Spirit Island

01Discover the game

Spirit Island is a cooperative game in which players embody the spirits of an island threatened by invaders. Spirits grow, learn power and coordinate their actions to defend the inhabitants, the Dahans, while raising the fear of the colonists. Enemies do not have a player: a succession of cards organize their ravages, constructions and explorations.

This chapter concerns the basic box of Greater Than Games, with the official erratum of preparation of the Desolation. To discover, we choose spirits of low complexity, the balanced faces of the trays, without opponent, scenario, extension or map Desolation. The maps specific to each mind keep their particular texts. The overall difficulty is Expert: the mastery requires to foresee several phases, to share information and to build a motor of powers. One to four. Spirits play; plan for about 90 to 120 minutes, more for a first discovery.

02Equipment

The base game includes an Invader Board, four modular Island Boards and eight Spirit Panels. It contains 36 Dahan, 40 Explorers, 32 Towns and 20 Cities, 38 Blight, 52 Presence and twelve temporary effect markers. It also includes 32 Energy markers, twenty Fear tokens, eight player aids and four Power Progression Cards.

The maps include fifteen Fears, two Terror level interlayers, two Desolation, fifteen Invaders, 36 Minor Powers, 22 Majors and 32 Unique Powers of the Eight Spirits. The box adds three Adversary panels, three Adversary reminders and four Scenario panels, left aside for this discovery. These quantities describe the base, not a mix with Horizons or an extension.

Explorers, Villages and Cities have respectively one, two and three points of resistance and inflict so much damage during a ravage. A Dahan resists two damage and reacts with two. Presences are the discs of each spirit; the elements illustrated on the powers are not coins to spend.

03The goal

The conditions of victory ease with the Terror. At level I, we must eliminate all the invaders of the island. At level II, it is enough that no village or city remains. At level III, the absence of cities suffices. If all the packages Fear are won, the terror causes an immediate victory.

The team loses if the island exhausts its desolation reserve, if a spirit no longer has any Presence on the island or if the invaders have to reveal an exploration map while their package is empty. Remove all units of a land does not win if other lands still contain those prohibited by the current level of Terror.

04Preparing for the defence of the island

Take an Island board by spirit and assemble their balanced faces. The terrains of two boards that touch each other are normally nearby. Place the Dahans, buildings and Desolations indicated by the preparation symbols of each terrain, taking this Desolation in the box and not in the defeat reserve.

Prepare the Invasion Board. Without a Desolation Card, place five Desolations per spirit on the intended location, then one more for the whole team, according to the erratum. This gives six solo, eleven to two, sixteen to three and twenty-one to four. It is not an additional desolation per player. Desolation cards would require another preparation; they are not used here.

Put four tokens Fear per spirit in the Fear Reserve. Mix the fifteen cards Fear and take nine at random: three for each level, separated by interlayers II and III. They remain hidden. The extra tokens Fear of the box are left aside.

The fifteen Invaders cards are divided into four level I, five level II and six level III cards. Mix each group and randomly remove one card from each. Form the pack of twelve cards: three I above, four II in the middle, five III below. Level II climbing symbols do not have any effect without an opponent.

Each player takes a spirit of low complexity, its four unique powers and its thirteen Presences. Follow exactly the back of the panel for the Initial Presences on the island; the others cover the Energy and Card tracks played, except their starting boxes. Different mind powers do not automatically share the same setting. To begin with, one can follow the corresponding progression card instead of choosing its future powers from four cards.

Finally, reveal the first Invasion Map and carry out an initial exploration in its grounds. Slide it on the site Construction, not Ravage. The first round will therefore begin without scheduled ravages but with a first construction. Keep the two packs of powers, their waste and the accessible reserves.

05The five phases of the tour

1. Spirit phase

Players act simultaneously and discuss freely. Each chooses an option to grow their panel and applies all the symbols of this option: recover their defeated cards, gain power, place Presences within range, receive Energy, according to the mind. When you pose a Presence from a track, you release a new ability; do not withdraw a Presence already on the island for free to reveal your track.

Then receive your Energy income, then choose your cards for this round, within the limit of the playable cards revealed. Pay all their costs. Unspent Energy is kept. The cards played give their elements during this round, even if their effect has not yet been used; these elements are not consumed when you check a threshold.

To normally win a Power card, choose the minor or major package, pick four cards and keep one in hand, the others going into the corresponding common waste. Winning a major requires to permanently forget one of your powers, including possibly the one that has just been chosen. Following a progression replaces the pocket of four with the next indicated power. Recovering is not forgotten: recover your cards in hand so that you can play them again.

2. Quick powers

Solve the fast powers of the cards played and the fast innate powers whose thresholds are reached. Players choose the order together. A power normally uses once and targets a single field, unless otherwise specified. Scope and target conditions are verified when resolving: Losing a sacred site in the meantime can prevent an effect that had to come from this site.

A zero range refers to the land of one of your Presences. Counts the adjacent land for a higher range. A sacred site contains at least two of your own Presences, not two discs of two different spirits. You do not change a slow power into fast without an effect that allows it.

"Push" moves coins from the target ground to neighbouring land; "push" brings them from the neighbours to the target ground. Players distribute the permitted travels. Without special rules, invaders are not pushed into the ocean to destroy them. The damage of a power is distributed among the invaders of the target ground; several powers can be combined during the same turn. Dahans are not injured by damage to invaders, unless explicitly to the contrary text.

3. Invasion phase

Without a Desolation Card, ignore its effect step. Solve the Fear cards won before this step, in the order they were won, at the current Terror level. A Fear card won after this step will wait for the next Invasion Phase.

Then comes the Washing In each plot containing invaders, add up their attacks. A Defense reduces this total. The result applies separately to the land and Dahans: one does not divide a damage reserve between the two. If the land receives at least two damage, adds a Desolation from the reserve, even if it has received much more than two.

Every added desolation destroys a Presence of every spirit present in this land. If it already contained desolation, adds in addition a Desolation in an adjacent land: this cascade can start again if the neighbouring land was already sorry. The Dahans suffer the damage of the ravage by destroying as many Dahans as possible, two damage each. Those who survive then respond, with two damage by Dahan, against the invaders of this land. A defense that prevents the damage does not prevent the response if the ravage occurs.

The Construction In the grounds indicated by his map, but only if they contain at least one invader. If a land has more Villages than Cities, add a City; otherwise add a Village. The Dahans do not block any construction or exploration.

ForExploration, reveals the next map. Each indicated land receives an Explorer if it is coastal or if it contains a Village/City or touches a land by one side with a Village/City. An Isolated Explorer is not alone a source of exploration for its neighbours. Level III maps designate two types of land; apply both. Finally, advance the maps: the old Ravage is defeated, Construction becomes Ravage, Exploration becomes Construction.

4. Slow credentials

Solve the slow powers paid at the beginning of the round and the slow innates available, in the order chosen together. They do not retroactively prevent the constructions of this tower, but can remove the enemies before their next ravage. You can foresee a target that did not yet have invaders at the time the card was played; it must only be legal when the effect is used.

5. Time goes by

Put your cards in your personal waste; they don't automatically go back in hand. Remove the reminders of temporary effects and erase all the non-fatal damage of the invaders and Dahans. A building only injured will find its normal resistance before the next round. The Presences remain in place and the conserved Energy remains available.

Fear, destruction and limitations

Destroy a Village produces a Fear; destroy a City produces two. Move or simply remove a unit does not produce automatically. Each Fear passes a token from the reserve to the generated area. When all have passed it, wins the next Fear card and puts the chips back into the reserve. A Fear over it continues on the next cycle. Discovering an intercalar immediately increases the level of Terror and can be enough to win.

06A ravage explained with numbers

One land contains an Explorer, a Village and two Dahans. The invaders inflict 1 + 2 = 3 damage. Your power offers Defense 1: there are two damage left. The land receives these two damage, so a Desolation is added. The Dahans also receive two damage: one Dahan is destroyed, the other survives. The remaining two damage must not be divided into one on the ground and one on the Dahans.

The surviving Dahan replied for two. He could destroy the Village from two points of resistance, which produces a Fear; the Explorer remains. If another rapid power had removed this Explorer before the ravage, the Village would have attacked for two, Defense 1 would have left only one damage: no Desolation and no Dahan destroyed. The two Dahans would then have responded for four. This small change before the ravage transforms the entire result.

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07Victory, defeat and solo game

Check the end conditions immediately after an effect that changes the invaders, the Terror, the Presences or the Desolation. The still unsolved cards fear does not prevent a victory already acquired by the current level. The team should not wait until the end of the round to win when the island meets the condition.

In solo, take one mind and one set; the effects aimed at "another mind" can target you yourself according to the solo rule. The quantities per player become those of one mind: four tokens Fear and six Desolations in the preparation without a card, with the erratum. A player can then control several minds, but he has to manage their hands, tracks and Energy separately; this is not a simplification of the game.

It is not necessary to calculate a score to know whether the base is earned: it is a victory or a cooperative defeat. Opponents, scenarios and cards Desolation add their own rules; they must be introduced as identified modules and not as silent corrections to the discovery.

If a single power or effect causes both victory and defeat, the rule provides for a sacrificial victory: spirits have sacrificed themselves, but the island is saved. This exception concerns the same effect, not two successive actions chosen after a defeat already acquired.

08Frequent errors

• Forget the only additional desolation of the erratum, or add it by mind.
• Build in a land without invaders or explore from a simple Explorer.
• Divide the damage from a ravage between land and Dahans instead of applying it to both.
• Consuming items as a currency or undoing a card before checking its elements.
• Automatically take your cards back in hand at the end of the turn.
• Waiting for Level III to win while the absence of Villages and Cities already satisfies Level II.

09Tips for starting

First examine the next ravages. Then look at the constructions: removing a simple Explorer can prevent a future Village, which then avoids a more dangerous ravage. Slow powers are often used to treat the enemies that come to appear, not to repair a reading error.

Talk about your goals rather than imposing all decisions on a neighbour. A well-placed Defense near Dahans can produce a strong response without paying as much direct damage. Develop your tracks by planning when you need to recover your cards: an exhausted hand may force you to choose a less useful growth for the field.