Spirit Island Openings: The First Three Turns

Welcome to Level 2. At Level 1 you learned to read the Invader track, race the Fear Deck, and grow a Spirit. Now you put those together from the very first turn.

The opening matters because the game’s two engines start at very different speeds. The Invaders begin small, on Stage I cards that each hit one terrain. Your Spirits begin small too, but they grow faster than the Invaders for a while. The first three turns are your window to get ahead.

What the Invaders do

Every game without an adversary opens the same way. Call the Invader cards A, B, and C in the order they are revealed.

So the first Ravage of the game comes on turn 2, in the terrain Explored during setup. By then that terrain has had a Build on turn 1. And all three opening cards are Stage I, each naming a single terrain, which is two lands per Island board.

That gives you a short list of threats. On turn 1 the danger is the A lands about to Build. On turn 2 it is the A lands about to Ravage and the B lands about to Build.

Do not forget the pieces printed on the Island boards. Setup places Towns, Cities, and Explorers in some lands. When a card’s terrain matches one of those lands, it can Build or Ravage there from the start. Find them before turn one.

Turn one: grow and clear

The best turn-one plays usually do two things.

Grow toward your engine. A Growth option that adds Presence takes it off a track, which raises your Energy or Card Plays for the rest of the game. Early Presence pays off every turn after. Most Spirits want to place Presence on turn one, and many want to gain a Power Card early too.

Clear the A lands. Often, setup leaves just one Explorer in a land it Explored. Destroy or Push that one Explorer with a Fast Power and the Build on turn 1 never happens there. That means no Town, which means no 2-Damage Ravage and no Blight on turn 2. One cheap Power on turn one saves a land for two turns.

Slow Powers on turn one are best aimed at the B lands. After the cards slide, B sits on Build, and a Slow Power can hit the new Explorers before they Build on turn 2.

Turn two: the first Ravage

Turn 2 is the first turn the land can take Blight. Look at every A land with Invaders. Ask which ones you can clear, which ones you can Defend, and which ones only have a single Explorer, which deals 1 Damage and cannot Blight the land.

If you cannot handle them all, decide where Blight hurts least. A land with no Presence and no Blight is the cheapest place for it to land. A land that already has Blight will cascade, and one with your Presence will cost you a piece of your engine.

Keep Presence out of A lands this turn unless you are sure they will be clear.

Turn three: get ready for Stage II

Turn 3 reveals the first Stage II card. With an adversary, it may also trigger an Escalation. More importantly, the Invaders now have Towns in some lands, and Towns are sources for Explore. The Island is about to get busier.

By the end of turn 3, a strong opening usually has:

• Presence near the Invaders, within Range of the lands where Towns stand, but not in the lands about to Ravage.
• A Reclaim behind you or planned for a quiet turn, so you are not stuck with an empty hand when Stage II arrives.
• At least one more Power Card, or a plan for when to take one.

There is no single right opening, because each Spirit’s Growth options and tracks differ. The growth lesson shows how to read your own.

Talk it through as a team

The opening is the easiest place for a team to split the work. With only one or two terrains in play each turn, the planning sentence is short: “I’ll clear the Jungle Explorer on my board. Can you take the one on yours?”

Common opening mistakes

• Reclaiming on turn two. You rarely need to, and a Growth spent on Reclaim is one not spent on Presence or Power.
• Taking a Major Power too early. A Major you cannot afford for three turns does nothing for three turns.
• Ignoring the printed Towns. A Town printed at setup in a matching land can Ravage for 2 Damage on turn 2.
• Spreading Presence too thin. Range is measured from your Presence, so a Spirit that cannot reach the Invaders’ lands has nothing to do.

If an opening goes badly, it is not over. The rulebook’s easier settings, a bonus Growth after setup or skipping the first Explore, are the clearest signal of how much the opening matters: each one simply gives the Spirits more time.