Spirit Island Spirits RANKED For Solo Gamers

The first time I attempted Spirit Island, we were four players, using the Spirits the game suggests for beginners, and we spent the entire 4.5 hours (yikes!) putting out fires. From about the third round, we were always one turn away from running out of Blight tokens, so we needed to combine all our efforts to remove just enough so that the inevitable new Blight wouldn’t cause the losing condition to be met. It was a big mess, with lots of brainstorming and panic, although we did win by going through all Fear cards. Little pay off to such a long set up, to be honest. I knew I had played it wrong and invited one from friend only to play a two-player game. This time we lost impressively quickly. The strategy was more or less the same: start with a deceiving sense of accomplishment, but rapidly see the island taken over by Blight.

I then wondered what the fuss was all about. Spirit Island was, at the time of writing this, ranked 11 on BoardGameGeek, out of more than 100000 games. I have always loved complex games, so what went wrong here? I went online to search for tips and decided to take on the game solo. It was a completely different experience. I enjoyed it so much I decided to tackle it with each of the eight Spirits one by one and see how they differed and which ones were easier to score a solo win with. Here is what I came up with.

8. Thunderspeaker

I have to say, this Spirit is rough. And I’m not even sure their problem is exclusive to solo gaming. Their mechanics are just very counterintuitive and different from all other Spirits, because their Special Rules determine that every time a Dahan is taken out by an enemy, you lose Presence as well, which means you can’t rely on the occasional sacrifice of a Dahan so that the surviving ones can counterattack and wipe out Invaders; not without penalty anyway. You also have to wire your brain to think a lot in terms of Slow Powers, because their biggest strength lies in their Innate Power to gather and push the Dahan often and use them to destroy buildings, and it will be a while before you are able to make those Powers Fast. I also think this Spirit has possibly the worst options for growth, as only one gives Energy and its Energy track is also one of the worst in the game. This took a few attempts before I scored a win.

7. Bringer Of Dreams And Nightmares

This guy is cool. You will be perfectly capable of securing a win playing as them, but you will have to adapt your usual strategy, as the only way they can win is with maximum Terror, since they virtually cannot destroy Invaders. Any damage they cause from Powers generates Fear but doesn’t eliminate enemy pieces. This means that, even at Terror 3, Towns and Cities aren’t going anywhere, therefore you cannot ever meet any winning conditions other than going through all Fear cards. However, almost all their Powers have at least an indirect way of generating Fear, and one of their Innate Powers lets you peak at Fear cards before you resolve them, which gives you a chance to play Fast Powers tailored to optimize the effect of those cards. Playing with this Spirit is a real race however, because it is likely Blight will spread in ways you cannot control, so you need to make sure Fear spreads at an even faster pace.

6. Shadows Flicker Like Flame

This is the low complexity sibling of Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares and, like the latter, is all about Terror. You are very unlikely to outrun the Invaders, because, with your remarkably low attack power, they will be building more quickly than you can destroy them, so just focus on Fear. This can be a tricky early game, since this Spirit starts with no Energy gain per turn on their Energy track and only one growth path that gives any Energy. However you can quickly go from 0 to 3 Energy per turn and bank on cheap Powers mainly to trigger your Innate Power, which lets you raise Terror even more dramatically. You want the Invaders running with their tails between their legs and, with some luck, Fear card effects will align with the state of the Island.

5. River Surges In Sunlight

This Spirit has zero defence in their starting hand, but two growth paths that add a Power card to your hand, so, if you’re lucky, you can supplement that quickly. Otherwise, you will have to rely on the Spirit’s ability to push Invaders around strategically. This guy is a bit of a glass cannon, because, out of the four low complexity Spirits, it’s probably the one with the highest risk of losing doing to Blight. However, the strongest level of its Innate Power is a juggernaut. Once you raise Terror to 1, if you’re able to trigger that Power, you’ll be doing 2 damage to each Invader in a land, and you have cards in your starting hand that does 1 damage as well, so it will be easy to destroy whatever City has been built and fast track that win before you run out of Blight tokens. This Spirit also starts with the cool and somewhat rare ability to add Dahan to the island.

4. Vital Strength Of The Earth

First Spirit I ever played the game with as a group. I found it incredibly frustrating as it’s not very mobile, focuses on defence and I saw other Spirits generating Fear and removing Blight, so I felt a bit useless. My opinion has since changed completely. This guy is so good at keeping the whole Island under control. Focus is indeed on defence, so it may be hard to destroy enemy pieces in large numbers. Your main risk here is getting too caught up on how efficiently you can hinder all enemy progress and forget that you can lose the game simply by running out of time. Because this Spirit generates almost no Fear, you will want to quickly supplement your hand with a Power that does, so that you can sneak a win by focusing on buildings. The fact you need to add at least two Presence tokens before you’re able to play even two cards per turn makes it a slow start, but you will have Energy surplus and should be able to succeed without much trouble.

3. Ocean’s Hungry Grasp

The rules for this Spirit can be difficult to understand because of how they’re phrased, but the Internet will sort you out. This is a very unique Spirit, the only one who unlocks Oceans as playable terrains. Its presence can only ever be in the Ocean or Coastal lands, which means you will either have to win by raising Terror to the maximum, or you will need to draw a Power like Reaching Grasp, which increases the range of all Powers by 2. Two of their growth paths allow gaining a new Power card, so it may be wise to spam that until you can offset your range limitations, otherwise, with enough bad luck, Blight may start to spread too far inland, and you won’t be able to combat it. This Spirit is incredibly wealthy in Energy too, because it has the unique ability to Drown enemies, which is a special way of defeating them, either with unique or Innate Powers, or by simply pushing pieces into the Ocean. If you Drown an Invader, you can exchange their health for Energy, so if there is heavy enemy activity in the coast and you’re constantly exploiting that, you’ll end up with more Energy than you’re able to spend, which is a great opportunity to cash in on Major Powers.

2. Lighting’s Swift Strike

This is an excellent Spirit for beginners. Their Special Rule makes it possible to almost always choose whether to use Powers as Fast or Slow, which is a lot more flexibility than the game usually allows. The Innate Power to remove building becomes extremely useful when Terror raises, and you only need to destroy settlements. Because their cards are usually so cheap and they quickly get many card plays per turn, you can trigger their Innate Power almost every turn. This is often an easy win.

1. A Spread Of Rampant Green

This Spirit is awesome and one might say overpowered. They always add at least one Presence token per turn and two of their starting cards also allow you to add Presence. Seeing as one of their Special Rules lets you sacrifice one Presence token from a Sacred Site to skip the Invaders’ Ravage or Build action in that land, the ease with which you can spread your Presence everywhere makes it possible to abuse this ability often. It’s also the only Spirit that can re-add Presence that has been removed from the Island before. They are awful at destroying Explorers, their attacks focus on buildings, but with a bit of Terror, that won’t matter. Their Innate Power allows you to damage building and defend land, and their Energy track contains two elemental icons needed for them, so they are also remarkably easy to trigger. This Spirit is usually the most guaranteed win for me.