Fractured Days Split the Sky

Spirit Overview — Framing

Fractured Days is the game’s most decision-heavy spirit — Time tokens as shared currency, Days That Never Were as a private major/minor preview pool, and Slip the Flow as a partner reclaim/card-play timing manipulator. jyonker13:

It’s mighty difficult to be prescriptive… this Opening Thread is going to suggest an appropriately ‘fractured’ approach.

Non-obvious traits:

• Irregular reclaim cadence — doesn’t reclaim on a 3–4 turn beat.
• Days That Never Were is a telegraph — seeing a Major T1 lets you build Minor drafts around it. jyonker13: “absolutely massive value… the crux of your decision making.”
• Starter tier: Blur the Arc > Absolute Stasis > The Past Returns Again > Pour Time Sideways.

Complexity signal: Very High. Fractured Days is widely considered the deepest moderate-complexity spirit and tips into “high” on play load.

Starting Setup

Put 3 Presence on your starting board: 1 in the lowest-numbered land with 1 Dahan, and 2 in the highest-numbered land without Dahan. Deal 4 Minor and Major Powers face-up as your initial Days That Never Were.

Start T1 with 4 cards visible in Days That Never Were — immediate draft-planning info.

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

Presence Tracks

• Energy track (6 slots): energy1 → energy1 → energy2 → energy2 → energy2 → energy3
• Card-play track (6 slots): card1 → card1 → card1 → card2 → card2 → card3

Starting income: 1 Energy, 1 Card Play. Low energy/CP ceilings — the power comes from Time tokens (presence-as-currency) and Days-That-Never-Were preview, not raw resources.

Core Mechanics & Special Rules

Special Rule: Fragments of Shattered Time

Each Presence on this ability represents 1 Time. Many of your Powers require Time as an additional cost. Spend it when you Resolve the Power. When you Gain 1 Time, put 1 of your Presence here from your Presence track (or, optionally, the island). When you Spend 1 Time, return it to a Presence track — or if you have no free spaces, Destroy it.

Time = Presence. Every Time spent is a presence used. This is why Fractured is fragile — unlike all other spirits, playing Powers can literally destroy your presence if tracks are full.

Special Rule: Days That Never Were

Starts with 4 face-up cards visible; you can gain cards from this preview pool via G3 or specific effects.

Preview-deck. See Majors on T1; build drafts around them.

Innate: Slip the Flow of Time

• Speed: Fast · Target: Any Spirit

Text: Repeat-a-Power or fast-a-Power — thresholds detail slow→fast conversion, reclaim enablement, extra card plays. [VERIFY exact thresholds].

Innate: Visions of a Shifting Future

• Speed: Slow · Target: Yourself

Level	Thresholds	Effect
1	2 Moon + 1 Sun + 2 Air	Look at the top card of either the Invader Deck or Event Deck. Return it, then shuffle top.
2	3 Moon + 2 Sun + 2 Air	Instead of returning-and-shuffling, you may put the card on the bottom of its deck.

Information + deck-manipulation.

Unique Cards (all 4, Wiki-verified)

Blur the Arc of Years

• Cost / Speed / Range / Target / Elements: [VERIFY — fetch parse incomplete]
• The element-fulcrum card — carries Moon + Sun + Air (all three innate elements). jyonker13 calls it “the fulcrum card”. Never forget.

Absolute Stasis

• [VERIFY]: “A land doesn’t exist this turn” — deny a bad Ravage/Build at a Time cost.

Pour Time Sideways

• [VERIFY]: Multi-board manipulation; default Forget candidate per jyonker13.

The Past Returns Again

• [VERIFY]: Denies Escalation/Stage-III flips; element carrier.

Key Strategic Principles

1. Blur the Arc of Years is the fulcrum. Never forget — carries all three innate elements.
2. Days That Never Were telegraphs Majors T1. Build Minor drafts around them.
3. Time = Presence = scarce. Every Power that costs Time is a presence-spend decision.
4. Irregular reclaim cadence. No 3–4 turn beat.
5. Forget Pour Time Sideways by default — unless multi-board coverage requires it.
6. Slip the Flow self-target on T2 fast-activates Visions of a Shifting Future.

Possible Openings

Shared starting state

• 3 Presence on starting board (1 Dahan-land + 2 Dahan-less land).
• 4 Uniques in hand: Blur the Arc, Absolute Stasis, Pour Time Sideways, The Past Returns Again.
• 4 cards visible in Days That Never Were.
• Starting income: 1 Energy, 1 Card Play.

Opening A — jyonker13’s branching canonical 🟨

T1 · Growth: G3 (Gain Sun + Move presence + DTNW-card-gain).

• Gain 3 Time (2 from energy, 1 from plays).

T1 · Play: 1 Minor (pick for effect, not elements — even a push-Explorer effect is fine). Move presence either to enable the Minor or seed sacred-site adjacency for Absolute Stasis T2.

T2 · Growth: G2 (Gain Moon + Minor + presence from energy + 2 card plays + 1 Time). T2 · Play: Absolute Stasis (1 Time — a land doesn’t exist this turn), Blur the Arc (Dahan creation/movement), The Past Returns Again (for elements).

• Self-target Slip the Flow to fast-activate Visions of a Shifting Future → preview next-turn Event OR bottom-deck Farmers Seek the Dahan / Outpaced.
• Then reclaim one played card based on T3 plan.

T3 · Growth (branch picker) — five paths per jyonker13:

1. Major-rush: G3 + gain Major from DTNW, Forget Pour Time or lesser Minor.
2. Reclaim-enabler for partner: G3 + 3 Time; Moon Minor + Past Returns to cancel first Stage-II Escalation (5P game — everyone chips 1E).
3. Slow-fast converter: G2 or G3 + Moon Minor + Blur → Slip the Flow L1/L2.
4. Extra-card-play gift: G3 + Sun/Air + Stasis → Slip the Flow L3.
5. Fallback: G2 + 2 Time from energy + Moon Minor → Slip L1 + Pour Time.

T4: Depends on T3 branch; one more turn before Reclaim All.

Opening B — Solo 🟥

About half the time take a Major from DTNW on T1 instead of a Minor (solo spends less Time). Forget Pour Time — “that’s what it’s there for.”

T2: Gain strongest Minor; Reclaim Major-or-Stasis depending on overlap. T3: Play the Major if reclaimed; else dig via growth for Minor + Stasis combo.

Opening Decision

• Default Opening A — jyonker13’s branching canonical.
• Opening B (solo) in solo with DTNW Major telegraphed.

Card Priority Ratings

Uniques — Fractured-specific ranking

1. Blur the Arc of Years — fulcrum card; never forget.
2. Absolute Stasis — denial of a bad Ravage/Build.
3. The Past Returns Again — Escalation-cancel + element carrier.
4. Pour Time Sideways — default Forget (multi-board flex when needed).

Top 10 Minor Draft Picks (Moon + Air)

Top 5 Major Draft Picks (from DTNW previews)

Major-eager via DTNW. Target Moon+Air Majors:

Cards to Avoid

Adversary Matchup Matrix

Board / Map Configuration

[VERIFY]. Fractured Days works on any board — its toolkit doesn’t rely on terrain-specific placements.

Game-Phase Strategy

Early (T1–3)

• T1 Minor + DTNW preview.
• T2 Stasis + Blur + Past Returns; Slip self-target.
• T3 branch-pick based on board + DTNW Majors.

Mid (T4–6)

• Major integration via DTNW.
• Reclaim-cadence tuned to Time-management.
• Slip the Flow L2 for partner Reclaim-gifts.

Late (T7+)

• Visions L2 for deck-manipulation (bottom-deck bad Events).
• Major-stack turns with Time burst.

Synergy Partners (Multiplayer)

• Slow-heavy partners — Slip L1 Fast-converts their Slows.
• Card-draft-heavy partners — Slip L2 enables double-plays.
• Extra-CP partners — Slip L3 gives +1 card play.
• Avoid: spirits with rigid reclaim cadences.

Common Mistakes

Tempo Profile

Source Notes

• Mechanics: data/references/wiki/fractured-days-split-the-sky.json (Wiki-parsed 2026-04-23).
• Openings: jyonker13 BGG 2486927.