Ocean's Hungry Grasp

Frequently Asked Questions

Adversaries
General Play
  • What happens if a piece winds up in a place or state it's not allowed to be?
    If the place still exists, then:
    • Pieces representing humans (Dahan / Invaders) are cleaned up to the closest legal land — this is not considered a move, is not an action, and does not trigger anything, it is simply a correction of the game state. This happens only once you are not in the middle of an action, and there are no pending triggered actions (i.e., after each action tree), just before checking for victory/defeat.
    • All other pieces remain where they are, but are considered out of play unless/until they're no longer in an illegal state.
    On the other hand, if the place was destroyed and pieces within it somehow survived the destruction, they all get cleaned up.
    This sort of thing can happen if pieces survive the sinking of a board (like Dahan via Infinite Vitality with threshold or Explorers via the Tsardom of Russia's A Sense for Impending Disaster), if an Ocean stops being a land (by Ocean's Hungry Grasp losing its Presence there) while other Spirits' Presence is there, or if Invaders/Dahan are left in the Ocean after an action but manage not to Drown in some way.
    If the nearest legal land is unclear, use your best judgment, based on physical distance if necessary. If there is literally no legal land to put the pieces in, return them to the supply; this is still considered cleaning up (not an action, not a move/remove/destroy, does not trigger anything).
    Tags: Pieces, Illegally placed pieces, Victory and Defeat, Action tree, 12 more...
Power Cards
Range and Targeting
Setup
Spirit Phase
  • How does one move Presence during Growth?
    When a Growth choice says "Move Presence" (with a curved arrow), move one of your Presence up to the shown number of lands away from where it currently lies. When the Growth option says "Add Presence", but instead of adding from your Presence track you choose to add one already on the board (per the p. 14 sidebar), you can take it from anywhere. (This is still considered "adding a Presence", not "moving a Presence"; later reprints of the rulebook use the term repositioning.)
    Ocean's Hungry Grasp also has Growth choices with "Push Presence" and "Gather Presence"; these work just as Gather and Push usually do (to/from an adjacent land). They are mandatory.
    (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Growth, Presence, Ocean's Hungry Grasp, Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island, 0 more...
  • 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...
Spirits and Innate Powers