Spirit Island: Red's Final Tier List: Part 8: X-tier

[@JG-jc8dm]

Well, we made it folks! Thanks for all the coverage Red, sterling job here.

[@RezDisciple]

Thanks so much for all you work and contribution to the Spirit Island community Red! I've really enjoyed watching your videos every evening while I'm eating lunch. So informative, and gets me excited to play spirits I usually don't play. And, congratulations on completing this awesome tier list saga!

[@IamJFD]

Time stamp for those interested. > > > > > @0:38 Dances up Earthquakes @7:01 Hearth Vigil @14:53 Fractured Days Split the Sky @21:04 Spread of Rampant Green @24:30 Stones Unyielding Defiance Thanks a lot RedRevenge for giving lots of content for SI fans 😁

[@006bsc96]

Thanks for covering all this! It was so fun to watch. And super helpful to think about which spirits to play more and dive into more

[@Metylene]

0:36 Number Five 6:58 Number Four 14:53 Number Three 21:01 Number Two 24:26 And... Number One ! 31:00 Tiermaker

[@BlunderSpeaker]

Thanks so much for these, awesome series. My NI was just delivered a few days ago, im super excited to try everything... Gaze was the one that caught my eye most, so I was so intrigued to hear your opinion... And really hoping you wouldnt spoil it with "the solved build is X"... When you said that the spirit is so flexible and can do anything , it made my day! 😊 Looking forward to the major vid when it drops. Take it easy

[@TheDarktater]

Thank you so much for this whole series. It prompted me to bust out Horizons this week and at least play through every spirit once solo. That one had been sitting unplayed since it was released.

[@Corroyeur]

I hope this series of vids will let the haters realize that, wether they agree with your opinions or not, those are not random or unjustified. The whole criteria process was as close to the scientific method as you can get in the context of a game. Not full proof, for sure, but it's clear that you have thought a long time about all this, and that you're not bashing Ocean just for the meme. Thanks a lot for those incredibly detailed explanations:

[@lonelysandbar]

Well done! In cycling there's a system for classifying mountains, or climbs riders have to go up in a variet of criteria of difficulty. Their X tier in their system is called Hors catégorie, or Beyond Categorization. Like the mountain to just too big, too much to really classify (and those climbs are what makes or breaks the big races). That's what I feel like the X tier is, and arguing placing in them is somewhat superfluous. Just big spirits that just go beyond the confines of the game, trivializing aspects or most of it.

[@brianmurphy9039]

minor correction , Finder also starts with all elements not just Dances

[@K4350-]

been waiting for this one all week :)

[@Lolzax123]

Really enjoyed the tier list, looking forward to all the content on the way! I love seeing mud right in the middle, surrounded by all its friends, like it's in a big hug (as it should be)

[@sukemeny3718]

Your assessment and/or the power levels are well calibrated, because you have a nice bell curve in the tier list.

[@strategymeeples]

Incredible work with all your tier-list videos Red! Thanks for putting in all the time and effort in making and editing these videos! Definitely makes me want to play more Spirit Island and explore new spirits and strategies. Cheers 🎉

[@wizrad2762]

Amazing series! Love your style of explaining and why each spirit is ranked how it is.

[@bentombob]

Fractured not in top spot: How dare you! Because it's so complicated that sometimes you can't even tell if your lines are optimal and most of the criteria used to judge it are literally question marks: Yeah fair enough.

[@itamarblufarb4242]

Great list! Think it’s clear that the average spirit strength is getting higher with each expansion. For me, the games starts to become a bit too easy (don’t like to combine adversaries). Honestly, would like to see an adversary aspects, maybe additional two-three levels to each one

[@corinnacohn7389]

Congratulations on this series! Looking forward to seeing NI games

[@jakersni9499]

I didn't even know X tier was a thing! Excellent list Red. Thanks for all your work.

[@tpa3437]

Very nice series. Insteresting for me even if Im nowhere near the experience or skill requiered to really 'feel' those tiers while playing.

[@ZayulRasco]

That's a wrap! Loved this analysis.

[@Annokh]

Watching the previous video, I kept thinking "Should they really be like that?" I haven't watched this one yet, but I guess I'm in for a treat of sorts...

[@amansparekh]

Stone has always been my favourite spirit, whether it was when I first got into the game and was struggling to beat level 6s, or using it to solo 6-6s. Conceptually just awesome.

[@RedReVenge007]

Stone is so powerful, it started this channel!

[@kungusrungus2133]

Friend loses as Fractured: “it’s ok bro, the wetlands had turbulent flow, your calculations were gonna be off no matter what, better luck next time.” Friend loses as Stone’s: “bro stop trolling.”

[@DrDrao]

I'm gonna come bat for regrowth green. It's insane. I understand why one might rate it worse than base, but it's definitely not 2 tiers worse. The aspect innate is basically 1-2 skips a turn if you plan ahead. It also has more auto win draws. Solidify echos, especially, is the most busted card/spirit pair in the game.

[@RedReVenge007]

It's definitely an aspect that I'll have to take a deeper look at for next years tier list! Losing the defend is pretty rough as it hurts alot of counter attack strategies. Though it does have massive skip potential.

[@kunkudunk1133]

I wondered if the France match up would drop dances below vigil and so it did (as well as vigil just being nuts). I will say that you can do a “sub optimal” dances build by taking a presence off bottom track first for setting up more counter attacks especially if you draft a defend. This can help keep the town limit under control in the match up. Sub optimal is in quotes because it’s also one of my preferred ways to play dances as dahan movement every spirit phase is very powerful. Also surprised to see fractured where it is but I guess the nature of the spirit does make its games a bit of a wild ride where there is almost always an answer but it’s often convoluted. Even its growths have so many choices to make

[@IamJFD]

I think Dances is still below Virgil without France. Dance rely on turn 4 or 5 burst, though its a very big one. by then Virgil might have pockets in its board and helping others.

[@kunkudunk1133]

@@IamJFD generally I agree although dances does come with a skip and hands out a decent amount of energy right when some spirits would be trying to play majors. Not to say that Vigil hasn't done enough to compensate by the time those effects matter but Dances does have a lot of the usual things you see from high power spirits (which I suppose is why it's also in X tier) while Vigil just turns the dahan into spec ops units. As it turns out, spec ops dahan are very powerful.

[@IamJFD]

@@kunkudunk1133 spec ops dahan that are immune to event destruction, event increase damage, etc. not too mention it benefits on all dahan events. earthquake can be easily countered by a little damage increase

[@Reggie1408]

Are you planning to update your Match-Up Axis?

[@RedReVenge007]

Yes, it's been worked on since NI playtesting 2 years ago.

[@stefans4562]

How would you rate Shadows with Amorpheous and Madness played at the same time? I know it's not rules conforming. I'd say it's C tier. About on par with Lightning Pandemonium. What happens if you throw Dark Fire into the mix? B tier or even A tier? That would be combining three aspects to get a spirit that is just about avarage. So what would you do to 'fix' Shadows?

[@RedReVenge007]

I don't think Amorphous + Madness makes Shadows much better as Amorphous is a slight boost in power. Likely top of D tier if you combine both. Combining with Darkfire + Madness would be a huge action economy boost and likely would land it into high B or A tier. I don't think it's healthy for the spirit as it reduces what the spirit is doing and just gives it a lot of free tools.

[@Vagabond_4Life]

Thanks for the awesome tier list! Big fan.

[@buckcherry2564]

woo, Fractured was obvious, I LOVE me some timelord. Dances has been "my" incarnate spirit (without an incarna, lol) and I am actually not very good with it (dunno why, it just hasnt clicked yet and I love complex spirits)...didnt expect it to be X-tier.

[@nitrorev]

I'm really excited about Fractured coming to Digital because I love its concept but in general I don't like playing spirits/characters that are overpowered because it undermines the challenge somewhat. How do you feel about playing the strongest spirits? Does the fact that you know you'll win 100% of games not diminish the fun factor at all?

[@RedReVenge007]

The fun factor comes comes from looking for new combos and further optimizing the matchup.

[@YNM44]

Great series! I enjoyed it. So the only Spirits that don’t have an aspect ascending them to at least B tier are Shadow and Teeth. I’m thinking about tweaking them, for example give them a 1-2 cards matching their elements (or give Grant Hatred to Shadow, lol).

[@Tudorhnii]

Fractured is my go-to, and I always thought putting him as number 1 was too high... Not as consistent or robust as the other X-tier spirits (and even some S-tier), as the whole strategy hinges on the days deck. 1-2 busted cards in the days deck? X+ tier. Completely hosed on days deck and subsequent draws? A-tier maybe... I've had those righteous 3-4 turn wins on difficulty 11, and also those games grinding 8+ turns on difficulty 4 haha... Great job and thanks for your insight!

[@stefans4562]

What are your thoughts on aspects, that make a spirit less powerful? There are 23 Spirits in F to C tier. Out of those only Shadows and Teath don't have an aspect that places them in B tier. Then there are 11 Spirits in S and X tier. None of them are aspects. Only two of them have an aspect that brings them down to A tier or lower. What would need to happen to bring those remaining 2 low tier and 9 high tier spirits into B to A tier? Is it even possible to nerf those X tier spirits into B or A tier without completely ruining their character?

[@MolochDE]

I'm not sure, how people like a nerf if it's not fun. Maybe a good and fast fix could be giving spirits's and their aspects not just com complexety up/down and go all the way of having your choice of spirit influence the difficulty score of your game. Since aspects don't replace the original spirits as choices we will never have their strength be equal and that's fine. We could still acnowledge that beating Sweden 6 with vanilla Shadows is a greater feat than with vanilla Green.

[@sirhasslich536]

Not that I need it cuz tierlists are just opinions excelized(albeit also well consulted and researched in this case), but the completionist in me is curious about where does one see the spreadsheet version.

[@bradymccann]

Fantastic series. I prefer discourse over gameplay videos. Thanks!

[@kingpin3000]

I can't find the template you're using on Tiermaker. Could you share it please?

[@bcantui]

Amazing video series. Will make me go watch a few of your guides again! Are you planning on doing the matchup ratings against adversaries like you had before NI?

[@RedReVenge007]

The matchup rankings actually begun while we were playtesting NI, so yea I plan to release those at some point!

[@bcantui]

@@RedReVenge007 awesome! Should I expect it in video form or written? Only ask since I’m pretty bad at following up anything but videos haha

[@RedReVenge007]

@@bcantui It will be in a video form, but also written. The tier list will also be written, but I had to expand it across multiple videos and didn't want to release the final written form until the last video!

[@Annokh]

@@RedReVenge007 Am I understanding it correctly that it's going to be an update on what was posted... About half a year ago, I think?

[@RedReVenge007]

@@Annokh you are correct.

[@jonashartmann6687]

one thing you always say is that you consider spirits with skips as tanks, but here you say fractured isnt a tank.. how is that?

[@RedReVenge007]

Absolute Stasis is a weird skip in that it makes the land not exist. Very strong, but costs a time which is a very important resource. Usually, tank spirits can continuously skip lands and Fractured isn't capable of doing this. Also, most tank spirits have some control element that can funnel invaders into that land. Fractured doesn't start the game with one, but ofc can draw one in the Days. I should have mentioned how good AS is because the card is essential to Fractured and trivializes alot of matchups, but I don't consider Fractured a Tank.

[@dieformetal5021]

What plataform is that? It is not steam, what is?

[@RedReVenge007]

Tabletop simulator on steam

[@dieformetal5021]

@@RedReVenge007 thanks, do u reconmend it?

[@RedReVenge007]

@@dieformetal5021 yes definitely

[@dylogysminter]

What is the problem with DUE against France exactly. I don't play turn 4 massive earthquake against France, but i never ran into an edge case where i had to go over limit. Don't have very many games with DUE against France though.

[@RedReVenge007]

There's a high chance that you will be at 7 towns just from the normal build cycles. This means any extra explorer add/town add usually results in a game loss.

[@tomaselizondo92]

Do you have a link to the final tier list in image format?

[@RedReVenge007]

Later tonight! I'll have a BGG post!

[@Qred0122]

Base River was 52 in the C tier video but 45 on the final list?

[@RedReVenge007]

Correct, my list is always changing and these videos were made far apart from each other!

[@Qred0122]

Gotcha@@RedReVenge007 Have you thought about making a complexity ranking? I know you've commented in individual spirit guides about their relative complexity like Finder and Fractured being the top.

[@RedReVenge007]

@@Qred0122 not likely, as I think it would be pretty close to what’s shown on the boards.

[@otis6878]

I mean with a face like that, it was always clear stone just doesn't give a damn

[@noahduncan4095]

Let's start a campaign to get Locus in S tier 💪. Great list though!

[@dylogysminter]

Oh Fractured can take over the game very well. There are so many games where I had a great days that never were and completely destroyed. One notable one was when I thresholded cast down on turn 3 for example. But I have like 5-10 games where i completely solo carried with fractured. I don't often go for it, because I like playing a support style game, but sometimes it's just the best thing to do.

[@MrMicroSpy]

Time to Retire Red.

[@RedReVenge007]

My bags are packed!