Exploding Minions Rulebook

Table of Contents

How It Works
Basically
Setup
- Defuse Cards
Taking Your Turn
- Remember
Ending the Game
- Three More Things
Example Turn
Exploding Minions Field Guide

How It Works

In the deck of cards are some Exploding Minions. You play the game by putting the deck face down and taking turns drawing cards until someone draws an Exploding Minion.

When that happens, that person explodes and they are out of the game.

All of the other cards will give you powerful tools to help you avoid exploding!

This process continues until there's only 1 player left who wins the game.

Basically

If you explode, you lose.
If you don't explode, you win.

For example: If it was your turn to draw, you could play a See the Future Card to peek at the top few cards in the Draw Pile before drawing. If you saw an Exploding Minion, you could then play a Skip Card to end your turn without drawing a card instead of exploding.

Setup

To start, remove all the Exploding Minions (4) from the deck and set them aside.
Choose the card set for your player count:
- 2 players: use only the cards WITH a Gru Tech symbol in the corner (31 cards). Remove the other cards from the game.
- 3 players: use only the cards WITHOUT a Gru Tech symbol in the corner (37 cards). Remove the other cards from the game.
- 4 or 5 players: use all of the cards (68 cards).
Remove all of the Defuse Cards from the deck and deal 1 to each player.
You will have some extra Defuse Cards, so put them back in the deck.
Shuffle the deck and deal 7 cards face down to each player. Everyone now has a hand of 8 cards total (7 cards + 1 Defuse). Look at your cards but keep them secret.
Insert enough Exploding Minions back into the deck so that there is 1 fewer than the number of people playing. Remove any extra Exploding Minions from the game.
- For example: For a 4 player game, insert 3 Exploding Minions. For a 3 player game, insert 2 Exploding Minions. This ensures that everyone eventually explodes except for 1 person.
Shuffle the deck, and put it face down in the middle of the table. This is your Draw Pile. (Be sure to leave some space for a Discard Pile as well.)
Pick a player to go first.

Defuse Cards

The Defuse Card is the most powerful card in the game. These are the only cards that can save you from Exploding Minions. If you draw an Exploding Minion, you can play a Defuse Card instead of dying. Then, reinsert the Exploding Minion back into the Draw Pile anywhere you'd like in secret.

Try to get as many Defuse Cards as you can.

Taking Your Turn

On your turn you can either:
- Pass: Play no cards.
- or Play: Play a card by placing it FACE UP on top of the Discard Pile and following the instructions on the card. Read the text on a card to learn what it does. After you follow the instructions on the card, you can play another card. You can play as many cards as you'd like.
After either passing or playing as many cards as you'd like, you will end your turn by drawing a card from the top of the Draw Pile into your hand and hoping it's not an Exploding Minion. (This is different from most games in that you END YOUR TURN by drawing a card.)

Play continues clockwise around the table.

Remember

Play as many or as few cards as you'd like, then draw a card to end your turn.

Play-or-Pass, then Draw. Play-or-Pass, then Draw.

Ending the Game

The last player who hasn't exploded wins the game.

You won't ever run out of cards in the Draw Pile because you inserted enough Exploding Minions so that everyone will explode except for 1 player.

Three More Things

A good strategy is to save your cards early in the game while your chance of exploding is low.
You can always count the cards left in the Draw Pile to figure out the odds of exploding.
There is no maximum or minimum hand size. If you run out of cards in your hand, there's no special action to take. Keep playing. You'll draw at least 1 more card on your next turn.

Stop reading! Go play! If you have questions about specific cards, flip this sheet over.

Example Turn

You suspect the top card in the Draw Pile is an Exploding Minion, so instead of passing and then drawing a card to end your turn, you decide to play a See the Future card allowing you to privately peek at the top 3 cards in the Draw Pile.

While viewing the 3 top cards you see that you were right, and the top card (the card you're about to draw) is an Exploding Minion.

You decide to play an Attack card to end your turn and force the next player to take 2 turns.

But then another player plays a Nope card, which cancels your Attack, so it's still your turn.

You don't want to draw that top card and Explode, so you play a Shuffle card and randomly shuffle the Draw Pile.

With the deck freshly shuffled, you draw the top card to end your turn and hope it's not an Exploding Minion.

Exploding Minions Field Guide

You only need this if you have questions about specific cards.

Exploding Minion (4 cards)

You must show this card immediately. Unless you have a Defuse Card, you're dead. When you die, put the Minion that killed you face up in front of you so that everyone can see that you're dead, and the rest of your cards face down in front of you.

Defuse (3 with Gru Tech symbol / 4 without)

If you drew an Exploding Minion, you can play this card instead of dying. Place your Defuse Card in the Discard Pile.

Then take the Exploding Minion and, without reordering or viewing the other cards, secretly put it back in the Draw Pile anywhere you'd like.

Your turn is over after playing this card.

Want to hurt the player right after you? Put the Exploding Minion right on top of the deck. If you'd like, hold the deck under the table so that no one else can see where you put it.

Attack (2x) (2 with Gru Tech symbol / 3 without)

End your turn without drawing a card, and immediately force the next player to take 2 turns in a row.

If the victim of an Attack Card plays this card on any of their turns, the attacks "stack" and their turns are immediately transferred to the next player, who must take the Attacker's current and remaining untaken turn(s) PLUS 2 additional turns.

For Example: If the victim of an Attack Card plays another Attack Card, the next player must take 4 turns. However, if the victim completes 1 turn, and THEN plays an Attack Card on their second turn, the next player must take only 3 turns.

Nope (3 with Gru Tech symbol / 4 without)

Stop any action except for an Exploding Minion or a Defuse Card. It's as if the card beneath a Nope Card never existed.

A Nope can be played at any time before an action has begun, even if it's not your turn. Any cards that have been Noped are lost. Leave them in the Discard Pile.

A Nope can also be played on another Nope to cancel it and create a Yup, and so on.

See the Future (3x) (3 with Gru Tech symbol / 4 without)

Privately view the top 3 cards from the Draw Pile and put them back in the same order. Don't show the cards to the other players.

Skip (3 with Gru Tech symbol / 3 without)

Immediately end your turn without drawing a card.

If you play a Skip Card as a defense to an Attack Card, it only ends 1 of the 2 turns. 2 Skip Cards would end both turns.

Shuffle (2 with Gru Tech symbol / 2 without)

Shuffle the Draw Pile until the next player tells you to stop. (Useful when you know there's an Exploding Minion coming.)

Draw From the Bottom (2 with Gru Tech symbol / 3 without)

End your turn by drawing the bottom card from the Draw Pile.

Minion Character Cards (4 of each with Gru Tech symbol / 4 of each without)

These cards are powerless on their own, but if you collect any 2 matching Minion Character Cards, you can play them as a Pair to steal a random card from any player.

Clone (1 with Gru Tech symbol / 2 without)

Play this card onto the Discard Pile and it becomes whatever card is beneath it and adopts the rules of that card.

You cannot play a Clone on top of another Clone.

If you draw an Exploding Minion and there is a Defuse Card on top of the Discard Pile, you can play a Clone Card as a Defuse Card to avoid exploding.

You can play a Clone with a Minion Character Card to form a pair and steal a card, but you cannot play a Clone on top of a Minion Character Card played by another player. (Because to use a pair of Minion Character Cards, you must play both of them.)