Spirit Island

How much pollution is there at the start of a four-player game?

Conclusion

The rulebook does not provide a specific number for how many blights are present at the start of a four-player game, nor does it list a table showing the number of blights based on the number of players. The rulebook simply states: when setting up the Invader panel, draw a random Blight Card and place it face-up on the Blight space, then place the number of blights indicated on the card onto that card ("Place the shown amount of Blight onto the card").

In other words: the exact number is printed on the Blight Card you draw, with different numbers depending on the number of players—the number each player sees depends on the Blight Card drawn in that particular game, rather than being fixed by the rules. For a four-player game, simply refer to the number corresponding to "4 players" on the Healthy side of that Blight Card.

Important Conditions and Exceptions

• If this game does not use Blight Cards (recommended for first-time play): Instead, use the Blight indicators printed on the Invader panel, with the quantity determined by the icons shown on the panel.
• The island's initial blight is a separate matter: When setting up the island tiles, you also place Invaders, Dahan, and Blight from the box according to the icons displayed on each tile's regions—this blight is taken directly from the box, not from the Blight Cards, and is calculated separately from the Blight pool on the cards.
• Once all the blights from the Blight Cards have been placed on the island, the island enters the "Blighted Island" state (blight side); afterward, if the back of the card indicates that the blights have been exhausted, it usually means failure.
• After setup is complete, any remaining blight tokens on the cards should be returned to the box to avoid confusion about their origin.

Additional Notes

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What is the effect of a bad land?

Conclusion

On Spirit Island, there are two concepts related to "Blight," which serve different purposes and are easy to confuse:

• Blight: A token representing environmental or spiritual damage inflicted on the island. Its effects include destroying Spirit Sites and triggering cascading spread, and it is one of the primary sources of defeat.
• Blighted Island: A state that an island can enter. Once a Blight card is flipped from its healthy side to its blighted side, during the first step of the Invader Phase in each round, the instruction printed on the back of the card must be carried out.

Let's discuss these separately.

I. The Role of the Blight Token Itself

When Does Blight Occur?
- During Ravage, if an Invader deals 2 or more points of damage to a region's terrain, 1 Blight is placed on that region. Regardless of the total damage dealt, only 1 Blight is added; any excess damage is ignored.
- Certain abilities or cards may directly place Blights.
- Some opponents also add Blights during Setup (these Blights do not cascade or destroy Spirit Sites).

After Setup, Whenever a Blight Is Added to a Region, Two Things Always Happen:
1. Spirit Site Destruction: In that region, each Spirit with a Spirit Site has 1 Spirit Site destroyed. Destroyed Spirit Sites are placed beside the island and do not return to the Spirit Panel. If a Spirit no longer has any Spirit Sites on the island as a result, the player immediately loses.
2. Cascading Spread: If the region already had Blights, another Blight must be placed on an adjacent region; if that adjacent region also has Blights, the cascading effect continues further. The player chooses which adjacent region to target, potentially destroying Spirit Sites of different Spirits.

Removing Blights: Place the Blight back onto the Blight Card (on the side currently facing up). Blight Cards never flip back from their blighted side to the healthy side—during the game, the island cannot recover from the blighted state.

Blight as a Loss Condition: If the last Blight on the card is removed, the card's instructions are executed, typically resulting in "You Lose."

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Spirit Island England effect?

Spirit Island · England (The Kingdom of England) Opponent Effects

Overall Characteristics
England is all about "build, build, and build"—it sends out a large number of settlers, causing colonies to spill over onto unexplored lands. It doesn't start off particularly fast, but it steadily pushes its borders forward and will frantically establish its capital during Stage II.
- It's noticeably easier for spirits skilled at dismantling Towns.
- It's significantly harder for spirits that rely on "moving/eliminating Explorers to stop invading Build actions."

Base Level
- Additional Failure Condition · Proud & Mighty: As long as there are 7 or more invaders on any single tile, the invaders win immediately.
- Stage II Upgrade Effect · Building Boom: On each relevant tile, perform one Build action on the tile with the most invaders.

Level-Specific Effects (Effects are cumulative; higher levels include lower ones)
| Level | Fear Card | Effect |
|-------|-------------|--------|
| 1 | 10 (5/4/3) | Indentured Servants Earn Land: An invader's Build can affect tiles with no invaders, provided that the tile is adjacent to at least two tiles with invaders before the Build action takes place. |
| 2 | 11 (4/4/3) | Criminals and Malcontents: During setup, add one Town to land #1 and one Town to land #2 on each tile. |
| 3 | 13 (4/5/4) | High Immigration (I): Place the "High Immigration" marker on the Invaders panel, to the left of Ravage. During each Invader phase, before Ravage occurs, this Build is executed first. Cards slide leftward: from Ravage into this space, then from there into the discard pile. When a Stage III card slides into this space, remove the marker and move that card to the discard pile. |
| 4 | 14 (4/5/5) | High Immigration (full): This additional Build marker remains on the board for the entire game. |
| 5 | 14 (4/5/5) | Local Autonomy: Towns gain +1 life. |
| 6 | 13 (4/5/4) | Independent Resolve: During setup, add an extra fear marker to the Fear Pool for each player in the game. In any Invader phase where no fear cards have been resolved, execute the High Immigration Build

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What are the tokens added by the Earth's Rift called?

Conclusion

In Jagged Earth, there are a total of five "Danger Markers" plus one "Element Marker":

Five Island Markers:
- Beasts
- Wilds
- Disease
- Strife
- Badlands

One New Component:
- Element Markers

Among these, the Badlands and Element Markers are truly introduced for the first time in this expansion; the Beasts, Wilds, Disease, and Strife markers were originally from Branch & Claw, and this expansion simply compiles their rules and provides new components. Thus, you can use these four types of markers even without purchasing Branch & Claw.

The Location and Function of Each Marker (Confirmed by Rulebook Text)

Beasts: Placed on regions. They have no inherent effect and rely on abilities or Token Events to take action, typically inflicting damage on invaders and causing fear.

Wilds: Placed on regions. When an invader attempts to Explore a region containing Wilds, they must remove one Wild from that region instead.

Disease: Placed on regions. When an invader tries to Build in a region with Disease, they must remove one Disease from that region instead.

Strife: Unlike the other four, it is placed beneath a single invader (not on a region). When an invader with Strife deals damage to a Dahan and/or land, that damage becomes 0, and the Strife is then removed. Even if the damage would normally be 0 due to defense or other factors, Strife must still be consumed. When invaders harm each other, Strife has no effect and is not removed. If an invader with Strife moves, the Strife follows along; if the invader is removed or destroyed, the Strife returns to the supply.

Badlands: Placed on regions. Each time an Action deals damage to an invader in a particular region for the first time, the damage increases by 1 per Badlands marker present; likewise, each time an Action deals damage to a Dahan in a region for the first time, the damage increases by 1 per Badlands marker present. This does not alter "destroy" effects—unless explicitly removed, Badlands remain on the board.

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What is the effect of France's expansion?

Conclusion: Within the scope of the current "Basic Rules," there is no "French Expansion Effect"—France is not a base‑game opponent. The base game rules only include three opponents: Brandenburg‑Prussia, England, and Sweden. The France you're asking about (the Kingdom of France / Plantation Colony) is an opponent from the "Branch & Claw" expansion and is outside the scope of these basic rules.

Below, let's clarify what can be confirmed regarding France.

Confirmed French settings (from the expansion rulebook):

• Its full name is "The Kingdom of France (Plantation Colony): King Louis XIV."
• Its thematic mechanisms are "rapid plantation (town) development" plus 18th‑century French‑style frontier exploration.
• It comes with one exclusive event card, "Slave Rebellion," which is used only when the opponent's rules require it.
• This opponent has an additional loss condition—this very condition makes France particularly tough against spirits that "hard to destroy buildings" (such as the Nightmare Envoy), while relatively easier for spirits skilled at destroying towns (like the Lightning Swift).
• From the rule on "combining two opponents," we can confirm that France's Escalation (expansion effect), like Sweden's, is terrain‑specific (the original text states "specific to a terrain – as with France and Sweden"). This indirectly confirms that France's expansion is tied to particular terrains.
• Other references in the expansion reveal that France is closely linked to the Town supply pool: for example, in the combination of "The Great River + French Plantation Colony," towns that escape the map's edge return to France's available town pool; meanwhile, the "Larger‑Scale French Plantation Colony" stipulates that the size of the town pool is calculated based on the number of island tiles, rather than the number of players.

Unfound Content

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Can the order of destruction be chosen?

Conclusion: It depends on "which type of destruction/ordering" — some can be chosen freely, while others are strictly enforced.

The rulebook doesn't address "the order of destruction" as a separate point; instead, it's scattered across several general adjudication sections, categorized by situation as follows:

Orders That Can Be Chosen Freely

1. The Order of Resolving Multiple Abilities
Multiple fast (or slow) abilities are generally resolved simultaneously. Only when the sequence becomes important may players resolve them in any order, with the sole restriction that one ability cannot interrupt another mid‑process. This applies equally between different players.

2. Which Invaders Within an Area Receive Damage
When dealing damage, the damage is allocated to the invaders within the target area, and you decide how to distribute it. If an invader accumulates damage equal to or exceeding its health, it is immediately destroyed (Explorer 1, Town 2, City 3). Damage from multiple abilities can be combined and accumulated.

3. Which Adjacent Area Receives Desertification Cascade
When cascading desertification to adjacent areas, the player selects the target area; different choices may destroy different spirits on Spirit Island.

Orders That Are Strictly Enforced and Cannot Be Chosen Freely

Order of Destroying Dahan
When plundering inflicts damage on Dahan, for every 2 points of damage, 1 Dahan must be destroyed, and you must do so as efficiently as possible—you cannot spread the damage across multiple Dahan to "avoid killing" them. If a Dahan takes 1 point of damage, it flips over to indicate injury and recovers at the end of the round.

The Sequence of Effects Within a Single Ability

The multiple effects of one ability are executed in the order listed on the card, skipping any that cannot be performed; when meeting thresholds involving multiple elements, effects are also carried out from top to bottom sequentially. If a threshold states "Instead," it replaces the effect of the preceding level. This internal sequence is not subject to free choice.

Who Determines These Orders?

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What countries are on Spirit Island?

In the base rules of "Spirit Island," there are a total of 3 optional adversaries appearing as "Kingdoms/Colonial Powers":

1. The Kingdom of Brandenburg-Prussia
- It has the fewest rule changes, mainly affecting the setup phase.
- Characteristics: The overall tempo is significantly accelerated, with cards featuring two types of terrain appearing much earlier—often before the spirits are even ready; this makes it particularly challenging for spirits that require a longer development period.
- No additional failure conditions.

2. The Kingdom of England
- Its defining feature is extensive building activity, with colonies continuously advancing and spilling over into unexplored territories. While its initial pace isn't fast, it steadily expands its borders and vigorously establishes a "capital" during Phase II.
- It works well against spirits that rely on destroying towns, but poses greater challenges for those that depend on moving or eliminating explorers to halt construction.
- It includes an additional failure condition: Proud & Mighty—if the number of invaders on a single tile reaches 7 or more, the player loses.

3. The Kingdom of Sweden
- Its hallmark is devastating ravaging, strong military tactics, and a population deeply engaged in farming and mining. Royal policies favor assimilating the Dahan, though this only proves effective where the invader population is sufficiently large.
- It handles spirits capable of stopping ravaging (such as A Spread of Rampant Green or Vital Strength of the Earth) considerably more easily.
- No additional failure conditions.

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Can I check the next invasion's information before casting a slow spell?

Moreover, this is explicitly encouraged by the rules.

Conclusion: Slow abilities are resolved only after the entire Invader Phase—including "Explore" to reveal new invader cards and "Advance Invader Cards"—has concluded. Therefore, before you decide how to use your slow ability, the information about next round's invaders is already laid out before you.

Specific Sequence:
- A round proceeds in this order: Spirit Phase → Quick Ability Phase → Invader Phase → Slow Ability Phase → Time Passes.
- During the Invader Phase, "Explore" reveals the top card from the invader deck and places an explorer on the terrain shown—this card is now public.
- Immediately following, "Advance Invader Cards" shifts all three cards one space to the left: discard the Plunder card, move the Build card to the Plunder space, and move the Explore card to the Build space. As a result, the invader board clearly indicates where players will Plunder and Build in the next round.
- The Slow Ability Phase occurs right after these steps, at which point slow effects are resolved.

Predictability for Strategic Use: The rules specifically note in the "Dealing with Invaders" section that once invaders explore into a particular terrain, you know they'll Build there in the next round and Plunder there the round after that. This predictability is precisely what allows you to plan your slow abilities effectively.

Important Boundaries to Note:
- Before the Invader Phase (during the Spirit Phase), you don't yet know what card will be revealed during exploration, since exploration happens within the Invader Phase; meanwhile, during the Spirit Phase, you must immediately pay energy and acquire elements—you can't wait until you see the new card to decide whether or not to play.
- The Quick Ability Phase occurs prior to the Invader Phase, so quick abilities cannot benefit from this "next-round intelligence"; only slow abilities enjoy this advantage.
- Revealing cards through "Explore" is part of the invader action itself—if the invader deck has been exhausted (and no more cards remain to be revealed), you immediately lose, leaving no opportunity to resolve any slow abilities.

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Does Spirit Island have hit points?

Conclusion

Spirit Island has no health. The rulebook does not assign a Health attribute to Spirit Island—only Invaders and Dahan have Health. Spirit Island is not eliminated by "accumulated damage"; instead, it is directly destroyed by specific effects.

How is Spirit Island Destroyed?

Core premise: Invaders do not directly attack Spirit Island.

• When an Invader Ravages, the damage dealt applies only to lands and Dahan, and does not "hit" Spirit Island; nor does Spirit Island participate in any counterattacks.
• The most common way for Spirit Island to be destroyed is through Blight: when Blight is placed on a land, it destroys one Spirit Island per Spirit present on that land.
• Destroyed Spirit Islands are removed from the game (placed beside the island) and do not return to the Spirit board, meaning they can no longer be used.

Loss Condition: If any Spirit on the island runs out of Spirit Islands, the player immediately loses.

How Many Spirit Islands Can Be Placed on One Area?

• A single land can hold any number of Spirit Islands, regardless of their type, with no upper limit.
• When a single Spirit has two or more Spirit Islands in the same area, that area becomes its Sacred Site.

Exceptions and Additions

• Which units have Health: Explorer 1, Town 2, City 3, Dahan 2. The rule for destroying pieces states: "Deal damage equal to or exceeding its Health in a single turn"—this mechanism does not apply to Spirit Islands.
• Spirit Islands may be destroyed by non‑Blight effects: Any effect in the rules that involves "moving or destroying Spirit Islands" automatically applies to Spirit Islands on the island (unless explicitly stated otherwise). In other words, aside from Blight, any effect explicitly listed as "destroying Spirit Islands" will directly destroy them rather than reducing their health.
• Blight does not exempt Spirit Islands simply because they have no health: As long as Blight is applied to a land, it will always destroy one Spirit Island per Spirit on that land (this destruction does not trigger additional cascading checks, but it proceeds as normal).

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Does damage dealt by Invaders first go to the Daonians and then to the land?

Conclusion

No. The damage from a raid does not "hit Dahan first, then the land," nor is it split between the two. The rulebook states: Invaders deal damage to both the land and Dahan simultaneously—the total damage dealt by a single group of invaders is applied in full to the land and also in full to Dahan.

In other words, when Town 2 + Explorer 1 = 3 points of damage, it means "3 points to the land" and "3 points to Dahan"; the two sets of 3 points do not share the same pool of resources.

Specific Settlement Order

During a raid, first identify which invaders are present on that terrain, summing their damage as Explorer 1 / Town 2 / City 3, and then proceed as follows:

1. Damage to the Land: If the damage inflicted on the land is 2 points or more, place 1 Wasteland token. Any excess beyond 2 points is ignored; only one token is placed regardless of how much extra damage was dealt.
2. Damage to Dahan: For every 2 points of damage, destroy 1 Dahan. This destruction must be carried out as efficiently as possible—do not spread the damage across multiple Dahans to avoid killing them. If a Dahan receives only 1 point of damage, flip it over to indicate it has been injured; at the end of the round, surviving injured Dahans will recover.

Afterward: Dahan Counterattack

Only after all damage from the invading forces has been fully resolved will the surviving Dahans on that terrain launch their counterattack, with each Dahan dealing 2 points of damage to the invaders (players independently allocate this damage among the invaders on that tile).

Exceptions/Notes:
- Even if an invader deals no damage at all (e.g., blocked by defensive effects), as long as the raid action actually takes place, surviving Dahans will still counterattack.
- However, if the entire raid is skipped or prevented, no counterattack will occur.
- Spirit Island does not participate in the counterattack, since invaders do not directly attack Spirits.

Impact of Defense

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