1–T3; 1 Major T5+).

Expansion Sensitivity

• Base only: fully functional — 4 Uniques + Innate engine + 1 Special Rule.
• + Branch & Claw: Amorphous + Foreboding aspects unlock; event + blight decks add turn-by-turn variance.
• + Jagged Earth: Madness + Reach aspects unlock; Minor/Major pool deepens.
• + Nature Incarnate: Dark Fire aspect unlocks.

Aspect mechanics now Wiki-verified (see Aspects section above); parser extended 2026-04-19.

Stat Snapshot

Source Notes

Physical-copy verified: Uniques, innate thresholds, aspects (2026-04-19). Remaining [VERIFY]: Play Difficulty (spirit panel), aspect mechanics (pending parser extension), board ratings (physical play), live mindwanderer stats.

Last revised: 2026-04-19 — v0.2.4 (full Wiki-scripted rewrite with suggested-cards, growth, presence tracks, power summary)

Vital Strength of the Earth

Spirit Overview — Framing

Vital is the opportunistic tempo tank of the base box — plays fewer cards per turn but that’s a feature. Phantaskippy:

You have more real options, because you’re not going to burn through your whole hand in 2 turns.

Wiki-printed playstyle note:

Sacred sites provide passive defense; three of four starting cards cost 3. Situational 3-cost cards act as minor-majors when conditions line up.

The puzzle-piece approach: no single canonical opener. Growth choice depends on where invaders explored during setup — Vital reads the board and picks the right tool.

Complexity signal: Low is correct for mechanics; Moderate for decision-load (3-cost card timing is where Vital is won or lost).

Starting Setup

Put 3 Presence on your starting board: 2 in the highest-numbered Mountain, 1 in the highest-numbered Jungle.

Starting Mountain land is already a sacred site (2 presence) — Earth’s Vitality gives free Defend 3.

Growth Options (growthtype: “one” — pick one per turn)

Presence Tracks

• Energy track (6 slots): energy2 → energy3 → energy4 → energy6 → energy7 → energy8
• Card-play track (6 slots): card1 → card1 → card2 → card2 → card3 → card4

Starting income: 2 Energy, 1 Card Play. High starting energy — built for 3-cost starters from turn 1.

Core Mechanics & Special Rules

Special Rule: Earth’s Vitality

Defend 3 in every land where you have Sacred Site.

Passive Defend 3 per sacred site. Two presence in a land = automatic Defend 3 ravage mitigation.

Innate: Gift of Strength

• Speed: Fast · Target: Any Spirit

Level	Thresholds	Effect
1	1 Sun + 2 Earth + 2 Plant	Once this turn, Target Spirit may Repeat 1 Power Card with Energy cost of 1 or less.
2	2 Sun + 3 Earth + 2 Plant	Instead, Energy cost limit 3 or less.
3	2 Sun + 4 Earth + 3 Plant	Instead, Energy cost limit 6 or less.

Repeat-a-Power innate — at L2 any starter Repeats; at L3 even Majors Repeat. Optional, not build-defining.

Unique Cards (all 4, Wiki-verified)

A Year of Perfect Stillness

• 3 Energy · Fast · Range 1 · Any Land · Sun, Earth
• Invaders skip all Actions in target land this turn.

Nuclear option — skip all Invader actions in a land. Expensive but game-saving.

Draw of the Fruitful Earth

• 1 Energy · Slow · Range 1 · Any Land · Earth, Plant, Animal
• Gather up to 2 Explorers. Gather up to 2 Dahan.

1-cost Gather. The only sub-3-cost starter. Primary use: pull Dahan into Rituals targets; pull Explorers out of Build lands.

Guard the Healing Land

• 3 Energy · Fast · Range 1 from Sacred Site · Any Land · Water, Earth, Plant
• Remove 1 Blight. Defend 4.

Blight-removal + Defend. Only fires at full value when target land needs both clauses.

Rituals of Destruction

• 3 Energy · Slow · Range 1 from Sacred Site · Land with Dahan · Sun, Moon, Fire, Earth, Plant
• 2 Damage. If target land has at least 3 Dahan, +3 Damage and 2 Fear.

Dahan-scaling damage. With 3+ Dahan: 5 damage + 2 Fear. Five elements = innate-threshold workhorse.

Key Strategic Principles

1. Don’t pay 3 for a Minor. Every 3-cost starter becomes a bad Minor in unfavorable conditions. Only play if: Guard both clears AND prevents, Year is stopping a disaster, Rituals has ≥3 Dahan.
2. Minor-first drafts. Phantaskippy: “With only 1 starting power that costs less than 3, it’s very hard to reach a point where you can sustain playing a large number of cards.” 2 Minors before Majors (BGG #1943226).
3. Sacred-site defense is free. Don’t play Guard where Earth’s Vitality already covers.
4. Situational-tool mindset. VSE’s 3-cost starters are already Major-like — don’t double-dip on Majors.
5. Gift of Strength is a bonus, not a plan.

Possible Openings

Shared starting state

• 3 Presence on Mountain/Jungle start (sacred site + lone).
• 4 Uniques in hand: A Year of Perfect Stillness (3E Fast, Sun/Earth), Draw of the Fruitful Earth (1E Slow, Earth/Plant/Animal), Guard the Healing Land (3E Fast, Water/Earth/Plant), Rituals of Destruction (3E Slow, Sun/Moon/Fire/Earth/Plant).
• Starting income: 2 Energy, 1 Card Play.

Opening A — Jungle Explore (“learn on T1”) 🟨

Phantaskippy’s Jungle-explore branch.

T1 · Growth: G2 — Gain 1 Power Card + Add Presence Range 0.

• Place at Range 0 to upgrade the starting Jungle presence into a sacred site (free Defend 3 on T2 ravage).

T1 · Play (2E, 1 CP): Draw of the Fruitful Earth (or new Minor if its effect fits).

T2 · Growth: G3 — +2 Energy + Presence Range 1.

• Income: 2E (track) + 2E (G3) = 4E — need for 2 card plays.

T2 · Play (4E, 1 CP → need +1 CP; actually T2 CP stays 1 on track, so plan carefully): Rituals of Destruction + a Minor, OR Guard if it cleans a starting blight AND prevents a new one.

Opening B — Non-jungle Explore (energy on T1) 🟨

T1 · Growth: G3 — +2 Energy + Presence (place in newly-explored land).

T1 · Play (4E): Draw of the Fruitful Earth — gather Dahan to the threatened land; if geometry allows, pull lone Explorers from 2 adjacent lands simultaneously to abort 2 Builds.

T2 · Growth: Presence matures to sacred site before Ravage. T2 · Play: Rituals of Destruction (with Dahan stacked = 5 damage + 2 fear).

Opening C — Kamahl’s Rituals T2 max-value 🟨

T1: +2E / presence to defend optimally; play Draw (or the right tool). T2: +2E / presence matures to sacred site; play Rituals + Draw (repeated via Gift-of-Strength L1). “Typically smash something to smithereens.” (Kamahl)

Opening D — Building-already-in-starting-land (forced) 🟥

Free defense won’t stop Town + City. T1 must be A Year of Perfect Stillness (forced +2E growth). Card-efficient it is not, but the board remains intact.

Opening Decision

• Opening A when Jungle explores.
• Opening B when non-Jungle explores.
• Opening C for max-value Rituals T2 turn.
• Opening D when start-land buildings force the Year.