SpiritWars Strategy Guide
by Xerin

SpiritWars is a wonderfully addictive game. Like chess, the basics are easy to learn, but you can spend years developing strategies that will lead you to victory. In this guide, we'll talk about the basic strategies first, and then get into some of the more advanced concepts.

If you haven't already read the Quick Start Tutorial, do that first, then come back to this guide. I am assuming you already understand the basic mechanics of the game.

In some examples, I discuss spirits that are only available in the Member version of the game. However, Free players may still get to see some of these spirits in the Tourneys that are held each week. I define these spirits in case you haven't seen them yet, and all the principles discussed here apply to both the Free and Member versions.

Basic Strategies

Understanding Homelands

New players often miss this key aspect of the game. To win consistently, it is critical that you master the concept of homelands. Take a look at the homelands key to the right.

There are six colors in the game, each of which corresponds to a terrain type. The homeland for a spirit is the terrain type that matches the color of that spirit. For example, Apulian Lancers are a white spirit, and their homeland is flatlands. Pale Riders are a black spirit, and their homeland is darklands. And so on.

You will notice there are two terrain types for blue: shallow and deep water. Only blue spirits can enter deep water terrain. Also, cursed terrain does not correspond to any color, and cannot be entered by any spirit.

Now let's talk about homeland bonuses. When you place an energy spirit on its homeland, you get +1 energy per turn. That may not sound like much, but it can make a big difference when you want to summon that Shaman. So, a water wheel placed on drylands terrain will only generate 1 energy/turn, while it will give you 2 energy/turn if you place it on wetlands.

A spirit on homelands also receives a +1 bonus to attack and defense. Let's look at a quick example:

Here we have 2 spotted leopards. You'll notice the silver player has his leopards on homelands (forest terrain), while the gold player does not (flatlands terrain). That green triangle at the bottom of each picture tells you that both of these are green spirits. Spotted leopards have an attack power of 1 and a defense of 2.

But don't forget the homelands bonus! The silver leopard gets a homelands bonus of +1 attack and defense, while the gold leopard doesn't get a homelands bonus. So the silver leopard is going to do 2 damage to the gold leopard (1 attack power + 1 bonus damage due to homelands). The gold leopard would do 1 damage if the silver leopard were not on homelands, but due to the +1 defense for the silver leopard, the gold leopard does no damage in return.

Homelands are your friend. Given a choice between moving your spirit to homelands and moving it to some other terrain type, you usually want to choose homelands. And remember to always place your energy on homelands where possible.