Speed (Fast/Slow)

Frequently Asked Questions

Aspects

• With the aspect Wind for Lightning's Swift Strike, can you choose later which Power to make fast?
  Yes, you can choose at any point in the turn (usually during the Fast phase).
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Speed (Fast/Slow), Wind Aspect (Lightning's Swift Strike)
• Can the Intensify Aspect spend an Air marker to get an extra use of a Power?
  No, the Air marker lets Intensify use a Slow Power in the Fast Phase instead of the Slow Phase.
  Tags: Element markers, Action Modifiers, Speed (Fast/Slow), Intensify Aspect (Shifting Memory of Ages), 0 more...

Blighted Island cards

• When exactly do you get the benefits from *Aid from Lesser Spirits*?
  The new power card enters play as soon as the Blight card is flipped and the Spirits choose who gets which Minor Power.

  You gain the elements on it immediately, and can use it for thresholds that same turn. You can also use the Power that turn, although if it is a Fast power and the Blight card flipped after the Fast phase you will not be able to use it this turn, unless something lets you use a Fast power as a Slow power.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Speed (Fast/Slow), Elements, Aid from Lesser Spirits

Effect Rules

• Can effects that change a Power’s Speed also change the Speed of other Actions taken in specific Phases? (e.g., dealing Damage with the Beasts token marked by "Unearth a Beast of Wrathful Stone")
  No. Speed changes apply to the original use of a Power, not to delayed effects of a Power (as in this case) nor to non-Power Actions (like Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine abducting pieces at its Incarna).
  Tags: Speed (Fast/Slow), Unearth a Beast of Wrathful Stone, Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine, Terror Stalks the Land (Breath of Darkness Down Your Spine), 9 more...
• If you change a Power's speed, which phase can you Repeat it in?
  Whatever matches the speed the Power was most recently set to, which will almost always be the speed of the original use of the Power.

  There are a few unusual cases:

  • If you use a Fast Power (or Power that was made Fast) in the Fast Phase, and then make that Power Slow with "Sky Stretches to Shore," it's now a Slow Power and can only be Repeated in the Slow Phase.
  • Fractured Days Split the Sky's "Slip the Flow of Time" Innate Power, the Air Marker of the Intensify Aspect, and a few Events ("Outpaced," "Ethereal Conjunction," and "Rouse the Spirits") all let a Spirit use a Power at a particular time without changing that Power's speed for any further uses of that Power.
  • The speed of a Power doesn't matter for Repeats immediately triggered by Relentless Gaze of the Sun's "Relentless Punishment" Special Rule, the Locus Aspect's "Strength of the Waking Island" Innate Power, or a "Repeat this Power" threshold — the power is repeated right after the original use no matter the current game phase.
    Tags: Repeat, Speed (Fast/Slow), Sky Stretches to Shore, Lightning's Boon (Lightning's Swift Strike), 22 more...

Event Cards

• If Sky Stretches to Shore has been used on you, and you reveal the "Outpaced" Event, can you change a Power's speed at that point so it interacts differently with Outpaced?
  Yes.
  

  Making a Slow Power Fast will NOT let you resolve it immediately - the Fast phase is done - but will let you keep it in play (perhaps for its elements) without paying Outpaced. Making a Fast Power Slow would let you discard it to gain Energy regardless of whether you used it during Fast, but you could not "resolve it now" unless you had not used it during the Fast phase already.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Speed (Fast/Slow), Sky Stretches to Shore, Outpaced

General Play

• Do powers have to be resolved in order, or can you choose to do the effects in the order that's most convenient for you?
  Powers must be resolved in order from top to bottom. If a Power has thresholds, resolve all thresholds you hit, in the order they are listed (skipping over the ones you don't hit).

  There are a small number of exceptions:

  If a Power changes its own Speed, Range, or Targeting, those changes (and corresponding thresholds / costs) are checked when relevant during targeting, not during normal Power resolution. Examples:

  • "You may pay 1 Energy to make this Power Fast." ("Dry Wood Explodes in Smoldering Splinters")
  • "Increase this Power's Range to Range 1." ("Sap the Strength of Multitudes")
  • "This Power can target lands with Blight." ("Inspire the Release of Stolen Lands") – but note that the rest of this threshold effect still resolves at the end, like normal.

  (By the time you're resolving the rest of the Power text, it'd be too late for these modifiers to do anything!)

  If a threshold modifies how an earlier part of the Power resolves, that modifier applies at the sensible time. Examples:

  • "Do not destroy any Dahan." ("The Jungle Hungers")
  • "Damage from this Power may be dealt into adjacent lands." ("Vengeance of the Dead")

  Technically, every use of "Instead..." in an innate power works this way; it's pretty simple for human minds to understand the intent, but the formal specification is messier. Note that a "+" in a threshold effect (like "+2 Damage" in "Walls of Rock and Thorn") is not a modifier, but rather a new Damage instruction – this is occasionally relevant for timing purposes.

  If a Power specifies that something happens later, do it at that time (remembering that these ongoing effects expire when Time Passes unless specified otherwise). Examples:

  • "Once this turn, target Spirit may ..." ("Powerstorm")
  • "After the next time Invaders are destroying in target land: ..." ("Blood Draws Predators")
  • "At end of turn, ..." ("Gift of Constancy")

  "Repeat this Power" as a threshold also falls into this category, since it's short for "After resolving this Power and all Actions triggered by it, Repeat it."

  If a Power explicitly specifies to resolve part of a threshold earlier in power resolution, follow that order. Examples:

  • "+3 Fear, before the Terror Level check." ("Twisted Flowers Murmur Ultimatums")
  • "Before Pushing, Explorers and Towns/Cities do Damage to each other." ("Dissolve the Bonds of Kinship")
  • "First, Gather up to 3 Dahan." ("Wrap in Winds of Sunlight")

  Also related: A Power that is 100% internal modifiers doesn't do anything, so can't be targeted/used for things like "Scream Disease Into the Wind."
  Tags: Resolving Powers, Range Boosts, Speed (Fast/Slow), Targeting, 59 more...
• Can I pick the target land for a Slow power during the Slow Power phase?
  Yes, and that's the recommended way to do it. All targets for Powers (Fast or Slow) are chosen when the power is activated.

  During the Spirit phase, you play and pay for Power Cards and gain their elements, but you don't actually need to pick the targets at that point. You will find your first games go more smoothly if you trust that there will be a useful place to use your powers.

  If you plan a target at the beginning of the turn and then it is no longer a valid target, you have to pick a different target.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Targeting, Speed (Fast/Slow)

Power Cards

• Can Gift of Strength or Powerstorm (both Fast powers) be used on a Slow power card?
  Yes. Gift of Strength targets a Spirit, not a Power Card. At any point during the turn, that Spirit may choose to Repeat a power card (of the specified Energy cost or lower), whether it is a fast power or a slow power.

  They need not choose which power card to Repeat until they actually use the ability. The repeated power activates with the same speed as the first use of the power. See the description of Repeat [p. 19]
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Repeat, Speed (Fast/Slow), Gift of Strength (Vital Strength of the Earth), Powerstorm, 0 more...
• If a Power on a Power Card has been modified, do those modifiers persist if the Power Card leaves play?
  No, any modifiers to a Power in play, whether modifying Speed, Range, Target, or Effect, are to the Power in play, not to the Power Card itself. If the Power Card leaves play, it does not retain those modifications, nor does it automatically re-gain them if it is played again that turn.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Action Modifiers, Speed (Fast/Slow), Range Boosts, Slip the Flow of Time (Fractured Days Split the Sky), 1 more...
• Can Sky Stretches to Shore let you, during the Slow Phase, Repeat an already-used Fast Power? (Assuming you have a Repeat from somewhere, like Powerstorm or Gift of Strength.)
  Yes. Even after a Power is used, it stays in play, and can be modified - there's just usually little point in doing so. So the Fast Power can be made Slow¹ with Sky Stretches to Shore, then used via the Repeat.

  ¹ Effects reading "Use a Power as if it were (Fast/Slow)" should be interpreted as "Make a Power (Fast/Slow)", and would have been better phrased that way.
  (Discussion elsewhere) (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Repeat, Speed (Fast/Slow), Sky Stretches to Shore
• When you use a Power outside of its normal phase (e.g., during the Invader Phase via the Rouse the Spirits event), if Repeats have been granted to you (e.g., from Gift of Strength), can you use them then?
  Changed answer: Not to use the Power twice at that time. Unlike "Lightning's Boon" or "Sky Stretches to Shore," you're not actually changing the Power's speed, you're just using it (once) ignoring speed. Repeating a Power lets you use it again in the phase matching the Power's actual speed.

  The first-pass answer was "yes" based on the idea that these things changed the Power's speed, but that proved the wrong direction.

  In the uncommon case where the only reason you can't use the Power at the unusual time is having used it already, you can use a granted Repeat at that unusual time to get around the 1/turn restriction on using Powers.

  Note that this only applies when granted the option to Repeat a Power later in the turn, like with "Gift of Strength" or "Powerstorm." It does not apply to Powers that have "Repeat this Power" as one of their instructions; those can and must be Repeated immediately as an action triggered by the initial use (after any other triggered actions). Similarly, if using a Power triggers the option to Repeat it immediately (rather than later in the turn), you may do so.
  (Discussion elsewhere) (Discussion elsewhere) (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Repeat, Events, Timing, Changed rulings, 9 more...

Scenarios

• If an effect specifically happens in the Slow Phase, but isn't a Slow Power, how does it work in the Blitz Scenario?
  Exactly as written. Blitz still has a Slow Phase, even if nothing usually happens in it because all Slow Powers are Fast.
  Tags: Speed (Fast/Slow), Blitz, Absolute Stasis (Fractured Days Split the Sky), The Great River, 3 more...

Spirits and Innate Powers

• Can the Event card "Outpaced" be used to resolve a power that has been made fast by Lightning's Swift Strike's special rule?
  No. Once a power has been made Fast, it is Fast for the rest of the turn, including for Events like Outpaced.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Speed (Fast/Slow), Outpaced, Swiftness of Lightning (Lightning's Swift Strike)
• If all you can do with an innate power is change its Speed or Range (eg: either of Thunderspeaker's innates with 4 Air only), is that enough to target and use the Power?
  No, a power needs to have the potential to do something (not just modify its own attributes) in order to be targeted or used.

  This is usually irrelevant, but can occasionally be important (for, e.g., Scream Disease Into the Wind, or other "after using a power on a land..." effects.)

  It does not need to actually do something, as long as it has an instruction that could in theory modify the game state. Setting up a triggered action for the current Power only (eg: Lure's first innate) doesn't count, either; it's effectively an internal modifier as well, despite using a trigger for timing.
  Tags: Targeting, Resolving Powers, Range Boosts, Range, 4 more...
• For Why Don't You And Them Fight, when do you need 3 Moons to make it Slow? The Fast phase, or the Slow phase?
  The Slow phase. The elements you had in the Fast phase are irrelevant; you check at the moment you're using the Power.
  (Discussion elsewhere) (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Speed (Fast/Slow), Why Don't You and Them Fight (Grinning Trickster Stirs Up Trouble)
• When is Swiftness of Lightning used to make Powers Fast?
  During the Fast phase.

  This is rarely relevant, but can matter for the Blitz Scenario: you can't "make a Power Fast" during the Spirit Phase to lower its cost by 1, only "make a Power Fast" during the Fast Phase to gain a 1-Energy rebate.
  Tags: Speed (Fast/Slow), Swiftness of Lightning (Lightning's Swift Strike), Blitz
• How many Powers does Lightning's Swift Strike get to use as Fast?
  Lightning can use one Power as Fast for each Air (purple) Element in play. Since all of its starting cards have Air, this will often end up being all the Powers.

  Lightning's Innate Power, Thundering Destruction, is another Power that can be made Fast, so this can sometimes force a choice of which Power to leave as Slow.
  (Discussion elsewhere)  Tags: Speed (Fast/Slow), Lightning's Swift Strike