Branch & Claw

Errata / Updates

Effect Rules
  • Core game, Branch & Claw, Promo, Jagged Earth - all printings
    Errata / Clarification on which items are triggered actions -- Jagged Earth formalized how triggered actions work. The following earlier items are triggered actions ("after X, do Y") even though their wording doesn't use "after":
    • Vengeance of the Dead (Major Power, core game);
    • Ocean In Play (Ocean's Hungry Grasp special rule, core game);
    • Sworn to Victory1 (Thunderspeaker special rule, core game);
    • Blazing Presence2 (Heart of the Wildfire special rule, promo 1);
    • Constant Raiding (Dahan Insurrection Scenario rule, core game);
    • Military Response (Dahan Insurrection Scenario rule, core game).
    The following items are also triggered actions ("after X, do Y") even though their wording doesn't use "after" (but practically speaking it doesn't matter much):
    • Portents of Disaster (Minor Power - Branch & Claw);
    • Forbidden Ground3 (Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds special rule - Branch & Claw);
    • Deep Layers Exposed to the Surface (Stone's Unyielding Defiance special rule - Jagged Earth)
    1 = The trigger is "After a Ravage destroys 1 or more Dahan..." and does not involve Blight; see this FAQ entry for elaboration.
    2 = This rule used to say "When you add or move Presence...". More recent printings of the Spirit correctly say "After you add or move [Presence] after Setup...".
    3 = Read as, "After one or more lands become a Sacred Site for you, Push all Dahan from those lands."
    See Summary of Action rules for more details on how triggered actions work in general.
    Adversary instructions saying "After Setup:" are not triggered actions, but just a specification of when that rule applies ("not during Setup"). We apologize for the wording overlap, and will be using "During Play:" or "Post-Setup:" moving forward.
    Tags: Triggered Actions, Vengeance of the Dead, Portents of Disaster, Sworn to Victory (Thunderspeaker), 5 more...
  • Branch & Claw - 3rd printing
    Errata for B&C rulebook, p. 15: -- A bullet-point was missed; it should read, "◦ Defend Powers apply each time the Invaders do Damage in a land.
 ◦ Each time the land itself is Damaged is separate ... "
    Tags: Rulebook, Defend
  • Branch & Claw, Core game - all printings
    Errata / clarification on older materials with imprecise wording -- Some earlier game materials use terms that are now ambiguous with the more precise terminology introduced in Jagged Earth. For the most part, they work just as they always have, but in case additional clarity is needed:
    • Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares - their Special Rule is a modifier - when your Power would Destroy Invaders, instead generate Fear (and perhaps Push them).
    • France lvl 6 - "After the normal Explore Phase," should read "After resolving an Explore Card,"
    • Event: Fortification - first sentence should read: After advancing Invader Cards: perform a Build Step for one terrain not shown under any Invader Action.
    • Event: Cash Crops Take Hold - first sentence should read: Perform a Ravage Step for one terrain not shown under any Invader Action.
    The only mechanical change is that France 6 will behave slightly differently if there are 0 or 2+ Explore cards in a turn, adding one Explorer per card instead of a flat 1.
    See also Errata / Clarification on which items are triggered actions and New Nomenclature Roundup.
    Tags: Kingdom of France, Fortification, New Cash Crops Take Hold
Event Cards
Invader Actions
  • Branch & Claw - 3rd printing
    Errata for B&C rulebook, p. 14 -- Truncated sentence should read, "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."
    Tags: Rulebook
Power Cards

Frequently Asked Questions

Adversaries
Aspects
Blighted Island cards
Definitions
Effect Rules
Elements and Elemental Thresholds
Event Cards
Fear and Fear Cards
General Play
Invader Actions
Power Cards
Presence and Sacred Sites
Range and Targeting
Scenarios
Setup
Spirit Phase
Spirits and Innate Powers
~ Expansions, Promos, and Publishing
  • What happens if you just add some of the Branch & Claw expansion cards / elements to the game? Do you think you could play with everything from the expansion but the Event Cards?
    Many expansion elements rely on each other to a greater or lesser extent. Mixing in some without others won't break the game, but may skew it.
    Going item-by-item:
    • Scenarios: Are fine to use. Most of these are in the expansion purely because they use the expansion's Scenario Tokens.
    • Adversary: France can be used at Level 1 and below without any trouble. Level 2+ will be harder without Strife tokens and the Event Deck. (Though you can fix the latter by just resolving Slave Rebellion every 4 turns.)
    • Events: Most of them should be usable by skipping the token Event... but this will make the game harder. However, if you look up the Jagged Earth rulebook online, it has rules for playing without Event Cards (without kneecapping Beasts-using Spirits like Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves).
    • New Fear Cards: There are about half a dozen fear cards that don't reference tokens. (They're in the expansion because of new rules, or just to keep effect distribution even.) Including just those 6 will slightly skew the effects of the fear deck, but not in any way that you're apt to notice unless you're a very experienced player.
    • New Blight Cards: The expansion Blight cards don't have a negative ongoing effect, because the Event deck handles that: About 1/3 of the Event cards involve adding Blight / destroying Presence if the island is Blighted. So using the new Blight cards without the Event deck lowers the incentive to keep the Blight Card from flipping early, which in turn slightly lowers difficulty / early-game tension. Doing so also makes the small-pool Blight cards better (especially "Back Against the Wall" / "Aid from Lesser Spirits") because they're less risky.
    • Spirits: Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds needs Wilds tokens. It may have a slightly harder time of it without the possibility of players gaining Minor/Major Powers that add Wilds, but is probably fine. Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves needs Beasts tokens to function well, and Beasts need Event Cards to be good; without Events, Sharp Fangs is almost certainly underpowered unless you use the "Play Without Event" rules from Jagged Earth.
    • New Power Cards: Adding only a subset of new Power Cards is likely to change the distribution of different types of effects, and near-certain to change the elemental distribution (both how often each element appears, and how often each pair of elements appears). The game will absolutely still work, but some Spirits will be invisibly penalized / rewarded (because Power Card draws will on average be lousier/better for their elements), and it may skew strategy depending on what types of effects get added to the deck. This isn't apt to be a big deal if you're just adding a few cards, but if you're adding half the new cards it could be more pronounced. Also, some Major Powers are in the expansion because they shouldn't be part of a small Major Power deck.
    And finally, "Everything except the Event Cards": If you omit the starting Disease from each board, and don't use the "Aid from Lesser Spirits" / "Back Against the Wall" Blight cards, my educated guess is that using everything but the Event Cards wouldn't mess with game difficulty too much - Beast tokens will be much worse (mild difficulty boost), and the Blight Card changes will make things slightly easier. (You could also use Event Cards for token Events only, in which case you're probably making your game easier by 1 or 2 Difficulty?) It's totally untested that way, but if you want to give it a shot, please go for it - and if you have a chance, post to BGG or the >G forums to let me know how it went!
    (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Events, Learning, Difficulty
  • What languages besides English is Spirit Island available in?
    The following localizations have appeared or been announced:
    LanguagePublisherTiming
    GermanPegasus SpieleEssen 2018 (base game); October 2019 (Branch & Claw)
    FrenchIntrafinNovember 2018
    RussianHobby WorldSpring 2019 (base game)
    SpanishArrakis Games2019 (base game)
    PortugueseACE StudiosFebruary 2019 (base game)
    PolishLacerta
    HungarianGém Klub Kft.
    ItalianGhenos Games
    KoreanBoardM Factory
    ChineseOne Moment Games

    The above table is best-knowledge (not a guarantee), and does not include deals not yet finalized / announced. Dates listed are initial printings only; if something's out of stock and you want to ask about a reprint, contact the publisher. Publishers with licensing to print the base game also have permission to print expansions, so if you want those to happen, write to them, not Greater Than Games! :)
    If there's a language not shown above for which you'd like to see a localization of Spirit Island, the steps to make this happen are: (a) find a local publisher who'd be interested in printing such a thing; then (b) get them to talk to Greater Than Games about licensing.
    Tags: Foreign Languages, Printings and Editions
  • How can I tell what printing I have (from looking at the outside of the box)?
    • Core game first printing has both the >G and Fabled Nexus logos.
    • Core game second printing has only the >G logo.
    • Core game third and fourth printing show the printing number underneath the bar code.
    • Core game fifth and sixth printing both show "5th edition" under the bar code. (Whoops.) They can be distinguished on the exterior by the Greater Than Games logo directly over the UPC symbol - the 5th printing has a shades-of-blue die above the text "greater/than/games" while the 6th printing has a blue-and-white die nestled below a larger, all-caps "GREATER THAN GAMES" - see Telling 5th and 6th printings apart for photos of the two logos.
    • Core game seventh and eighth printings show the printing number underneath the bar code.
    • Branch & Claw second and third printing show the printing number underneath the bar code.
    • Branch & Claw fourth printing shows "5th edition" under the bar code. (Whoops.)
    • Branch & Claw then skipped to 7th printing (in order to sync up with core-game printings), which is shown underneath the bar code.
    • Promo Spirits (Wildfire and Serpent) second-and-onwards printings have "Add a Presence" instead of "Add Presence" as reminder text under Growth options.
    See also: What changed between different printings of the game?
    (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Printing changes, Printings and Editions
  • When is a good time to add the expansion materials from Branch & Claw to the core game?
    The only firm answer is "not right away!" - it adds extra complexity while you're learning the core rules, makes some core Invader dynamics more variable (and thus harder to learn), and the awesome variety it offers isn't nearly so awesome without understanding of the core game.
    As a rough gauge, the more of the below questions you'd say "yes" to, the more natural it'd be to start using the expansion:
    • Are you comfortable with the core game's mechanics? (No longer need to use the player aid cards / look up basic rules in the rulebook while playing, though you might consult the FAQ for edge cases. This question is the most important of the lot.)
    • Have you played some of the Medium/High-complexity Spirits?
    • Have you seen much of the core game's diversity? (Played many of the Spirits / played alongside all of them; taken or considered-taking all of the Minor Powers and many of the Major Powers.)
    • Are you winning games with Difficulty higher than 0? (Playing against Adversaries, or the more difficult Scenarios.)
    • Do you REALLY REALLY like new stuff and want to add the expansion materials as soon as possible?
    • Are there more-experienced players in the game with you? (Particularly if they're already familiar with the expansion materials.)
    • Are you able to predict victory more than a turn in advance? (With the only Invader randomness being the new Explore card, seasoned players can reach a point where they foresee victory multiple turns ahead of time, even when playing on a good difficulty level for them. If you've hit this point, I actively recommend breaking out the expansion, as its Event deck returns an edge of uncertainty - and thus, tension - to such situations.)
    If you can say "yes" to at least 2-3 of these - definitely including the first one - then introducing the expansion is reasonable. If you can say "yes" to 4 or more of them, then by all means, break it out!
    (Another reasonable POV someone expressed: "Events - added in the expansion - are best when you have enough of the game system internalized that it's easy to predict what the Invaders will do. The Event Deck combats this by adding some randomness. But if you're not yet at the stage where you feel like you can picture the board 1 or 2 turns in advance, adding Events will just make it harder to do that. So waiting on the expansion until then isn't a bad idea." Though some folks like the Events more for their theme and occasional hard choices than their effects on the Invaders per se, so this may not be universal.)
    (Discussion elsewhere) (Discussion elsewhere) (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Learning
  • Can you post an electronic PDF of the rulebook?
    Here are links that Greater than Games provided to the core rulebook, the Branch & Claw rulebook, the Jagged Earth rulebook, and the Nature Incarnate rulebook.
    (Discussion elsewhere) (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Rulebook
  • What game items have been retired or replaced in expansions?
    Replaced with new cards:
    • Sea Monsters (Major Power in B&C) - new version in JE (capping Fear)
    • Draw Towards a Consuming Void (Major Power in JE) - new version in NI (wording - no functional changes)
    • Growth Through Sacrifice (Minor Power in B&C) - replacement Minor in NI (Roiling Bog and Snagging Thorn)
    Retired:
    • Outpaced (Event in B&C) - retired as of NI
    • War Touches the Island's Shores (Event in B&C) - retired as of NI (which has a new Event with similar theme)
    • A Strange Madness Among the Beasts (Event in B&C) - retired as of JE/NI
    • Tipping Point (Blighted Island Card in B&C) - retired as of NI
    Farmers Seek the Dahan for Aid has not yet been replaced, because that replacement would best be done as part of a Dahan-centric expansion.
    It's fine - but not required - to retire game items "early" (ie, without buying the expansion which officially says they're retired). That's awkward for replacing game items - since you need the replacement - though some players opt to omit Growth Through Sacrifice, finding the elemental distortion from its absence to be less impactful than it seeing use in play.
    Outpaced, War Touches, Strange Madness, and Tipping Point were all retired for an overly swingy play experience. Original Sea Monsters was so good with Many Minds that it trivialized the game. Growth Through Sacrifice was nearly always game-warpingly good. Draw Towards a Consuming Void was one of the very few things that moves other Spirits' Presence without explicitly stating so, and Nature Incarnate had space on the card sheet, so we printed a replacement.
    Tags: Retired or Replaced Game Items, Sea Monsters, Draw Towards a Consuming Void, Growth Through Sacrifice, 5 more...
  • What Spirit Island games / expansions exist? Is there any required order to the expansions?
    The Spirit Island Wiki has this information in both list and graphical form, along with recommendations for frequently asked purchasing questions at the bottom. You can also click through to see the contents of different expansions.
    Retail and crowdfunding versions of Spirit Island products are equivalent; there is no exclusive content.
    Tags: Printings and Editions