Legendary Encounters: Alien Deck Building Game – Sorting the Cards By: Carter_Burke.

Who this guide is for:

 Potential Buyers & Newcomers needing help to sort their cards for the first time.

Sorting the Game for the First Time

When you first purchase the game, all the cards are mixed up. This was done to keep manufacturing
costs low, but it has been a major complaint. This guide will show you what each card type looks like,
rather than the manual’s list of numbers:

Game Contents
Rulebook, game board and 600 cards.
• 10 Role Avatars
• 10 Role Character Cards
• 35 Specialists
• 25 Grunts
• 10 Sergeants
• 224 Character cards (16 characters with 14 cards each: each character has 1 rare, 3 uncommons, and 5 each of
two commons)
• 4 Locations
• 12 Objectives
• 132 Hive cards (12 different “mini-decks”)
• 24 Drone cards
• 14 Hatchery Cards
• 40 Strikes
• 4 Alien Avatars
• 36 Alien Player Cards
• 15 Agenda Cards
• 5 Secrets Revealed Cards

Meaningless to a newcomer. First, sort all the cards into the following groups:
PLAYER CARDS
The number (10) after the name is the number of cards of this type.

• Role Avatars (10): Contains the description “Avatar” in second row from the top.

These are all the Avatars in the base game.

• Role Cards (10): These are characters, and their picture’s match the Avatars, but "Role Card" is
printed at the bottom of card.

Note: The Name “Battlefield Medicine”

(top row) on a Role Card is mentioned in
the description of the Avatar Card (See
top photo), and their pictures match. So
you always know which Avatar pairs
with each role card.
• Specialists (35): These are characters, and all look identical to this:

• Grunts (25): These are characters, and all look identical to this:

• Sergeant Cards (10): These are characters, and all look identical to this:
• Character Cards (224): These cards make up your barracks. Each card has the Name (top row) and
the name of the Character (second row from top).

Examples: Bishop Captain Dallas Francis "85" Aaron

Each character makes up a set of 14 cards in total;

There are two sets of x5 Common cards, one x3 cards Uncommon, and one Rare Card.

Each characters belongs to a movie scenario, and characters of the same scenario share a logo in the
top left of each card:

ALIEN
 Warrant Officer Ripley
 Captain Dallas
 Chief Engineer Parker
 Navigator Lambert

ALIENS
 Lieutenant Ripley Tip for First Time Players: When
 Bishop sorting for the first time, group
 Corporal Hicks these character cards by their logo.
 Private Hudson You can always sort by individual
characters in each movie scenario
later.
ALIEN 3
 Sister Ripley
 Brother Dillon
 Francis "85" Aaron
 CMO Clemens

ALIEN: Resurrection
 Ripley No. 8
 Johner
 Christie
 Call
MISSION CARDS

• Location Cards (4): Each card has “Location” on it; it’s not rocket science.

• Objective Cards (12): These are unique and have “Objective 1/2/3” marked at the top.

How Objectives are sorted is detailed below in the “Hive Cards” section.

• Strikes (40): Strikes are easily identified by their graphic violence, and “Strike Deck” being printed
at the bottom of each card.

Fun Fact: These strike wounds can

be healed during gameplay; but how
an Alien tail puncturing a human
chest cavity is healed is left to your
imagination. 
ALIEN HIVE CARDS

• Hive Cards (132): These are the Aliens that will attack you. They comprise of twelve different
“mini-decks”. Each mini-deck is one objective. There will be a combination of “Enemy – Alien”,
Events, Hazards, Objective Goals and even Characters with an Objective Name at the bottom.

For Newcomers: Each

Objective should contain x1
hazard and x2 event cards.

IMPORTANT: Group these by their Objective Name.

In Summary, each Objective’s “mini-deck” has the following:

Objective 1 has 9 cards,
Objective 2 has 11 cards,
Objective 3 has 13 cards.

These are the objective names for each scenario, which are sorted at follows:

ALIEN
Location: The Nostromo
Objective 1 - The S.O.S.
Objective 2 - No One Can Hear You Scream
Objective 3 - A Perfect Organism

ALIENS
Location: Hadley's Hope
Objective 1 - The Lost Colony
Objective 2 - They Mostly Come at Night
Objective 3 - Who's Laying the Eggs?

ALIEN 3
Location: Fiorina "Fury" 161
Objective 1 - Where are the Brothers?
Objective 2 - The Beast is Out There
Objective 3 - Nobody Can Stop It

ALIEN: Resurrection
Location: The Auriga
Objective 1 - Breakout
Objective 2 - You're a Thing. A Construct.
Objective 3 - She'll Breed. You'll Die
Important Hive Card Note: Some hive cards are ‘Characters’ such as Newt below. These should not
be confused as a barracks card and are still part of the mini-hive. If it has an Objective name at the
bottom, it’s a Hive card.

• Drone Cards (24): A mixture of Alien and event cards with “Drone Deck” at the bottom of each
card.

• Hatchery Cards (14): Easily identified these are marked “Hatchery Deck” at the BOTTOM.
 Facehuggers (10)
 Chestbursters (4)
ALIEN PLAYER CARDS

• Alien Avatars (4): Each card is unique and has “Alien Avatar” in the second row.

• Alien Player Deck (36): The Alien Player doesn’t have “Role Cards” like human Avatars. It has a
single deck of unique cards consisting of identical artwork and “Alien Player Deck” at the bottom.

Newcomers: Despite not having

unique artwork or role cards, Alien
Player Deck cards are dangerous.
ADVANCED PLAYER CARDS

• Agenda Cards (15): These cards have “Agenda” printed at the top and bottom of each card.
 Good Agenda (10)
 Evil Agenda (5)

EG. Good Agenda Evil Agenda

• Secrets Revealed Cards (5): These are used with the Agenda cards and go into the mini-hive. See
rulebook for further instructions.
Sorting The Cards in the Box
Use the dividers which came with the cards.
Here’s an example of simple dividing if you plan to mostly play by movie scenario.

More advanced players use different layouts because Barracks are divided into individual characters,
and objectives might be mixed to create custom games. That is beyond the scope of this document.

For sleeving, check out my guide to sleeving Legendary Encounters games on boardgamegeek.com