How Do You Set Up Your First Game of Planet Apocalypse?
Setup means sorting your components, picking a champion for each player, choosing your demon lord (Baphomet is the built-in starting boss), and building the board before the demon horde starts advancing. Planet Apocalypse is cooperative from the first minute, so the whole table preps together with no hidden information. Budget extra time on game one; a first setup always runs slower than your fifth.
None of that is complicated on its own. What trips up new groups is skipping the sort step and trying to build the board straight out of the box. A few minutes of organization up front saves a much slower first turn later, and it is the single biggest difference between a smooth first session and a stalled one.
What Should You Do Before You Open the Rulebook?
Sort first. Play second. Pull out champion cards, demon miniatures, map tiles, gift cards, and tokens, and group them so nothing gets buried mid-turn. Planet Apocalypse has a lot of pieces for a co-op box, and rifling through a mixed pile while your table waits is the fastest way to kill first-session momentum.
Sorting matters more as your player count climbs. A solo game only needs one set of components tracked. A full five-player table means five champion sheets, five sets of gift cards, and five sets of tokens spread across the board before anyone acts. If you are playing with a full group for the first time, treat that sort as its own step, not something you squeeze in while explaining rules at the same time.
Keep the rulebook open next to the board rather than reading it front to back before you sit down. Most groups pick up Planet Apocalypse faster by playing the first round and checking specific rules as questions come up. That approach gets champions moving sooner, which is where the game actually teaches itself.
How Do You Choose Champions and a Demon Lord for Your First Game?
Each player picks one champion, and every champion plays differently. Read your champion's ability card before the board is even built. That single habit prevents most of the confusion that shows up two or three turns in, when someone realizes they have been ignoring an ability printed right on their own card.
For your demon lord, start with Baphomet. It ships in the base box and it is the fair, well-tested fight that every other Lord expansion assumes you already know. Petersen Games has released a full roster of additional Lord and Lady expansions since launch, including Jabootu, Scylla, Asmod, Procrustes, Pulgasaur, Great Cthulhu, and Spider Mastermind, and each one changes the encounter at a structural level. None of them are the right choice for turn one. Learn Baphomet's pacing first, then branch out once the core loop feels natural.
Playing solo? One person controls multiple champions rather than a single hero, using the same rules a full table uses. It's slower per turn since every decision routes through one player, but it's a genuine way to learn the system before you gather a group.
How Do You Build the Board and Start the Invasion?
Build the map according to the rulebook's setup diagram, then place your heroes and the starting demon presence exactly as printed. Petersen Games specifies the tile layout and starting placement directly in the rulebook, so this is the one part of setup where you should follow the printed instructions rather than eyeballing it from memory of a different session.
This is also the point where the game's premise becomes physical. Hell has broken through and the demon horde is already active on the board before your first hero acts. That framing matters for how the first turn feels: you are not walking into an empty map and slowly discovering threat. The pressure starts on turn one, not turn five.
If your table is new to cooperative horror games generally, walk through the win and loss conditions out loud before you start. Knowing what you are actually racing toward, and what losing looks like, makes the first turn's decisions land with more weight.
What Happens on the First Turn?
Heroes act first. Each champion uses the actions and abilities printed on their own card to fight demons, move across the map, and collect gifts. Because every champion is built differently, your first turn is mostly a hands-on lesson in what your specific hero can do rather than a shared, identical routine everyone follows.
After heroes finish acting, the demon side responds. The horde advances and escalates through the circles of hell, and the demon lord grows more dangerous as the session runs on. That escalation is the actual engine of the game. It creates a real clock: hold back too cautiously and the board gets away from you; push forward without support and the demon lord makes you pay for it.
Your very first turn will feel careful, and that is normal. New players tend to under-commit early, testing what a champion's abilities actually do before spending resources with confidence. That caution costs less on turn one than it will later in the session, so use it as a low-stakes chance to learn your hero before the demon lord's threat really ramps up. For the exact turn structure, phase order, and specific rules your box uses, the printed rulebook that ships with Planet Apocalypse is the accurate source. This walkthrough covers the flow; the rulebook covers every rule.
Is Planet Apocalypse Hard to Learn?
Not brutally, but it's not a light introductory game either. Groups already comfortable with heavier cooperative titles will find the core loop clicks within a round or two. The champion abilities and the escalating demon threat are where the real learning curve lives, not the setup steps themselves.
What makes it approachable is the cooperative structure. There is no hidden information, no traitor mechanic, and no secret roles to explain before you start. Every player is solving the exact same problem from the exact same side, which removes a whole category of rules overhead that competitive games carry. You are not teaching anyone how to bluff. You are teaching them how their champion works.
Community discussion backs up that read. Planet Apocalypse's BoardGameGeek entry lists it under cooperative and solo/solitaire mechanisms, matching what this walkthrough describes. Dicebreaker's game database entry confirms the same 1-5 player range and credits Sandy Petersen as designer. And for a longer first-impressions read on how a real session actually plays out, Board Game Quest's review walks through the hero, gift, and demon lord systems from an outside table's perspective.
Ready to Set Up Your Own Game?
Setup is short once you have run it once. Sort your components, pick champions, start with Baphomet, build the board by the rulebook, and let the first turn teach you the rest. The demon horde won't wait for you to feel ready, which is exactly the point.
Pick up Planet Apocalypse directly from Petersen Games to get the current edition and rulebook, or browse the full Petersen Games best-selling collection to see where it stacks up against the rest of the catalog. In-stock orders process within 48 hours and ship via USPS Ground Advantage (2-5 business days) within the US.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Planet Apocalypse hard to learn for a first game?
Not for a group used to heavier co-ops, though it's not a light game either. Most of the learning curve is in the champion abilities and the escalating demon threat, not in the setup itself. Budget one full session before the rules feel automatic.
Which demon lord should new players fight first?
Baphomet, the demon lord in the base box. It's designed as the entry-point encounter, teaching the core loop before you bring in any of the additional Lord and Lady expansions.
How long does setup take for a first game of Planet Apocalypse?
Sorting components and building the board takes longer on your first attempt than it will later, especially with a full five-player table. New groups should plan for extra time before the first hero turn while everyone reads their champion card.
Do you have to read the entire rulebook before playing?
No. Most groups learn the core loop by playing the first round with the rulebook open next to the board, checking specific rules as questions come up rather than reading cover to cover beforehand.
Can you learn Planet Apocalypse by playing it solo?
Yes. Solo play uses the same ruleset, with one player controlling multiple champions instead of a single hero. It's a reasonable way to learn the system's mechanics before bringing a full group to the table.
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