Spirit Island BGG ↗

My BGG Comment

Played @ SPIEL 2018. Highly strategic, difficult cooperative game with a beautiful design and great and (yes, indeed 50+ games later it still is) variable gameplay. This needs a lot of communication and yet each player has to make their own decisions. Feels less prone to have one person take over the game. Plays longish. We played 5 turns in an hour. Update 07/2019: Has become my most played game I think. Playing solo with several spirits all the time and managed to get a few groups together as well. The replay value is incredible with the different spirit combinations. Update 2022: The Jagged Earth spirits and cards have improved an already great game for all those who have already played the spirits from the base game and first expansion so much they need more. If you are just getting started the base game is more than enough. Still the greatest coop game. 2026 After 76 plays logged (probably closer to 100+) My very favorite game. If there was a single game to play for the rest of my gaming life: this would be it. I've said this before about Terra Mystica. But Spirit Island easily surpassed TM. I first learned it at SPIEL in 2017 when the German version was published. I knew instantly this was my new favorite. I bought a copy as fast as I could (it was of course sold out at SPIEL itself). I have all the expansions, the playmat, the deluxe components, Horizons and even the shiny holo spirits... I don't play it as frequently these days because I don't have the bandwidth for the complexity so often anymore due to job changes. But that doesn't change the fact that I love the way the games play out. I tend to play solo with 2 spirits, usually against one of the dozen or so Opponents. But also mostly at Level 1 because that is sufficiently difficult for me to struggle to win but mostly not lose the game. My favorite spirit is Thunderspeaker closely followed by other spirits that guard the Dahan and those jungle types that prevent exploring in the first place. Jagged Earth is surely the best expansion but I would always recommend starting with Branch & Claw once someone is comfortable with the rules of the base game. Events and tokens complete the game in my opinion. Rating 10

• 20 Favorite Multiplayer Games in my collection
  It remains my favorite game and has been since I got it. Solo I play with 1 or 2 spirits. It's cooperative. I'd love to play this again with 3 or 4 spirits on the table.
• 2026: Top 20 Heavy Games
  Difficulty scales extremely well
• 2026: Yashima's Game Diary
  My very favorite game. If there was a single game to play for the rest of my gaming life: this would be it. I've said this before about Terra Mystica. But Spirit Island easily surpassed TM. I first learned it at SPIEL in 2017 when the German version was published. I knew instantly this was my new favorite. I bought a copy as fast as I could (it was of course sold out at SPIEL itself). I have all the expansions, the playmat, the deluxe components, Horizons and even the shiny holo spirits... I don't play it as frequently these days because I don't have the bandwidth for the complexity so often anymore due to job changes. But that doesn't change the fact that I love the way the games play out. I tend to play solo with 2 spirits, usually against one of the dozen or so Opponents. But also mostly at Level 1 because that is sufficiently difficult for me to struggle to win but mostly not lose the game. My favorite spirit is Thunderspeaker closely followed by other spirits that guard the Dahan and those jungle types that prevent exploring in the first place. Jagged Earth is surely the best expansion but I would always recommend starting with Branch & Claw once someone is comfortable with the rules of the base game. Events and tokens complete the game in my opinion. * Player Count: 1 * My current rating: * Total Lifetime Plays: 78 (+ probably a couple dozen or so more before I started logging) * Rules Retention: Mostly good. I can also teach this. But I have played this so much * Keeper: It's my favorite game since I got it. * Recommended: Fans of big combotastic cooperative games on a map with tons of different power cards and huge variability. The initial hurdle is learning the rules. There are a lot of them. Understanding Swift vs Turtle phase is what makes or breaks this game. * Competition: Nothing🔥🔥🔥 Not true. Sometimes simpler fare is better like Daybreak (combos)
• 50 Best Games played 5+ times
  I didn’t log my initial plays at least 20 or 30… still awesome. Recently I lack the bandwidth
• All my Deck (and other) Building Games
  Is this really deck building? You buy cards strategically, so it might be. But it is not the primary mechanism here.
• Best in Class
• Game of the Year
  2017
• Games that play well at two
  My favorite game. My favorite spirit count is two. I either two-hand this or play with a friend. A complex cooperative card game on a map with very unique player powers.
• Games with Women Artists
• Me & Crowdfunding
• My 50 favorite cooperative Games
• My Solo Games
  Single or two spirit solo are both geeat
• Yashima's 2023 Top 20 Solo Games
  I don't even need to put this in pubmeeple for the rankings (I have done it but to what end? It just adds to the comparisons) My favorite game of all time. So many spirits now, so many cards. No two games are alike. It has a lot of my favorite game mechanisms (not all of them, so far I see no route building spirit). Ranking last year: 1
• Yashima's 2025 Top 20 Solo Games
  Despite getting to my table not very often it remains a perennial favorite. Work has been stressful so this is not the kind of game I can play a lot. But I dream of being back in the right state of mind. Solo Plays 2025: 4 Ranking Last year: 1
• Yashima's 2026 Top 20 Solo Games
• Yashima‘s 2024 Top 20 Solo Games
  My favorite game both multiplayer and solo. I got sick of it a little bit while being annoyed at having to wait extra months for the latest expansion to arrive in Europe and I really hope Greater Than Games have learned something about importing games themselves… but now that Nature Incarnate is here, my annoyance is all but gone and of course small things like not having even more spirits and cards to play with, cannot truly impinge on how much I love the game. Have loved it since first being taught. (In my experience people who are taught the game enjoy it more than people who have to learn it themselves) Why I love it? * Big stacks of cards * Combos * Each spirit has such thematic abilities and is so different from the others (well mostly, there are some similarities to be found of course) * Growing your board and abilities * Slowly growing your deck * Kicking invader butts. There is endless variety and scaling difficulty levels. I usually play 1 or 2 spirits against a Level 1 or Level 2 opponent, despite having played this a lot, I don‘t feel the need to challenge myself more than that. Solo Plays 2024: 12 Ranking last year: 1
• Yashima’s 2022 Top 20 Solo Games
  #1 When I rank games on pubmeeple, I don‘t even need to include this one. It has been my favorite game by miles since I learned it. There are so many cards, so many spirits and so much variety in this, I cannot see myself getting tired of it. I normally play 2 spirits. My favorite is Thunderspeaker who is so very protective of the Dahan. I played Thunderspeaker more than any other spirit. After the first few games I highly recommend adding the content from Branch & Claw (the first expansion, it adds the tokens & events and two more great spirits). Jagged Earth is definitely „more of the same“ for people who are fans of the game already. It is the best game solo or with two people. I have rarely played with 3 and a few times with 4. Two spirits is the best way to play this and get the satisfying feel of synergy from working together. I could gush about this game for a good while. But it is already my #1 and would have been #1 for all the years that I‘ve had it on my shelves where it will stay indefinitely. PS: but I do hope that after Nature Incarnate there won‘t be more big expansions. Please do not become the next Catan or Carcassonne. The same concept can only be milked for money for so long. This is the only way that I will eventually tire of the game when the content and spinoffs become to numerous to keep up.

Owned Expansions

• Spirit Island: Branch & Claw
• Spirit Island: Promo Pack 1
• Spirit Island: Expansion Playmat
• Spirit Island: Jagged Earth
• Spirit Island: Promo Pack 2
• Spirit Island: Nature Incarnate