If you’re one of the (presumably) not many people who want their board games to match the harrowing and demoralizing realities of life, you’ll be eager to kick off a campaign of Pandemic: Legacy this fall. For the last year and a half, it was rare to get in one good gaming session, let alone multiples in a row; but we’re all looking ahead these days, meaning legacy games—those, mostly cooperative, that require multiple gaming sessions to get through—are back on the menu. Prepare for this inevitability, and all but guarantee your success in legacy gaming, by heeding the following tips:

Build physical gaming stamina

Legacy games require your full attention, especially when you’re returning to the game for repeat sessions—any missed detail will result in setting your entire team back and, at worst, extending the game far beyond what’s polite. Make sure nothing escapes your attention by establishing the fortitude required to stick with the more physical aspects of the game until the end. If you have to get up from the board to get a snack, sprint to the refrigerator. Power wash your hands after going to the bathroom. Instead of rolling the dice, throw them on your roof and freestyle scale your apartment building. These feats of physical prowess will surely steady the body, which in turn could steady the mind.

Perform some light Googling

One of the more taxing elements of legacy games occurs when returning after a long hiatus and trying to parse what your strategy had even been. Luckily, not only do you not need to remember but you can enlist as much assistance as you’d like before you game again. Head to the internet and track down gaming guides or tutorials on the best strategies. Read reviews of the game to best reconsider the kind of experience you’d like to have. Heck, now’s your chance to pivot careers to one allowing more time to finish the game! They say play for the job you want, not for the job you have, and who are we to deny this sound piece of advice?

Adopt an aerial view

Sometimes it can be difficult to see the forest for the trees, and we do mean literally; that’s what helicopters are for. But for things smaller and more board game-sized, you need only to stand up and survey the landscape. Note which areas of the board seem empty and without any pieces. Check where the other players have placed their cards: Are they trying to communicate something to you, like a crop circle might convey peace—or war—to a farmer? A seated player might not notice these little eccentricities due to lack of visible range or, simply, losing a contact lens. Perhaps they have a bad back and lose focus when leaning forward in a seated position. These are the real dangers of gaming, heightened by the legacy nature of longer, multi-session games. You’d better get busy living, or get busy dying.