1
Place the board
Put the main board in the center of the table
2
Arrange initial terrain tiles
Place five Land tiles, five Open Ocean tiles, and one each of the other five types in their assigned positions at the center of the grid
3
Create terrain draw piles
Flip remaining 21 large tiles face down, shuffle them, create three piles of 7 tiles each on the Exploration spaces, then flip the top tile of each pile face up
4
Place Hydrothermal Vent tiles
Put one Hydrothermal Vent tile (submarine side up) on the lowest Open Ocean tile and another (land side up) on the highest Land tile, then place remaining 10 Vent tiles in their designated stack
5
Set up starting elements
Take one Element disc of each of the six types and place them around the central Coral Reef tile as indicated, covering parts of all three tiles at each intersection
6
Fill element bag
Place all remaining Element discs in the black bag
7
Populate action sections
Draw 4 random Elements and place them in the Abundance section's jellyfish circles, then repeat for Adaptation, Speciation, and Exploration sections
8
Set up terrain tokens
Put all 16 Terrain tokens in the red bag, draw 3 random tokens for the Competition section's starfish spaces, then draw 5 more tokens for the Evolution section arranged left to right by type
9
Distribute Animal Boards
Give each player the Animal Board matching their chosen animal, using the side with three pre-printed elements
10
Assign action pawns
Each player takes colored wooden cylinders based on player count: 4 cylinders for 4 players, 5 for 3 players, or 7 for 2 players
11
Apply stickers
Before first game, apply matching sticker pairs to top and bottom of each white cylinder
12
Place Control tokens
Put the six Control tokens on their designated board spaces with matching icons, then place corresponding Special Pawns on top
13
Position Threshold markers
Place all six Element Threshold tokens on space "1" of the Victory Point track
14
Initialize score markers
Place each animal's VP marker on space "0" of the track with the +100 side face down
15
Prepare species cubes
Each player places their 35 colored cubes in the Gene Pool section of their Animal Board
16
Set Reseed markers
Each player takes 1 cube from their Gene Pool and places it in the left box next to their animal icon on the Food Chain table
17
Place starting species
Each player places 3 cubes from their Gene Pool onto the central Coral Reef tile
18
Draft Trait cards
Shuffle the 18 Trait cards face down, deal 3 to each player, return the rest to the box unseen, then each player selects 1 card to keep and discards the others
19
Reveal Trait cards
All players reveal their chosen Trait card and place it face up on their Animal Board
20
Prepare Evolution deck
Remove the Asteroid card, shuffle remaining 34 cards face down, remove 10 cards unseen, remove 4 more cards, shuffle Asteroid into those 4 cards, place this 5-card packet face down beside the board, then place remaining 20 Evolution cards face down on top
21
Display Evolution cards
Draw the top 5 Evolution cards and place them face up in the Evolution card spaces on the left side of the board
22
Check entry effects
Resolve any "When this card enters play" effects on revealed Evolution cards
23
Set aside Survival card
Place the Survival card to the side for now
24
Determine first player
The animal lowest on the Food Chain takes the first turn
