- Introduction
- Game Settings
- Game Mechanics
- Scenarios
- Achievements
This article was written under Spirit Island Version 2.8.3 build 671 prod, which includes the completed Jagged Earth expansion.
I am happy to make any corrections if more accurate information is discovered. If you have any comments, you can either post here or e-mail me at: byzantinekitty@gmail.com
All of the screenshots in this post were taken by me.
1. INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the Not-So-Ottervious (Obvious) FAQ Guide! While I am an experienced player of the Spirit Island board game, I found several aspects of Handelabra Games' Steam implementation of the game to be not so ottervious, so I wanted to write a short guide to explain several things that I had to search for and figure out myself.
Note that this is NOT intended as a guide for newcomers to the game. Nor is it intended to be a comprehensive achievement guide, though there is a section that explains certain achievements whose requirements are vague.
Some of the areas this guide covers include:
Game Settings: Power Progression, Balanced vs Thematic Map, Archipelago Map, Story-based New Game, Ordering of Spirits.
Game Mechanics: Isolate, Spirit Tokens as Animals, Sacrifice Victory.
Scenarios: Elemental Invocation, Powers Long Forgotten, Ritual of Terror, Rituals of the Destroying Flame, Second Wave, Ward the Shores.
Achievements: Card Sets, Card Library Tracking, Use vs Threshold, Guard the Untouched Land, Reshape the Earth Itself, Second Wave, One With the Land.
2. GAME SETTINGS
A. Power Progression
Power progression is an introductory option for low-complexity spirits from the core game and Horizons of Spirit Island. When gaining a new power, instead of drawing 4 random powers and selecting one, each spirit has a specific list of powers it gets in order.
There is one achievement, Choose Your Path, which requires using the 4 low-complexity spirits (Lightning's Swift Strike, River Surges in Sunlight, Shadows Flicker Like Flame, and Vital Strength of the Earth) in the core game without power progression. However, it is not ottervious where the Power Progression setting is.
Power Progression is enabled by default if the Experience Level in the Options section is set to Beginner. If the Experience Level is set to Intermediate or Expert, it won't be automatically enabled.
At Beginner level you can still manually turn off Power Progression (or at Intermediate/Expert you can manually turn on Power Progression) when you start a new game. This is found in the upper right corner of the spirit screen when you are selecting what spirit to use.
B. Balanced vs Thematic Map
There are two achievements that require using the Thematic Map. Canonical Gameplay requires winning a game on the thematic map while Plenary Cartography requires winning a game with 6 spirits on the thematic map.
It took me a while to figure out how to turn on the thematic map.
When starting a new game, in the lower left corner of the screen where it says "Balanced Map" you can click that to toggle between a Balanced Map or a Thematic Map.
C. Archipelago Map
An archipelago map is a special variant where one or more island boards are disconnected from the rest of the island. There are special rules for calculating distance/range. There is one achievement, Guard the Untouched Land, which requires using an archipelago map.
Searching online for instructions on enabling the archipelago setting led me nowhere. It took a lot of trial and error to figure it out.
When you first add a new island board tile, depending on the location/orientation, you can have it separated from the rest of the island. Alternatively, during setup, you can click and drag a placed island tile and try to separate it from the rest of the tiles.
D. Story-based New Game
The Options menu lists something called a Story-based New Game. When this setting is on, then when starting a new game, you are asked to provide some answers to some questions that determine the initial setup - you can still adjust things:
When the Story-based New Game setting is off, then when starting a new game you will go directly to the manual setup:
E. Ordering of Spirits
When starting a new game, by default the spirits are organized alphabetical. However, I recently discovered that if you click the "alphabetical" box, you can cycle through several different sort options:
- Alphabetical
- Complexity
- Expansion
- Most Played
- Last Played
- Custom
If sorted by expansion, the spirits are sorted in the order of Base Set, Branch & Claw, Horizons, Jagged Earth, Promo Pack 1. Do note that Branch & Claw and Promo Pack 1 are separated from each other.
3. GAME MECHANICS
A. Isolate
When a land becomes isolated, every time there is a nearby action you will be presented with the option of deciding whether the adjacent lands are considered connected or not to the isolated land.
B. Spirit Tokens as Animals
This relates to one spirit (Many Minds Move as One) and one major power (Settle Into Hunting-Grounds). With Many Minds Move as One, each sacred site can count as an animal and with Settle Into Hunting-Grounds each of your spirit tokens can count as both an animal and a badlands.
However, each action, you can individually decide whether each token counts as an animal or not. This is especially important for events and adversaries that can remove animal tokens.
C. Sacrifice Victory
There is one achievement, Bittersweet Triumph, that requires winning a sacrifice victory, where you both win and lose at the same time.
Normally, an action is fully resolved (though I have seen a few bugs where things get interrupted) before triggering the win/loss conditions. Typically, a sacrifice victory will be when you fulfill the winning condition (i.e. meet the conditions of invaders on the board based on the fear level) when the action also causes you to lose (run out of blight or triggers an adversary's additional loss condition).
4. SCENARIOS
When playing through the various scenarios, there were multiple times when it was not so ottervious how to utilize the special mechanics available (and often necessary) in the scenario.
A. Elemental Invocation
The Elemental Invocation scenario allows you to place element tokens that provide the corresponding element when using powers targeting the land it is bordering.
The Elemental Invocation icon is in a similar position as for the Rituals of the Destroying Flame, Second Wave, and Ward the Shores.
Beneath the big image of your spirit at the top center of the screen, there is a small "1->?" button. You click that:
Choose the border where you want to place the token (the screen shows the energy cost for each location):
And then you select which element the token will provide:
B. Powers Long Forgotten
I found this scenario to be rather confusing. Many of the details are presented upfront but here is a summary:
Various tokens are distributed facedown in random lands (4 on each board, so 8 in a 2-player game and 16 in a 4-player game)
The majority of the tokens are dummy tokens and a handful provide a unique power (X+1 are powers. So in a 2-player game, 3 tokens are powers and 5 are dummies. In a 4-player game, 5 tokens are powers and 11 are dummies).
A land with a facedown token is automatically searched if there are 2 or more invaders or 3 or more dahan in it. This requirement can be fulfilled by the invaders on the first turn immediately after setup. Dummy tokens are just discarded (on the computer this goes by quickly so it isn't immediately obvious what happened). If a power token is found it triggers a permanent effect.
Some power tokens need to be specifically used but you can choose when to use it.
Here are some examples of found power tokens:
When a token is found, a tiny icon appears on the scenario image in the bottom right corner:
If you look at the list of power tokens, it will clearly highlight which side has found which power token. This is also where you can choose to use power tokens that have a one time effect.
Also note that the Undo button can occasionally cause some glitches. In one game, after finding the rope made of wind, an Undo action caused me to lose the token and I wasn't able to get it again. The rope icon appeared on the land but it no longer counted as being found:
C. Ritual of Terror
In the Ritual of Terror scenario, you have to perform the ritual each time to progress the fear level. Also, earned fear cards accumulate and do not trigger until the next time you perform the ritual.
I initially thought the button for the ritual would be in a similar place as for the other scenarios but it was different.
Once you meet the conditions for the Ritual of Terror (having enough dahan and spirit tokens in a land), a "Perform the Ritual of Terror" button will appear during the Fast or Slow phases. This button is typically right above the "Finish Using Powers" button:
D. Rituals of the Destroying Flame
In the Rituals of the Destroying Flame scenario, you have to place special flame tokens on the board in order to destroy invaders. Without an adjacent flame token, you have to pay energy or the invaders are unharmed.
The Rituals of the Destroying Flame icon is in a similar position as for Elemental Invocation, Second Wave, and Ward the Shores.
Beneath the big image of your spirit at the top center of the screen, there is a small flame icon. You click that:
You choose a power card with the fire element to forget:
And then choose which land to place the flame marker:
E. Second Wave
The Second Wave scenario also has a special button that can be used once Stage III has started which lets you play the special power card that was set aside in the previous wave.
The Second Wave icon is in a similar position as for Elemental Invocation, Rituals of the Destroying Flame, and Ward the Shores.
Beneath the big image of your spirit at the top center of the screen, there is a Second Wave icon. You click that to automatically play the special power card:
F. Ward the Shores
In Ward the Shores, you can play a power card facedown as a slow action to place a warding token in a land:
The cost can be free if there are no cities/towns or corruption in the land. But the cost will increase for each city, town, or corruption present. Since the warding happens during the slow phase, the cost may be different than what you expected based on what happens during the invader phase.
A warding pattern provides Defend 3 in its land. You can place wards on any land, including inland locations. However there are a limited number of wards available and in order to win the scenario you have to ward all of the coastal locations.
The Ward the Shores icon is in a similar position as for Elemental Invocation, Rituals of the Destroying Flame, and Second Wave.
Beneath the big image of your spirit at the top center of the screen, there is a blue shield icon. You click that:
Choose which card to play facedown:
The card will now appear with a blue shield icon and with the card name in parentheses. This indicates it is being played facedown as a ward:
During the slow phase you can place the ward on a land by paying the appropriate energy cost:
Here is a heavily warded island at the end of the game:
5. ACHIEVEMENTS
A. Card Sets
It's not always clear what set each card is from so here is a handy reference:
[Spirits]
The First Spirits Rise refers to the 8 core game Spirits:
- Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares
- Lightning's Swift Strike
- Ocean's Hungry Grasp
- River Surges in Sunlight
- Shadows Flicker Like Flame
- A Spread of Rampant Green
- Thunderspeaker
- Vital Strength of the Earth
Choose Your Path refers to the 4 low complexity spirits in the core game (these are the same spirits that receive aspects in Jagged Earth):
- Lightning's Swift Strike
- River Surges in Sunlight
- Shadows Flicker Like Flame
- Vital Strength of the Earth
New Beginnings refers to the 5 Horizons of Spirit Island spirits:
- Devouring Teeth Lurk Underfoot
- Eyes Watch from the Trees
- Fathomless Mud of the Swamp
- Rising Heat of Stone and Sand
- Sun-Bright Whirlwind
Red in Tooth and Claw refers to the 4 spirits in Branch & Claw and Promo Pack 1:
- Heart of the Wildfire
- Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds
- Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island
- Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves
Harness Chaos and Danger refers to the 10 spirits from Jagged Earth:
- Fractured Days Split the Sky
- Grinning Trickster Stirs Up Trouble
- Lure of the Deep Wilderness
- Many Minds Move as One
- Shifting Memory of Ages
- Shroud of Silent Mist
- Starlight Seeks Its Form
- Stone's Unyielding Defiance
- Vengeance as a Burning Plague
- Volcano Looming High
Everything Old is New Again refers to the 6 aspects from Jagged Earth:
- Lightning's Swift Strike (Pandemonium)
- Lightning's Swift Strike (Wind)
- River Surges in Sunlight (Sunshine)
- Shadows Flicker Like Flame (Madness)
- Shadows Flicker Like Flame (Reach)
- Vital Strength of the Earth (Resilience)
[Adversaries]
European Repulsion and Empires Rejected refer to the 3 core game adversaries:
- Brandenburg-Prussia
- England
- Sweden
Diversify refers to the 1 adversary from Branch & Claw:
- France (Plantation Colony)
Let us not Falter refers to the 2 adversaries from Jagged Earth:
- Habsburg Monarchy (Livestock Colony)
- Russia
Colonies Expunged refers to the 1 adversary from Branch & Claw and 2 adversaries from Jagged Earth:
- France (Plantation Colony)
- Habsburg Monarchy (Livestock Colony)
- Russia
[Scenarios]
Spice of Life refers to the 4 core game scenarios:
- Blitz
- Dahan Insurrection
- Guard the Isle's Heart
- Rituals of Terror
Diversify refers to the 4 scenarios from Branch & Claw:
- Powers Long Forgotten
- Rituals of the Destroying Flame
- Second Wave
- Ward the Shores
Let us not Falter refers to the 3 scenarios from Jagged Earth:
- Despicable Theft
- Elemental Invocation
- The Great River
[Powers]
Powers Awakened refers to the 102 powers in the core game:
- 36 minor powers
- 22 major powers
- 32 unique powers (4 for each of the 8 spirits)
- 12 innate powers (the 4 low complexity spirits have 1 power each and the other 4 spirits have 2 powers each)
Expanding Horizons refers to the 25 innate and unique powers from Horizons of Spirit Island:
- 20 unique powers (4 for each of the 5 spirits)
- 5 innate powers (1 for each of the 5 spirits)
Embrace Metamorphosis refers to the 76 powers in Branch & Claw and Promo Pack 1:
- 31 minor powers
- 21 major powers
- 16 unique powers (4 for each of the 4 spirits)
- 8 innate powers (each of the 4 spirits has 2 powers each)
Our Unyielding Intent refers to the 123 powers in Jagged Earth:
- 33 minor powers
- 23 major powers
- 41 unique powers (9 spirits have 4 powers each; Many Minds Move as One has 5 unique powers)
- 23 innate powers from new spirits (9 spirits have 2 powers each; Starlight Seeks Its Form has 5 innate powers)
- 3 innate powers from new aspects (Pandemonium, Wind, and Sunshine)
[Elemental Thresholds]
Elemental Mastery refers to the 64 elemental thresholds in the core game:
- 7 from minor powers
- 22 from major powers
- 35 from innate powers
Over the Rainbow refers to the 20 innate elemental thresholds from Horizons of Spirit Island:
- 20 from innate powers (each of the 5 spirits has 1 power which has 4 thresholds)
Unlock the Gates refers to the 52 elemental thresholds in Branch & Claw and Promo Pack 1:
- 4 from minor powers
- 22 from major powers (Fire and Flood has two)
- 25 from innate powers
- 1 from unique powers (Wildfire's Flash-Fires)
Dream Firmly to Become Real refers to the 108 elemental thresholds from Jagged Earth:
- 5 from minor powers
- 22 from major powers (Draw Towards a Consuming Void does not have an elemental threshold)
- 68 from innate powers from new spirits (note the extra powers and thresholds for Starlight Seeks Its Form)
- 11 from innate powers of new aspects
- 2 from unique powers (Starlight's Shape the Self Anew and Shifting Memory's Share Secrets of Survival)
[Other]
Both All Hands on Deck and Wax or Wane revolve around the Second Wave scenario which requires the Branch & Claw expansion.
Both Hazardous Territory and Poisons and Perils need badlands tokens which require the Jagged Earth expansion.
Reshape the Earth Itself requires both the Branch & Claw (for Cast Down Into the Briny Deep) and Jagged Earth (for Dream of the Untouched Land) expansions.
B. Card Library Tracking
Several of the Steam achievements involve winning with each spirit, defeating each adversary, completing each scenario, using all of the powers, and reaching all elemental thresholds. Fortunately, the Card Library innately tracks your progress.
If you look at a spirit, in the upper right corner you will see an icon associated with the appropriate "win with spirit from this set" achievement (The First Spirits Rise, New Beginnings, Red in Tooth and Claw, Harness Chaos and Danger). You will also see icons associated with using the spirit's innate powers (Powers Awakened, Expanding Horizons, Embrace Metamorphosis, Our Unyielding Intent) and the appropriate elemental threshold achievement (Elemental Mastery, Over the Rainbow, Unlock the Gates, Dream Firmly to Become Real). If the icon is greyed out then you have not achieved this yet but if the icon is colored then you have already accomplished this task:
Looking at an adversary in the card library reveals whether you have beaten that adversary at any level (European Repulsion, Diversify, Let us not Falter) and if you have defeated them at level 6 (Empires Rejected, Colonies Expunged):
Viewing a scenario will show if you have completed it yet (The Spice of Life, Diversify, Let us not Falter):
And finally, seeing the profile for a specific power card will reveal if you have used the card (Powers Awakened, Expanding Horizons, Embrace Metamorphosis, Our Unyielding Intent) or reached the elemental threshold (Elemental Mastery, Unlock the Gates, Dream Firmly to Become Real). Please note that the different expansions have similar icons that mainly differ by color. If you have achieved them then it is easy to differentiate by expansion due to color but if you have not achieved them yet, it is hard to tell which expansion the card is from based on the greyed out icons.
The card library does not track which events you have experienced (Unanticipated Ways, Unforeseen Circumstances). However, other than Fractured Days Split the Sky's innate power, there currently isn't a way to manipulate the event deck.
C. Use vs Threshold
There are four achievements requiring you to use the powers from each of the sets (Powers Awakened, Expanding Horizons, Embrace Metamorphosis, Our Unyielding Intent) and four achievements related to reaching elemental thresholds (Elemental Mastery, Over the Rainbow, Unlock the Gates, Dream Firmly to Become Real).
To better understand the distinction and what it takes to complete the achievements, let me try to explain the difference between three different terms:
"Play" refers to playing the card and paying the cost.
"Elemental threshold" refers to meeting the element requirements for an additional effect. The elemental threshold is checked after the end of the spirit phase (or if a card is played in a later phase the elemental threshold is checked when it is played).
"Use" refers to using the card in the fast or slow phase.
You can play a card and choose to not use it. You may have played it for its elements, may not meet the requirements (often happens if you forget the required sacred site), or because later on the game state made you decide not to use it. In this case it would not count for the "use" achievements because you haven't actually used it.
It's very common to play and use a card for its base effect but you don't have sufficient elements to meet the elemental threshold.
And since elemental threshold is typically checked at the end of the spirit phase, it is possible to get the in-game checkmark for the elemental threshold even though you didn't actually use the card. This may happen if you played the card during the spirit phase, met the elemental threshold, and either chose not to use it or didn't have the chance to use it (this often happens with a slow phase power if you win or lose before the slow phase). Thus it is not uncommon to see in the card library that you have met a card's elemental threshold but haven't "used" it:
D. Guard the Untouched Land
This achievement is described as: Win a game with an extra Island Board as its own islet in an archipelago.
Initially, I thought the description meant I needed to win the game with an extra island board from Dream of the Untouched Land but no, the extra board means an extra board from the initial game setup.
So there are two requirements here:
When setting up the game you add an extra board (there are fewer starting spirits than starting boards). This increases the difficulty level.
The extra/empty board is separate from the rest of the island via the archipelago variant (see instructions earlier in this FAQ).
Here is a sample setup. I chose Ocean's Hungry Grasp to easily access the empty islet. Also, Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves and Shadows Flicker Like Flame (Reach) provide additional options to affect the inner regions of the islet:
E. Reshape the Earth Itself
This achievement is described as: Win a game where the one remaining board was not there to begin with.
This achievement requires:
Playing Dream of the Untouched Land once to add an extra board.
Playing Cast Down Into the Briny Deep once for each spirit to remove all of the initial starting boards.
This requires both the Branch & Claw and Jagged Earth expansions in order to access the appropriate major powers.
Here is an initial setup with 4 spirits:
Here is the setup at the end, right before using the final Cast Down Into the Briny Deep:
If you want some tips and suggestions on game setup and strategies, I wrote up a guide on this achievement:
Spirit Island: "Reshape the Earth Itself" Achievement
@byzantinekitty/spirit-island-reshape-the-earth-itself-achievement
F. Second Wave
The All Hands on Deck and Wax or Wane achievements revolve around the Second Wave scenario which requires the Branch & Claw expansion.
All Hands on Deck requires using 12 different spirits in a series of Second Wave games.
Wax or Wane requires playing a series of Second Wave games where the number of spirits vary each game due to an increase or decrease of game boards (resulting from the use of Dream of the Untouched Land and/or Cast Down Into the Briny Deep):
You can start with 1 spirit and play Dream of the Untouched Land each game so the subsequent games are with 2, 3, 4, 5, and then 6 spirits.
You can start with 6 spirits and play Cast Down Into the Briny Deep each game so the subsequent games are with 5, 4, 3, 2, and then 1 spirit.
The achievement states "in any order" so in theory you might be able to leapfrog numbers (due to playing Cast Down Into the Briny Deep multiple times). So go from 6 spirits to 4 to 5 to 3 to 1 to 2.
It is unclear if duplicate numbers are allowed. So I don't know if 6-4-5-4-3-2-1 or 6-5-4-3-3-2-1 would work.
There's a really good Steam guide on this achievement:
Planning the "Wax or Wane" Achievement
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3503488128
G. One With the Land
There is a hidden achievement, One With the Land which is more of an easter egg if you do something special on the game menu. A helpful explanation on this achievement can be found in this Steam guide:
Spirit Island | "One With the Land" Achievement Guide [SECRET 🤫]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3053577209