Spirit Island rules
Cooperative spirits defending an island from invaders.
- Players
- 1–4 (co-operative; up to 6 with Jagged Earth)
- Time
- 90–120 min
- Ages
- 13+
- Goal
- Work together as Spirits of the island to drive off the Invaders. Generate Fear to make winning easier — before Blight, time or lost Presence defeats you.
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How to play Spirit Island
Setup
- Join one island board per player into one island, and add the Invaders, Dahan and Blight shown on each land (this starting Blight comes from the box, not the Blight card).
- Put the Invader board to one side. Make up the Invader deck on its Explore space: randomly take 3 of the 4 Stage I cards, 4 of the 5 Stage II and 5 of the 6 Stage III (box the rest), I on top, III at the bottom.
- Shuffle the Minor and Major Power decks separately and put them near the board, with room for a discard pile each.
- Put 4 Fear markers per player in the Fear pool, and deal 9 Fear cards into three groups of 3 (Terror Levels I, II, III).
- Place a random Blight card, Healthy side up (don't look at the back), and put the Blight it shows plus 1 more on it. Blight you add during play always comes off this card.
- Each player takes a Spirit panel, its 4 unique Power cards and the Presence and Single-Turn Effect markers of one colour, each on a different board, following the setup on the panel's back.
- Cover every dashed circle on both Presence tracks with your remaining Presence (the leftmost solid circles stay uncovered). You start with 0 Energy.
- Flip the first Invader card, Explore it, then move it to the Build space. (There's no Ravage card yet, so round 1 skips Ravage.)
A round at a glance
Everyone acts at the same time in every phase.
- Spirit Phase: grow, gain Energy, choose and pay for Power cards.
- Fast Powers: resolve Fast cards and Fast Innate Powers.
- Invader Phase: the Invaders Ravage, Build and Explore.
- Slow Powers: resolve Slow cards and Slow Innate Powers.
- Time Passes: discard played cards; damage heals; Elements reset.
Spirit Phase
- Growth: choose one Growth option on your panel and do all of it.
- Gain Energy equal to the highest number showing on your Energy track.
- Play cards up to your Card Plays number, paying their Energy now (even Slow ones) and gaining their Elements.
- Growth options include: Add Presence (take a piece off either Presence track and place it within the option's range), gain a Power Card (draw 4 Minor or 4 Major, keep 1; after a Major, Forget one) and Reclaim your discarded cards.
- Range counts from a land with your Presence: 0 is the same land, 1 adjacent.
- Card words: Push moves pieces out to adjacent lands, Gather brings them in, Defend X blocks X damage, and a Sacred Site is a land with 2+ of your Presence.
- Innate Powers are free: you get every threshold your Elements meet.
Invader Phase
- Blighted Island: only once the Blight card has flipped.
- Fear: resolve earned Fear cards in order, using the line for the current Terror Level.
- Ravage: Invaders in the Ravage card's terrain attack.
- Build: each land of that terrain with Invaders adds a City if it has more Towns than Cities, otherwise a Town.
- Explore: flip the next Invader card; add 1 Explorer to each land of that terrain that holds a Town or City, or is next to a Town, City or the Ocean.
- Advance: slide the Invader cards along one space.
Example: A Jungle card explored this turn Builds in Jungles next turn and Ravages them the turn after, so you can see trouble coming two turns ahead.
Ravage in detail
- Damage: Explorer 1, Town 2, City 3 (also their health), minus any Defend.
- Blight: 2+ damage to a land adds 1 Blight, destroying 1 Presence of each Spirit there. Blight added to a land that already has some cascades to an adjacent land.
- Dahan take the same damage (2 kills one); survivors deal 2 damage each back.
Fear & winning
Emptying the Fear pool earns a Fear card, and every 3 Fear cards raise the Terror Level. You win when:
- Terror Level I: win when no Invaders are on the island.
- Terror Level II: win when no Towns or Cities remain.
- Terror Level III: win when no Cities remain.
- Last Fear card: earning it wins at once.
How you lose
- Blight card runs out: follow the card. Either you lose, or you flip it to Blighted Island and keep playing.
- No Presence: any Spirit has none left on the island.
- Empty Invader deck: you need to Explore and can't flip a card.
- Win and lose at once: if one effect does both, you win a sacrifice victory.
Concentrate on the lands on the Build and Ravage cards, and team up: most Spirits are far stronger combined with a neighbour than alone.
Expansion rules
Only needed if you play with the expansion named on each heading.
Branch & Claw Branch & Claw
Adds new tokens and an Event step to every Invader Phase.
- Setup: add the Invader board extension and shuffle the Event deck onto it. A Blight card is now required. On each board put 1 Beasts in the lowest-numbered land with no printed Setup icons and 1 Disease in land 2.
- Events: draw 1 Event card each Invader Phase, except on the first turn.
- Tokens: Beasts, Disease (stops a Build), Wilds (stops an Explore) and Strife (an Invader with it deals no damage once, then loses that Strife).
Jagged Earth Jagged Earth
Adds 10 Spirits, 2 boards, 2 Adversaries, Badlands, Isolate and Aspects. Supports 1 to 6 players.
- Setup: use at most one Aspect per Spirit, and apply any setup changes shown on it.
- Setup: with 5 or 6 players, add boards E and F, one board per player, in the island layout the rulebook shows.
- New rules: Badlands and Isolate.
Feather & Flame Feather & Flame
New Spirits, an Adversary, Scenarios and Aspects, with no new rules systems.
- Setup: use at most one Aspect per Spirit.
Nature Incarnate Nature Incarnate
Needs the base game and Jagged Earth. Adds 8 Spirits and new tokens.
Horizons of Spirit Island Horizons
A standalone game for 1 to 3 players that is also compatible with the rest of the collection.
- Contents: its own board and 5 Low-complexity Spirits, using the base game's Power and Fear cards.
All Spirit Island rules (82)
General
- Turn Structure
- Time Passes
- Presence
- Destroyed Presence
- Sacred Site
- Power Cards
- Elements
- Elemental Thresholds
- Innate Power
- Range & Targeting
- Gaining Power Cards
- Forgetting a Power Card
- Repeating a Power
- Damage
- Defend
- Gather & Push
- Adjacent, Coastal & Inland Lands
- Dahan
- Blight
- Blight Cascade
- Blight Card & Blighted Island
- Fear
- Terror Level
- Losing the Game
- How the Game Ends
Spirit Phase
Clarification
- Effects on Presence Mean Presence on the Island
- A Spirit With No Presence on the Island Loses the Game
- Fast vs. Slow Power Timing
- Elements Are Never Spent
- Range Is Counted From Your Presence
- One Land, One Turn, One Use
- You May Skip a Power You've Played
- Destroy vs. Remove vs. Replace
- A Ravage Adds Only One Blight
- Invaders Kill Dahan as Efficiently as Possible
- When the Invader Deck Runs Out, You Lose
- Fear Is Shared Between Spirits
- A New Terror Level Can Win Instantly
- Winning and Losing at the Same Time
- Energy and Card Plays Can't Be Shared
- Who Decides When We Disagree
Invader Phase
- Invaders
- Invader Phase — Full Sequence
- Ravage
- Dahan Counterattack
- Build
- Explore
- Adversaries and Scenarios
- Advancing the Invader Cards
- Fear Cards
Game End
Branch & Claw expansion
Jagged Earth expansion
- Jagged Earth
- 5 and 6 Players
- Badlands
- Badlands Apply Per Land
- Isolate
- Aspects
- Jagged Earth Fine Points
- Jagged Earth Optional Rules
Feather & Flame expansion
Nature Incarnate expansion
- Nature Incarnate
- Incarna
- Vitality
- Deeps & Quake
- Nature Incarnate Rule Changes
- Bargains and Taking Power Cards
- Nature Incarnate Keywords
Horizons expansion
Expansions covered
- Branch & Claw Beasts, Disease, Wilds, Strife, Events
- Jagged Earth Badlands, Isolate, Aspects
- Feather & Flame 4 Spirits, Scotland
- Nature Incarnate Needs Jagged Earth: Incarna, Vitality, Deeps
- Horizons Standalone, 1-3 players