The Other Four Spirits in the Spirit Island Box

The core box holds eight Spirits. The rulebook sets aside four as low complexity, and the starter Spirits lesson covers them. This lesson covers the other four. They are not harder because their Powers are bigger. They are harder because each one plays by a rule that the rest of the game does not.

As with the starters, flip the panel first. The Play Style section on the back is the fastest summary of what a Spirit wants.

A Spread of Rampant Green

The rule it breaks: Invaders do what the land allows. Its Special Rule, Choke the Land with Green, lets it stop a Ravage or a Build in a land with its Sacred Site by destroying one of its own Presence there. A second Special Rule, Steady Regeneration, lets it put destroyed Presence back on the Island when it Grows, freely while the Island is Healthy and at a cost of Energy once it is Blighted.

Read together, those two rules mean Rampant Green spends Presence as a resource. It plants Sacred Sites in the lands about to Ravage or Build, cancels the Invader action, and grows the lost Presence back. Its Innate Powers add Defend and Damage to buildings when it has enough Plant with Water or Moon.

The rulebook names it, with Vital Strength of the Earth, as a Spirit that can prevent Ravages, and calls Sweden easier for it as a result. Pair it with a Spirit that destroys buildings, so the lands it protects also get cleared.

Thunderspeaker

The rule it breaks: Spirits fight alone. Thunderspeaker is the Spirit of the Dahan. Its Special Rule, Ally of the Dahan, lets its Presence move along with Dahan when they leave one of its lands. Its other Special Rule, Sworn to Victory, is the cost: when a Ravage destroys Dahan, it loses Presence nearby.

Its Innate Powers Gather or Push Dahan into position and, with enough Sun and Fire, destroy Towns and Cities based on how many Dahan stand in the land. So Thunderspeaker’s plan is to collect the Dahan into strong groups, march them where the Invaders are, and keep them alive. Everything in the Dahan lesson applies double.

Teammates help most by keeping the Dahan alive: Defend in Thunderspeaker’s lands, and fewer Ravages where its Dahan stand.

Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares

The rule it breaks: Damage destroys things. Its Special Rule, To Dream a Thousand Deaths, means its Powers never deal real Damage and never destroy Invaders. When its Powers would destroy them, the Invaders are instead terrified: Explorers and Towns are Pushed away and Fear is generated in their place.

That makes Bringer a Fear engine. Its Innate Powers generate more Fear with Moon and Air, and can reveal what is coming in the Fear Deck. Bringer rarely clears a land by itself. It moves Invaders and drives the Fear race toward an earlier Terror Level, where the win condition gets easier.

Pair Bringer with a Spirit that destroys Towns and Cities for real. Bringer moves the Invaders where its partner can reach them, and the Fear pours in from both. The Fear lesson is required reading for this Spirit.

Ocean’s Hungry Grasp

The rule it breaks: the Ocean is not in play. For every other Spirit, the Ocean is just scenery. Ocean’s Special Rule, Ocean in Play, lets it place Presence in the Ocean but never Inland, and on boards where it has Presence, the Ocean counts as a Coastal Wetland for Powers. Invaders and Dahan moved into the Ocean are Drowned, and Ocean turns Drowned Invaders into Energy.

Ocean lives on the coast. Its Innate Powers generate Fear and Drown Towns and Cities, and its Powers pull Invaders into the sea. It is excellent at the coastal lands where the Invaders arrive, and nearly absent Inland.

Pair Ocean with a Spirit that covers the Island’s interior. Together they split the board by geography, which keeps planning simple.

Choosing among eight

With all eight Spirits in play, team building becomes a puzzle of its own. A quick guide using the jobs from the starter lesson:

• Stopping Builds early: Shadows Flicker Like Flame, River Surges in Sunlight.
• Stopping Ravages: Vital Strength of the Earth, A Spread of Rampant Green.
• Destroying buildings for Fear: Lightning’s Swift Strike, Thunderspeaker with its Dahan.
• Fear without destruction: Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares.
• Holding the coast: Ocean’s Hungry Grasp.

Where to go next with Spirits

When your table knows all eight, the expansions add many more, and Aspects give familiar Spirits a new twist. The adversaries lesson at the end of Level 3 lists what each expansion adds.

That completes Level 2. You can open with a plan, use the Dahan, choose Powers and Elements on purpose, and play every Spirit in the box.