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About The Crew: Mission Deep Sea
The Crew: Mission Deep Sea is a cooperative trick-taking game, which sounds like a contradiction and is not. Each mission assigns tasks such as "this player must win the green 4" and the team has to arrange the tricks to make them happen, while barely being allowed to communicate. It is the follow-up to Quest for Planet Nine and generally considered the better of the two.
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Is The Crew: Mission Deep Sea Right for You?
Best for
The Crew is for groups who already enjoy trick-taking and want a shared puzzle rather than a fight. Missions take about ten minutes each, so a session naturally becomes "just one more", and the campaign structure gives fifty-odd sessions of gradual escalation. Three and four players is the sweet spot, and it is one of the best-value boxes in the hobby.
Maybe skip it if…
It assumes real comfort with following suit and counting cards, so a table that has never played a trick game will struggle from mission one. It also rewards a strong player talking everyone through their hand, which quietly ruins the tension if you let it happen.
How to Play The Crew: Mission Deep Sea
Setup
Deal the whole deck out. Whoever holds the highest submarine card leads. Draw task cards according to the mission number.
On Your Turn
- Players claim tasks in turn order before the round begins, based on what they think their hand can deliver.
- Play tricks normally, following the led suit where possible, with submarines as permanent trump.
- Use your single communication token to place one card face up with a marker showing whether it is your highest, lowest or only card in that suit.
How to Win
Complete every task in the mission before the hand runs out. Any failed task fails the whole mission for everyone.
💡 Strategy Tips
Claim the tasks you can guarantee, not the ones you can probably do. A hopeful claim usually sinks the mission.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Claiming tasks greedily at the start of the round. The claim phase is the mission; most failures are decided before a single card is played.
- Spending the communication token immediately. Held until the second or third trick it says far more, because everyone knows more about the shape of the hand.
- Forgetting that you must follow suit. A player who could have followed and did not has broken the rules, not made a clever play.
- Treating the tasks as independent. Two tasks that each look easy can be mutually exclusive, and spotting that during the claim phase is the actual skill.
Advanced Strategy
- Count the trump submarines before claiming anything. Who holds them determines who can actually guarantee a trick.
- A task requiring you to win a low card is much harder than one requiring a high card. Price them accordingly during the claim.
- Deliberately lose early tricks to shed cards that would otherwise force you to win at the wrong moment.
- When a mission looks impossible after the claim, say so immediately. Restarting costs ten minutes; grinding out a doomed hand costs the mood.
Variants & House Rules
Sonar and distress signals
Later missions unlock additional communication restrictions and helpers. They are part of the campaign progression rather than optional modules.
The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine
The earlier, slightly simpler game in the series. Fine to own both, but Mission Deep Sea has the better task system.
Video Guides
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Our Verdict
The Crew is one of the best cooperative games of the last decade, and it fits in a jacket pocket. Turning trick-taking, one of the oldest competitive card structures there is, into a team puzzle should not work this well. If your group can already play a trick game, this is close to an essential purchase.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Crew game should I buy?
Mission Deep Sea. The task system is more flexible than Quest for Planet Nine and it scales difficulty better. Both are excellent.
Do we need to play the missions in order?
Yes, ideally. The campaign introduces new rules gradually and later missions assume the earlier ones have been played.
Is it good with two players?
There is a supported two-player mode with a dummy hand, but it is clearly best at three or four.