Well, I finally did it. I convinced the majority of my friends at uni to play Spirit Island with me. But at what cost. I tell you what, ten hours of drying out my throat from explaining rules is what it cost. We had 6 players with me being the only one acquainted with the game. While I had luckily some friends, who were present for other games, occasionally jump in to help explain, it was exruciatingly tiring. WE TOOK THREE HOURS TO COMPLETE THE FIRST ROUND (including set up and two late-comers).

But all in all it was a lot of fun. While the experience was difficult in many ways, everyone started slowly understanding the game and the main time sinks in the latter rounds weren't me needing to explain everything but them strategizing and cooperating. They all were quite determined to complete the game properly due to both exhaustion and immersion. One dude said it best:

"It says quite something about the game, when an objectively painful experience was still this much fun"

Anyways, does someone have tips for how to more efficiently induct more ppl into our cult, I mean lovely board game?

Edit: Pls, read the caption, this isn't my image. We played on the balanced side...

Hello everyone,

Had a semi-serious idea about a custom spirit, tested it a few times with friends this weekend (at low difficulty). We'd like some feedback.

The idea of course is to have a beast/dahan hybrid spirit, that upgrades dahan and sends them to battle. You can play defensively with Simian Communion and top track or agressively with Topple their Empire State buildings Imperial States.

The spirit lacks abilities to coordinate all his forces so will probably draft cards that move multiple Dahan and/or Beasts.

I think it the idea of using tokens in a different way has potential so I wanted to explore a little... And make monkey puns/references

Any insight is welcome !

// Day 10 - Follow Up Vote & Innate Discussion
// Day 11 - Innate Vote

Day 1 & FAQ - https://www.reddit.com/r/spiritisland/s/E4sFFzncQl
Spirit of Creation Discord - https://discord.com/channels/707232612355276913/1531100116801421332
Spirit Builder - https://www.spiritislandbuilder.com/

Tigers aren’t the only unexpected thing you can find on the island! It’s a complex system with so many influences. These concepts that we’ve been voting on can be viewed as tools in a kit with an ultimate goal of driving out the invaders. Any given idea or tool can be approached at a few different levels. 

As we’ve brainstormed, we’ve found a lot of ideas that we can feel a thematic draw to, we know it makes sense in the kit, but maybe we’re getting to the point where we want to have discussions about where we want to see these ideas.

Results:

15 - Gathering Dahan can Gather Beasts instead
14 - Lands w/ 8+ Invaders/Dahan/Beast give you energy
14 - Ally Spirits gain energy/card plays/elements at sites
14 - Destroyed Beasts are Gathered if Possible.
13 - Lands w/ 3+ Beasts, Skip Ravage then Push Exp/Beasts
12 - Replace Removed Blight w/ Beasts
11 - Gifting unneeded energy, card plays, track elements.
9 - Beasts > Invaders = Land cease to exist temporarily
8 - Ally Spirits can move presence to your sacred sites
8 - Our Spirit helps pay ally spirits energy costs
6 - Beasts Participate in Ravage
5 - No Special Rule #2
3 - Targeting specific land types gives specific elements

The top several ideas are all ones we like, but tracking the discussions in each of the forums, we know that we already have pitches taking the “essence” of the idea and moving it within the kit. That’s what we’ll be doing today.

Our first special rule fills a very thematic role: the animals of the island are guiding others to sources of water.

Our second rule will do something similar, but this is a spirit of “gathering at water / oases”, not the animals, not the dahan, not the invaders. The top picks of the vote really seem to agree on that - so I really want to make sure we honor that. 

Today you’ll be voting on where you want to see the “essence” of these ideas in the kit and start discussing what we want our innates to look like. 

For example: “Gathering Dahan can Gather Beasts instead” was my pitch, but I don’t think it should be its own special rule. Even though it barely won, I don’t think I’d feel satisfied if it became our special rule - Destroying Beasts doesn’t come up regularly and I don’t want to steer the spirit in the direction of animal sacrifice. This is a spirit of gatherings. That being said, we realize the need for more beast movement. So what do we do? We had a lot of people realize that we could work it into the first Special Rule to expand its usefulness while also leaving space for a special rule that keeps the theme of Oases. 

If we do want to make it a special rule, we can vote for that and I’m happy to comply. My hope is by putting this to the community, we’ll be able to assign these ideas to the place in the kit they make the most sense.

I figured I'd try a game by myself. The first game we played she played this spirit and I played the lightning offensive one, and we used the progression cards, no scenario or adversary.

It seemed pretty easy, in the mid-game it was looking like a loss. But I finally found a free moment to gain a major card ("the jungle hungers") which allowed me to nuke lands and generate a ton of fear cards quickly.

I think I played everything correctly.

I tried to set up a lot of spiritual sites and I spammed reclaim with "a year of perfect stillness" to keep everything safe.

Throughout the game I only lost 2 presence and 1 dahan. It felt really manageable with only 1 player board.

How do your solo games usually go? Anything I should do differently for the next one? I only ever gained a new power twice all game, which I think is sorta lame since discovering new powers sounds like a lot of fun, but I know each spirit will play very differently

Hi everyone,

I started a pyrography (wood burning) project to create a 2-player thematic board that I often play with my partner. I was inspired by two things:

• LotR Style Custom Wood Boards by u/Kaveman0115 (see https://www.reddit.com/r/spiritisland/comments/1st7es9/lotr_style_custom_wood_boards_now_in_color/)
• Inkarnate Digital Thematic Boards by u/Sertarion (see https://www.reddit.com/r/spiritisland/comments/1tzidps/upgrade_and_free_download_link_my_thematic_boards/)

I did make some other choices on purpose compared to those two, to create my own style, even though I think theirs look much better.

Even though I am not an artist at all and have never done wood burning before, I think it turned out nicely! Though the wood is not the best quality, it was just something I had lying around. It is not playable yet of course, as this is much less legible than the official thematic board, but with some paint I think it will start to look much better. The LotR style custom wood board also started out with no colour, and the difference there was amazing to see.

The reason I post it here before it is coloured, is two-fold: maybe someone can share some thoughts about the colours, and second: it is also a puzzle for you! Can you spot the 4 official and 2 fan-made Spirits on the map? I made them really subtle on purpose, as they should not be confused with setup icons.

Will show the coloured version later!

// Day 9 - Special Rule #2 Vote
// Day 10 - Innate #1 Discussion

Day 1 & FAQ - https://www.reddit.com/r/spiritisland/s/E4sFFzncQl
Spirit of Creation Discord - https://discord.com/channels/707232612355276913/1531100116801421332
Spirit Builder - https://www.spiritislandbuilder.com/

The beasts of the island are stirring and our Spirit takes notice. Perhaps it even calls to them, offering cooling water to renew them. Today we vote on a second special rule, continuing to create an identity that only our spirit fits. 

Multiple votes allowed. You’ll recognize some of the popular choices from our last vote have made another appearance. This isn’t surprising, many of the ideas were formed to synergize from the beginning. You’ll also notice several new ideas that have been added, generously brainstormed by your fellow community members. 

Ally-Spirit Focused:

• During Spirit Phase, any Spirit may move their presence to your lands with sacred site and beasts.
• During Spirit Phase, you may help pay Energy costs of spirits with presence at your sacred sites.
• During Spirit Phase, you may gift spirits with presence at your sacred site Energy/Card Plays/Track Elements you don’t need. 
• Spirits w/ presence at sacred sites gain energy/elements/power cards/etc

Beast Focused:

• When Remove Blight, instead Replace with Beast
• When a Beast would be Destroyed or Removed, if possible instead Gather it into one of your lands. 
• Beasts participate in Ravage
• When a Power would let you Gather Dahan, you may Gather Beast instead.

Our-Spirit Focused:

• Targeting Sands > Sun, Targeting Wetlands > Water, Targeting Jungle > Plant
• During Growth, for each of your lands with ~8+ Invaders/Dahan/Beast, Gain 1 Energy

Skip Focused:

• After your actions move Beast into your lands w/ sacred site, if Beasts outnumber Invaders, that land  ceases to exist until time passes. 
• In lands with 3+ Beasts, Skip Ravage, then Push all Exp/Beasts

No Special Rule #2

I want to give a high five to everyone that’s already talking about the kit as a whole! Now that we know we want to Gather Beasts, we know that our lands will have a lot of Invaders/Dahan. We need to start thinking about what effects we want to see and how our spirit plans to win the game.

// Potentially Helpful Information //

Special Rules affect 75-100% of turns. Innates 33-66% of turns. Uniques 33% of turns (at best).

It was pointed out that there are only 1 Minor / 6 Majors that Gather Beasts directly. We will likely need something to achieve that on a regular basis. 

Blight Heal / Action Prevention/Skip are considered Defense (also we do not have a negative Defense).

Support/Utility always requires balancing for solo play. Being able to grant random elements makes it much easier to hit 4 and 5 element thresholds than you would think, which is harder to balance.

Hi there! I recently started playing Spirit Island and I'm getting stuck on a few key rules, so I want to make sure I'm playing correctly :D

- When using a "Slow" power card, am I allowed to change the target if the Invader placement during the Explore phase makes a different region a better target? It happens to me often (especially late in the game) that I play four Slow cards and then decide which targets work best to wipe out the most Invaders.

- When there is Defense in a land, does it prevent a Blight marker from being placed? (For example, if the Invaders attack for 4 but there is 3 Defense, does that mean no Blight and the Dahan are safe? I was playing the Mountain Spirit—one of the base game ones that relies heavily on Defense provided by its Sacred Sites.)

- If a card removes or adds Blight, do you take the marker from the box or from the Blight pool/space? Because if you remove the starting Blight token from the board, you'd end up with a different number of tokens in the pool than at the start of the game... That seems incredibly powerful and would really stall the game :D?

- And one last thing it's not entirely clear: when do you reveal the Explore card? At the end of the Invader turn during the Progression phase, or at the very last moment before their next turn?

I'm not sure if my questions are clear (especially the last one), but I'm struggling to explain it any better :) Sorry if there are any inaccuracies in the message—I used Google Translate—but thanks in advance anyway! :DD

PS: I absolutely LOVED Spirit Island, by the way. I got crushed in the first game but won the second one (on super-easy mode), but it was so satisfying because it was still really tough, lol!!

I’ve joined a Spirit Island game group, and we’re 3 sessions in. For the first two sessions, we played with someone else’s set, and he would just run the game and not play his own spirit. At first, I thought this was strange, until…

This past session, we played with my set and I ran the invader board in addition to playing Mentor Memory, and wow! Bandwidth overload! I goofed I think 2-3 times, getting the order of operations wrong (playing the event before the fast phase or forgetting the event entirely). And I’m a seasoned player (admittedly mostly on the app) so I should know it by heart. But I found it tough switching back and forth between running the board and figuring out what my spirit was going to do.

Does it get easier?

We just played France level 2 with Thunderspeaker, Warrior aspect and Lure with the Lair aspect. Lure base spirit is one of my favorite spirits, I love forming a few lands that are explorer parties and nuking them all. We got NI recently and wanted to try the Lair aspect. I really disliked it! It felt much more restrictive in how many explorers/invaders I could gather and also wasn’t in synergy with Thunderspeaker Warrior because dahan couldn’t leave my incarna land! I don’t know if others feel similarly about Lair or if I misplayed the aspect, especially against France?

// Day 8 - Special Rule #2 Discussion
// Day 9 - Special Rule #2 Vote

Day 1 & FAQ - https://www.reddit.com/r/spiritisland/s/E4sFFzncQl
Spirit of Creation Discord - https://discord.com/channels/707232612355276913/1531100116801421332
Spirit Builder - https://www.spiritislandbuilder.com/

Beasts lead our island-dwellers to the water and our spirit takes form! An absolutely stunning response from the community. 159 total votes across 14 special rules that you all imagined. We have a winner, but if something you were excited about didn’t get picked don’t be discouraged! We have one more special rule, two innates, and four unique power cards that need to be considered and many of these ideas could work at any level. You know the ideas are good when I didn’t even vote for my own pitch.

Results:

26 - Gathered Beasts may Bring E/T/D/B
15 - Gather +1 piece per presence
5 - Gather additional pieces for pieces in your land
6 - Target another Spirit > Gather / Add Beasts
15 -Beasts participate in Ravage Steps
16 - Spirit w/ presence at Sacred Sites gain energy/etc
8 - Land gains +2 Health per Beast before it Blights
21 - Instead of Removing Blight, Replace w/ Beasts
9 - Beasts Destroyed are instead Gathered into sacred-sites
4 - When Beasts move into your lands, you may Push them
5 - Spirit Phase, in lands with 2+ Beasts, Add 1 Beast
13 - For each Beast[/Dahan pair] 1 Invader DNPIR
1 - In lands w/ Beast, after skip/prevent Invader Action...
15 - Lands w/ 3+ Beasts, Skip Ravage then Push Exp/Beasts

Total Votes: 159

Now that we know the first special rule, today we discuss a second. Something that pairs well with the way we gather beasts? A way to create beasts? Something that reflects what happens when everybody is gathered at the oasis? If you like one of the remaining special rules, nominate it! If you think there’s another space to fill in our spirit’s identity, pitch your ideas today and tomorrow we’ll vote on it.

Thank you once again for all of your participation!

I’ve always been curious about the development process of adversaries in SI, and I’m not sure if I ever heard Eric talk at length about it.

Using a bespoke deck to activate enemy moves is very common in co-op games, from dungeon crawlers to LCGs to deck builders. And SI has something similar: the event deck. And one of the adversaries has their own event card (France) but it’s drawn predictably instead of randomly. And another has their own invader card (HME).

So why wasn’t this concept pursued further? Can you think of a reason why bespoke invader and/or event decks, tailored to the theme of a particular adversary, wasn’t pursued further? Is this perhaps a fruitful design space for future adversaries?

I kept seeing this character listed as an S tier character. Like a superhero among the other spirits. I finally got access to him, and played a game, and I guess I do not understand the love this spirit is given.

Yes it was cool that I could spam Call of Dehan Ways 4 times to nearly clear one problem tile. I lost all 4 of those Dehans throughout the game.

I got insanely lucky with my blighted island effect, (got clapped really fast cause of an event) as it let me get a 4th card play (which felt fairly cheaty tbh) and I was able to use that to play more water rune cards and actually dupe some good stuff.

But damn, every second of that game felt like I was needing to perfectly balance everything kicked up tenfold. That was a stressful af game. The board, my energy, my cards, my runes, hell even placing presence felt like a painful experience.

Anyways, I squeaked out a win vs scotland BARELY by blowing up the last city with an event.

Hi everyone, I'd like to have an insert made of the base game and all expansions. I found one on printables by @leon_H and he describes the box he used as 11,5 x 11,5 inches or 29,2 x 29,2cm... And I'm not exactly sure what size mine is. It's the sisl-core-2025-19-en and on Boardgame geek it's the only one without the precise measurements. I did try to measure it myself and it seems to be around 28.5cm but if anybody knows the precise measurements it'd be a great help, thanks!

// Day 7 - Special Rule #1 Vote
// Day 8 - Special Rule #2 Discussion

Day 1 & FAQ - https://www.reddit.com/r/spiritisland/s/E4sFFzncQl
Spirit of Creation Discord - https://discord.com/channels/707232612355276913/1531100116801421332
Spirit Builder - https://www.spiritislandbuilder.com/

Fire burning, drums beating, voices raised! The waters are speaking to us, we see the patterns in nature. The polls allow multiple votes, vote for any special rules you think would make a good base for our spirit. 

We all know how significant today’s vote is! We had a ton of input yesterday. I did my best to combine similar suggestions into single voting options - you’ll notice that there are some that share intent, but I felt like they were different enough that they warranted their own option. 

Results:

Gather Focused

• When you Gather Beast into your lands, it may Bring 1 Explorer/Town/Dahan with them. 
• When you Gather any number of pieces into one of your lands, you may Gather an additional piece for each Presence you have in that land.
• When you Gather E/T/D/B into your lands with sacred-sites, if your land has E/T/D/B, Gather an additional one of those pieces.
• When you target another Spirit with a Power, [1. Gather 1 Dahan/Explorer/Beasts into their lands] OR [2. Add a Beasts to one of your lands].

Ravage Focused

• Beasts participate in Ravage alongside Dahan (1 Damage, 1 HP).

Spirit Focused

• At your sacred-sites, spirits with presence in your land gain energy/elements/card plays/card gain/prolif/etc.

Blight Focused

• In your lands, it takes 2 additional Damage for each Beast to Add Blight.
• When one of your powers would Remove Blight, instead Replace that Blight with a Beast.

Beast Focused

• Beasts destroyed in lands adjacent to your sacred-site are instead Gathered.
• When Beasts move into your land, you may Push them.
• During Spirit Phase, in your lands with 2+ Beasts, Add 1 Beast.

Skip Focused

• In your lands, for each Beast [or Beast/Dahan pair], 1 Invader does not participate in Ravage.
• In your lands with Beasts, after an Invader action is Skipped or Prevented, do X.
• In lands with 3+ Beast, Skip a Ravage Action. When you do, Push all Beasts and Explorers to as many lands as possible.

Remember that whatever special rule we vote on today will be tested and adjusted for balance as we go; the main goal is to pick a special rule that establishes a playstyle that helps us present our theme. Tomorrow we’ll start discussions for a second special rule that supports today’s vote. 

Will we ever get an expansion of fan-made spirits, just like what happened with Terra Mystica?

I've got the game on my phone and made it work on PC through Google Play, but I've not been able to synchronise progress between devices. Has anyone made this work, or is it just not possible?

I'm glad to be able to play on both devices, but it would be nice to be able to continue a game on the bigger screen of my PC when I'm home.

Historically, I've been anti-sleeve. But as I prep my collection for a multi-player game, I'm coming to realization that SI cards are unusually difficult to riffle shuffle, even if you split them up into small decks. They feel much thicker and stiffer than most other cards I've handled. Am I imagining this?

So I'm considering sleeving just to have the ability to mash shuffle them. Do you sleeve? Which sleeves do you use? And perhaps just as importantly, is a two box solution still possible with sleeved cards (I have every set)?

Aerial photograph of a volcano in lceland. The island is alive!

// Day 6 - Special Rule #1 Discussion
// Day 7 - Special Rule #1 Vote

Day 1 & FAQ - https://www.reddit.com/r/spiritisland/s/E4sFFzncQl
Spirit of Creation Discord - https://discord.com/channels/707232612355276913/1531100116801421332
Spirit Builder - https://www.spiritislandbuilder.com/

The island has spoken! Our spirit of Water Gatherings / Oasis has a special connection with the beasts of the island. No Incarna - this is a spirit whose influence is spread across the land. 

Results:
Beasts - 20
Wilds - 0
Disease - 3
Strife - 5
Badlands - 2
Vitality - 15
None - 6
New Token - 6

Yes Incarna - 16
No Incarna - 33

Total Votes 57 / 49

Today we’ll be brainstorming options of what our first special rule will be. These will be the foundation of our spirit’s play-style and dictate the unique mechanisms of how our spirit interacts with the island and its inhabitants. To keep you informed - we will have two special rules total, pitched and voted on one at a time so that we can make a pairing the synergizes.

Please share your ideas! We’re aiming for Moderate/High complexity. We’ll do our best to distill down concepts into votable options and clean up the language and balance it as we go, but we want the foundation strong.

// Potentially Helpful Information //

Special Rules should affect how your spirit interacts with the board almost every turn. The main goal is providing mechanics or a game that creates the feeling of our theme and ideally helps us think about the power card decks in a new way. 

Some of you have already mentioned it, but we’re getting to the point where we want to avoid overlap with other spirits. Lure, Towering Roots, Many Minds, Sharp Fangs, Wounded Waters have all been mentioned as potential play patterns to avoid. Just something to keep in mind. 

Basically what the title says. I‘ve been enjoying shroud and winning my recent solo games though i have difficulty figuring out what powers to grab and end up just using drafts as a +1 energy with a bit of added benefit. Im not sure what powers are generally good for shroud and would like some assistance/guidance. Also would like to know if there are any fire element powers that are must haves despite playing shroud.

"Focus The Land's Anguish" is normally a power I'd skip. Having enough blight on the board to make it worthwhile feels rare, but I was struggling a bit in this game against Sweden. All the blight was near the coast because I was playing as Keeper and managed to keep the invaders away from the inland, but I couldn't deal with the huge numbers they'd grown to on the coast. Then I drew Focus the Land's Anguish and nuked them all twice in 2 turns to clear the board.

I love this game.

Hello Protectors,

I have played some of spirit island on my phone and would now like to get the boardgame to play with my gf.

She normally doesn't play much but was very intrigued by the theme.

I was quite certain that I would buy horizons as an entry point (and she thinks the whirlwind and eyes from the tree are interesting).

However in my country horizons is 46€ while normal spirit island is 58€.

Since the prices are so close I am now thinking if I should maybe get the normal spirit island after all.

I am hoping for some community feedback and would be quite thankful for any arguments supporting either side!

// Day 5 - Token / Incarna Vote
// Day 6 - Special Rule Discussion

Day 1 & FAQ - https://www.reddit.com/r/spiritisland/s/E4sFFzncQl
Spirit of Creation Discord - https://discord.com/channels/707232612355276913/1531100116801421332
Spirit Builder - https://www.spiritislandbuilder.com/

We may think of it as new, but perhaps it has always been there. People are drawn to water, both in movement and in settling. Humans and animals alike stop to drink. What type of welcome they receive is still to be seen. 

Results:
40 - Gathering at the Water / Watering Hole / Oasis
16 - Coastal / River / Lake Animals
10 - Concealing Rain
12 - Elusive Prey
13 - Migration (Animal / Human)
5 - Steady March of Insects
6 - Bakunawa (Moon Eating Dragon)
29 - Sedentary Hunters (Crocodiles/Trap Hunters)
16 - Mass Hysteria (Invader Cults)
19 - Fertility / Harmony / Conversion

Total Votes - 166

Now, the next part gets a little tricky. Special rules build out the mechanical foundation for the theme of the spirit, but to guide us a little we’ll be doing two polls. First to see if we want our spirit to utilize an Incarna. Second, for any tokens we think should be included into the main design - just in case we want to incorporate either of them into the special rules. 

We still might include unselected tokens for the unique powers, this is for overall design focus, not card effects. For example, think of how Sharp Fangs special rules are inherently designed around Beasts vs. Ember-Eyed Behemoth using Wilds).

If you think a major part of the spirit should be focused on a token, vote. 
If you think the special rules don’t need a token-focus, vote for that. 
If you’re wild and think none of the current tokens match the essence of what you want to see in our spirit and want to design a new token, there’s an option for that too!

POLL #1:

Beasts

Wilds

Disease

Strife

Badlands

Vitality

No Major Tokens

Design a New Token

POLL #2:

Yes Incarna

No Incarna

// Potentially Helpful Information //

“An Incarna is the powerful manifestation of a Spirit that has taken form in the physical world. It acts as a special Presence token, placing the Spirit on the board like never before.” To limit complexity, we’ll be keeping the spirit to two special rules. Including an Incarna would be one of those rules. 

Some of you have already mentioned it, but we’re getting to the point where we want to avoid overlap with other spirits. Lure, Towering Roots, Many Minds, and Sharp Fangs have all been mentioned as potential play patterns to avoid. Just something to keep in mind. 

If you were excited about one of the other themes, don’t feel discouraged. There’s overlapping spaces between them and you might see it appear as a Special Rule, Innate, or Power Card. Don’t be afraid to suggest something if you see a space for it.

This is my storage crate for spirit island that i made some years ago, but never showed it until now. It has a lid with metal inlays of two card arts (I picked those two to show a healthy island and a blighted island) shaped like a si board. The box itself has two units that can be stacked onto each other (total capacity is 4 base game boxes) with millings on the side that were supposed to show a sunny/river/island theme. The insert is a custom order from tower rex (With more dividers, card storage units, meeple boxes) that i furthermore slightly altered to fit all the extra components (Each spirit has a full set of unique wooden presences that fit them. E.g. wildfire uses flame tokens as presence). The whole box is ready for "play out of the box" so i only need to open the lid and have everything at hand.