1. Give each player the following components in their chosen color:

• 5 small, 3 medium, and 2 large ships

• 8 extractors

• 1 colony ship

• 6 action cards

Also give each player:

• 1 set of planetary achievement cards (1 of each color)

• 2 alien faction cards (Note: some alien faction cards are labeled 3+ and should be removed when playing with 2 players.)

• 1 graveyard card (with the correct side face up, according to the number of players in your game)

• 1 player board

• 1 common resource

2. -Set up the game board according to the number of players. Any unused tokens should be returned to the box.

-The planets (along with their planetary ID tokens) should be randomly distributed to their locations as shown on the map.

-The planetary exploration tokens should be shuffled in two face-down piles according to their type, then assigned face down to their locations as shown on the map.

-Randomly distribute the deep space exploration tokens face down to their locations. Then place the asteroid tokens and the players’ colony ship tokens.

-Lastly, each player places one small ship in their starting sector and an extractor on one of the common resource spaces (grey) on their colony ship token.

3. Shuffle the deck of technology cards and place it near the board face down. Then deal 1 technology card to each player.

4. Place the resources, damage tokens, and dice near the board within easy reach of all players.

5. Each player secretly and simultaneously chooses 1 planetary achievement card and 1 alien faction card to keep. The rest are returned to the box face down.

6. All players reveal their alien faction card.

7. Give the first player token to the player who most recently looked at the stars.

8. You are now ready to begin!

NOTE:

This graphic is a combination of the random planet icon and the appropriate planetary exploration token icon.