Guide to Starship Captains more work done.

Once you pass, you CANNOT take any

SET-UP more turn for the remainder of the round.
- Use the side of the board for your amount of players.
- If playing with 4p, use the additional tiles for 4p. Once all players have passed, the round ends, the starting
- Place the necessary components on the round track at the player marker moves one place to the left and everyone’s
top of the board – triangle home station tile (3 plus-1s) and queue sends new figures to the ready room for the next
1 medal per player for round 2, and 1 cadet per player in round. The game ends after 4 rounds.
each of rounds 3 and 4.
- Shuffle the mission deck. Mix the triangle tiles and ACTIVATING A ROOM
randomly deal 1 to each planet. Mission tiles (white) are Your ship has 4 basic rooms from the start. Certain techs
replaced with mission cards. Station tiles (gold) are flipped also function as rooms and can be activated similarly. Helm
so that the effect side is up – slide the matching station card moves the ship, Weapons fights pirates, Science takes a
underneath. Numbered tiles are flipped so that the orange tech, and Repair repairs the ship.
side is up. Home Station is the only location that is not a
planet. It is dealt no tile. It has a station tile, but that tile Activating a Room with a Crew Member
starts on the round track. To activate a room:
- Mix the pirate ship tokens with the skull side showing.
Place 1 on each route with the skull symbol and flip it to its 1. Select a room on your ship board or one of your
ship side. techs.
- The tech deck has alpha and beta decks mixed together. 2. Take a figure from your ready room that matches
Shuffle them both together and deal from the top. Deal 1 the room’s color.
alpha tech face up to the Tincan faction track (gold) and 3. Tap the figure on the room you are activating, then
deal 5 alpha techs face up to the tech board. Place any beta move the figure to the end of the queue, sliding it
cards drawn at the bottom of the deck. Once cards are behind the other figures.
dealt, place the tech deck on the tech board. 4. Resolve the room effects.
- Shuffle the omega deck and deal 3 cards to the tech board.
Set the rest of the deck aside in case it is needed during A cadet matches NO room except gray. EVERYONE matches
play. the gray room. Androids will NOT activate rooms – a
- Randomly select a side of each of the faction tracks and reminder is that they don’t fit in the queue.
place them near the board. Shuffle each faction’s event
decks and deal 1 randomly to each faction track. The During play, you may acquire artifacts, which are kept in
Tincan track has only 1 possible event. The even also your cargo hold. When two artifacts are combined, they
reminds you to give the track 1 alpha tech card. awaken an ancient AI that knows how to activate a room
- Keep artifact tokens, pirate tokens, medals, damage, with the color they have in common. To activate a room
cadets, androids, and ensigns nearby in a general supply. with artifacts:
- Each player takes a ship board, a tech slot board (double-
sided, so make sure everyone is using the same side), 1 1. Select a room on your ship board or one of your
ensign of each color in their ship queue, 1 ensign of each techs.
color and 1 cadet in your ready room, 7 damage tokens (3 in 2. Spend 2 artifacts with the color that matches the
cargo slots and 4 in the marked tech slots), and 1 medal room (JUST ONE, even if two matching colors). Any
placed to the right of the ready room. pair matches the gray room.
3. Resolve the room effects.
GAMEPLAY
Choose one person to be the starting player, giving them Once used, artifacts are discarded into a face-up pile. If you
the marker – they will take the first turn of the game. run out of artifacts, flip the discard pile and mix to form
Players take turns in clockwise order. On your turn you pick another draw pile.
to either ACTIVATE A ROOM, COMPLETE A MISSION, or
PASS. Moves – When you activate the red room, you get two
moves. A move is ALWAYS along one of the routes on the
Usually, you will need to assign one or more crew members board from one location to the next. A move is optional, so
to the chosen task and they will leave your ready room and you choose to use less movement than allowed.
end up in the queue. Eventually, you will choose to pass or
be forced to pass because you have no one available to get Each time you move along a route with a PIRATE, you ship
takes 1 damage.
Jumps (gray arrow with circle) – This effect looks similar to The repair room can be activated by and ensign or
a move, but it is a jump. To jump, pick up your ship and commander of any color as well as a cadet.
place it at ANY location on the board. A jump avoids ALL
pirates. Cargo
When you gain artifact or pirate tokens, simply place them
DESTINATIONS in empty cargo slots. Artifacts go face up and pirates go
Missions – Moving to one sets you up to complete it on a skull side up. If you don’t have enough slots, then you are
later turn. allowed to discard artifacts and pirate tokens to make
room. You can look at any artifacts you might gain before
The first ship to the planet with a mission is the one that discarding.
gets the mission. To track this, place your ship on the
planet if you are the ONLY player there. Any mission at the If you gain multiple artifacts in a row, you can look at all of
planet – or that shows up later – is reserved for you. them before deciding which to keep. You CANNOT discard
Latecomers place their ships BESIDE the planet. damage tokens to make room for cargo.

If a player leaves their reserved planet and leaves two Pirates

players there, then neither can reserve it, but either can Whenever you move along a route with a pirate token, you
complete it on their turn. take 1 damage, but nothing happens to the pirate. Any
route can have a pirate, but never more than 1.
Stations – If you END your turn on a station with a station
tile, perform ALL the effects shown on it. The tile can be Certain missions can cause pirates to appear (skull with
used ONLY ONCE per round. Move the used tile to the arrow). To resolve this, randomly draw a pirate token and
round track. It goes on the triangle space beside the other check the route at your location that matches the color of
pieces waiting for the next round’s set-up. the pirate’s exhaust. If that route has no pirate, place the
token there, otherwise discard the drawn token.
If you end your turn on a station that does not have its
reward tile, nothing happens. Ambush is NOT optional, you either draw for the ambush or
choose to ignore the ENTIRE reward for that line of the
Triangle Tiles – Some planets have nothing of interest right mission.
now, but it’s still ok to end your turn there.
Pirate Uprising – This also uses route colors to determine
TAKING DAMAGE where the pirates appear.
When your ship takes damage (orange burst), take 1
damage token and place it in a CARGO slot. Damage is During set-up, pirate color doesn’t matter. There may be
NEVER added to tech slots during play. other effects that place pirates without regard for color.

Busted Cargo: If you take damage when you have no empty Just like artifacts, if you run out of pirates, flip the discards
cargo slots, you MUST discard an artifact or pirate token to over and make a new draw pile.
make room for it.
Fighting Pirates
Excess Damage: If all cargo slots are full of damage, any The fight pirates effect (yellow target) can be found in the
excess damage you take goes on top of the damage in the yellow room and on some techs and missions. If you
slots. There is NO LIMIT to how much damage your ship choose to fight:
can take.
1. Choose 1 pirate on any route leading from your
Repairing Your Ship current location.
The repair effect (gray wrench) lets you remove 1 damage 2. Take 1 damage.
token from your ship, either from your ship board or from 3. Take the pirate token and its reward.
your tech-slot board. 4. Add them to your ship.

If you have excess damage, your cargo slots remain full of There are two types of pirate tokens. There is one that
damage until ALL excess damage has been repaired. It does gives you an android and one that gives you an artifact and
not prevent you from repairing tech slots instead. a medal.
TECHS After you complete a mission, you need to reveal a new
There are 3 types of techs – Room, Ability, and Omega. mission somewhere else.
Room techs can be activated by a matching crew member.
Ability techs specify when they apply. Omega techs score 1. Take the highest-numbered face-up triangle tile and
game end points. place it face down on the planet where you JUST
COMPLETED the mission.
Researching a Tech 2. Deal a new mission to the planet you just took the
The blue room lets you take a tech card from the central tile from.
tech board and put it in an empty tech slot. Resolve any
immediate bonuses. At the END of your turn, draw a new Pirate Uprising
card from the alpha-beta deck, EVEN IF an omega tech was As players complete missions, the triangle tiles will count
taken. down. When tile 1 is placed face down, there is a PIRATE
UPRISING (skull with circular arrow).
Recycling a Tech Slot (two circling arrows) – This allows you 1. Place 1 pirate token skull side up on EACH of the
to discard a tech and put a new tech in its slot, gaining any numbered triangle tiles.
applicable bonuses. You can also use this effect to take a 2. At EACH of those planets, reveal the pirate.
tech and put it in an empty slot, like the regular research 3. If there is no pirate on the matching route, move
effect. the pirate there, otherwise discard the pirate.
4. Once you have finished with the pirates, turn ALL
Tech Bonuses – The icons along the sides of a tech card are numbered tiles face up and the countdown begins
potential bonus effects (repair 1 damage / gain 1 medal / again.
do 1 move). If your new tech has any icons that MATCH an
adjacent icon, IMMEDIATELY resolve those effects from Players resolve all planets simultaneously. If 2 planets
TOP TO BOTTOM. would send a pirate to the same route, the pirate from the
higher-numbered planet is discarded.
A damaged tech slot does not impact any of these icons.
YOUR CREW
MISSIONS Training & Promotion
Completing a Mission Training and promotion happen at the beginning of your
To complete a mission, your ship must already be at the turn. If you want to improve one or more crew members,
planet with the mission. The mission cannot be reserved by you must do so BEFORE activating a room or assigning crew
another player. Your ready room MUST have enough to a mission. ONLY figures in your ready room can be
figures: trained or promoted.

1. Take the mission, placing it in the slot next to your Training – You can train a cadet to be an ensign or retrain
ship’s transporter. an ensign to change its color. Training costs 1 medal –
2. Assign crew. For each line of the mission card, take return it to the supply.
1 crew member from your ready room and place it
on the transporter pad beside that line. The crew Choose a cadet or ensign in your ready room and return it
can be of any color, including cadets. to the supply, replacing it with a new ensign figure in the
3. Resolve the mission. Resolve EACH line of the color of your choice.
mission in order, top to bottom. If the figure is an
ensign of a MATCHING color, you may perform ALL Medals – You can improve your crew by spending medals.
of the depicted effects from left to right. There is no player limit to medals.
Commanders and androids have special rules. If the
figure does NOT match, ignore the line. Promotion to Commander – You can promote an ensign to
4. Slide crew. Once all lines have been resolved, slide commander. Choose an ensign in your ready room, pay 3
the figures into the queue, except androids, which medals, and put one of your available promotion rings on
are returned to the supply. Figures slide into the the figure – it’s now a commander of the same color. You
queue IN ORDER, with the topmost figure in front. are limited to 5 commanders. There is NO way to change a
5. Flip mission. Remove the card from the slot and commander’s color.
keep it face down. The mission is complete and will
be worth points at game end. Commanders – There are like ensigns, but can do 2 tasks.
The first task is just like an ensign activating a room or going
on a mission. The second task is either the commander Each time you loop a track, flip the tracker to its +5 VP side.
doing EXTRA WORK or COMMANDING A SUBORDINATE. There is no max value for the faction track. If you loop all
the way around a track twice, take that faction’s trophy
Extra Work – If you ask a commander to do extra work, it worth another 5 VP. You may have to track additional +5
depends on their assignment. If a commander has VPs separately.
activated a room, they can do a second room activation
before returning to the queue. This can be the same room END OF ROUND
again or a different room. The room must be with a Passing
matching color, including the universal repair room. Once you have passed, you take NO MORE turns for the
rest of the round. Once everyone has passed, the round
A commander that has resolved a line of a mission can then ends.
resolve the SAME line AGAIN (before moving on to the next
line). If the line offers choices, the choices can be the same The Queue
or different. During the round, figures will gradually move from the
ready room to the end of the queue. There are sometimes
Command a Subordinate – Instead of extra work, your ways to move someone from the queue to the ready room,
commander can command a subordinate to report to the but for the most part, the figures in the queue stay there
ready room. The subordinate must EITHER be a cadet or until the end of the round.
ensign OF THE COMMANDER’S COLOR. The subordinate
can be ANYWHERE in the queue (but NOT on a mission with At the end of the round, slide figures from the queue into
the commander). the ready room until ONLY the last 3 figures in the queue
remain.
After the commander activates the assigned room or the
assigned line of the mission, move the subordinate to the Starting New Round
ready room. After round 1, each round begins with new resources from
HQ. Distribute the new round’s figures or tokens evenly to
Androids – The android (gold robot) effect allows you to all players. New cadets go to the ready room.
gain an android. Take it from the general supply and place
it in your ready room. They can NEVER activate a room, but For each station tile on the round track, either move it to its
CAN be sent on a mission. station if no player’s ship is there OR move it to the NEXT
round if its station is occupied.
Androids match ALL 3 ensign colors, so it can gain the
rewards from ANY line of a mission. There are some Pass the starting player marker to the left. The new starting
mission lines that REQUIRE an android – other figures can player can begin play for the next round.
be placed there, but ONLY an android would get rewards.
END OF THE GAME
After completing the mission, the android leaves your ship, Scoring
so return it to the supply. If you pass with an android in the At the end of the game, score VP on the score sheet:
ready room, it REMAINS for a later round.
• VP for missions
DIPLOMACY • VP from the 3 faction tracks
Faction Tracks • VP from any omega techs (and passenger in solo)
Whenever you advance onto or through a faction track • 1 VP for EACH commander, android, and pirate on
space with a bonus, resolve it IMMEDIATELY. Rewards for your ship
advancing on these tracks are either color-coded or white, • ½ VP for each medal and artifact on your ship
meaning any track. • -1 VP for each damage on your ship.

Each faction has its own set of event cards (Tincan faction Most VPs wins and read epilogue for everyone’s score.
has only one). When a player reaches the event space of a
faction track, resolve the event IMMEDIATELY, then
remove the card from the track.

ONLY TWO events can occur per game. Once two have
been reached, remove the third from the game.