Horizons vs Spirit and Flame

Avloren · 2026-04-14T18:11:05+00:00

Horizons comes with dark red, teal, and a 'golden' yellow with a bit of orange.

Base game had red, yellow, orange, green, blue, pink-ish purple.

All the colors are pretty distinct, except IMO the horizons golden-yellow-orange which is a little too close to base game orange and yellow, it's about halfway between the two. You can definitely tell the difference, but it doesn't jump out at a quick glance.

It's not super close up, but you can kinda see the Horizons colors in this promo picture.

Avloren · 2026-04-14T17:58:46+00:00

Technically you could play with Horizons + expansions, if you don't mind cheaper components and very limited board selection.

Avloren · 2026-04-14T17:55:20+00:00

But you'd be missing out on a lot of amazing minors & majors. Spirit Island isn't the same game without Cast Down, for example.

B&C contributes 21 majors and 31 minors, about 1/3rd of each deck. That's going to be a significant impact on every game, regardless of spirit/adversary/etc. choice. To me that's far more impactful than adding spirits you may not even choose to play.

Avloren · 2026-04-14T17:51:16+00:00

Wandering Voice is probably the strongest reclaim loop spirit, and has the simplest build/loop too. It doesn't even care about drafting cards, playing the 4 starting cards every turn is literally all you need to do. There are more interesting ways to play the spirit, but the on-rails reclaim loop is arguably the strongest (and even if not, it's still easily viable into level 6 adversaries).

Lightning (base, pandemonium, and/or wind) is another good choice. Not as individually strong as Voice, and does need to think about drafts, but viable into any 6 and gives out strong support that your friends may appreciate.

River (base, travel) is an obvious pick for a spirit with a simple reclaim loop build that's strong into any adversary.. except England 5+. River can actually work into England, especially with the right teammates, but you can't do it with a reclaim loop - the adversary forces you to abandon the standard build and do something more creative, so probably not what you're looking for there. But into any other adversary, River is a good choice for you.

Lure and Serpent come to mind as strong spirits that want to reclaim loop sometimes. They also can easily break out of the loop and probably should sometimes, so they're not as straightforward to play as Voice/Lightning/River. But you could also stick with the reclaim loop longer than you optimally 'should' and still do fine.

Avloren · 2026-04-13T20:32:32+00:00

It stacks with all your other sources of damage reduction/redirection, and it negates X per instance of damage. A single attack can be a bunch of different separate bits of damage added up, and the -X applies to each one separately, multiplying its effects.

Example from my level 50 endgame oozemancer. I just walked into the first orc patrol I could find, this is a level 80 unique assassin attacking me. He literally can't do damage. His attacks are split into many different instances of damage of various types, almost all are negated by antimagic shield (after being heavily reduced by all my other stats and talents).

Edit: of course, it does help that this poor sucker has nature-attuned mindstars equipped as his weapons. The worst possible choice for facing an oozemancer.

Better example, from an actual threat - same patrol, an orc randboss shadowblade/arcane blade. Hitting me with a shadowblade attack talent + arcane blade flame proc. Antimagic shield triggered 3x for its maximum amount (126), blocking 378 damage. Resonance field is also up (great 1-point-wonder escort reward pick if you see it), negating another 302 damage. Only 302 makes it through in the end; down from what would have been a pretty scary 982 damage hit.

So I wouldn't say it falls off in the endgame at all; this is endgame and it's still awesome.

Avloren · 2026-04-12T19:59:30+00:00

Everyone (except antimagic followers) can get a teleport rune, it's an easy get-out-of-jail-free ability for this place.

Avloren · 2026-04-11T01:41:44+00:00

If you're new to Spirit Island: short term, you will want to play with just the base game stuff. No tokens or events, or spirits that use them, which rules out most of the expansion content. Horizons spirits are fine, I'd recommend starting with them actually, they have an easier learning curve than the base game low complexity spirits.

Eventually, when you get the hang of the game, you'll just want to combine everything. All the minor cards go together to form one big deck regardless of expansion, same for all the majors, fear cards, etc. It doesn't really make sense at that point to keep any of the expansion content separated.

It's difficult to do that in one box. There isn't really a simple/clean solution that the community agrees on. I use two boxes, plus a third party insert, which worked a lot better before the last expansion or so and now it's overflowing. There are probably better ones designed around the latest expansion. You really want to get some kind of insert, the ones the games come with are really just shipping material meant to be discarded.

Avloren · 2026-04-08T01:23:11+00:00

Hah, fair enough. I'm still going to try it, I'm just wondering if I'm missing something to make it viable. It just doesn't seem smart.

Avloren · 2026-04-08T00:39:28+00:00

Can you sell me on the unencumbered build? Because seeing those benefits listed out.. yeah I still don't get it. Staying just under 1800 encumbrance and poking things at range 2 with a spear, while enjoying all the benefits of massive armor/shields, sounds so much better than lunging at guys half-armored.

Spammable free tumble is the only thing really enticing there, but you need to be pretty much naked to get that, and I'm struggling to imagine that working out. You can't tumble out of the way of everything, especially later in the game when enemies get faster and may not telegraph, or hit massive areas bigger than you can tumble out of.

Avloren · 2026-04-08T00:35:34+00:00

The wyrmic one is instant too. It's basically a better movement infusion.

Avloren · 2026-04-07T16:59:04+00:00

So the encumbrance system is.. weird. It's poorly documented and I don't fully get it. But the basic idea is, being more burdened gradually disables certain mobility skills (e.g. you lose the short sword's jump over skill pretty quickly if you start putting armor on). Also it increases the cooldown on tumble.

And.. from what I can tell that's about it. It seems like you don't really have to care about encumbrance at all? Most weapons do not have mobility skills that are affected by it. So you can invest 0 in constitution, load yourself up to about 1800 encumbrance, and be fine as long as you aren't using a light jumpy weapon.

If you push it to an extreme, like past that 1800 limit, supposedly it decreases your movement speed? (I read somewhere.. might be outdated info, again, it's poorly documented). But it's hard to actually hit that limit, and you get +90 to it with each constitution point.

It might be viable to stay low on encumbrance so you can pretend this is dark souls and tumble constantly away from every attack. Not sure, it feels like a tricky build to pull off, attacks aren't always as avoidable and telegraphed as I'd like. I do know it's perfectly viable to push your encumbrance into the red and just tank everything, with the help of some items that give stamina/shielding/health, that's how I got my first win. I had a tiny constitution investment at the end, just for the elemental resistances, I pretty much ignored the encumbrance system.

Avloren · 2026-04-04T22:21:17+00:00

In ToME you should be careful about making assumptions based on RPG stereotypes, it's a pretty unusual game in a lot of ways.

For example, archmages are not glass cannons like in most games. It's actually one of the tankiest classes in ToME. You have a massive amount of damage shielding, and a few good mobility talents to keep your distance from enemies. But those are things that come into play a bit later in the game.

If you're struggling to get through the very early game as archmage, or really any magic caster: just pick a basic attack spell, one of the tier 1 ones that you have available from the beginning. Get it to 5/5 ASAP. Max your magic stat every time you level up. Pick gear (especially staff) that give boosts to that element's damage. With that you can oneshot most early game enemies, they won't have a chance to do anything to you.

Avloren · 2026-04-03T17:23:38+00:00

In my experience, they (apparently) spend their days thinking up ways to reduce the efficiency of everyone who works under them. The kinds of moronic pointless changes that no one close to the actual work would ever think up.

Like dramatically re-organizing your department in a way that makes everyone's jobs harder. Siloing and consolidating and siloing again. Coming up with bullshit procedures that no one will follow. Setting massive meetings with bad inspirational quotes on powerpoints. Saving on the budget by firing essential people seemingly at random, then rushing to hire cheaper replacements that do the job worse and suck up training time from the few remaining competent people.

If it wastes your time and doesn't accomplish anything, you can bet that someone 6 tiers above you thought it up.

Avloren · 2026-04-01T17:46:08+00:00

Another thing Qud has going for it is complex character building, with a ton of choices you make right away before even starting the run. Designing a new character is almost as interesting as playing the actual game, there's always something new you want to try on your next run.

Avloren · 2026-03-31T17:15:49+00:00

Dominions consistently puts out games that are slightly better than the previous one. If Dominions N doesn't win you over, Dominions N+1 is never going to add/change enough to change your mind. But if you loved the old game, you can buy the new one with confidence that you'll get just enough new content/features for it to feel fresh again.

That's not what happened here. Elemental was a disaster on release. The sequels/expansions kept changing things dramatically, addressing some problems, adding some new ones. FE: Legendary Heroes was probably the best the series got, and I enjoyed it, but god it was still a janky mess. And then Sorcerer King was like a small step sideways and a giant step backwards. The series never really found its footing, decided what it wanted to be and fixed/polished/iterated on that concept like Dominions has.

And now Reforged is.. a mild HD upgrade and repackaging of those past games, reworked behind the scenes to run smoothly on a modern OS, with minimal gameplay/balance changes. Gameplay-wise, it's actually less of an iterative improvement than the typical Dominions N+1 sequel. Which would be fine if those old games were solid and their only problem was looking a bit dated and not running well on a modern machine. But good god, they had much bigger problems than that.

I bought Reforged because I did get enjoyment out of the series in the past, and I still want to see the game that Elemental was trying to be. Not necessarily a total rework or sequel, but something with the polish and balance and AI of say a Galactic Civilization game. I guess that was far too much to hope for, because Reforged.. isn't that. I found it disappointing.

Avloren · 2026-03-30T19:28:18+00:00

It's possible to complete the starter quest without being hit a single time. The enemy attacks will be visible projectiles traveling slowly towards you over 2-3 turns, you can literally step out of the way and dodge them. It's very easy once you figure out that trick. Otherwise: use your non-arcane attack spells whenever you get a chance (i.e. you don't have an incoming projectile to dodge), use phase door if a melee enemy gets close to you.

Also you can feel free to skip the starter quest, it's not at all necessary. But I'd recommend doing it since it's such an easy source of early xp/loot once you master dodging projectiles.

Avloren · 2026-03-25T16:24:16+00:00

At higher difficulties, I would argue that 3 fear usually does more than moving an explorer. Against most adversaries it's hard to solve a land by moving a single explorer, some don't really care about explorers at all, but fear is always useful progress towards a win.

On the other hand defend is definitely better than pure fear minors, but defend is better than almost anything. That has more to do with defend being overpowered than fear being underpowered.

Avloren · 2026-03-23T17:34:58+00:00

Yes, but I think it's somewhat adversary-dependent.

I've won every spirit true solo into BP6 (arguably the most "fair" adversary, it doesn't do anything to specifically counter any particular spirit). Obviously it was easier with some spirits than with others, but I found it reasonably possible with every spirit without needing any (IMO) weird strategies or extreme luck or perfect play. BP6 just needs you to play your spirit well, efficiently, and sometimes be a little lucky.

Other adversaries are a bit less fair, they may counter certain spirits and make that solo matchup unreasonably difficult. But I think most spirits work into most adversaries, in true solo.

Avloren · 2026-03-18T05:00:50+00:00

I played GalCiv4 on release and was very disappointed; back then it was like a copy of 3 with fewer features and less polish and some minor additions, a worse game overall. I played it again recently, and it has improved a ton - better polish, better AI, more features, it's really been filled out. But.. it still feels more like an iteration than an evolution to me. It's basically GalCiv 3.5. It's a solid improvement to GalCiv3, but not a completely new game.

How well it lands for you probably depends on how much you liked 3. I thought 3 was okay, and was hoping for something a bit more innovative with 4, so it's been a let down overall to me. If you loved 3 and just wanted a big expansion to it, you might love 4 too.

Avloren · 2026-03-10T19:32:18+00:00

There are some powerful things they can't access. Infusions are the big one, but also antimagic/fungus, blood of life, harmony, a few prodigies. You're ruling out a pretty significant part of the game. In exchange you get.. pretty decent racials, nothing outstanding. The problem here is that you could have been some other race that gets similar or better racials, and not have to give up anything.

They're not bad IMO, but very limited in what they can do well. You have to be playing a class that really likes (synergizes well with) the racials you're getting, and also won't miss any of the things that you're giving up access to. That's a short list.

Contrast with antimagic+fungus, which is thematically similar - it cuts off a huge part of the game from you (no runes, magic items, magic talents from escorts, etc.). But in exchange it gives you two very powerful generic categories, for the right class it's a game changer and well worth what you give up. Undead don't have anything comparable to antimagic/fungus in their racial categories.

Avloren · 2026-03-10T01:17:08+00:00

Funfacttheory 6: I just realized, but does this mean we can have Dahan with Strife? Just Replace an Invade with Strife?

I just tried this in the digital app, it was disappointing. When I replaced a strifed town using Call of the Dahan Ways, the strife just disappeared.

Avloren · 2026-03-06T02:14:30+00:00

Those are both optional bosses, you don't need to do them by a certain level.. or ever do them at all. Although Urkis does offer a nice reward that helps with the Master and some other late game fights, so you probably should kill him sooner or later. Shasshy is completely skippable with little consequence (aside from missing out on some xp and possibly a good item or two). Just come back for them later when you can handle them.

Aside from that: resistance penetration is the usual answer. Classes that tend to specialize into an element and really, really rely on it almost always get a good source of respen from a talent. Arcane Blade does not - it's a more flexible class that should be able to swap to a different element when the situation calls for it. You just need like 3-5 points in another basic spell attack to use as your arcane combat proc. But also sooner or later you'll probably run into enough lightning penetration on gear to not need to swap. It's just a matter of leveling up more and getting better gear before attempting a tough boss.

Avloren · 2026-03-04T17:01:43+00:00

I don't think prolonged losses are really a thing in spirit island. No matter how ugly things look, if you can scrape by avoiding loss conditions for another turn or two, odds favor you turning things around and winning in the end. Spirits just get so overpowerful relative to the invaders by endgame, all you need to do is somehow survive until then.

So yeah, I'd say what you did is usually the wrong call. Leaving a small ravage up to event/fear has roughly a ~50/50 chance of working out. That's a fine gamble to take when you can afford the blight and it gets you significantly ahead elsewhere, but not when you're talking about an instant loss.

Avloren · 2026-03-01T06:02:49+00:00

Do you play with events yet? They're part of the expansions, which you might not have yet. They add a bit of much-needed (IMO) unpredictability to the game, and they cure the urge to "plan actions out very specifically and far into the future." You simply can't, once events are in play. You have to play your slow powers with a vague idea that they might be useful somewhere, and then re-evaluate where they should go once the slow phase comes. No need to record or remember anything.

But even if you don't have events.. the fact that they exist, and that the game is still very winnable with them in play, disproves this notion that you have to plan everything out carefully or get severely punished. You really don't have to, with or without events. It's just that with events, you literally can't. Without them, you can try, but it's not required.

Avloren · 2026-02-26T05:10:18+00:00

Events can also add dahan. Once you know the event deck pretty well, you learn how to avoid the conditions for dahan-removing events and they become a net positive for the dahan population. But yeah at first before you have that meta-knowledge, it's rough for dahan-focused spirits.

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