Quick Links
Spirit Islandis among the most enjoyable cooperative board games.
This gives the game its unique Settler-Destruction genre.
Additionally, with the Power Cards you acquire throughout the game, it also incorporates the Deck Builder genre.
These Spirit island expansions will give you more tools to protect your island.
Another appealing feature is the game’s massive replayability.
Despite being such a beautiful and captivating game, it might seem daunting to learn at first.
But dont worry, with this detailed guide, youll be able to learn the game.
Addfour Fear Tokens to the Fear Pool for each player.
Create The Fear Deck
Next, create the Fear Deck by shuffling the Fear cards.
Then, take three more cards and place them on top of the Terror Level II divider.
Finally, place the remaining three cards on top of the Terror Level II divider.
Place the completed Fear Deckin the Victory section at the top leftof the Invader Board.
Create The Invader Deck
First, separate the Invader cards by stage.Shuffle each stage separatelyface down.
Removeone card from each stageand return them to the box without looking at them.
Never shuffle the stages together.
Place the Invader Deck in the Explore action space on the Invader Board.
Add the number of Blight Tokens indicated on the Healthy side of the Blight Card to the card.
Instead, use the printed Blight amount on the Invader Board.
Place Energy, Cities, Towns, Explorers, and Dahan in a supply area accessible to everyone.
Then, select a color and take the Spirit Presence tokens and Single-Turn Effect Markers in that color.
If you are playing the game for the first time, choose a low-complexity Spirit.
When choosing a Spirit, be sure to consider their Complexity.
Do not include any Adversaries or Scenarios if this is your first game.
Invaders Starting Action
After setup, the Invaders perform an Initial Action.
Reveal the top card of the Invader Deck.
Your game setup is now complete, and you are ready to play Spirit Island!
Unless otherwise stated, pieces in the same land punch in affect other pieces within that land.
All lands adjacent to the Ocean are referred to as Coastal lands.
Lands that are not adjacent to the Ocean are considered Inland.
The Ocean itself isnot considered a land and is not in play.
The back of each board features a thematic version with more realistic illustrations.
In such cases, place the removed Presence next to the Island.
If any player loses all their Presence on the game board,the players lose the game.
There is no restriction on the number of Presence tokens that can be in a single land.
Terms like Move or Destroy refer to your Presence on the island unless stated otherwise.
What Is A Sacred Site?
If a player hasmore than one Presence in a land, it becomes a Sacred Site.
Remember, some Powers require them to originate from a Sacred Site.
The Sacred Site symbol in the game also represents stacked Presence tokens.
Next, based on the range value, you select a land.
Target Land
On Power Cards or Innate Powers, you will see a section called Target Land.
Two Land Types
The selected power can target either of the two specified types of land.
Dahan Symbol
The power can target a land that has Dahan.
‘Invaders’ Text
The power can only be used if there are Invaders in the targeted land.
Blight Icon
The selected power can only target a land with Blight.
‘Any’ Text and Player Icon
No land needs to be selected; choose any player, including yourself.
‘Another’ Text and Player Icon
No land needs to be selected; choose any player other than yourself.
Red X Mark
Whatever the X is over must not be present in the chosen land.
Minor Power Cards are generally inexpensive to use and have smaller effects.
Major Power Cards tend to be more expensive but offer greater effects.
After deciding,draw four cardsfrom the chosen Minor or Major Power deck.
Place the forgotten card in the appropriate discard pile.
When you Forget a card, it can be from your hand, discard pile, or in-play area.
You caneven choose to Forget the Major Power Card you just selectedif you change your mind.
Some Power Cards have extra effects if you possess specific elements.
The elements required for Innate Powersare never spent;they serve as thresholds.
Innate Powers see if you have the required number of elements but do not use them up.
If a threshold section says ‘Instead’,it replaces the effects of the previous sections.
Fast & Slow Powers
The timing of your powers is crucial.
Powers are divided into Fast and Slow based on their timing.
Fast Powers occurimmediately after the Spirit Phaseand before the Invader Phase.
Slow Powers occurafter the Invader Phase.
Be mindful when playing Slow Powers as theboard state may changeafter the Invader Phase, potentially disrupting your plans.
Carefully consider your strategy before using Slow Powers.
The speed of the powers is indicated on the Power Cards and Innate Powers.
Power Card Effects
Each Power Card has unique effects.
In addition to being fun times, these are some of the highest-selling board games around the world.
Once you finish resolving the current card, proceed to handle the newly earned Fear card.
Additionally, players execute this effect sequentially, waiting for each other in turn.
Invaders
Invaders are the only obstacle in the game that you better eliminate.
Invaderscannot directly harm your Presencein the game.
Some effects allow you to destroy or remove Invaderswithout considering their Health.
Destroying Invaders earns you Fear.
However, the effects thatremove them will not earn you Fear.
Invaders are not limited by the number in the Supply.
If they become scarce, use Energy tokens to indicate their numbers.
Also, there can be an unlimited number of Invaders in a land.
If it has two Health remaining, tilt it with two buildings raised above it.
If it has one Health remaining, tilt it with one building raised.
To track damage to Towns, a Town at full Health remains upright.
If it has one Health remaining, tilt it.
Once flipped, theBlight Card never flips back to the Healthy side.
Ifall Blight on the Blighted side of the Blight Card is used up, you lose the game.
Remember, ifany player has no Presence left on any island board, you lose the game.
Remember to destroy Presence during Blight cascades as well.
Also, Blight added during setup does not destroy Presence.
The Dahan
The Dahan are the island’s natives and will aid you in destroying the Invaders.
Under normal circumstances, Invaders damage both the land and the Dahan during the Ravage phase.
Afterward,any surviving Dahan will attack the Invaders, with each Dahan dealingtwo damageto the Invaders.
To track damage to the Dahan,flip the Dahan over if it has taken one damage.
Note that, unless specifically stated otherwise, the Spirits' damagedoes not harm the Dahan.
Power And Fear Effects
Power and Fear cards can produce various effects on Invaders or Dahan.
Remember, remove effectsdo not grant you Fear.
Replace
When replacing Invaders, first remove the original Invader.
Then, place the new piece in its place.
If the replaced piece had taken damage, thenew piece retains this damage.
Destroy
This effect allows you to destroy Invadersregardless of their Health.
Remember, destroying each Town grants you one Fear, and destroying each City grants you two Fear.
Defend effects do not carry over to the next turn.
If multiple Defend effects are applied to the same land, their values are cumulative.
Blight returned to the Blight card does not affect flipping it.
Gather
When applying a Gather effect, you move specified piecesto the target land from adjacent lands.
Note that effects that increase a Powers range do not affect the range of Gather.
You don’t have to push them to the same land; you candistribute them to different lands.
You cannot use a Repeat effect on another power that is itself being repeated.
When repeating a power, you do not have to make the same choices as the first time.
Any target land or range limitations of the repeated power must still be followed.
These board games don’t leave anything to chance.
Throughout the phases, players discuss and strategize together, which is essential for winning the game.
Don’t forget to play according to these rules while playing the game.
Grow
First, you must perform a Grow action.
The Growth options areseparated by vertical dividerson the Spirit Panel.
Gain Power Card
Allows you to gain a Power Card.
Reclaim Cards
Allows you to takeall your used (discarded) Power Cardsback into your hand.
Gain Energy equal to thehighest uncovered number on your Energy Presence Track.Place the Energy tokens near your Spirit Panel.
Unused energy carries over to the next turn.
Transferring energy between players is not allowed.
The chosen cards can be either Fast or Slow Power Cards.
This completes the Spirit Phase.
Fast Power Phase
After completing the Spirit Phase, players resolve their played Fast Powers.
Powerscan be resolved simultaneously with other players, but one powershould not interrupt anotherduring its resolution.
Power Cards and Innate Powers can be resolved one by onein any order the players choose.
If players decide not to use a played Fast Power card,they can skip it entirely.
In this case, they stillretain the elementsprovided by that card.
Remember, you cannot use Fast Power during the Slow Power Phase.
If you have multiple Fear Cards, resolve them one by one in sequence.
Remember that the effects of Fear Cardsonly last for the current turn.
Invader Actions Overview
Invader actions on the Invader Board arecarried out from left to right.
The land types on the Invader Action cards indicate which punch in of land the Invaders will act upon.
If there is no Invader Card on a space, that action will not occur this turn.
Remember thatsurviving Dahan deal two damageto the Invaders each.
However, if the Ravage action is skipped, the Dahan will not counterattack.
you could allocate the Dahan’s damage to the Invaders as you see fit.
If the card has a flag icon, it relates to Adversaries.
First, fix the Escalation effect from the Adversary, then perform the Explore action.
For the Explore action to occur, certain conditions must be met.
This gives you insight into what the Invaders will do next turn.
This phase functionssimilarly to the Fast Power Phase.
Time Passes
At the end of each turn, the Time Passes phase occurs.
The momentyou meet the conditions for your Terror Level,you win the game.
Sometimes the effects of Power Cards can lead to both losing and winning the game.
If both conditions occur simultaneously,you achieve a Sacrifice Victory.
During Time Passes, target Spirit may Reclaim one Power Card instead of discarding it.
If you target another Spirit, you may also Reclaim one Power Card instead of discarding it.)
You do not gain any other additional benefits.
Pay attention to these while playing.
Each Adversary has a difficulty level, which might alter the setup based on the level you choose.
Adversaries might have persistent effects, so use the Adversary’s Reminder tiles to keep track of modified actions.
This makes reaching Terror Levels more challenging.
Scenarios
you’re free to select a scenario to change the game rules and win conditions.
The difficulty of each scenario is indicated in the upper right corner.
Youcan combine scenarios with Adversariesfor a varied gameplay experience.
Scenario rules always take precedence over Adversary rules.
