SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence board game box cover

SETI Score Calculator & Scoring Guide

Take your score track position, then add the three end-game buckets — cards, gold milestones, and alien species scoring. Free, for 1 to 4 players.

Score Calculator

Category
Score Track
End-Game Scoring Cards
Gold Milestone Tiles
Alien Species Scoring
Total00

This calculator totals your four buckets and forgets when you leave. Saved games, player stats, and win rates live in the free Meeply app →

How SETI Scoring Works

SETI scores as you play. Missions, probes, signal analysis, and discoveries all push your marker up the score track during the game, so by the final round most of your total is already sitting on the board. Then three things get added on top: the end-game effects on cards in your play area, your gold milestone tiles, and whatever the alien species discovered this game reward. It's a 2024 release and still finding its rhythm at most tables, so it's worth walking the four buckets slowly the first few times.

1Score Track

Unlike most heavy euros, SETI pays you as you go. Your marker climbs the score track all game — completing missions, landing probes and settling them into orbit, analyzing the signals you pick up, and making discoveries all push it forward. By the last round this is usually the single biggest number on the sheet. Read it straight off the track at the end of the game rather than trying to reconstruct it: the points arrived in dozens of small pushes at different values, and the marker is the record.

2End-Game Scoring Cards

Some cards pay out immediately; others sit in your play area and only score once the game is over. Go through your tableau one card at a time and resolve each end-game effect against your final board state. This is the bucket where points hide, because a card you played in round two may be quietly counting something you stopped paying attention to.

3Gold Milestone Tiles

These are the gold tiles you picked up over the course of the game for hitting their conditions. They come home with you and add their points to the final tally. Gather the ones in front of you before you total anything else — like point tokens in any game, they are the easiest thing to sweep into the box during cleanup and the easiest thing to forget you earned.

4Alien Species Scoring

Every game of SETI reveals alien species, and each species brings its own end-game scoring with it. Because which species come out changes from game to game, this bucket's rules change too — there is no fixed formula to memorize. Work through the species boards on the table and score each one exactly as printed. On a first play this is the bucket most likely to be misread, so it's worth reading the boards out loud before anyone starts adding.

The calculator above adds those four numbers together — it doesn't resolve the species boards for you, because the species that show up change with every game and their scoring rules are printed on the boards themselves. Score each species at the table, bring the result over as one figure, and the totals are handled.

Looking for a SETI Score Sheet?

If you came here hunting for a SETI score sheet to print, the calculator above does the same job with the math built in — one row for your score track position, one for each end-game bucket, one column per player, totals handled. It forgets everything when you leave, though. For a score sheet that remembers — every game, every player, every win — SETI is one of 300+ games in the free Meeply app.

More Free Score Calculators

Terraforming Mars score calculator →Gaia Project score calculator →Ark Nova score calculator →All score calculators →

This Page Adds. Meeply Remembers.

A calculator gives you tonight's total and forgets it. Meeply keeps the whole story — every SETI game, every player's win rate, every "the species scoring won me that one" settled with receipts.

Free to try. SETI is one of 300+ games with rules-aware scoresheets built in.

Download on the App Store
Meeply home screen showing in-progress games and your game collection including SETI

SETI Scoring Questions

How do you score SETI?
Most of your score is already on the board when the game ends. Your marker moves up the score track throughout play — for missions, probes, signal analysis, and discoveries — and then three things are added on top at the end: the end-game effects on cards in your play area, the gold milestone tiles you claimed, and the scoring for the alien species discovered this game. Add those three to your score track position; highest total wins.
What scores during play versus at the end of the game in SETI?
During play, points go onto the score track as you earn them — completing missions, landing and orbiting probes, analyzing signals, and making discoveries all move your marker immediately. At the end of the game you add three more buckets: cards in your play area with end-game scoring effects, your gold milestone tiles, and the alien species scoring. Nothing on the track needs recounting; the end-game buckets do.
How does alien species scoring work in SETI?
It depends on which species were discovered in that particular game. Each alien species comes with its own board and its own end-game scoring rules, so the formula is different from session to session. There is no shortcut here — read the scoring on each revealed species board and resolve it against your final position. Score it there, then bring the number over as one figure.
What are the gold milestone tiles in SETI?
They're the gold scoring tiles you claim during the game by meeting their conditions. You keep them, and their points are counted into your end-game total. Collect the ones sitting in your player area before you start totaling — they're small and easy to lose in the cleanup.
How do end-game scoring cards work?
Cards with an end-game effect stay in your play area and only pay out when the game finishes, based on the state of your board at that moment. Resolve them one at a time rather than eyeballing the tableau, and add the results together as a single number for that row of the sheet.
Do I still need to track SETI scores if the board already does it?
The track handles everything you earn during play, so there's nothing to write down mid-game. What a score sheet is for is the end: three buckets that get added on top of the track, one of which changes every game. Writing them out per player is what stops the final count turning into an argument — and it's the only way to compare tonight's game against your last one.
Is there a SETI score sheet I can use online?
This page works as one: a free digital SETI score sheet with a row for your score track position and each of the three end-game buckets, and the totals done for you. It forgets everything when you leave, though. For a score sheet that remembers — every game, every player, every win — SETI is one of 300+ games in the free Meeply app.
Does Meeply support SETI?
Yes — SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence is in the Meeply app's catalog with a rules-aware scoresheet for 1 to 4 players, with a category for the score track and one for each end-game bucket. Free to try.