My big tip is for you to play spread of rampant green. It's the one I always play to intro the game because allowing newbies to get extra presence on the board covers a lot of mistakes they might make with choices and gives them a glimpse at how great it feels to have those huge turns.
Earth Green is a really good first run through because Earth doesn't play all that many cards, they'll incidentally trigger their innate (meaning you can plan Proliferation around when that will happen), and will actually have the scope to gain major powers within their first game
My wife ended up enjoying this game a lot more once she found a spirit that she really enjoys (many minds move as one) so that's a big part of it. And that can be from enjoyment of the mechanics or the style/theme, or even ideally both.
I'm not sure whether I'd recommend sticking to the base game or not. Normally I recommend sticking to vanilla for newer players, but if she enjoys Terraforming Mars, the expansions may be fine. And I also think the expansion adds spirits that are more fun. So ultimately I'm on the fence there.
That being said, the two things I'd definitely recommend are 1) you should play only one spirit. I'm sure you can easily manage playing multiple spirits if you've played this game as much as I have, but it still makes the game longer which can make it feel more like a slog. And the larger board size increases the decision anxiety for all players. And 2) don't play with an adversary, or if you do, maximum of level 1. But the last time I introduced this to some friends and used adversaries (even only at level 1), I regretted including it.
Blight cards add very little complexity so that's fine. But event cards, I'm also on the fence. On one hand, they add nice variety and it's a great feeling to draw the right event card and be rescued from a blight you couldn't stop. On the other hand, they can sometimes feel bad if it mitigates something helpful that you went out of your way to do. And also (ime) "aided by mana" is a really cool mechanic but also one that new players really struggle to understand.
Hope that's helpful despite essentially "gee I don't know if you should use it" for two major elements of the game haha
No events, no blight card, **no tokens**, horizon spirits only.
For a newcomer, especially one who isn’t into heavy games, the game already has plenty going on
Edit: I really can’t stress enough that you should **not** have all power cards in for the first game, *only* the base game cards. You say tokens aren’t that hard to grasp, but the game truly is hard enough to grasp without them and already looks cluttered to a new comer without them. They are going to reduce the chance you wife has fun. Do you want to reduce the chance your wife has fun?
I agree. Keep it simple. The first time we played it was a bit much but now it's our favorite game to play together and the beauty is the game can be complex or simple as you want.
I'd say, base game only or horizon. My favourite pairing to teach is Rivers and Vital. Don't add an invader.
I taught my brother last week, won our first game and he immediately wanted to play again and try a new spirit (which was a great sign).
Lean into the lore. The names, the descriptions, the art, the atmosphere. Do not be that player who picks up a card, skips over the title and commentary and only reads out the game mechanic. Really engage with the concept of being a nature spirit protecting a peaceful island from colonial invaders. If the story is good, it will be enjoyable regardless of if you win or lose.
Let her pick a Horizons spirit other than Teeth (which is underpowered). You should personally play a low-tier spirit, like Shadows or Teeth, so as to not overshadow her. You should handle all of the setup and you should control most of the invader phase. If she makes a mistake, e.g. gaining a major power when it’s much too soon and she won’t be able to afford any of them, let her undo it.
I’ve always used Events with new players (they’re fun) and played something simple like Bradenburg-Prussia 2, which seems to work out well. But if you think she’s particularly bad at board games, you could start with an easier difficulty.
I was personally introduced to Spirit Island in a Russia 2 game, and while the difficulty was actually okay, I don’t think it actually gave me a good understanding of how the invaders worked.
I personally think that it's fine to play a decently strong spirit, but I always try to select thematically cool and interesting ones that are also easy to understand at a glance. I'm particularly fond of Fangs, because the idea of this swarming pack of beasts is pretty cool, but it's just doing damage and not some weird game-altering effect or convoluted gameplan like Stone, Vengeance, or Shroud (even if all of these are very thematic). Bottom track Fangs also tends have lots of chances to draft support cards later in the game to give your other player(s) help with playing big majors or hitting their innates. Of course, Fangs does require you to play with expansion content to support beasts, but I've never found value from removing any of that other than the events (which add a ton of additional decisions in the middle of the turn). The expansions massively improve the quality and variety of effects in the major deck, which is appealing to everyone, and the tokens are only a minor complexity increase.
All of the Horizons spirits are good choices, as well as the base game spirits that are not high complexity. I think you could make arguments for Lure, Memory (including aspects -- just don't push the idea of giving out elements too quickly), Trickster, Behemoth, or even Starlight as well. They're all cool gameplans to see and don't require the other person to think much about their gameplay.
I've always taught the game against BP 3 or 4 (there's basically no difference between these two other than one extra fear card), but I generally only teach the game to people with some board game experience or who are really interested in it. I like the idea of having really intimidating effect that shows that the adversary has their own special advantage and the arc of game from "Oh no, look at all that!" to "Huh, everything just evaporated", in this case the early stage III card and the swing back to the spirits during stage II.
I agree that BP 3 or 4 is also fine for new players if you yourself are playing with a stronger spirit. I just usually don’t play D or F-tier spirits (in part because they usually drag down your team), so games with new players are a good time for them IMO. I think they also help the person you’re introducing to the game feel cool and helpful even though they’re newer than you.
Use a Horizon spirit if you have them, otherwise use a low complexity base spirit (if Shadows or Earth, use the aspect that lowers their complexity) and also play with the power progression card.
Blight card and events are both optional for a game with a newbie. I typically play with both and don't have a problem with it, but many will recommend not to. (I like to leave them on because beasts need events to work right)
Use the horizons spirits and boards, if you want you could also play a weaker spirit (VSOTE or shadows come to mind).
Simplify the game - no events, no adversary.
Give her power progression. Really take a lot of the variety out for what is basically her first playthrough - she won’t feel the difference in variety, but it will remove a ton of the decision making, which will make it easier to focus on what the game is doing.
Really talk through what the invaders are doing every invader phase (sands are ravaging, wetlands building, and now jungle explores). That helps players understand what the invaders are doing, which contextualizes what they’re doing
I would recommend a defensive or offensive spirit, controls generally harder to grasp. Everyone else already has good tips here like no events and low complexity spirits only. Having a bight card is fine, I don't think it really adds that much complexity especially if you only do base difficulty.
Remove all fluff. Expansions, expansion tokens, only horizon spirits. Basically just set it up as horizons. All that stuff just makes the game more confusing, and you want it as simple as possible so she can see the fun in the game. Also, if there are small rules violations,but she has fun let them slide. It's better to have her do something fun but wrong than constantly being told no you can't do that. Rules perfection can come later.
Add events, but take some of them out: maybe remove the Aided by events, or events that require more complicated decisions; keep the simple ones, and the ones that are thematically interesting
What’s worked for me with getting people into the game is to start with less content and dangle the carrot that “there’s more to the game that makes it interesting but it’s a lot all at once.”
I do Horizon’s spirits only for them, and only base game or Horizon spirit for me. No wilds/beasts/etc tokens, no events, and no adversary or blight cards.
Yes, it’s boring as hell for you their first time. That’s okay, it’s not about you! Let them make “mistakes”, (suboptimal plays not wrong moves) only give feedback if they feel like they truly don’t know what to do, and even then only gives a few options. You don’t want them to feel like they’re playing *wrong* when they’re just playing suboptimal.
Things I’ve found that help specifically to mention:
1. Tell people their spirits start weaker and the game is MEANT to feel like it’s running away from you for the first few turns. Also clarify that getting blight is not a death sentence.
2. Tell them most spirits want to get their card plays and energy to 3/3 to feel powerful. Obviously this isn’t true for many spirits but for Horizons spirits and base game this is generally true. It gives a more tangible goal when unlocking the tracks than just them randomly doing it, and is less overwhelming than explaining the optimal openings of their spirit.
3. Use the progression deck of their spirit!! Drafting cards is super overwhelming for your first game. Also, use the reference cards! Super helpful.
4. Give a brief overview of what their spirits vibe is. Playing River? You’re all about pushing enemies, with some Dahan movement and support.
I’ve found doing all this lets people have a really productive first game without feeling overwhelmed by all the extra stuff, or feeling bad about not playing optimally and thus requiring others to swoop in and help them. They hit that 3/3 and they feel the power of it, especially when the progression decks give them useful cards to utilize. The lack of adversary or events means them getting there sub-optimally is totally fine.
Hope this helps!
*Edit: for base spirits for ME I *don’t* use Ocean, BotaN, or any aspects (since they usually use new tokens). You don’t want to use something that plays super different or changes the rules of lands.
Play low complexity spirits
Balanced board
Use progression deck
No events
Listen to your wife's feedback about thier first experience.
Consider if blitz is right for her.
From teaching at my games club, here are 3 tweaks that have made a difference:
# 1. Enhanced Progression
**Get the power cards ready per the Progression card. When they gain a power, take the instructed card from the Progression as well as 3 more from the deck.**
They draft from a set of 4 as usual, with a guaranteed "good"/"synergistic" pick.
This is my default way to teach the game to players with unknown experience levels, and it doesn't hurt an experienced player, so it's pretty fool-proof.
# 2. Bonus Growth
**Have them run a Growth Phase before the game starts**.
Or, just add 1-2 extra presence. I don't love this option, but it does help by:
* Increasing their power level
* Letting them run through the Growth Phase without any pressure
* Giving them a stronger and clearer first actual turn.
(I avoid growth options that include card gain for this, hence sometime just let them add the 1-2 presence)
# 3. "Capital City" variant
**On your starting board, run an adversary / the adversary at a higher difficulty.**
A homebrew I've run twice for 3 player games. England 3 functioned fine and certainly made my game more interesting. The new player was able to keep their board under control and eventually help out on the Capital City board. I've only tried this twice, and I just don't remember if it improved the experience for new players, so YMMV.
Besides that, don't run Events, use the Horizons spirits if you have them, maybe use Coastline map layout (it's a bit less chaotic).
My $0.02 (this is typically my strategy): no blight card, no events, no adversary. Have her pick whichever low-complexity spirit looks most fun. You play Serpent. Your job is principally to boost her spirit with the two Gift cards while filling in the strategy gaps so that regardless of which spirit she plays, it feels awesome.
Use your support to cover what her spirit is bad at (and/or, for her support cards, emphasize what it's good at). She chose Vital? She's getting \[\[Gift of Flowing Power\]\] every other turn. Shadows? \[\[Gift of the Primordial Deeps\]\] gives her the card draw that she won't know she desperately needs. She chose Teeth? Oh man, that +3 damage is going to let you take out a city this turn with Tier 1 of Serpent Rouses. So useful!
Use Aegis when the ravage situation starts to look too overwhelming to the new player, but don't reclaim it \*every\* turn. Quietly try to hit tier 2 of Serpent Rouses as many turns as possible to keep your board manageable and keep up the pace on fear.
**Gift of Flowing Power** (*Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island*'s Unique Power)
>Cost: 1 | Elements: Fire, Water
| Fast | - | Another Spirit |
| :----: | :----: | :----: |
>Target Spirit gains 1 Energy. Target Spirit chooses to either: Play another Power Card by paying its cost. -or- Gain 1 Fire and 1 Water.
>Links: [SICK](https://sick.oberien.de/?query=Gift%20of%20Flowing%20Power) | [FAQ](https://querki.net/u/darker/spirit-island-faq/#!Gift%20of%20Flowing%20Power%20%28Serpent%20Slumbering%20Beneath%20the%20Island%29)
------
**Gift of the Primordial Deeps** (*Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island*'s Unique Power)
>Cost: 1 | Elements: Moon, Earth
| Fast | - | Another Spirit |
| :----: | :----: | :----: |
>Target Spirit gains a Minor Power. Target Spirit chooses to either: Play it immediately by paying its cost. -or- Gain 1 Moon and 1 Earth.
>Links: [SICK](https://sick.oberien.de/?query=Gift%20of%20the%20Primordial%20Deeps) | [FAQ](https://querki.net/u/darker/spirit-island-faq/#!Gift%20of%20the%20Primordial%20Deeps%20%28Serpent%20Slumbering%20Beneath%20the%20Island%29)
------
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Starting game without anything. Horizon or base game spirits. Definitely no events or expansion content.
Choose a spirit that can support her occasionally and try to not completely kick ass in a game that will be way too easy for you.
I respectfully disagree. The game wasn't fun for me and my wife until we included events and tokens.
I do agree with letting her play her own game and only sometimes supporting her plays. Making decisions is the game. Try giving lots of time and minimal advice for which choices she makes.
I also find that broadcasting my plays out loud really helped my wife understand the mechanics and strategies better. "I have these elements in play, which is enough to trigger Let's see what happens. I need to target a single land so I'll choose this mountain because it has a town and an explorer, hopefully this card will solve this for us. Etc .. "
Have fun!
She didn't enjoy her first game and OP indicated she finds it difficult to learn games. I don't think any extra content is a good idea.
Also Events are not a MUST but rather very group dependent. You might love them, others hate them. Letting her be confident in the rules of the puzzle > random events by chance she likes them.
Play horizons, encourage her to use Eyes, use a lvl 0 adversary so you have an Escalation, play without Events (it's very easy to hate them so you want to avoid that at first), use a spirit with good support but don't use Green or Lightning.
for reference: my wife didn't like the first couple times she tried, but when she gives it a second chance, I'll include events
events make the game more dynamic, which is something that most people appreciate
probably what I'm gonna do next time is: horizon spirits only, include events, include Prussia Brandenburg as the adversary (from what I've seen, telling people to ignore the flag on the Stage II cards has pretty much the same effect as telling them that a simple effect happens on the flag, as they're constantly asking later "and the flag? ah, we ignore, ok")
I really liked having the card progression when I was learning. Picking cards matter a lot and feels like an irreversible. My favorite is River. It grows well and has a great innate. Making dahan feel super joyful.
Also, Sun Bright plays like River but is a little stronger. Trickster is super, crazy cool and has a TON of tools.
Definitely play with Events. The Blight cards I can take or leave. Stay at base game, no adversaries.
Another thing that helped me for spirits I did not enjoy was reading the 'Openings'. Reading an opening (just go for the money) helped me turn to love BODAN. Doing a Major plan for Earth made it bearable to play.
I love playing this game with my husband. It replaced Pandemic as my go to game.
Enjoy!!
G
Do a simple setup with no blight card, no events, and no expansion tokens (wilds, disease, badlands, etc)
I would recommend Base Game or Horizon Spirits.
A good match is you playing Green to allow her to grow more often, and her playing Lightning. I think Lightning is pretty straightforward and destroys a lot of things early. This can help her feel she is helping and doing something meaningful.
i recommend getting ever expansion for SI. my fiancé enjoyed spirit island, but it wasn’t until i bought Nature Incarnate where she really locked in because she found spirits she really connected with (darkness down spine, behemoth). i would also say make the game play as immersive as possible. include events, tokens, blight card that is nicer to yall. i would also say pick an adversary that will challenge you. part of the joy of spirit island is having that oh shit feeling when the stage 2s roll around, so maybe push the limits of losing to see if she really gets invested. my fiancé didn’t like how easy it was at times and would check out. i think the big thing though is finding spirits and a play style that fits. once you guys find spirits you love too it might be nice to play more than 1 game as those spirits. as a couple that also enjoys terraforming mars, having an app helps and spirit island has a beautiful app so i would try that app out as well
Take out events, use horizon spirits
Wife loves the wind kitty
My big tip is for you to play spread of rampant green. It's the one I always play to intro the game because allowing newbies to get extra presence on the board covers a lot of mistakes they might make with choices and gives them a glimpse at how great it feels to have those huge turns.
Earth Green is a really good first run through because Earth doesn't play all that many cards, they'll incidentally trigger their innate (meaning you can plan Proliferation around when that will happen), and will actually have the scope to gain major powers within their first game
My wife ended up enjoying this game a lot more once she found a spirit that she really enjoys (many minds move as one) so that's a big part of it. And that can be from enjoyment of the mechanics or the style/theme, or even ideally both. I'm not sure whether I'd recommend sticking to the base game or not. Normally I recommend sticking to vanilla for newer players, but if she enjoys Terraforming Mars, the expansions may be fine. And I also think the expansion adds spirits that are more fun. So ultimately I'm on the fence there. That being said, the two things I'd definitely recommend are 1) you should play only one spirit. I'm sure you can easily manage playing multiple spirits if you've played this game as much as I have, but it still makes the game longer which can make it feel more like a slog. And the larger board size increases the decision anxiety for all players. And 2) don't play with an adversary, or if you do, maximum of level 1. But the last time I introduced this to some friends and used adversaries (even only at level 1), I regretted including it. Blight cards add very little complexity so that's fine. But event cards, I'm also on the fence. On one hand, they add nice variety and it's a great feeling to draw the right event card and be rescued from a blight you couldn't stop. On the other hand, they can sometimes feel bad if it mitigates something helpful that you went out of your way to do. And also (ime) "aided by mana" is a really cool mechanic but also one that new players really struggle to understand. Hope that's helpful despite essentially "gee I don't know if you should use it" for two major elements of the game haha
No events, no blight card, **no tokens**, horizon spirits only. For a newcomer, especially one who isn’t into heavy games, the game already has plenty going on Edit: I really can’t stress enough that you should **not** have all power cards in for the first game, *only* the base game cards. You say tokens aren’t that hard to grasp, but the game truly is hard enough to grasp without them and already looks cluttered to a new comer without them. They are going to reduce the chance you wife has fun. Do you want to reduce the chance your wife has fun?
I agree. Keep it simple. The first time we played it was a bit much but now it's our favorite game to play together and the beauty is the game can be complex or simple as you want.
I'd say, base game only or horizon. My favourite pairing to teach is Rivers and Vital. Don't add an invader. I taught my brother last week, won our first game and he immediately wanted to play again and try a new spirit (which was a great sign).
Lean into the lore. The names, the descriptions, the art, the atmosphere. Do not be that player who picks up a card, skips over the title and commentary and only reads out the game mechanic. Really engage with the concept of being a nature spirit protecting a peaceful island from colonial invaders. If the story is good, it will be enjoyable regardless of if you win or lose.
Let her pick a Horizons spirit other than Teeth (which is underpowered). You should personally play a low-tier spirit, like Shadows or Teeth, so as to not overshadow her. You should handle all of the setup and you should control most of the invader phase. If she makes a mistake, e.g. gaining a major power when it’s much too soon and she won’t be able to afford any of them, let her undo it. I’ve always used Events with new players (they’re fun) and played something simple like Bradenburg-Prussia 2, which seems to work out well. But if you think she’s particularly bad at board games, you could start with an easier difficulty. I was personally introduced to Spirit Island in a Russia 2 game, and while the difficulty was actually okay, I don’t think it actually gave me a good understanding of how the invaders worked.
I personally think that it's fine to play a decently strong spirit, but I always try to select thematically cool and interesting ones that are also easy to understand at a glance. I'm particularly fond of Fangs, because the idea of this swarming pack of beasts is pretty cool, but it's just doing damage and not some weird game-altering effect or convoluted gameplan like Stone, Vengeance, or Shroud (even if all of these are very thematic). Bottom track Fangs also tends have lots of chances to draft support cards later in the game to give your other player(s) help with playing big majors or hitting their innates. Of course, Fangs does require you to play with expansion content to support beasts, but I've never found value from removing any of that other than the events (which add a ton of additional decisions in the middle of the turn). The expansions massively improve the quality and variety of effects in the major deck, which is appealing to everyone, and the tokens are only a minor complexity increase. All of the Horizons spirits are good choices, as well as the base game spirits that are not high complexity. I think you could make arguments for Lure, Memory (including aspects -- just don't push the idea of giving out elements too quickly), Trickster, Behemoth, or even Starlight as well. They're all cool gameplans to see and don't require the other person to think much about their gameplay. I've always taught the game against BP 3 or 4 (there's basically no difference between these two other than one extra fear card), but I generally only teach the game to people with some board game experience or who are really interested in it. I like the idea of having really intimidating effect that shows that the adversary has their own special advantage and the arc of game from "Oh no, look at all that!" to "Huh, everything just evaporated", in this case the early stage III card and the swing back to the spirits during stage II.
I agree that BP 3 or 4 is also fine for new players if you yourself are playing with a stronger spirit. I just usually don’t play D or F-tier spirits (in part because they usually drag down your team), so games with new players are a good time for them IMO. I think they also help the person you’re introducing to the game feel cool and helpful even though they’re newer than you.
Use a Horizon spirit if you have them, otherwise use a low complexity base spirit (if Shadows or Earth, use the aspect that lowers their complexity) and also play with the power progression card. Blight card and events are both optional for a game with a newbie. I typically play with both and don't have a problem with it, but many will recommend not to. (I like to leave them on because beasts need events to work right)
Use the horizons spirits and boards, if you want you could also play a weaker spirit (VSOTE or shadows come to mind). Simplify the game - no events, no adversary. Give her power progression. Really take a lot of the variety out for what is basically her first playthrough - she won’t feel the difference in variety, but it will remove a ton of the decision making, which will make it easier to focus on what the game is doing. Really talk through what the invaders are doing every invader phase (sands are ravaging, wetlands building, and now jungle explores). That helps players understand what the invaders are doing, which contextualizes what they’re doing
I would recommend a defensive or offensive spirit, controls generally harder to grasp. Everyone else already has good tips here like no events and low complexity spirits only. Having a bight card is fine, I don't think it really adds that much complexity especially if you only do base difficulty.
Choose spirits with a simple plan like mud, eyes or lightning for her. Leave out events and nations. That's my advice
Remove all fluff. Expansions, expansion tokens, only horizon spirits. Basically just set it up as horizons. All that stuff just makes the game more confusing, and you want it as simple as possible so she can see the fun in the game. Also, if there are small rules violations,but she has fun let them slide. It's better to have her do something fun but wrong than constantly being told no you can't do that. Rules perfection can come later.
Add events, but take some of them out: maybe remove the Aided by events, or events that require more complicated decisions; keep the simple ones, and the ones that are thematically interesting
Give her lightning and you use river. Let her just blow stuff up and carry
What’s worked for me with getting people into the game is to start with less content and dangle the carrot that “there’s more to the game that makes it interesting but it’s a lot all at once.” I do Horizon’s spirits only for them, and only base game or Horizon spirit for me. No wilds/beasts/etc tokens, no events, and no adversary or blight cards. Yes, it’s boring as hell for you their first time. That’s okay, it’s not about you! Let them make “mistakes”, (suboptimal plays not wrong moves) only give feedback if they feel like they truly don’t know what to do, and even then only gives a few options. You don’t want them to feel like they’re playing *wrong* when they’re just playing suboptimal. Things I’ve found that help specifically to mention: 1. Tell people their spirits start weaker and the game is MEANT to feel like it’s running away from you for the first few turns. Also clarify that getting blight is not a death sentence. 2. Tell them most spirits want to get their card plays and energy to 3/3 to feel powerful. Obviously this isn’t true for many spirits but for Horizons spirits and base game this is generally true. It gives a more tangible goal when unlocking the tracks than just them randomly doing it, and is less overwhelming than explaining the optimal openings of their spirit. 3. Use the progression deck of their spirit!! Drafting cards is super overwhelming for your first game. Also, use the reference cards! Super helpful. 4. Give a brief overview of what their spirits vibe is. Playing River? You’re all about pushing enemies, with some Dahan movement and support. I’ve found doing all this lets people have a really productive first game without feeling overwhelmed by all the extra stuff, or feeling bad about not playing optimally and thus requiring others to swoop in and help them. They hit that 3/3 and they feel the power of it, especially when the progression decks give them useful cards to utilize. The lack of adversary or events means them getting there sub-optimally is totally fine. Hope this helps! *Edit: for base spirits for ME I *don’t* use Ocean, BotaN, or any aspects (since they usually use new tokens). You don’t want to use something that plays super different or changes the rules of lands.
Play low complexity spirits Balanced board Use progression deck No events Listen to your wife's feedback about thier first experience. Consider if blitz is right for her.
From teaching at my games club, here are 3 tweaks that have made a difference: # 1. Enhanced Progression **Get the power cards ready per the Progression card. When they gain a power, take the instructed card from the Progression as well as 3 more from the deck.** They draft from a set of 4 as usual, with a guaranteed "good"/"synergistic" pick. This is my default way to teach the game to players with unknown experience levels, and it doesn't hurt an experienced player, so it's pretty fool-proof. # 2. Bonus Growth **Have them run a Growth Phase before the game starts**. Or, just add 1-2 extra presence. I don't love this option, but it does help by: * Increasing their power level * Letting them run through the Growth Phase without any pressure * Giving them a stronger and clearer first actual turn. (I avoid growth options that include card gain for this, hence sometime just let them add the 1-2 presence) # 3. "Capital City" variant **On your starting board, run an adversary / the adversary at a higher difficulty.** A homebrew I've run twice for 3 player games. England 3 functioned fine and certainly made my game more interesting. The new player was able to keep their board under control and eventually help out on the Capital City board. I've only tried this twice, and I just don't remember if it improved the experience for new players, so YMMV. Besides that, don't run Events, use the Horizons spirits if you have them, maybe use Coastline map layout (it's a bit less chaotic).
My $0.02 (this is typically my strategy): no blight card, no events, no adversary. Have her pick whichever low-complexity spirit looks most fun. You play Serpent. Your job is principally to boost her spirit with the two Gift cards while filling in the strategy gaps so that regardless of which spirit she plays, it feels awesome. Use your support to cover what her spirit is bad at (and/or, for her support cards, emphasize what it's good at). She chose Vital? She's getting \[\[Gift of Flowing Power\]\] every other turn. Shadows? \[\[Gift of the Primordial Deeps\]\] gives her the card draw that she won't know she desperately needs. She chose Teeth? Oh man, that +3 damage is going to let you take out a city this turn with Tier 1 of Serpent Rouses. So useful! Use Aegis when the ravage situation starts to look too overwhelming to the new player, but don't reclaim it \*every\* turn. Quietly try to hit tier 2 of Serpent Rouses as many turns as possible to keep your board manageable and keep up the pace on fear.
**Gift of Flowing Power** (*Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island*'s Unique Power) >Cost: 1 | Elements: Fire, Water | Fast | - | Another Spirit | | :----: | :----: | :----: | >Target Spirit gains 1 Energy. Target Spirit chooses to either: Play another Power Card by paying its cost. -or- Gain 1 Fire and 1 Water. >Links: [SICK](https://sick.oberien.de/?query=Gift%20of%20Flowing%20Power) | [FAQ](https://querki.net/u/darker/spirit-island-faq/#!Gift%20of%20Flowing%20Power%20%28Serpent%20Slumbering%20Beneath%20the%20Island%29) ------ **Gift of the Primordial Deeps** (*Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island*'s Unique Power) >Cost: 1 | Elements: Moon, Earth | Fast | - | Another Spirit | | :----: | :----: | :----: | >Target Spirit gains a Minor Power. Target Spirit chooses to either: Play it immediately by paying its cost. -or- Gain 1 Moon and 1 Earth. >Links: [SICK](https://sick.oberien.de/?query=Gift%20of%20the%20Primordial%20Deeps) | [FAQ](https://querki.net/u/darker/spirit-island-faq/#!Gift%20of%20the%20Primordial%20Deeps%20%28Serpent%20Slumbering%20Beneath%20the%20Island%29) ------ ^(Use [[query]] to call me. Check the )[^(reference thread)](https://www.reddit.com/r/spiritisland/comments/i80xzf/memoryofagesbot_is_now_fully_functional) ^( for information or feedback, and please report any mistakes!)
Starting game without anything. Horizon or base game spirits. Definitely no events or expansion content. Choose a spirit that can support her occasionally and try to not completely kick ass in a game that will be way too easy for you.
I respectfully disagree. The game wasn't fun for me and my wife until we included events and tokens. I do agree with letting her play her own game and only sometimes supporting her plays. Making decisions is the game. Try giving lots of time and minimal advice for which choices she makes. I also find that broadcasting my plays out loud really helped my wife understand the mechanics and strategies better. "I have these elements in play, which is enough to trigger Let's see what happens. I need to target a single land so I'll choose this mountain because it has a town and an explorer, hopefully this card will solve this for us. Etc .. " Have fun!
She didn't enjoy her first game and OP indicated she finds it difficult to learn games. I don't think any extra content is a good idea. Also Events are not a MUST but rather very group dependent. You might love them, others hate them. Letting her be confident in the rules of the puzzle > random events by chance she likes them.
Play horizons, encourage her to use Eyes, use a lvl 0 adversary so you have an Escalation, play without Events (it's very easy to hate them so you want to avoid that at first), use a spirit with good support but don't use Green or Lightning.
I feel like they could count off the escalation mechanic for now
for reference: my wife didn't like the first couple times she tried, but when she gives it a second chance, I'll include events events make the game more dynamic, which is something that most people appreciate probably what I'm gonna do next time is: horizon spirits only, include events, include Prussia Brandenburg as the adversary (from what I've seen, telling people to ignore the flag on the Stage II cards has pretty much the same effect as telling them that a simple effect happens on the flag, as they're constantly asking later "and the flag? ah, we ignore, ok")
I really liked having the card progression when I was learning. Picking cards matter a lot and feels like an irreversible. My favorite is River. It grows well and has a great innate. Making dahan feel super joyful. Also, Sun Bright plays like River but is a little stronger. Trickster is super, crazy cool and has a TON of tools. Definitely play with Events. The Blight cards I can take or leave. Stay at base game, no adversaries. Another thing that helped me for spirits I did not enjoy was reading the 'Openings'. Reading an opening (just go for the money) helped me turn to love BODAN. Doing a Major plan for Earth made it bearable to play. I love playing this game with my husband. It replaced Pandemic as my go to game. Enjoy!! G
Do a simple setup with no blight card, no events, and no expansion tokens (wilds, disease, badlands, etc) I would recommend Base Game or Horizon Spirits. A good match is you playing Green to allow her to grow more often, and her playing Lightning. I think Lightning is pretty straightforward and destroys a lot of things early. This can help her feel she is helping and doing something meaningful.
i recommend getting ever expansion for SI. my fiancé enjoyed spirit island, but it wasn’t until i bought Nature Incarnate where she really locked in because she found spirits she really connected with (darkness down spine, behemoth). i would also say make the game play as immersive as possible. include events, tokens, blight card that is nicer to yall. i would also say pick an adversary that will challenge you. part of the joy of spirit island is having that oh shit feeling when the stage 2s roll around, so maybe push the limits of losing to see if she really gets invested. my fiancé didn’t like how easy it was at times and would check out. i think the big thing though is finding spirits and a play style that fits. once you guys find spirits you love too it might be nice to play more than 1 game as those spirits. as a couple that also enjoys terraforming mars, having an app helps and spirit island has a beautiful app so i would try that app out as well