The Crew: Mission Deep Sea and Other Editions

Once your crew finishes the 50 missions of The Quest for Planet Nine, you have options. You can replay missions at a new player count, design your own, or move on to another game in the family. This lesson covers what each one brings, so you can pick the next step that fits your crew.

The Quest for Planet Nine

The game this course teaches. Released in 2019, it won the Kennerspiel des Jahres in 2020. It has 50 missions with a steady ramp, and its tasks always ask you to win specific cards, sometimes in a set order. It plays 3 to 5, with a 2-player variant using JARVIS. Thames & Kosmos publishes it in North America; see the product page.

Mission Deep Sea

Released in 2021, Mission Deep Sea is a stand-alone sequel by the same designer, Thomas Sing. You do not need the first game to play it. The core rules are the same: follow suit, a small set of trumps, and one signal per player per attempt. The trumps are submarine cards instead of rockets.

The big change is the tasks. Instead of task cards that each name one card to win, Deep Sea has 96 task cards with many kinds of goals. Some ask you to win certain cards. Others ask for things like winning a set number of tricks. Each task card has a difficulty rating, and the ratings differ by player count.

Each mission in the logbook gives a total difficulty. You draw task cards until their ratings add up to that total. So one mission can bring a few hard tasks one time and several easy ones the next. The logbook has 32 missions in a campaign story about searching for the lost continent of Mu.

What it means for your crew:

• More variety. The tasks change more from attempt to attempt, so missions feel fresh on replay.
• More reading of each task. Each task card has its own condition, so the commander and crew spend more time on the task pick.
• The same skills carry over. Signals, voids, counting colors, and reading leads all work the same way.

If your crew loved the campaign but wants more replay, Deep Sea is the natural next box. Thames & Kosmos has a Mission Deep Sea product page.

Our article on which Crew to buy compares the two side by side.

Newer games in the family

The Crew has grown since Deep Sea. A family version, The Crew: Family Adventure, was released in 2024, and a third main game in the series followed in 2026. Both keep the cooperative trick-taking core.

Play online for free

Both The Quest for Planet Nine and Mission Deep Sea are on Board Game Arena. The Quest for Planet Nine is free to play there and supports 2 to 5 players. Online play handles the dealing and task setup for you, which makes it a quick way to practice signals and counting between table sessions.

Getting more out of the box you have

Before you buy anything, there is plenty left in the first game:

• Replay at a new count. A mission at five players is a different puzzle from the same mission at three.
• Try the Challenge for Three. Remove green and the 1 rocket for a harder three-player game.
• Fly without the distress signal. If your crew used it, try a clean run.
• Make your own missions. The rulebook invites it: combine tasks, tokens, and special rules, and write a short story to go with them.

For more short co-ops to put on the shelf next to The Crew, see our list of the best cooperative board games and our guide to board games under $20.