Based on an extraterrestrial signal

Rumors say a flaming spaceship was seen falling through the sky... Confirmed! I had to eject after a tiny little mistake during what should have been a stealth reconnaissance mission. Thankfully, I was able to activate my spaceship’s cloaking ability before it crashed...

The mothership was warned of my difficulties and is on its way to retrieve me. It won’t arrive for several days, and once it gets here it can’t linger—humans haven’t been deemed ready for contact with alien species yet. I’m going to have to hide until I’m brought home.

That won’t be easy, especially since my arrival was noticed: the Agency is hot on my trail!

The Agents know the place much better than I do, they’ve got cutting-edge detection arrays, and they’re not afraid to get wet—whereas I can’t swim...

I’ll have to cover my tracks to get out of here!

In 1st Contacts, one player is the Alien. They must escape and fulfill a special mission. They move around on a secret map, committed to avoiding easy detection, and they know how to cover their tracks.

All other players are Agents who must try to catch the Alien before it escapes! They use their abilities and deduce the Alien's whereabouts based on the answers they receive.

The Agents can use detection arrays and deduction tokens to track the information they're given.

Only by communicating and combining their actions can the Agents catch the Alien before it escapes.

The Alien wins by avoiding capture and fulfilling their special mission.

The Agents win only by capturing the Alien, which they do when one Agent finishes their turn on the same tile as the Alien.

1ers Contacts is made up of six Secret Files. Each Secret File plunges you into a new first contact with a different alien race. The Secret Files offer a variety of gameplay experiences, and are infinitely replayable.

—description from the designer