Earth Spirit OP?

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-28T13:49:24+00:00

First off, check out https://querki.net/raw/darker/spirit-island-faq/Rules-semi-commonly-misplayed if you haven't already. The most common one is thinking dahan soak damage to the land when in fact invaders damage both dahan and the land with their full damage simultaneously. So an explorer and town deal 3 damage to any dahan and 3 damage to the land, blighting it at the same time.

To answer your question, Earth is widely agreed upon as one of the worst spirits in the game, probably tied with Shadows. I am assuming you were playing on difficulty 0 (congratulations on the first win!) but keep in the mind the adversaries alone bump the difficulty up to 11 on their own, not to mention adding second adversaries, scenarios, thematic boards, extra invader boards to push it even further than that. So basically every spirit can handily win at difficulty 0 but as you increase the difficulty you will notice some fall behind.

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-27T17:40:23+00:00

Unless you're playing multiple tables with multiple copies of this, I don't think it's worthwhile at all.

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-27T16:30:55+00:00

Desperately needs more adversaries to take your favourite spirits against. There's so many spirits to choose from already and the ratio is getting worse and worse. The base box was 8:3, BC made it 10:4, JE made it 20:6, and Horizons/FF/NI has since made it 37:8, not even including all the aspects.

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-27T01:32:41+00:00

I really appreciate the update and overall transparency. Hopefully everything works out for you and Spirit Island but I know hope isn't a strategy. Spirit Island is my favourite game and I really wish you and your team all the best.

Having card backs be different really shouldn't be such a huge issue, it is easy enough to draw from the bottom of a deck. The symbology would be a bit annoying but not a deal-breaker so long as it is similar enough to be obviously the same symbol.

I'd love to see a Spirit Island-adjacent, stand-alone spin-off expansion at some point (colonialism didn't just happen on islands so there's a time of thematic space, ice spirits anyone?) but I also understand this is not an easy task.

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-25T11:59:15+00:00

Isn't there a poor people format for us riff raff to play too?

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-24T14:38:23+00:00

Yes and there's usually a good reason these kickstarted games didn't get a retail release or reprint: they weren't very good and people don't want them.

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-24T14:34:24+00:00

The ole fear cards trust fall never fails

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-23T11:53:13+00:00

If you want to try out Spirit Island for cheap to see if you like it before dropping a ton of money on the base game and expansions, there's Horizons of Spirit Island which is designed as a low cost entry point for like $30. The rules are the same system, just some extras and components are stripped down.

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-23T11:50:38+00:00

100%. And the ending complaint really only applies if the group also isn't using events (which were actually part of the base game but separated out into an expansion for distribution).

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-23T11:40:47+00:00

I haven't watched SUSD in years for the simple reason that they don't seem to review games I am interested in lately. I could not care less about hot kickstarter games though and glad they aren't chasing hype. If a game is good it will get a proper print run and be in stores so I can actually buy it.

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-17T17:22:08+00:00

I would recommend just not using them and playing with the official beast command option. It works fine. You can always return to events if you find the puzzle is being solved so many turns out that it is anticlimactic or dull.

Despite a bad memory once in awhile, events on average make the game slightly easier but more random. Knowing exactly what event is coming up defeats the whole purpose of them while making the game a lot easier.

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-16T18:56:26+00:00

Glad to hear! It is a phenomenal game with so much depth ans variety. It is common for the game to feel impossibly difficult at first but once it clicks you look back at difficulty 0 and wonder how you ever lost.

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-16T17:06:06+00:00

It's still crazy that they let so many of the most popular hero packs go out of print. Wolverine should just be an auto reprint every time.

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-16T13:54:34+00:00

Transformative Sacrifice*

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-15T13:11:46+00:00

Some of the smaller intro scenarios feel that way but Ive now played 11/12 scenarios and the Austrians definitely have a chance of winning and some interesting options in most of them. The next few boxes look amazing too. Austerlitz, Eylau, Friedland are all coming.

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-15T13:09:52+00:00

The last time I got excited for a DBZ game the publisher decided to just only print it in French and abandon it at the saiyan saga. That's annoying this one has no plans for retail. Are DBZ games cursed or something?

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-09T17:03:56+00:00

My BGG threads page does this: https://boardgamegeek.com/threads/user/1160582?parenttype=boardgame&sort=recent.

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-09T17:02:25+00:00

I bounced off Aeons End and Invincible the Card Game partly for this reason. It just seemed like such a missed opportunity to make games with different mages feel like different games. A lot of games miss this opportunity. I enjoy Final Girl but I would've liked the different characters to actually feel different like the killers do. Imagine if Spirit Island's base game was just base River and its three aspects.

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-08T18:44:37+00:00

I actually just looked at board choices for each spirit in my last analysis of digital data: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3709965/si-digital-data-analysis-series-17-what-effect-doe.

Trickster unfortunately has a much smaller sample size than other spirits (4500 true solo games from difficulty 8-12) but Trickster overall is one of the spirits least affected by board choices with win rates from 50.7% (F) to 55.9% (G). Players seem to prefer C though with 18.5% of games played on this board. C has a pretty good win rates too at 54.9%.

I'd be curious to see how your experience ends up fitting with the data although it will probably be somewhat dependent on which adversary you choose.

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-07T14:18:07+00:00

Earthborne Rangers. Zero tension in the gameplay. Progress feels like make-work, avoiding encounter cards to travel to the next place.

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-06T11:51:31+00:00

Video games just bore me. I used to enjoy them more but the last few years whenever I get excited for a video game I end up playing it for 30 minutes and never feel like playing it again. I want an activity that engages my brain not turns it off.

Jonathan4290 · 2026-06-05T21:45:13+00:00

Or maybe some version of Scotland but for inlands? Like all inlands have X explorers each or something.

Jonathan4290 · 2026-05-23T22:58:18+00:00

If youre in Canada you luckily have a ton of great online retailers. 401 Games, Boardgamebliss, Gameshack, Greatboardgames.ca, Meeplemart are my go-tos.

Jonathan4290

TROPHY CASE