Spirit Island: Branch & Claw
Spirit Island: Branch & Claw Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Components
- 1 Invader Board extension (with Scenario Events Discard and Adversary Events spaces)
- 20 Scenario markers (8 numbered, 12 blank)
- 22 each of Beasts, Wilds, Disease, and Strife tokens
- 2 Spirit panels
- 2 Adversary tiles
- 1 Adversary panel
- 1 Adversary-specific Event card
- 4 Scenario panels
- 4 Player Aid cards
- 25 Event cards
- 31 Minor Power cards
- 21 Major Power cards
- 8 Unique Power cards (4 per Spirit)
- 7 Blight cards
- 15 Fear cards
Branch & Claw
Before adding this expansion to the base game of Spirit Island, make sure you've played Spirit Island at least a few times. The contents of this expansion add a ton of variety, thematic elements, and new ways to fight and frighten the Invaders, but it is truly not the best way to learn the game, as the new effects are more complicated.
Expansion materials are marked with the expansion symbol in one of the corners, for ease of removing them if you want to play the core game only.
Most expansion materials are simply added to the equivalent base-game materials.
- Minor and Major Powers, Blight Cards, and Fear Cards are all mixed in with other cards of that type.
- Spirits, Adversaries, and Scenarios are added to the available options from which to pick. Several of the new Scenarios use the Scenario Markers.
This expansion also introduces an Event Deck, which is used during the Invader Phase (see page 8), and four tokens representing hazards that can thwart the Invaders: Beasts, Wilds, Disease, and Strife. (See page 10.)
[Component diagram omitted: the printed page shows the Invader Board extension, the Events discards, and the token types.]
Setup Changes
- Add the extension to the Invader Board.
- Put the Beasts, Wilds, Disease, and Strife tokens in the corresponding areas on the Invader Board extension.
- Shuffle the Event Deck and put it on the Events space on the Invader Board extension. Playing with a Blight Card is now required rather than optional. (The Event Deck depends on using one.)
- During Setup, put one Beasts token and one Disease token on each Island Board. The Beasts token goes in the lowest-numbered land with no printed Setup icons; the Disease token goes in land #2 (with the City). (See page 17.)
Thematic Boards: Instead of placing a single Disease token and Beasts token on each board, place tokens as indicated by the Setup icons in each land.
Short on Space? If your table doesn't have space for the Invader Board extension, put the Event Deck near the Earned Fear stack, so you remember to do it first.
Event Cards
In the Core Game, the Invaders are perfectly predictable, save for what lands they will next be interested in. But in truth, all living things - the Invaders, the Dahan, and Beasts of the wild - sometimes act in unanticipated ways. To represent this, each Invader Phase, after any Blighted Island effect and before resolving any Earned Fear Cards, draw and resolve one Event Card. (See back cover for the full Turn Order.)
Blighted Island: If you have trouble remembering to apply a Blighted Island effect first, put a Blight from the box atop the Event Deck as a reminder.
Most cards show two possible primary Events, both bad (see examples, below). Which you perform will depend on either:
- The Health of the Island (Healthy/Blighted, as shown on the Blight Card);
- The Terror Level (I, II, III); or
- The Stage of Invasion (I, II, or III). The current Stage is shown by the top card of the Invader Deck.
- Exception: If playing against Brandenburg-Prussia Level 2+, treat the early Stage III Card as if it were Stage II.
Most Event Cards also have two potentially good Events:
- Token Event: References Beasts, Disease, or Strife.
- Dahan Event: Dahan take action or tend to their community.
Example cards (page 8). The printed page shows five numbered example Events, one per row of the card, as follows.
- Healthy Island / Blighted Island (left column of the card):
- Putting Down Roots (Healthy Island): On an Inland land on Each Board: Replace 1 Explorer with 1 Town.
- The Center Crumbles (Blighted Island): On Each Board with Invaders: Add 1 Blight to an Inland land. Spirits may prevent this on any/all boards by destroying 3 Presence from each board to be protected.
- Terror Level I / II / III (middle column of the card):
- Distant Exploration (Terror Level I): During the Explore step, Invaders Explore at +1 distance. (So a land 2 away from a Town/City/Ocean will be Explored into.)
- Fearful Mobs (Terror Level II and III): When Ravaging, Invaders do +3 Damage (per land) in lands with 3 or more Invaders.
- Stage I / Stages II + III (right column of the card):
- Seeking the Interior (Stage I): In each Coastal land, Push 1 Explorer one land Inland.
- Local Diaspora (Stages II + III): In the single land with the most Invaders, Push 1 Explorer/Town to each adjacent land.
- Token Events:
- Striken (left column): In lands with Disease/Strife, Invaders skip Ravage Actions.
- Grim Toll (middle column): On Each Board: Choose a land with Disease. In that land, do 2 Damage to Invaders and 2 Damage to Dahan.
Transcriber's note: the printed example cards are small. Where a card's icon is hard to read, the word is taken from the card's own position and wording; the Terror Level and Stage markers are shown as in the printed example.
Just like with other effects, when resolving Events, unless otherwise specified:
- Perform as much of the card's instructions as you can, moving from top to bottom and skipping anything inapplicable or impossible.
- Effects which don't change pieces on the board last only until the end of the current turn.
- Pieces only affect their own land unless explicitly specified. I.e., if a token or Dahan causes Fear/Damage/Destruction, it does so in the land that it's in.
Players make any necessary decisions. When an Event says, "On Each Board: (do this OR that)", you may select differently on each board. You are permitted to read the entire Event Card before making any decisions, but you don't have to if your playgroup would rather think about one thing at a time.
Like other effects, when Events deal Damage, unless otherwise specified, the Damage is done only to Invaders. Some Events modify Invader Damage, or do Damage to the Dahan (see Health and Damage, page 16). Events are only considered Spirit Effects (for, e.g., Heart of the Wildfire) if the Spirits pay a cost to make something happen (see Choice Events, below).
Choice Events
As seen below, some cards are Choice Events. These describe a situation and give the Spirits two courses of action to take with differing consequences. Usually, the choice is a joint decision, and players must reach consensus over which path to take. If no consensus can be reached, the first listed option is always the default.
Often, one choice has a cost: usually some amount of Energy per player in the game. The cost is paid jointly however the Spirits like; it does not need to be evenly divided. It could be paid entirely by one player.
If a cost says it is "Aided by a particular Element" it means that Spirits:
- May Forget one or more Power Cards (from hand, play, or discard) with that Element to count +4 Energy towards the cost per Forgotten card.
- May discard one or more Power Cards (from hand to discard) with that Element to count +2 Energy towards the cost per discarded card.
- Count +1 Energy towards the cost for each of that Element they have in play (from Power Cards, Presence Tracks, or other effects).
A Power Card may only be used for one of these bonuses. If you discard a Power Card, you cannot also Forget it. Also, a Power Card Forgotten from play no longer provides any Elements. The "Aided by" Energy is only for the purposes of paying the cost - you cannot get real Energy out of it!
Example card: Years of Little Rain (page 9). The printed example shows a Choice Event with an arrow pointing to its "Aided by" Element. Its text reads:
Years of Little Rain. A terrible drought parches the Island. You may:
Let the plants die and the land wither:
- For each board, discard the top Minor Power. If it lacks Water, add 1 Blight to a Sands.
- Towns, Cities, and Dahan have -1 Health (min. 1) until the end of the turn.
Act to ease the drought: Cost 4 Energy per player. Aided by Water.
- Each Spirit may add 1 Presence to one of their lands with Dahan.
Beasts Attack: Each Beasts token deals 2 Damage. Remove any token that destroys a Town/City.
Canny Defense: During Ravage, in every land, Defend 1 per Dahan in the land.
Transcriber's note: on the printed example, an annotation arrow crosses the first bullet of "Let the plants die", and the word after "discard the" is partly covered. "top" is read from the card image. The "-1 Health" bullet shows Town, City and Dahan icons.
Meaningless Choices
If you are playing with the Scenario "Blitz", the Choice Event "Outpaced" is guaranteed to be irrelevant, as there is no Slow Phase. If this happens - or if future Adversaries/Scenarios make a particular Event irrelevant or senseless - discard that Event Card and draw a replacement.
Tokens
New Powers and Spirits use four types of tokens to represent perils and hazards which hinder the Invaders. Beasts, Wilds, and Disease tokens are added to lands; Strife is added to specific Invaders. There is no limit to how many tokens can be in a land, or to how many Strife tokens can be on an Invader.
- Beasts: Harms Invaders and generates Fear as specified by Powers and Event Cards.
- Wilds: Prevents the next Explore and is then Removed.
- Disease: Prevents the next Build and is then Removed.
- Strife: Blocks a specific Invader's Damage the next time they Damage Dahan and/or the land, and is then Removed.
Beasts
Beasts tokens represent any sort of wild Beasts that are numerous, dangerous, or aggressive enough to be a problem for the Invaders. (The Dahan know how to avoid them or drive them off well enough to prevent substantial casualties.) They are unpredictable allies, and are much more likely to pick off Explorers than to attack Towns or Cities.
Beasts tokens do not have an intrinsic effect. Many Powers which add Beasts have a second effect which only works on lands with Dahan, and roughly half of the Event Cards have Token Events for Beasts.
Beasts examples. For these examples, you have drawn an Event Card with "Beasts Attack!". During this event, each Beasts token deals 2 Damage. Remove any token that destroys a Town or City.
- A) This is a land with 1 Beasts token and 1 Dahan. This land has no Invaders, so nothing happens here.
- B) This is a land with 1 Beasts token. It has an Explorer and a Town, so it Destroys the Explorer and deals 1 Damage to the Town. The Beasts token could instead Destroy the Town and then be Removed.
- C) This is a land with 2 Beasts tokens. The only Invader is a City, so both Beasts tokens deal 2 Damage to the City. The Beasts token that dealt the 3rd point of Damage is Removed.
Wilds
Wilds tokens represent lands that are perilous to explore - plants which look edible but are actually toxic, difficulty finding fresh water, especially dangerous paths, etc. However, once a given danger is discovered and noted (there are always a few survivors), it is easily avoided by future Explorers.
When Invaders would Explore into a land with Wilds, instead Remove one Wilds token from that land.
Wilds examples. For these examples, the Explore Action takes place in Jungles. When Invaders would Explore into a land with Wilds, instead Remove one Wilds token from that land.
- A) This is a land without Wilds. This land includes a Town or City already, so an Explorer is added here.
- B) This is a land with 1 Wilds token. This land does not have and is not adjacent to a source of Invaders, so no Explore happens here. The Wilds token stays.
- Transcriber's note: the printed sentence reads "does not have and is not adjacent" with no object after "have"; a word appears to be missing from the printed page and is not supplied here.
- C) This is a land with 1 Wilds token. It is adjacent to a land with a Town or City, so normally the Invaders would Explore here. Instead Remove 1 Wilds token.
- D) This is a land without Wilds. It is Coastal, so an Explorer is added here.
Disease
Disease tokens represent maladies and poor health. They reduce population: sometimes sharply, but more often by keeping growth in check. Disease is dangerous to the Dahan - not as devastating as was the case historically (thanks to their relationships with Spirits of healing and vigor), but some of the Token Events dealing with Disease can harm the Dahan.
When Invaders would Build in a land with Disease, instead Remove one Disease token from that land.
Disease examples. For these examples, the Build Action takes place in Mountains. When Invaders would Build in a land with Disease, instead Remove one Disease token from that land.
- A) This is a land without Disease. It has more Towns than Cities, so a City is Built here.
- B) This is a land with 2 Disease tokens. Invaders in this land do not Build; instead Remove 1 Disease token.
- C) This is a land with 1 Disease token. Invaders in this land do not Build; instead Remove 1 Disease token.
- D) This is a land with 1 Disease token. This land has no Invaders, so no Build happens here. The Disease token stays.
Strife
Strife tokens represent internal turmoil and discord within the Invader ranks. In such turbulent and angry situations, fields go untended, farms remain small, and aggression against the Dahan becomes disorganized and ineffectual.
Unlike the other three tokens types, Strife is added to a specific Invader rather than the land as a whole. When you add a Strife in a particular land, you choose which Invader it's added to and place the Strife token beneath that Invader piece. (If there are no Invaders, you cannot add Strife.)
Whenever Invaders Damage the Dahan and/or the land, each attacking Invader with any number of Strife deals exactly 0 Damage and Removes one Strife. Using the Strife is required; you cannot save it for later, even if the Invader is already doing 0 Damage due to, e.g., Defend. If the Invader is Damaging multiple things simultaneously (as during Ravage), the Strife affects all of them. If Invaders Damage other Invaders, Strife has no effect and is not Removed.
Reminder: Even if Damage is reduced to 0 (by Defend and/or Strife), the Dahan still fight back! Only if something cancels or skips the Ravage Action entirely do they remain complacent.
If an Invader with Strife moves, the Strife moves with it. If it is Removed or Destroyed, return the Strife token to the supply. If it is Replaced with another Invader, the Strife stays; but if it is Replaced with something else - such as a Beasts token or Dahan - the Strife goes away.
(See next pages for examples of tokens in use.)
Strife Timing. Strife applies after all other modifiers to an individual Invader's Damage. However, effects which change the total Damage done in a land (e.g., Defend, and some Events) apply later, after you've added up Damage from each individual Invader.
Strife is Removed when the Damage it affects is dealt - so during Ravage, it is Removed at the same time as Dahan casualties, before the Dahan counterattack. This may be relevant if a "-1 Health per Strife" Fear Card has been drawn.
Strife examples. For this example, the Ravage Action takes place in Wetlands. Each attacking Invader with any number of Strife deals exactly 0 Damage and Removes one Strife. This Wetland has 2 Dahan, 1 City (with 1 Strife), and 1 Explorer in it. The Invaders deal a total of 1 Damage (0 from the City and 1 from the Explorer) to the land and to the Dahan.
- Step 1: 1 Damage to the land is not enough to add Blight. 1 Damage is dealt to one of the Dahan. Remove the Strife token from the City.
- Step 2: Now it's the Dahan's turn to fight back. They deal 4 Damage, Destroying the Explorer and the City.
Rules Updates
Invader Actions
Multiple/Missing Invader Cards. Some Fear and Event Cards may change the usual orderly progression of Invader Cards along the Invader Action Track, causing there to be multiple - or zero - cards on an Action Space.
If there are no cards on an Action Space, you don't perform it, just like the first turn of the game when you do not Ravage.
If there is more than one card on an Action Space, you perform that Action multiple times: once for each card there. If order is important (e.g., with multiple Builds against England Level 2), the card which got there first - the one on the bottom - goes first. If there is more than one card for Explore, reveal and fully resolve one Explore Card (including any effects shown by the solid block icon) before revealing the next.
When advancing Invader Cards, all the cards on an Action Space move together (see below). So if you have two cards on the Build Space this turn, you'll have two Ravages next turn.
[Diagram omitted: the printed page shows the Invader Board with two cards on the Build Space and the Spirit Island Phase Order.]
Transcriber's note: on the printed page, the Explore sentence has a solid block icon after "(including any". The icon is not identifiable from the text layer and is left as a description here.
"Normal" Actions vs. "Extra" Actions. Some Fear and Event Cards refer to a "normal" Invader Action - for instance, "Skip the normal Build". "Normal" just means "the Actions caused by Invader Cards in the normal 3 Invader Action Spaces", even if there are multiple Invader Cards in an Action Space.
By contrast, Invader Actions taken due to any other game mechanism (Event Cards, Fear Effects, Spirit Powers, Adversary or Scenario rules changes, etc) are "extra" Invader Actions.
Invaders Doing Damage Multiple Times in Same Land. The possibility for multiple Ravages means Invaders could deal Damage in a land multiple times on a single turn. Important things to note:
- Defend Powers apply each time the Invaders do Damage in a land.
- Each time the land itself is Damaged is separate - it does not accumulate Damage until the end of the turn the way Invaders and Dahan do. Only add a Blight when a single instance of Damage is enough to cause Blight.
- Similarly, Blight can be added to a land multiple times in a turn! Check each time it takes Damage.
Blight
Two Power Cards in this expansion can move Blight from one land to another. Moving Blight does not Destroy Presence or trigger Blight cascade.
Spirits
"Pick Two" Growth. Spirits with "Growth (Pick Two)" may choose any two options, in either order. However, they cannot choose the same option twice in a single turn.
Growth That Costs Energy. Both Spirits in this expansion have a Growth option that costs Energy to pick. If the Spirit does not have the required amount of Energy, they can't choose that option. (Since both Spirits get 2 Growth choices, though, they could use the first Growth choice to gain Energy to help pay for the second one.)
Power Cards
If you play an additional Slow Power Card during the Fast Power Phase, you still have to wait until the Slow Power Phase to use it.
Discarding Powers as a Randomizer. Several Choice Events use Powers as a randomizer: you put the top Power from the appropriate deck straight into the discard pile (shuffling the discard first if necessary), then check some attribute of that card (its Energy cost, whether it grants a particular Element, or whether it is Fast/Slow - ignoring any Elemental Thresholds which might speed it up).
If you discard Elemental Boon (which may or may not grant each Element), you may choose whether it has the Element in question.
Health and Damage
Damaging the Dahan. When Spirit Powers Damage the Dahan, you may choose how that Damage is allocated, just like when you Damage Invaders. When Events or Invaders Damage the Dahan, you must Destroy Dahan as efficiently as possible. You cannot choose to hurt an undamaged Dahan to spare a wounded one.
Health Changes. Some effects increase or decrease the Health of Invaders or Dahan. These effects never reduce a piece's Health below 1. If an Invader or Dahan has already taken Damage equal to or greater than their new Health, it is immediately Destroyed.
Game-Wide Health. Some Fear Cards say "For the rest of this turn, Invaders have -1 Health per Strife". This is a general rule that applies across the game for that turn. Whenever an Invader gains or loses Strife, they acquire/lose the -1 Health penalty along with it.
Similarly, if the Event "Tight-Knit Communities" has granted all Towns/Cities +1 Health for the turn, a Town that is Replaced with an Explorer will lose its Health bonus.
Damage Changes. If there are Damage modifiers to both individual Invaders (e.g., "Each Town/City does +1 Damage") and to Invaders as a whole (e.g., Defend), apply the individual modifiers first, then the land-wide modifiers.
Solo Play
Blight Cards which have only 2 Blight per player on the Blighted Island side can be especially nasty when playing solo. If you get one of them in a single-player game, you may choose to draw a random replacement from among the unused Blight Cards.
Thematic Map
When setting up a game with the thematic side of the Island Boards, add Beasts, Wilds, Disease, and Strife tokens as indicated by the Setup icons in each land. Strife icons are shown above the Invader piece they are affecting.
Playing on thematic map with this expansion increases the Difficulty by 1 (instead of increasing Difficulty by 3, without this expansion). This is because the boards start with tokens which may help limit the Invaders' spread.
Adversary
The Kingdom of France (Plantation Colony): King Louis XIV
King Louis XIV, the longest ruling monarch in Europe, rules France with an iron fist but requires a constant stream of revenue to finance his wars on the continent. Recently involved in a war against Sweden and the Holy Roman Empire to place his grandson Phillip on the Spanish throne, Louis relies on the strength of the French Army to hold together a tenuous alliance with Spain and Scotland against the Swedish, Habsburg, and Prussian Kingdoms.
Prevented from raising money from the aristocracy, and with a peasant population already suffering under some of the highest tax rates in Europe, he has begun setting up plantation colonies and extracting the resources of distant lands for the benefit of the kingdom of France.
[Map omitted: the printed page shows a map of France.]
Many European powers had plantation colonies worked by imported slaves. This Adversary combines the dynamics of rapid plantation (Town) development and 18th century French frontier exploration.
It includes a special Event Card - "Slave Rebellion" - which is only used when called for by the Adversary.
This Adversary is notably easier for Spirits which are good at Destroying Towns (e.g., Lightning Swift Strike).
This Adversary is notably harder for Spirits which have difficulty Destroying buildings (e.g., Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares), due to the additional loss condition.
Thematic Rebellion: The predictability of the "Slave Rebellion" Event makes for a more balanced game. If you prefer a more thematic uncertainty, shuffle the Slave Rebellion Card into the top two cards, then move the bottom two cards of the Event Deck to the top.
Adversary Levels
The Kingdom of France (Plantation Colony) - Base Difficulty 2
Additional Loss Condition. Sprawling Plantations: Before Setup, return all but 7 Towns per player to the box. Invaders win if you ever cannot place a Town.
Stage II Escalation. Demand for New Cash Crops: After Exploring, on each board, pick a land of the shown terrain. If it has Town/City, add 1 Blight. Otherwise, add 1 Town.
| Level | Fear Cards | Game Effects (cumulative) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9 (3/3/3) | Frontier Explorers: Except during Setup: After Invaders successfully Explore into a land which had no Town/City, add 1 Explorer there. |
| 2 | 10 (3/4/3) | Slave Labor: During Setup, put the "Slave Rebellion" Event under the top 3 cards of the Event Deck. After Invaders Build in a land with 2 Explorers or more, replace all but 1 Explorer there with an equal number of Towns. |
| 3 | 11 (4/4/3) | Early Plantations: During Setup, on each board add 1 Town to the highest-numbered land without Town. Add 1 Town to land #1. |
| 4 | 12 (4/4/4) | Triangle Trade: Whenever Invaders Build a Coastal City, add 1 Town to the adjacent land with the fewest Towns. |
| 5 | 13 (4/5/4) | Slow-Healing Ecosystem: When you remove Blight from the board, put it here instead of onto the Blight Card. As soon as you have 3 Blight per player here, move it all back to the Blight Card. |
Transcriber's note: the printed table gives each Fear Card count with a three-number bracket, e.g. "9 (3/3/3)". The printed page does not explain the bracketed numbers, so they are transcribed as printed. Two icons are read from the card image: the Triangle Trade icon is read as a City, and the Explorer icon in Persistent Explorers overlaps the word "any" on the printed page and is read as "Explorers".
Slave Rebellion (Adversary Event)
Include only if specified. Discard and redraw if not playing against Kingdom of France.
Small Uprising (Stages I + II). On Each Board: Add Strife to 1 Town. After finishing the Event Card, draw another one, then return this card to the Event Deck as per Setup.
Rebellion (Stage III). On Each Board: Destroy 1 Town. Add Strife to any 2 Town/City. Then, every Invader takes 1 Damage per Strife it has. After finishing this Event Card, draw another one. This card is discarded.
Aid the Uprising: Invaders with Strife take 1 Damage per Dahan present. Add 1 Dahan per Town/City this destroys.
Difficulty Chart
| Difficulty | Scenarios | The Kingdom of Brandenburg-Prussia |
|---|---|---|
| 0 (No Change) | Blitz; Guard the Isle's Heart; Second Wave (*) | |
| 1 | Powers Long Forgotten (**) | Base Level |
| 2 | Ward the Shores | Level 1 |
| 3 | Rituals of Terror; Rituals of Destroying Flame | |
| 4 | Dahan Insurrection | Level 2 |
| 5 | ||
| 6 | Level 3 | |
| 7 | Level 4 | |
Using thematic maps with Branch & Claw adds 1 to the Difficulty.
Please note that Difficulty is a rough guide: some Spirits are better/worse against certain Adversaries and Scenarios, and Scenario/Adversary combinations will vary in how much they combo with each other.
(*) +/-1, depending how the prior game went. However, this Scenario also instructs you to increase your Adversary level if you won too decisively.
(**) The competitive treasure-searching in this Scenario makes the game more swingy. On average, it adds about +1 Threat, but can be much harder or easier depending on who finds what.
Adversary and Scenario Level Order
The printed page lists the levels of each Adversary as a column, in order from the base level upward. The printed table is not labelled with Difficulty numbers, so only the order is given here.
- The Kingdom of England: Base Level, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4, Level 5, Level 6
- The Kingdom of Sweden: Base Level, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4, Level 5, Level 6
- The Kingdom of France: Base Level, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4, Level 5, Level 6
Reference
Glossary/Index
- Aided By (Element): The Energy cost of a Choice Event is reduced by 1 for having this Element, 2 for Discarding a Power Card from hand which grants this Element, or by 4 for Forgetting a Power Card (from hand, play, or discard) which grants this Element. [p. 9]
- Beasts (Token): Dangerous Beasts. Harms Invaders erratically. [p. 10]
- Choice Event: An Event which offers the Spirits a choice of paths. The first choice is the default, if the Spirits cannot agree. [p. 9]
- Dahan Event: The portion of an Event Card in which the Dahan act on their own. [p. 8]
- Disease (Token): Illness and plague. Prevents the next Build Action in its land and is then Removed. [p. 10]
- Event: An unforeseen development, resolved before Earned Fear Cards each Invader Phase. [p. 8]
- Extra Action: Invader Actions caused by Adversary effects, Events, Fear, Powers, a Scenario, or anything other than an Invader Card on one of the three Action Spaces on the Invader Board. [p. 15]
- Invader Action: One of three bad things the Invaders do: Ravage, Build, or Explore. Usually caused by cards on the Invader Board ("normal Actions"), but can also be caused by Adversary effects, Events, Fear, Powers, etc ("extra Actions"). [p. 14]
- Invader Stage: The Stage shown on the top card of the Invader Deck - I, II, or III. If playing against Bradenburg-Prussia [sic] Level 2+, treat the early Stage III card as if it were Stage II. [p. 8]
- Normal Action: The normal Invader Actions taken each turn due to Invader Cards on one of the three Action Spaces on the Invader Board. Does not include extra Actions from Events, Adversaries, Powers, etc. [p. 15]
[Transcriber's note: "Bradenburg-Prussia" is printed that way in the glossary; it is kept as printed.]
For specific card clarifications and answers to any other questions, visit the Living FAQ at https://querki.net/u/darker/spirit-island-faq.
Turn Order
(Back cover of the printed rulebook. All play is simultaneous.)
- Spirit Phase
- Growth
- Gain Energy
- Play and pay for Power Cards
- Fast Power Phase (Cards and Innate)
- Invader Phase
- Blighted Island Effect
- Event
- Fear Effects
- Ravage (Including Strife)
- Build (Including Disease)
- Explore (Including Wilds)
- Advance Invader Cards
- Slow Power Phase (Cards and Innate)
- Time Passes
- Played Power Cards go to personal discards.
- Damage and Elements go away.