Take the following components from your Species Tray and set them next to your Species Board:

• The number of Colony Ships shown on your Species Board (eg 3 ).
• The Summary Tile, with the Action Phase Overview faceup .

Take the Influence Discs from your Species Tray and place them on the Influence Track of your Species Board (leave the three Influence Discs that don't fit on your Influence Track in your Species Tray).

Need extra discs? Note that you have three extra influence discs that are only used if you Research the Advanced Robotics or Quantum Grid Tech.

Place the following on your Control Board:

• One Population Cube on each square valued 3–28 of the three Population Tracks (Materials, Science, and Money) .

• One Storage Marker of each color on your Storage Track , with the single-pointed end of the Storage Marker facing the center of the Control Board, at the Starting Storage Resource values indicated on your Species Board.

Leave in your Species Tray for easy access:

• Ships and Ambassador Tiles .

Then move onto your Starting Sector:

• One Interceptor Ship miniature .

• One Population Cube in each Population Square without a star, taken from the 3 space of your corresponding Population Track.

• One Influence Disc, placed on the Influence Space, taken from the leftmost space of your Influence Track.

Species Rules: Hydran Progress starts with the Advanced Labs Tech which allows them to place a Population Cube in the Advanced Science Population Square.