1. Give each player a Player Card and ITEMeeple of their chosen color.

Then, to set up each player’s area, give each player:

A. two Pilot Cards, shuffled and dealt randomly from under the table. The player chooses one Pilot Card and places it Pilot-side up below the Player Card.

B. a Health Token in their player color, placed on the highest space of their Pilot Card Health Track.

C. both an Energy Token and a Credits Token in their player color, placed on the “3” space of the Player Card’s Resource Track.

D. a Score Token in their player color.

E. a Power Armor Item in their player color.s

F. 3 Turret Tokens and 4 Mine Tokens in their player color.

G. 8 Program Cards and 1 Ad Hoc Mode Card in their player color.

2. Gather all 21 Zone Cards to set up the Arena:

H. Separate the 21 Zone Cards into 3 types: 1 Mech Card (), 4 Base Cards (), and 16 Resource Cards ().

I. Give each player a Base Card matching their player color to be placed later.

J. Based on the number of players, arrange the Arena according to the diagrams below. For the Resource Cards (), shuffle and place them randomly in their designated spaces. Leave spaces open for the Base Cards ().

3. Use any method to determine which player is the Starting Player and give that player the Starting Token. Then, starting with the player to the right of the Starting Player and continuing in counter-clockwise order, each player chooses on which empty space () to place their Base Zone Card and their ITEMeeple. The Starting Player places last.

4. Each player secretly chooses one of their Mines, numbered 1-4, and places it face-down on their Base Card. The unused Mine Tokens should be kept number side face-down.

5. Place the Round Card and the Score Card within reach of all players.

K. Place the Round Token on the “1” space of the Round Card.

L. Place each player’s Score Token off of the Score Card next to (but not on) the “1” space. Make sure that the blank side is face-up and not the “+40” side.

6. Place the Mighty Mech on the Mech Zone Card in the center of the Arena and the two-sided Mighty Mech Card within reach of all players. Whenever a player enters the Mighty Mech, they choose which side (Troy 3000 or Sparta 3000) to use. It remains on that side until they exit the Mighty Mech.

7. Place all 32 Weapon Items in a pile within reach of all players.

8. Separate the Weapon Cards based on their card backs:

16 Basic and 16 Advanced Cards. Gather the Basic Cards and:

M. Give each player the 4 Basic Weapon Cards: 1 Energy Sword, 1 Pulse Pistol, 1 Grenade Launcher, and 1 Riot Shield. Place any undealt Basic Cards into the game box, removing them from the game.

N. All players secretly select 1 Basic Weapon Card to keep. After all players have done this, each player announces the card they chose and takes the matching Weapon Item, equipping the item to their ITEMeeple. Each player places the card face-up in one of the Basic Weapon slots on their Pilot Card.

O. Collect the remaining unchosen Basic Weapon Cards and make piles of matching Weapons face-up, placing them in reach of all players.

9. Shuffle the Advanced Weapon Cards into a Weapons Deck, placing the deck face-down and revealing the top 4 cards face-up in a row.