Spirits are the game's main resource. There are four elements: Fire, Water, Earth and Wind. Almost everything you fell, break, harvest, catch or defeat lets out spirits, which fly into you and are added to your count. You spend them on building, crafting, cooking and mending, bind them into gear at the Spiriting Table, and cast spells with them from a Spirit Book.
Your spirits
Your count of each element shows on the screen. These are your loose (unspent) spirits. They do not take up room in your pack, and there is no limit to how many of each you can hold.
Spirits bound into an item at the Spiriting Table are no longer loose: they stay in that item and give it its tiers. You can't take them back out and spend them, but The Grinder returns some spirits when it destroys an item.
How you gain them
When something lets out spirits, each element rises as its own glowing orb showing how many it holds, then flies into you. What a thing gives depends on what it is: living, rooted things give Earth and Water, stone gives Earth, quick creatures give Wind, fierce ones give Fire, and things of the water give Water. Bigger things give more.
Trees
Felling a tree (see Trees) gives its spirits when it falls.
| Tree | Spirits |
|---|---|
| Oak | 7 Earth, 3 Water |
| Pine | 7 Earth, 2 Water, 1 Fire |
| Crag pine | 7 Earth, 3 Wind |
| Saguaro | 4 Earth, 4 Water, 2 Fire |
| Palm | 5 Water, 4 Earth |
| Hollow oak | 6 Earth, 3 Wind, 1 Fire |
| Black pine | 6 Earth, 4 Wind |
| Cypress | 6 Earth, 4 Water |
| Willow | 6 Water, 4 Earth |
| Snag (dead tree) | 5 Earth, 2 Fire |
| Beech | 8 Earth, 4 Fire |
| Ironwood | 12 Earth, 6 Fire |
| Rimewood (bog oak) | 14 Earth, 8 Water |
| Ghost birch | 10 Earth, 8 Wind, 6 Water, 6 Fire |
Rocks, bushes and small things
| What | Spirits |
|---|---|
| A plain rock | 4 Earth |
| A copper vein | 5 Earth, 2 Water, 2 Fire |
| An iron vein | 6 Earth, 4 Fire |
| An endurium vein | 6 Earth, 3 Fire, 3 Water, 3 Wind |
| A bush | 2 Earth, 1 Water (a bush with berries: 1 Fire more) |
| A twig | 1 Earth, 1 Water |
| A pebble | 2 Earth |
| Grass or dry grass | 1 Earth, 1 Wind |
| Pink or blue flower | 1 Earth, 1 Water |
| White flower, heather | 1 Earth, 1 Wind |
| Thistle, yucca | 1 Earth, 1 Fire |
| Brown cap | 2 Earth |
| Cattail | 2 Water |
| Pale cap | 1 Water, 1 Earth |
| Ghost cap | 1 Water, 2 Wind |
See Rocks and Ore, Wild Plants and Gathering.
Crops
Harvesting a crop lets out its spirits. A better-grown crop (a higher grade) gives more.
| Crop | Spirits (before grade) |
|---|---|
| Turnip | 2 Earth, 1 Water |
| Grain | 2 Wind, 1 Earth |
| Moonsquash | 2 Water, 1 Fire |
| Emberberry | 2 Fire, 1 Earth |
| Rootling | 3 Earth, 1 Water, 1 Wind |
| Pumpkin | 2 Earth, 2 Fire |
| Strawberry | 1 Water, 1 Fire, 1 Wind |
| Dragonfruit | 2 Fire, 2 Wind |
| Corn | 2 Wind, 1 Earth |
| Potato | 3 Earth, 1 Water |
| Tomato | 2 Water, 1 Fire |
| Carrot | 2 Earth, 1 Wind |
Animals
| Animal | Spirits |
|---|---|
| Rabbit | 2 Earth, 1 Wind |
| Bird | 2 Wind, 1 Earth |
| Raven | 3 Wind, 2 Fire |
| Frog | 2 Water, 1 Earth |
| Fox | 4 Earth, 3 Wind |
| Deer | 6 Earth, 4 Water |
| Sheep | 4 Earth, 2 Wind, 2 Water |
| Cow | 7 Earth, 4 Water |
| Hen | 2 Wind, 1 Earth |
Creatures
Every creature you defeat lets out spirits as it falls. A dungeon's champion gives four times its kind's spirits.
| Creature | Spirits |
|---|---|
| Gnawling | 3 Earth, 2 Wind, 1 to 2 Fire |
| Longlegs | 4 Earth, 3 Fire |
| Crawler | 5 Earth, 3 Wind |
| Scuzz | 2 Earth, 2 Wind |
| Turned-coat | 4 Earth, 4 Wind |
| Wraith | 5 Wind, 3 Water |
| Imp | 5 Fire, 2 Earth |
| Wolf | 3 Wind, 2 Earth |
| Bear | 6 Earth, 3 Fire |
| Chupacabra | 4 Fire, 3 Wind |
| Raker | 5 Wind, 3 Earth |
| Werewolf | 8 Earth, 5 Fire |
| Mermaid | 6 Water, 2 Wind |
| Gnawmother | 9 Earth, 7 Wind |
| Grave Knight | 9 Wind, 7 Earth |
| Yeti | 9 Water, 7 Earth |
| Rime Owl | 6 Wind, 3 Water |
| Snowkin | 3 Water, 3 Wind |
| Cairnback | 9 Earth, 3 Water |
| Crag Wyvern | 6 Wind, 3 Fire |
| Kobold | 3 Earth, 3 Fire |
| Gargoyle | 6 Earth, 4 Wind |
| Flitterbat | 2 Wind |
Fish and the lakebed
Fish you strike under water let out Water spirits, more for bigger fish: a minnow gives 1 Water, a pike 4 Water and 3 Fire, a smiling carp 6 Water, 3 Fire and 3 Earth. Things broken on a lakebed give a few too (a lakebed rock 2 Earth and 1 Water, a clam 2 Water). While Fishing, your line can also hook a spirit orb, which bursts into spirits when you land it, and some rods let caught fish give spirits. You can also stake spirits on a cast: see Spirit Wagers.
Dungeons
- A dungeon's spirit crystals burst into 10 spirits of the crystal's element and 4 of the land's own, multiplied by 1 more for each step of the dungeon's difficulty.
- A chest lets out spirits of random elements along with its loot: 30 from a small chest, 80 from a middle one and 175 from a rare one, 25% more for each step of difficulty. See Chests.
More spirits from the same things
- Spirit Luck gives more of each element every time spirits are let out. Some dishes raise it (Root Broth and Grave Broth among them), and so can a coat. See Cooking and Raincoats.
- Some tool and weapon tiers at the Spiriting Table give extra spirits, and the Spirit Book has a tier IV pick on each page that gives 3 spirits of that element for every foe its spells defeat.
- A companion with the Lucky talent can draw extra spirits from what you defeat. See Talents.
What you spend them on
Spirits are spent from your loose count. A cost that needs spirits shows the element's icon and number next to the materials; the number turns red when you don't have enough.
- Crafting: every item at the benches costs a few spirits on top of its materials, by what it is made of and what it is for. A sword asks for Fire, a fishing pole for Water, a bow for Wind; finer metals cost more. For example, an Oak Spirit Book costs 2 Water, 2 Earth, 1 Fire and 1 Wind besides its wood, hide and stone.
- Building: building pieces cost spirits too (stations, beds, doors, lights and storage more than plain floors and walls). A Goddess costs extra of every element: the Goddess Statue costs 12 Earth and 6 each of Fire, Water and Wind besides its stone, ingots and a Spirit Gem I. See A Goddess's Land.
- Cooking: every dish costs 1 Fire, plus 1 Water for stews, soups, teas and the like, or 1 Earth for roasted and baked food. Finer dishes cost 1 more of each.
- Mending: repairing worn gear costs Water, plus Earth or Fire by what it is made of.
- The Spiriting Table: binding spirits into tools, weapons, coats and companion gear wakes their tiers (at 4, 10, 20, 36 and 60 bound spirits of one element). See also Traits.
- The Spirit Book: opening a page takes 50 spirits of its element, and every spell it casts costs spirits instead of stamina.
- Spirit Soil: a hoe can soak the beds it works with spirits: 4, 10 or 25 of each chosen element per bed (25% less at that element's time of day or weather).
- Spirit Wagers: stake spirits on a fishing cast for a better catch.
- The Threat Finder: each use costs 5 of each element.
- Bind the Echo: moving a Forged mark costs 5 of each element, with three of the boss's trophies.
- Villages: in villages, spirits are money. See Traders.
Losing spirits
When you die, or faint from exhaustion, you drop a quarter of each element's loose spirits (rounded down). Spirits bound into gear are never lost, and neither are items, levels or Jewels.
- The lost spirits wait where you fell as glowing wisps of their elements. Walk into them to get them all back.
- Out in the world they wait until the next dawn (after a faint, until the dawn after the morning you wake).
- In a dungeon or lair they wait until that dungeon is renewed.
- Up to 12 sets of wisps are kept at once; a 13th removes the oldest.
