Each player has a crew member in their Captain's Quarters located at the top-left of their ship sheet and marked with a star ⭐️. This is their captain, who was dealt from the purple Cantina deck during game setup and who will remain their captain all game.

Each player's ship also contains various ship systems, crew members, and/or cargo stored 1 card per open bay. Small items are stored in two areas of the bottom-right of each ship sheet. Firearms and explosives are stacked face down in the area labeled with a gun (i.e., the Weapons Locker); all other small items are stacked face down in the area labeled with a shelf (i.e., the Storage Locker). Both areas can hold an unlimited number of small items; the piles are separated to make it easier to find weapons during gameplay and because it provides some public knowledge of the types of small items on each ship.

A die on each ship sheet matches the color of a corresponding ship token on the game board; the die also indicates a player's reputation and whether they are affiliated with one of the four criminal syndicates: Semyorka, Fidanza, Allmacht, and Anubis. For example, Blue has a rep of 1 and is unaffiliated; Red has a rep of 4 and is affiliated with Fidanza.

The turn starts with the Encounter Phase. Blue has the 1st Player token, so he reveals the top card from the Encounter deck. Blue is located on Pandora, a purple planet, so he reads the purple encounter.

The encounter instructs him to reveals a new Contract card, which he draws from the top of the Contract deck. It is Reactor Parts from Surya II. Blue places the Contract card face up on Surya II and discards the Encounter card.

Play proceeds clockwise, so Red is next and draws a new Encounter card. She is also on Pandora so reads the purple encounter.

The encounter entitles Red to draw a Cantina card; Red's on a purple planet, so she draws from the purple Cantina deck. It is a Plasma Beam, a +2 attack ship system. She has several open bays on her ship so chooses to install it right then by placing it face up in an open bay. (She could have instead placed it face-down in her Captain’s Log.) Red discards the Encounter card.

White is on Lambda III, a green planet.

The green encounter depends on the outcome of a rep check. White has to "roll above his rep" to pass. His rep is only 2 (as indicated by the white die on his ship sheet), so things already look good. But Gianfranco’s ability Omerta provides a -2 to rep checks, which means he has to roll above a 0. He automatically passes so gets to draw a green Cantina card. It's a Stun Grenade, which he places face down in his Weapons Locker. White discards the Encounter card.

Green is on Metis Prime, also a green planet.

Her encounter gives her +1 movement this turn, thanks to her outlaw crew member Hal Donnell. She keeps the Encounter card face up next to her ship sheet as a reminder.

Yellow is on Soheila, a red planet.

He does not have a medkit, so injures both of his crew then discards the Encounter card.

Black is located in the region of unpatrolled deep space in the Niska sector.

She is carrying a cargo that can be delivered for Anubis (Armaments), so she is entitled to draw a Cantina card. She draws from the purple deck because Niska is the only planet in the sector and is purple (if the sector contained planets of different colors she could choose to draw from either color). She draws a Kronstadt TS1977 (small item — repair part) and places it in her Storage Locker. Black is also affiliated with Anubis, so draws a red Cantina as well, a +2 Hyperdrive, and places it in an open bay. What good luck!

Blue still has the 1st Player token so gets to move first. He's unaffiliated with only 1 rep, so the Reactor Parts on Surya II look pretty attractive. He starts to depart Pandora, but Red wants to demonstrate the might of her newly installed Plasma Beam and ambushes him.

Red has +2 attack, but Blue has an Energy Shield, which gives a -1 defensive bonus against plasma weapons, so his ship only takes 1 damage. He chooses to damage his shield because he wants to save his Hyperdrive. In the first round of an ambush only the attacker does damage, so the first round of ship combat is over.

Before Red ends her movement, Green proposes a trade. Green has a Particle Accelerator; it’s a repair part for a Plasma Beam, a ship system that Green doesn’t have but Red does. Similarly, Red has a Replacement Field Coil, but no Hyperdrive. They agree to a trade and exchange spare parts.

Unfortunately for Red, Green is a jerk and starts a brawl immediately after the trade is completed. Green reveals 2 Blaster Pistols from his Weapons Locker and selects another card from his Storage Locker and lays it face down to the side of his ship sheet. These 3 cards represent the supplies Green took from his ship before initiating the brawl; any other items still on his ship cannot be used (or stolen) during the ensuing fight. He places 1 blaster next to each of his crew to equip them, giving him a +2 melee attack. Red similarly equips her captain with a Blaster Pistol, for +1 melee.

Now each player takes damage. Red has 1 crew member so takes a maximum of 1 damage per round of melee; she must injure her captain and shows this by placing a injury token on Philippa Howard. Green also takes 1 damage and assigns it to his already-injured captain by flipping over the injury token. However, Yevgeniy has the First Aid ability, which he can opt to use now, before this round of melee is over. On a roll of 4+ any single crew member (optionally Yevgeniy) recovers to full health. He rolls a 2 and fails. But Green came prepared and reveals the face down card he set aside earlier. It is an Expired Medkit, which also heals 1 crew memeber on a roll of 4+. This time he rolls a 6 and removes the damage token from Yevgeniy; he also returns the Expired Medkit to the bottom of the red Cantina deck.

Things are going well for Green, so they continue the brawl. Again, each side takes 1 point of damage. Red’s captain is now unconscious and Green (re)injures her captain. Red has no way to heal Philippa Howard, so without any conscious crew the brawl is over. Green won with 2 conscious crew, so he's entitled to steal 2 small items from Red. He takes Red’s Blaster Pistol and the recently traded Particle Accelerator. No honor amongst thieves, evidently. Green may not steal anything still aboard Red's ship, such as her other small items or her Mind Control Slugs cargo.

It is now White's movement. He moves 3 spaces to intercept Blue in deep space (evidently Blue's early paranoia about hanging out there was well-founded). White has +1 attack from his Ion Cannon, while Blue’s Energy Shield offers no help: for one, it's damaged, but even if it wasn't Energy Shields are not effective against Ion Cannons. Blue damages his Hyperdrive, while wishing for the second time that day that his ship had weapons. Blue could have elected instead to absorb the ship-combat damage by destroying his cargo, but that's the kind of choice that keeps you at 1 rep forever.

Blue has no more operational ship systems, so ship combat is over. White has the choice of continuing with their turn or boarding Blue's ship. He decides to board.

White reveals a weapon from his Weapons Locker and equips Cobb Jameson with a Plasma Rifle. Cobb isn't fighting alone, even though neither Gianfranco nor Autumn are equipped with weapons; this activates Cobb's other ability, so White has a total melee of +5. This is already way more damage than Blue can absorb, so White doesn't waste the Stun Grenade he got during the Encounter phase. Blue doesn't have any firearms but reveals a Stun Grenade, for +2 melee.

Blue has 2 crew so only takes 2 damage and must injure both Cliff Anderson and Benjamin Brooks. White chooses to injure Gianfranco Napolitano and Autumn Matthews. The Stun Grenade is a single-use item, so Blue returns it to the bottom of the appropriate Cantina deck.

White continues the melee and does 2 more damage; both of Blue’s crew are now knocked unconscious. Blue just had the one grenade so now has no melee attack and so does no damage in return. Blue reveals a Medkit from his Storage Locker and uses it to heal Cliff and extend the melee. Blue still has no attack so is definitely going to lose, but he's using the Medkit out of spite so White can’t steal it. (This was a boarding action, not a brawl, so Blue didn't need to equip his crew with small items at the start of melee.)

White wins 2 perfunctory rounds later, after knocking Cliff Anderson unconscious (again). This was a boarding action, which entitles White to steal Blue’s Reactor Parts cargo, which he transfers it to an open bay on his ship. If Blue had been in a spiteful (or less optimistic) mood earlier, he would have chosen to destroy the cargo during ship combat and deprive White of the spoils of combat. Alas, hindsight is 20/20.

Green’s turn is comparatively uneventful. He moves 4 spaces to Hedone. Red cannot ambush him as he leaves Metis Prime for two separate reasons: Red has no conscious crew members, and she is at a green planet.

Green passes through the deep space sector where Blue is located but cannot intercept because Green has no ship weapons. There would also be little point: Blue's ship systems are already disabled, his crew is unconscious, and there are no cargos or even small items to steal. If Green could attack, he'd automatically win ship combat and boarding, and since Blue's crew is completely unconscious he could walk away with a cargo and up to 2 small items. (If it's not yet obvious, it's generally unwise to hang out in deep space when you're first player.)

White had the option to ambush Green upon arrival at Hedone but chose not to. White has +1 attack and Green has no ship systems, so White would automatically win ship combat, but despite having Cobb and Cobb's favorite gun, White was worried about a boarding action because Green has two sizable stacks of small items. They might just be spare parts that are useless in a firefight, but a couple of blasters and a Medkit would likely be enough for Green to win and steal White's cargo and the Plasma Rifle.

Yellow moves 2 spaces to Anubis Station.

Yellow's Grappling Hook enables him to force enemy boarding at the end of any combat round unless the other ship successfully escapes. Black has no weapons (only the +1 melee from Zoe Torres' ability Tough as nails), so she doesn't want to melee and attempts to escape. Unmodified, a successful escape requires a roll of 6+, so With the -2 escape modifier from Yellow's Grappling Hook she'll automatically fail without some offsetting bonus of her own. She disables her +2 Hyperdrive to get back to a 6+. She holds her breath, rolls, quietly pumps her fist as it comes up 6, and successfully lands at Anubis Station.

Green is also at Hedone, one of the two delivery locations for her Hallucinogenic Spices. She moves her Contract card to the Scoreboard below the contract White just delivered. She also decides to affiliate with Semyorka, despite already being affiliated with Anubis. Because she's changing affiliations she does not gain any rep and moves her die from Anubis to Semyorka without changing it from showing 3. This betrayal also earns her a grudge in Anubis, which she indicates by placing a damage token over the Anubis logo on her ship sheet.

Similarly to White, Green views 3 Bribe cards (one for each point of reputation) and chooses 1 to keep. She selects The Fuzz and places it face down in her Captain’s Log. Lastly, Green views 3 purple Cantinas and picks one to keep.

Yellow is at Anubis Station, the delivery location of his Cloning Supplies, but he is affiliated with Semyorka and doesn’t want to change that. Instead of delivering the cargo he elects to bury it by putting it at the bottom of the Contract deck then drawing the top card and placing it in an open bay on his ship sheet. There is no change to his reputation and he earns no reward. He draws Aphrodisiacs which he can deliver to Hedone for Semyorka. Perfect!

Turn end is a good time to double check if there are any useful crew abilities that can still be used. Blue cannot do anything as their crew is still unconscious. Red, White, Yellow, and Black do not have any abilities to use. Green did not sucessfully use Yevgeniy's First Aid ability, so they attempt again. This time they roll a 5 and choose to heal Hal Donnell.

Lastly, a die is rolled to determine the location of the Dockyard for the next turn. It's a 5, so the Dockyard moves to Lokasenna V. Green also discards the Encounter card he'd put next to his ship as a reminder of its (never used) movement bonus, which does not carry over into the next turn. The round is now over, and the first player token passes to the right, from Blue to Black.