Top 41 · #10 of 19 in Co-op
The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine
A cooperative trick-taking game where you can barely talk and have to solve your tasks together on reading and deduction alone. You are the crew of a ship searching for Planet Nine, working through 50 missions in order as a campaign, and it won the German Kennerspiel des Jahres in 2020.
Rules
Trick-taking turned cooperative. Each player is given tasks that say “I have to win this card,” and nobody is allowed to talk about their hand. The moment someone else takes a card that belonged to another player's task, the mission is over.
Components
| Component | Count | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Color cards | 36 | 4 colors × 1–9 (pink, blue, green, yellow) |
| Rocket cards | 4 | 1–4. These are the trumps |
| Task cards | 36 | Small versions of the color cards |
| Task tokens | 10 | They say when a task has to be completed |
| Radio communication tokens | 5 | One each. Usable once per mission |
| Distress signal token · commander token | 1 each | - |
| Reminder cards | 5 | Mark that you have not yet played the card you revealed |
It plays 3–5 players, with a separate 2-player variant. The logbook contains 50 missions in order.
Trick basics — you have to follow to win
- 1Going clockwise, each player plays 1 card face up into the middle. That is one trick.
- 2The first card sets the color of the trick. Everyone after must follow that color.
- 3If you have none of that color, you may play any card.
- 4The highest card that followed the lead color wins the trick.
- 5Put won tricks face down in front of you. You may only look back at the most recent trick you won.
A card that did not follow cannot win, however high it is
If a trick is led with the green 3 and you play the yellow 9, the 9 does not win even though it is the biggest number. The highest green card wins.
Rockets are trumps, but you cannot play them whenever you like
A rocket beats any card and wins the trick. But in a color trick you may only play one if you have none of that color. If a rocket is led, rockets become the color everyone must follow, and among several rockets the higher number wins.
You may deliberately play low even when you could win. There is no rule forcing you to take a trick. Losing on purpose is often exactly how you let a teammate complete a task.
Mission setup and dealing out tasks
- 1Shuffle the 40 large cards and deal them out evenly. With 3 players one person gets 1 extra card, and the 1 card left after the last trick is never played.
- 2Each player puts their radio communication token green side up in front of them and keeps a reminder card ready.
- 3Place the distress signal token face down.
- 4Shuffle the 36 task cards and set them down as a face-down pile.
- 5Draw as many task cards as the mission calls for and lay them face up in the middle.
- 6Whoever holds the rocket 4 is the commander. They say so and take the commander token.
- 7Starting with the commander and going clockwise, each player picks one task card and places it in front of themselves. Keep going until all tasks are taken.
Completing a task, and instant failure
A task is completed when the owner of that task card wins the trick containing that card. Turn the task card over when it is done. If someone else takes that card, the mission fails on the spot — reshuffle and start over.
- One player can hold several tasks, and players may end up with different numbers of them.
- You may complete several of your own tasks in a single trick.
- The mission succeeds once every player has completed all of their tasks.
- The commander leads the first trick. After that, whoever won the previous trick leads.
- Some missions use no task cards at all. The commander still leads the first trick in those.
Communication — no talking, just one card shown
You may not talk about your hand
You may not say, show, or hint at which cards you hold. The rulebook's test is clear — *if you only know it because you can see your own cards, you may not say it.*
- 1Place one color card face up in front of you. Never a rocket.
- 2Put your radio communication token, green side up, on it — the position carries the information.
- 3Take the reminder card into your hand. It marks that you have not yet played the card you revealed.
- 4Once you actually play that card, put the reminder card down and flip the communication token to its red side.
| Token position | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Top of the card | My highest card of this color |
| Middle of the card | My only card of this color |
| Bottom of the card | My lowest card of this color |
- Once per player per mission attempt. If you fail and retry, you get it back.
- You may only do it before a trick starts, never in the middle of one.
- In a mission with task cards, you can communicate only after the tasks have been handed out.
- A revealed card is played like any other card. The only difference is that everyone knows about it.
- Once placed, a token is never moved. If a card revealed as your “highest” later becomes your “only” one, leave it as it is.
Not communicating is information too. If nobody communicates, the crew reads it as “let's just go for it.” The rulebook says as much in its tips section.
Task tokens — the order matters too
In many missions each task card gets a token. It is a condition that says when that task has to be completed.
| Token | Condition |
|---|---|
| 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 | Complete it first · second · third · fourth · fifth among the remaining tasks |
| Ω (last) | Complete it last of all |
| Arrow | Complete it before or after one specific other task |
“1” does not mean the first trick
“1” means the first of the tasks to be completed. Which trick number it happens on does not matter. Break an order condition and the mission fails immediately.
- Lay the tokens out in the middle first, as the mission describes, then place the task cards from left to right starting at the first token.
- Never assign two task cards to one token.
- One trick can complete several tokened tasks at once. If the token numbers are consecutive, both count as correctly completed, no matter which came first.
The distress signal — the official difficulty valve
- 1After the cards and tasks are dealt, but before anyone has communicated, the crew decides together whether to use it.
- 2If you do, turn the distress signal token to its active side and circle the distress signal field in the logbook.
- 3Every player passes 1 card to a neighbor. Agree on the direction together — everyone must pass the same way.
- 4Rockets may never be passed.
- Either everyone passes or nobody does. A partial pass is not allowed.
- The token stays active until you finish that mission. However many times you retry, you may pass cards each time.
- It is recorded as +1 attempt in your success record.
- The rulebook states it outright: every mission can be completed without a distress signal.
Five players and two players
Five players — one task can be handed over
The flow is the same, but the difficulty rises sharply. From mission 25 on (marked with a golden frame in the logbook), after the cards and tasks are dealt and before the first trick, one player may hand one of their tasks to another player. Who gives and who receives is decided without revealing any hands. The total number of tasks does not change, and using this does not add to your attempt count.
Two players — JARVIS becomes the third crew member
Set the rocket 4 aside, then from the remaining 39 cards lay 7 face down in a row with 7 face up on top of them, making a double row of 14. That is the artificial intelligence “JARVIS.” Shuffle the rocket 4 back into the rest and deal 13 cards each to the two players.
- In the two-player game too, whoever holds the rocket 4 is the commander.
- The commander runs JARVIS. The commander alone decides JARVIS's tasks and JARVIS's cards, and the other player may not discuss it.
- JARVIS may only play face-up cards. Playing a face-up card reveals the card beneath it, but you only flip it after the trick is finished.
- Decide where JARVIS “sits” as well. Treat it exactly like any other crew member.
The rulebook recommends three or more players. Three is easier than four or five.
Rules people get wrong
Q. Can I play a rocket whenever I want?
In a color trick, only if you have none of that color. Holding back a rocket by playing it while you could still follow color is against the rules.
Q. May I lose a trick on purpose when I could win it?
Yes. There is no rule that you must win a trick. Situations where you have to lose to save a teammate's task come up constantly.
Q. What happens if someone else takes my task card?
The mission fails right then. Reshuffle the cards, deal the tasks again, and start over.
Q. Where exactly is the line on “you may not talk about your hand”?
The rulebook's test is “if you know it only because you can see your own cards, you may not say it.” Facts anyone can read off the cards already revealed are fine to mention.
Q. Can I communicate in the middle of a trick?
No. Only before a trick begins.
Q. Can I reveal a middling number?
No. You may only reveal your highest, your lowest, or your only card of that color.
Q. Does task token “1” mean I must win it on the first trick?
No. It just has to be the first of the tasks completed. The trick number is irrelevant.
Q. Do we have to play the missions in order?
It is recommended but not required. They are arranged to get harder as you go.
History and editions
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Designer | Thomas Sing |
| Published | Kosmos, 2019 |
| Award | Winner of the 2020 Kennerspiel des Jahres (German Game of the Year, connoisseur category) |
| Korean release | Published in Korea as “Space Crew” |
| Sequels | Released | Note |
|---|---|---|
| The Crew: Mission Deep Sea | 2021 | Uses goal cards instead of task cards. A standalone game |
| The Crew (2024 sequel) | 2024 | - |
“Mission Deep Sea” is the sequel, but the way tasks are handed out changed, so the rules differ quite a bit. If you are only going to own one, many players find Deep Sea the more flexible of the two.
Sources
Official Thames & Kosmos rulebook (The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine, English)Cross-checked against Wikipedia: The Crew (card game)Rule summaries are reference content written by us, not quotations from the official rulebook. Always check the official rulebook for exact rules. Diagrams are original schematics, not rulebook illustrations.
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Last updated 2026-09-14
💡 Master tip
A rocket card always wins the trick, so it is worth saving for a task in a color you do not hold. Watching for the moment when one trick completes two players' tasks at once is the key to the later missions.
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