Cooperative defence · Spirit powers · Fear and growth
Base game · Branch & Claw
Grow your power. Drive the invaders away.
Learn Spirit Island through two complete cooperative games. Guide River and Lightning through the base game, then explore Branch & Claw with Fangs and Keeper. Follow every Power, payment and Invader response with original commentary explaining the team’s choices.
2-player base and Branch & Claw playthroughs · Guided, at your pace
The complete interactive tutorial, in your browser.
First load: up to approximately 123 MB · Best on a laptop or desktopThis detailed game table is best on a larger screen. On a tablet, use landscape mode or open the tutorial in a new tab.
Use A− / A+ to change the size of text and controls. Open Text panel to adjust Width and Height, or choose Reset to restore the defaults. Your preferences are remembered for each game.
Choose the base game or Branch & Claw from the route menu. Next advances immediately; Previous, phase and step selection and the timeline restore saved positions. Pause motion and Skip motion control the current visual loop; Skip action tree advances past that decision. Left-drag to pan, right-drag to orbit and scroll to zoom. Refocus step frames the current action; Whole table shows the inventory. Select a Spirit perspective, hover highlighted terms or cards, click to pin and enlarge references, and use the searchable Glossary, Cards, Spirits, Guide and Sources. Escape closes references. Arrow keys navigate, Space finishes motion, Home returns to the opening and End seeks the recorded ending.
These are guided playthroughs with authored moves and outcomes. Use the checkpoints to explore how the game develops.
If the table does not appear, try opening it in a new tab. A WebGL-capable browser is required.
Defend one shared island and achieve one shared victory. At Terror I, clear every Invader; at Terror II, clear Towns and Cities; at Terror III, clear Cities. Earning the final Fear card also wins. Every Spirit shares the outcome, and there are no individual victory points. Check the result after the complete action tree, including its triggered effects.
Prepare together during the simultaneous Spirit phase: Growth, normal Energy income, then choose and pay for Power Cards. Resolve Fast Powers, then applicable start-of-Invader-Phase Blighted Island effects, Events when using Branch & Claw, Fear, Ravage, Build, Explore and card advance. Other Blight instructions follow their printed timing, including immediate effects at the flip and effects during the Spirit phase. Resolve Slow Powers after seeing those changes, then Time Passes. The guided checkpoints separate consequences for teaching; they do not turn the official simultaneous phase into alternating player turns.
Two original, complete two-player routes use the balanced A+B island, a normal Blight Card, and no Adversary or Scenario. Aria plays River and Rowan plays Lightning in the base route; Maya plays Fangs and Elliot plays Keeper with Branch & Claw. The base team wins on turn five at Terror II with eight Explorers, no Towns or Cities, 30 total Fear and three Healthy-card Blight remaining. The expansion team wins on turn seven at Terror II with three Explorers, no Towns or Cities, 37 total Fear and one Healthy-card Blight remaining. Both endings are shared victories. Fixed legal draws support teaching; alternatives explain decisions without branching the replay.
Inside this tutorial
Tour balanced boards A and B, Spirit panels, Powers, supplies and the Invader board, then follow official two-player setup. Each component type and quantity appears before placement; close-ups show small pieces and markers.
Play with Aria as River Surges in Sunlight and Rowan as Lightning’s Swift Strike. Trace Growth, Energy, elements, Fast and Slow Powers, Fear, Ravage, Build and Explore through five turns and the actual Terror II victory.
Play with Maya as Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves and Elliot as Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds. Follow Events, Beasts, Disease, Wilds and Strife, including actual Blight cascades, through seven turns and the winning check.
English publisher base and Branch & Claw rules, the official FAQ and applicable card corrections were checked on 8 October 2026. Both original two-player routes use balanced boards A and B without an Adversary, Scenario or Aspect. Current clarifications include five initial Blight and discarding the first-turn Event without resolving it. Substantive indexed BGG Strategy posts and replies inform conditional commentary; direct BGG pages and a complete expansion Strategy listing were unavailable. Both routes finish while Healthy. Blighted-card resolution, Stage III and other endings receive labelled supplementary explanations; later expansions and alternative branches are outside these replays.
Game details on BoardGameGeek ↗Another table to explore