Board and loot tiles/tokens: Place the board (the island) on the table, using one of these formats:

Calm (): Use the calm side of the board for easy, friendly abilities.

Stormy (): Use the stormy side of the board for more complex, devious abilities.

Uncharted: On either side of the board, place loot tiles with random sides face up for a wild ride on the high seas, covering up the loot tiles printed on the board. Otherwise these tiles aren’t used. Loot tiles with the Automa icon () are only used in solo games.

All loot tokens should be in the bag.

Player-specific items: Each player claims a set of 40 sequential character cards (don’t shuffle them), a matching score dial set to 0, and a graveyard tile. Each score dial is face up (open information).

Mix together all 6 reputation tokens (not just those of players in the game) and randomly place them from left to right on the reputation track.

For 2-player games, cover the second and third spaces of the island with the Midshipman tile. Randomly place the active players’ reputation tokens on the third and fourth spaces of the reputation track (see the 2P on the board as a reminder), then place the remaining reputation tokens on the other spaces.