Spirit Island Rules New Tables Get Wrong

Spirit Island has a lot of small rules, and new tables get some of them wrong. That is normal, and the rulebook’s own advice is not to sweat it: note the right rule and keep going. But a few misplays change the game so much that groups decide it is too hard after one night. This lesson collects the common ones, grouped by where they happen, with the rule as the current core rulebook states it.

Blight

1. A Ravage adds one Blight, not one per 2 Damage. If the Invaders deal 2 or more Damage to a land, add 1 Blight. A City and two Towns dealing 7 Damage still add only 1. The rulebook singles this out as one of two rules that make the game extremely punishing when misplayed.

2. A cascade goes to one adjacent land, not all of them. When Blight lands where Blight already was, add 1 more Blight to one adjacent land of your choice. That is the second rule the rulebook warns about. The cascade can continue from there, but it is always a single chain.

3. Blight from setup does nothing. The Blight printed on your Island boards, and any added during setup, does not destroy Presence or cascade. Only Blight added after setup does.

4. Destroyed Presence leaves the game. It goes next to the Island, not back onto your Presence Track. You do not get to place it again.

Invader actions

5. Build needs any Invader, even one Explorer. A land of the Build card’s type with a single Explorer gets a Town. A land with no Invaders gets nothing. Tables that only Build where Towns already stand are playing an easier game.

6. Explorers are not a source for Explore. New Explorers arrive in lands that have a Town or City, or that touch a Town, a City, or the Ocean. A land next to a lone Explorer is not Explored because of it. And each Explored land gets exactly one Explorer, however many sources are nearby.

7. Ravage and Build only happen where Invaders are. An empty land of the right type is skipped. That is why clearing a land before its turn comes is so strong.

8. “Adjacent” includes corners and other boards. Two lands that touch only at a point are adjacent, and so are lands on different Island boards that touch. The Ocean is not a land.

Damage and the Dahan

9. Damage heals at the end of the turn. To destroy a City you need 3 Damage in the same turn, from one Power or several. Two Damage this turn and one next turn destroys nothing. Damage from Powers can be split among the Invaders in the target land however you like.

10. The Dahan fight back after Defend, but not after a skipped Ravage. Surviving Dahan deal 2 Damage each after the Invaders’ Damage. They fight back even if Defend reduced the Invaders’ Damage to zero. If the Ravage was stopped entirely, nothing happens at all, including the fight back. And when the Invaders hit the Dahan, every 2 Damage destroys one: you cannot spread Damage around to keep them all alive.

Your Powers

11. Pay for Slow cards in the Spirit Phase. You choose and pay for every card you will use this turn up front, Fast and Slow, and you gain their Elements at once. You choose targets only when each Power resolves.

12. One land, one turn, one use. Unless a Power says otherwise, it affects a single land, lasts only this turn, and works once. “Destroy up to 3 Explorers” means 3 in the target land. Innate Powers trigger once even if you have twice the Elements. And Range counts from your Presence: Range 0 means a land where you already are.

A related slip: Gather and Push move things only one land, whatever your Range. Gather pulls from adjacent lands into the target; Push sends things from the target to adjacent lands.

Fear

Two Fear slips round out the list. Both are in the Fear lesson too:

• Earned Fear Cards wait. They resolve face up in the Fear step of the next Invader Phase, not the moment you earn them, and you use the effect for the Terror Level at that time.
• Only destroying makes Fear. Destroying a Town generates 1 Fear and a City 2. Removing or replacing them generates none.

Energy and Card Plays

Unspent Energy carries over to the next turn. Unused Card Plays do not. Neither can be given to another Spirit. Players who think Energy vanishes at the end of the turn tend to spend it badly, buying a weak card just to use it up.

Using this list

You will not remember all of these on the first night, and you do not need to. Print the teach sheet, keep this page open on a phone, and check the two Blight rules every time a Ravage happens. For anything on a specific card, the rulebook points to the Living FAQ.

That completes Level 0. You can set up, teach, and play a clean game. Level 1 is about playing it well.