Setup

To prepare a game of Cosmic Encounter®, carefully follow these steps.

1. Set Up Warp, Planets (and alliance tokens): Place the warp in the center of the play area. Each player then chooses a player color and takes the five player planets of that color, arranging the planets however he or she likes. Each player places their player colony marker next to the warp by the space marked “0.” Distribute alliance tokens, or place near warp.

2. Place Ships: Each player takes the 20 ships of his or her color and places four of them on each of his or her planets in a stack.

3. Prepare Destiny Deck: Look through the destiny deck and remove any cards that refer to player colors not being used. Shuffle the deck.

4. Choose Aliens: Shuffle the flare cards and deal two to each player. The player takes the alien sheets corresponding to the two flares and looks at them in secret, choosing one of the two aliens to play during this game. The chosen alien is placed facedown in front of the player, while the other alien sheet is returned to the box.

Players should make note of any **Game Setup** text on their alien sheet and be ready to follow the instructions at the appropriate order and times.

5. Prepare Flares: The flares dealt to each player are then taken and added to the cosmic deck. If there are fewer than five players, extra flares are randomly added to bring the total in the deck to 10 flares. Shuffle the deck. (*Note: Players just learning Cosmic Encounter® may wish to play without flares for their first few games, until they have a stronger grasp of the basic flow of the game.)*

5a. (optional hazard variant) Shuffle the hazard deck and place it near the warp.
6. Deal Hands: Each player is then dealt a hand of eight cards from the cosmic deck, and the remainder of the deck is placed near the center of the playing area. Players may look at their cards, but may not show them to other players.

6a. (optional space station variant) Shuffle the space station deck and deal one card to each player. Then, each player places his or her space station card faceup in his play area.

6b. Each player then takes the space station marker that corresponds to his space station card and places the marker so it fits snugly against one of his or her planets. This space station is now attached to that planet.

Return all unused space station cards and markers to the box. They will not be used during this game.

7. Select First Player: Draw from the destiny deck until a player color is drawn. That player becomes the first player. Shuffle the drawn card back into the destiny deck and the game is ready to begin.

7a. (optional tech variant) Shuffle the technology deck and deal two tech cards to each player after completing the normal game setup. Each player then looks at his or her two tech cards, selects one, and discards the other, faceup, next to the technology deck. The selected tech card is placed facedown in front of the player, and is not considered part of his or her hand.

Note: If using this variant with the “Four Planets” variant, remove all cards with a research number of 8 or more from the tech deck before play. These cards are not used with the “Four Planets” variant.