Exploding Kittens Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• How It Works
• Setup
• Taking Your Turn
• Exploding and Defusing
• The Cards
• Combos
• Winning

How It Works

The deck contains some Exploding Kittens. Play by placing the deck face down and taking turns drawing cards until someone draws an Exploding Kitten — that person explodes and is out of the game. All the other cards give you tools to avoid exploding. Play continues until only one player remains, who wins.

Setup

1. Remove all Exploding Kittens from the deck and set them aside.
2. Remove all Defuse Cards and deal 1 to each player.
3. Reinsert extra Defuse Cards into the deck (with 2–3 players, put back only 2 and remove the rest).
4. Shuffle and deal 7 cards face down to each player, so everyone has a hand of 8 (7 + 1 Defuse). Keep them secret.
5. Insert enough Exploding Kittens back into the deck so there is 1 fewer than the number of players (remove any extra). E.g., a 4-player game uses 3 Kittens.
6. Shuffle the deck and place it face down as the Draw Pile (leave room for a Discard Pile). Pick a player to go first.

Taking Your Turn

On your turn, do one of:

• Play a card by placing it face up on the Discard Pile and following its instructions. You may play as many cards as you like.
• Pass (play no cards).

Then end your turn by drawing a card from the top of the Draw Pile into your hand, hoping it's not an Exploding Kitten. (Play-or-Pass, then Draw.) Play continues clockwise.

There is no maximum or minimum hand size; if you run out of cards, keep playing — you'll draw at least one more on your next turn. Because you inserted enough Exploding Kittens to kill all but one player, the Draw Pile never runs out.

Exploding and Defusing

• Exploding Kitten: if you draw one, you must show it immediately. Unless you have a Defuse Card, you're dead — discard all your cards, including the Exploding Kitten, and you're out of the game.
• Defuse: the most powerful card. If you drew an Exploding Kitten, play a Defuse instead of dying; discard the Defuse, then secretly reinsert the Exploding Kitten anywhere you like in the Draw Pile (you may even place it on top to hurt the next player).

The Cards

• Nope (5): stops any action except an Exploding Kitten or a Defuse. Play it at any time, even when it's not your turn, before an action has begun. Noped cards are lost (left in the Discard Pile). A Nope can be played on another Nope to negate it (a "Yup"), and so on. A Nope can even be played on a Special Combo.
• Attack (4): do not draw; instead immediately force the next player to take 2 turns in a row. Your turn ends. If that victim plays their own Attack, the new target must take the remaining turns plus the new attack's turns (e.g., 4 turns, then 6, etc.).
• Skip (4): immediately end your turn without drawing a card. As a defense to an Attack, one Skip ends only 1 of the 2 turns (two Skips end both).
• See the Future (5): privately view the top 3 cards of the Draw Pile and put them back in the same order.
• Shuffle (4): shuffle the Draw Pile thoroughly (useful when you know a Kitten is coming).
• Favor (4): force another player to give you 1 card from their hand (they choose which).
• Cat Cards (4 of each type): powerless alone, but collect 2 matching Cat Cards to play them as a Pair and steal a random card from any player.

Combos

• Two of a Kind: playing a matching Pair steals a random card from another player. This applies to any pair with the same title (not just Cat Cards) — a pair of Shuffles, Skips, etc. Ignore the cards' printed instructions when played as a combo.
• Three of a Kind: play 3 cards with the same title, then pick a player and name a card; if they have it, they must give you one (otherwise you get nothing). Ignore the cards' instructions when played as a combo.

Winning

Eventually every player explodes except one, who wins the game.