Spirit Island Invader Cards: Ravage, Build, Explore

Welcome to Level 1. You can play the game; now you learn to see it coming. The Invaders in Spirit Island have no hidden hand and roll no dice. Their next two moves sit face up on the Invader board. That makes them predictable, and predictable enemies can be beaten. It pays to spend as much time reading the Invader cards as your own hand.

How the track moves

The Invader board has three Action Spaces: Ravage, Build, and Explore. The card in each space names the lands where that action happens. Every Invader Phase runs them in that order, then slides every card one space: Ravage to the discard, Build to Ravage, Explore to Build.

So each land type walks a fixed path. Explored this turn, it Builds next turn and Ravages the turn after. The rulebook points to that predictability as a planning tool, especially for Slow Powers.

Setup starts the track. The Invaders Explore once and that card goes on Build. On turn 1 the Ravage space is empty, and an empty space means no action, so nothing Ravages. The first Ravage comes on turn 2, in the land type Explored during setup.

The deck, stage by stage

The Invader Deck is 12 cards: 3 Stage I on top, 4 Stage II in the middle, 5 Stage III on the bottom.

• Stage I and Stage II cards each name a single kind of land.
• Stage III cards show two terrains with a ”+” between them, and every action affects lands of both.

Every Island board has exactly two lands of each terrain: Jungle, Mountain, Sands, and Wetland. A one-terrain card points at two lands per board. A Stage III card points at four.

Do the arithmetic once and you know the shape of every game without an adversary. Setup reveals card 1. Turn 1 reveals card 2, and so on. Stage II cards start appearing on turn 3, Stage III on turn 7, and turn 11 reveals the last card. On turn 12, the Explore step finds no card, and you lose. Your win has to come before then.

Most Stage II cards also carry a flag icon. Without an adversary, ignore it. With one, the flag triggers the adversary’s Escalation, usually right when the card is revealed, before the Explore. The adversaries lesson at Level 3 covers them.

Explore: where Explorers land

When a card is revealed, add 1 Explorer to each land of the shown type that:

• has a Town or City, or
• touches a land with a Town or City, or touches the Ocean.

Only one Explorer per land, however many sources are nearby. Explorers are not sources themselves. That means Coastal lands can be Explored whenever their type comes up, while an Inland land far from any Town or City is safe until the Invaders spread toward it.

Build: Towns first, then Cities

When the Build card’s lands have any Invaders at all, even a single Explorer, the Invaders Build there. If the land has more Towns than Cities, add a City. Otherwise, add a Town. A land with only Explorers gets a Town. A land with one Town gets a City. A land with no Invaders gets nothing.

This is why the rulebook’s first strategy tip is to clear lands before they Build. A fresh Explore usually leaves one Explorer in a land. Destroy or move that one Explorer and next turn’s Build there never happens.

Ravage: the math

In each Ravage land with Invaders, add up the Damage: 1 per Explorer, 2 per Town, 3 per City. Subtract any Defend. Then, at the same time:

• The land: 2 or more Damage adds 1 Blight. Only one, however large the total.
• The Dahan: every 2 Damage destroys a Dahan, as efficiently as possible. A leftover point damages one more.

Then the surviving Dahan fight back, 2 Damage each, at the Invaders in that land. They fight back even if Defend stopped all the Damage, but not if the Ravage was stopped entirely.

Here is the rulebook’s own example in our words. A Wetland Ravages with 2 Dahan, 1 Town, and 1 Explorer. That is 3 Damage: the land takes a Blight, one Dahan is destroyed, and the other is damaged but alive. It deals 2 Damage back, the players aim it at the Town, and the Town is destroyed for 1 Fear.

Notice the thresholds. A single Explorer deals 1 Damage, which is not enough to Blight the land. Two Explorers, or one Town, are. Defend 1 on a land with two Explorers keeps it clean.

Blight: why cascades hurt

Each Blight added after setup destroys one Presence of every Spirit in that land. And if the land already had Blight, one more Blight goes to one adjacent land of your choice, which can cascade again. Choose the cascade land with care: an empty land is better than one holding your Presence.

The rulebook’s basic strategy puts it plainly: clean up a land before a second Blight lands there.

Timing Fast and Slow Powers

Fast Powers resolve before the Invader Phase. Use them on this turn’s threats: the lands about to Ravage, and the lands about to Build.

Slow Powers resolve after the cards slide. By then the old Build card sits on Ravage, and the new Explore card sits on Build. So Slow Powers are for next turn’s threats: the fresh Explorers that will Build, and the new Towns and Cities that will Ravage. Since you choose targets when the Power resolves, a Slow Power can wait to see exactly where those Explorers landed.

A simple habit covers most turns: Fast Powers for this turn’s Ravage, Slow Powers for next turn’s Build.