Heart of the Wildfire

Frequently Asked Questions

Adversaries
Blighted Island cards
Effect Rules
Elements and Elemental Thresholds
General Play
Power Cards
Setup
Spirit Phase
  • Do I have to do everything shown in a Growth option I pick?
    Yes. You must do everything shown if possible, though you can do it in any order.
    Usually, there's no downside: Reclaiming, gaining Energy/Power Cards, and adding Presence are almost strictly good. (You can always reposition a Presence already on the island when adding Presence [p. 14], so "running out" isn't a concern.) Spirits with "Move a Presence up to Range N" Growth effects can Move it 0. However, a few Spirits do include things you'll have to work around, including:
    • Ocean's Hungry Grasp often requires you to Push or Gather Presence;
    • Heart of the Wildfire often adds Blight along with Presence, so being required to add Presence can be dangerous;
    • Downpour Drenches the World and Ember-Eyed Behemoth both discard Power Cards as part of one of their Growth options;
    • Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine must let pieces escape the Endless Dark.
    • Several Spirits have Growth options that add Presence to particular land types, which could force Presence outside of that land type to be repositioned accordingly in the unlikely case where the Spirit has no Presence left on Presence tracks and no Presence on the island is already in that land type (else it could be repositioned into the land it's already in). Note that "a land with your Presence" can't cause this problem, since that allows any Presence to be repositioned into a land its already in.
    If you can't do something in a Growth option, do as much as you can and skip the rest – you're free to pick Growth options where you can't successfully complete all of the instructions. (E.g., if you Push Presence from each Ocean, and there's a board where none of your Presence is in the Ocean, you simply don't Push Presence on that board.)
    Nevertheless, you can't skip paying an explicit "cost" for a Growth option, which must be paid in full order to pick that option and perform the associated actions.
    (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Growth, Repositioning Presence, Ocean's Hungry Grasp, Heart of the Wildfire, 15 more...
  • The only rules constraints are that each individual Spirit must Grow / Gain Energy / Play Power Cards in that order, and that all Spirits must complete the Spirit Phase before anyone starts resolving Fast Powers. [p. 8] Other than that, players play simultaneously and may confer as they wish, so for instance, one Spirit could plan out their whole turn before another decides which Growth they're taking, or two Spirits gaining Power Cards could base their decisions on what to keep based on each others' draws. How lenient you are about individual Spirits rewinding - eg, going back to choose a different Growth option - is ultimately a playgroup decision, but most people seem to be fine with it so long as you're not rewinding "gain a Power Card".
    In some cases outside of the core game, a Spirit's Growth may even change the board - waiting for this is also fine. (E.g., Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds could push Dahan by making a Sacred Site, changing what lands Thunderspeaker could add Presence to.)
    (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Growth, Timing, Gaining Power Cards, Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds, 1 more...
Spirits and Innate Powers
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