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3 players · Base and Space Agencies

SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence: setup guide

Earn points by exploring the Solar System, collecting and analysing signals, discovering alien life and completing scoring opportunities. Credits, energy, publicity and data do different jobs. A probe’s launch is only the beginning of the cost of a useful mission.

Open the interactive tutorial →

Setup 01

Choose the correct opening

Select Base for the ordinary five-round game or Space Agencies for its Quick Start and organizations. Both teaching routes use three players. Keep the expansion’s forty-two added main-deck cards and extra components tied to its own setup.

Setup 02

Arrange the Solar System

Place the main board, the three rotating discs and sector display with their starting orientation visible. Locate four rings, eight sectors, planets and moons. Probe movement depends on the current position; the artwork is more than a decorative background.

Setup 03

Separate research and resources

Set out technology tiles, the computer areas, data, credits, energy and publicity markers. A technology can be acquired once per player, and each resource has a different purpose. Keep the public technology options readable beside the main board.

Setup 04

Prepare cards, income and aliens

Follow the selected route’s card deal, starting income and alien-species preparation. Species boards introduce rules when discovered rather than becoming a generic scoring bonus. This lesson covers the species in its authored route, not every species combination.

Setup 05

Inspect the opening mission

Before the first action, compare each institution’s cards, resources and probe options. In Space Agencies, read the chosen organization and Quick Start cards together. The app defaults to original component artwork; its optional labelled Quick Start proxies are an alternative presentation of those effects.

Before your first move

Players alternate main actions such as launching, orbiting, landing, scanning, analysing, playing a card and researching technology, with permitted free actions alongside them. Passing leads toward the round transition. The rotating Solar System changes travel routes while technology and discoveries expand the choices.

This is a setup companion for the scenarios below, not a replacement for the publisher’s complete setup diagrams. Open the guided table to inspect the exact locations and the recorded deal.

Sources and scope

The tutorial’s source audit checked the publisher’s base rules, FAQ, Space Agencies rules and species references on 8 September 2026. Original component art is the default; optional Quick Start proxies are labelled in the app.

Reading guide reviewed 2026-09-15; based on tutorial v1.0.3. This date records an editorial review of the existing tutorial, not a new rules edition. Strategic suggestions are conditional interpretations, separate from official rules.