Spirit Island + Branch & Claw: setup guide

Setup 01

Choose a complete two-player route

Begin with River Surges in Sunlight and Lightning's Swift Strike to learn the base game, then use the separate Branch & Claw route with Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves and Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds. Both lessons are ordinary two-player games without an Adversary or Scenario. Their fictitious players and fixed legal draws make the recorded consequences reviewable; they are not prescribed opening decks for your own game. Use the selected Spirits' four Unique Powers rather than mixing every Spirit's cards together. The expansion lesson introduces the two expansion Spirits and all four token types. Later publisher clarifications apply where relevant, but later expansion components and Aspects are outside these routes.

Setup 02

Place the island once and read its lands

Join balanced boards A and B in the demonstrated standard arrangement. Read each board's printed setup icons for Invaders, six Dahan and one Blight before placing anything. This starting Blight comes from the box, does not destroy Presence and does not cascade. Jungle, Mountain, Sands and Wetland are terrain types; only Ocean-touching lands are Coastal. Count adjacency across corners and the exact board seam. A board is not one player's private territory, and Dahan are not owned by a Spirit. Once the map is present, the tutorial's tour frames its features instead of placing it again. Setup previews show each different component type before the group moves into place.

Setup 03

Prepare Fear, Blight and the shared decks

Put eight Fear markers in the two-player pool and begin with zero generated Fear at Terror I. Shuffle nine distinct Fear Cards, with Terror II and III dividers after each group of three. Build the twelve-card Invader deck from three Stage I, four Stage II and five Stage III cards, keeping unseen terrain identities hidden. A normal Healthy Blight Card receives five Blight: two per player plus one for the whole game. Keep that reserve distinct from printed island Blight and the remaining box supply. The setup bonus is not added again if the card later flips. The base common Power pools contain all thirty-six Minor and twenty-two Major cards, with separate common discards.

Setup 04

Prepare each Spirit and its Energy area

Follow each chosen panel's starting Presence and special setup instructions exactly. Cover the dashed Presence-track circles while leaving the initial solid circles uncovered; Presence has an owner, and two of the same Spirit in one land form its Sacred Site. River also treats its Wetland Presence as a Sacred Site. Keep hands, played Powers, personal discards, forgotten uniques and destroyed Presence distinct. Starting Energy is zero in these routes; Growth and normal track income begin on turn one. The shared bank uses one- and three-Energy counters, but Energy units are unlimited. River and Lightning choose one Growth option; Fangs and Keeper choose two different options, completing and paying for each before taking its benefits.

Setup 05

Add Branch & Claw before initial Explore

For the expansion route, add the Invader-board extension, twenty-two each of Beasts, Disease, Wilds and Strife, and the twenty-five ordinary Events. The France-specific Slave Rebellion stays out because France is absent. Combine the complete original Power pools to make sixty-seven Minor and forty-three Major cards; optional later retirements are explained separately rather than silently changing the deck. First add one Beast per board in its lowest-numbered land without printed base setup icons, A1 and B5, and one Disease in each printed-City land, A2 and B2. Then apply Spirit-specific Beasts and Wilds setup before the real initial Explore: Wilds can prevent that Explore and is then consumed. Place the initial revealed terrain in Build and leave Ravage empty. During turn one, draw and discard the Event without resolving any section. Keep later Events, Power draws and unrevealed Blight text hidden until their proper reveal.

Before your first move

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.

This is a setup companion for the scenarios below, not a replacement for the publisher’s complete setup diagrams. Open the guided table to inspect the exact locations and the recorded deal.