¡TACO FIGHT! Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Components
  • Card Anatomy
• Object of the Game
• Setup
• Flow of the Game
• Starting the Game
• Mid-Game Layout
• Fight Phase
  • Searching for Ingredients
• There Are 3 Ways to Defeat a Taco
  • Block the Taco
  • Smash the Taco
  • Eat the Taco
• Special Opponents
• Taco 'Bout Strategy
• Prep Phase
• End Game
• Food Coma
• High Score
• Madness Mode

Components

Ingredient cards: 160. Mild taco cards: 24. Medium taco cards: 32. Hot taco cards: 40. Also included: 1 hourglass, 1 sink (box lid), 1 taco board, and 4 plate boards.

Card Anatomy

Each ingredient card has two values. The ingredient side shows smash fists (top, used when smashing tacos) and your taco's spiciness (bottom, used when building tacos). The attacking side of a taco card shows the attacking taco's spiciness.

Object of the Game

You win ¡Taco Fight! if you defeat all six waves of attacking tacos.

See "Food Coma" (page 15).

Setup

1. Put the sink box in the middle of the table.
2. Place a plate board in front of each player.
3. Choose your difficulty level (Normal, Hard, Madness) and flip the taco board to the corresponding side. Place it next to the sink. If this is your first time playing, we recommend normal difficulty.
4. Separate the INGREDIENT, MILD TACO, MEDIUM TACO, and HOT TACO cards into four stacks. Shuffle each stack. (See page 2 for pictures.)
5. Place each taco stack in its corresponding space on the taco board. Place the INGREDIENT stack next to the sink. You may split the ingredient stack into two smaller stacks if needed. All stacks should be ingredient side down.
6. Place the hourglass next to the taco board.
7. If playing Normal difficulty, deal ONE MILD TACO card to each player. If Hard, deal TWO to each player. If Madness, deal THREE to each player.
8. Players align each taco card they've been dealt with a plate on their plate board (one taco per plate). Tacos aligned with your plates are attacking you directly.

Aligning tacos with plates: To reset for a new game, separate and shuffle the cards into their respective stacks, and continue from step 7 of setup.

Flow of the Game

There are two phases of play: the fight phase and the prep phase. Each fight phase is 30 seconds long, and prep phases are not timed unless you're playing madness mode (see "Madness Mode", page 16).

When a fight phase ends, all players must immediately stop playing ingredient cards and enter the prep phase to get ready for the next wave of tacos. When all players have completed their prep phase, flip the timer and enter the next 30-second fight phase. This process repeats until six waves of tacos are defeated or until your group loses. (See "Food Coma", page 15.)

Sequence: Fight, Prep, Fight, Prep, Fight, Prep, Fight, Prep, Fight, Prep, Fight.

Starting the Game

After setup, each player should have a plate board in front of them with one, two, or three attacking MILD TACOS depending on the difficulty level. To start the game, one player flips the timer onto the first fight circle of the taco board. Then, each player grabs any number of cards from the INGREDIENT stack(s) to form their pantry (remember to leave cards for your teammates). Your pantry can either be held in your hand or set on the table in front of you as an ingredient-side-down stack. The first fight phase has begun!

Mid-Game Layout

The mid-game layout diagram (page 6) labels the following areas: YOUR TACOS, ATTACKING TACOS, PLATE BOARD, INGREDIENT STACK, THE SINK, PANTRY, KITCHEN, HOURGLASS, TACO BOARD, and the MILD, MEDIUM, and HOT TACO stacks. Its captions for cards dealt per player are:

• MILD TACO STACK: Start, Normal: 1 | Hard: 2
• MEDIUM TACO STACK: Normal: 2 | Hard: 3
• HOT TACO STACK: Normal: 3 | Hard: 4

Fight Phase

The fight phase is a 30-second, fast-paced collaboration between all players as you scramble to defeat the current wave of attacking tacos or special opponents (see "Special Opponents", page 11).

Searching for Ingredients

During each fight phase, you and your friends quickly search for the ingredient cards needed to defeat the attacking tacos. Do this by flipping cards in groups of two from the top of your pantry into an ingredient-side-up stack (this flipped stack is called your kitchen). Only the top card on your kitchen may be played to help defeat the attacking tacos, but once a card is played, the card beneath it in your kitchen can now be used. To search for more ingredients, keep flipping cards in groups of two from the top of your pantry onto your kitchen.

If there is only one card left in your pantry, flip it onto your kitchen. Then, collect all cards from your kitchen and flip them back over to reform your pantry and begin searching again. At any point in the game, you can shuffle your pantry or you can add to your pantry by grabbing more ingredient cards from the ingredient stack in the center of the table. Players may give cards from their pantry to another player's pantry, if needed.

As soon as time runs out in the current fight phase, no more ingredient cards may be played. Enter the prep phase.

There Are 3 Ways to Defeat a Taco

• Block the Taco
• Smash the Taco
• Eat the Taco

If you fail to defeat a taco in one way, it doesn't affect any other attempt to defeat the taco. Ex: If a taco was smashed, it may still be eaten or blocked.

Block the Taco

To block an attacking taco, use ingredients from your kitchen to build your own taco on the plate aligned with an attacking taco. If, at the end of each fight phase, the spiciness of your taco is equal to or greater than the attacking taco aligned with its plate, you have successfully blocked that attacking taco and it is defeated.

Building a taco: Place a tortilla ingredient card (spiciness 0) on any of your or your friends' plates. Then, you can place a Lettuce ingredient card (spiciness 1) on top of that tortilla card, increasing the spiciness of this taco to 1. Continue this process in ascending numerical order: Tortilla (0), Lettuce (1), Meat (2), Fork (3), Onion (4), Cheese (5), Guacamole (6), Hot Sauce (7). Your tacos are not removed between phases, and you do not need to fully build one taco before starting to build another.

All players ARE able (and encouraged) to assist one another in building tacos by playing ingredient cards on each other's plates.

Smash the Taco

Each ingredient card (except the fork) has a number of fists on it. To use an ingredient to smash a taco, take that ingredient card and place it onto a taco attacking another player. If, at the end of the fight phase, the number of fists on an attacking taco is equal to or greater than the it's spiciness, you have smashed that attacking taco and it is defeated. It may take more than one ingredient card to smash a taco, and cards must be played one at a time.

You CANNOT smash tacos attacking you directly. You can only smash the tacos attacking other players.

Eat the Taco

Eating a taco is a two-step process:

1. Stab the taco. Pick up a fork card from your kitchen and continuously (and as fast as you can) tap it on a taco card you want another player to eat. You CANNOT stab tacos attacking you directly. You can only stab the tacos attacking other players.
2. Eat the taco. As a taco is being stabbed (tapped continuously with a fork), the person being attacked by that taco picks up that taco card and places it on top of their kitchen (ingredient-side-up). That player may now play that card or search for other ingredients. Throw the used fork card into the sink to represent one eaten taco. See "High Score", page 15.

Special Opponents

Special opponents are defeated as follows:

• Chips & Salsa: The only way to defeat chips & salsa is to EAT it. If you fail to defeat chips and salsa by the end of the current fight phase, you enter a food coma and lose the game. See page 10, "Eat the Taco".
• Fajitas: The only way to defeat a fajita is to BLOCK it. If you fail to defeat a fajita by the end of the current fight phase, you enter a food coma and lose the game. See page 8, "Block the Taco".
• Burritos: The only way to defeat a burrito is to SMASH it. If you fail to defeat a burrito by the end of the current fight phase, you enter a food coma and lose the game. See page 9, "Smash the Taco".

Source note: the rulebook's art for these three special opponents is printed as "ART PENDING" in the source.

Taco 'Bout Strategy

Look Around: You might not be able to play the card in your kitchen on your own plates, but it might be exactly what another player needs.

Think Ahead: If you have time left in the current fight phase, don't let up! Continue building your tacos until the phase is over.

Talk to Each Other: If you don't have what you need to defeat what's attacking you, ask for help! To succeed, you'll need to communicate out loud.

Use Forks to Your Advantage: If your group is having difficulty finding higher spiciness cards in your kitchens, eating a taco gives the player it was attacking immediate access to the high-powered ingredient on the other side.

Changing Strategies: Can't find the card you need? Try using an alternate method of defeating tacos. Remember, each ingredient card can be played in two ways.

Prep Phase

Once a fight phase is over, the prep phase begins. There are six steps all players need to complete to prepare for the next fight phase.

1. Clean the Kitchen: Take your kitchen stack and flip it on top of your pantry (ingredient-side-down).

2. Clear Smash Ingredients: Collect all ingredients which were used to smash tacos attacking you and place them on top of your pantry (ingredient-side-down).

3. Taco Clean-Up: Collect all defeated tacos that are aligned with your plates and place them on top of your pantry (ingredient-side-down). If any attacking tacos were not defeated during the fight phase, set them aside.

4. Deal the Next Wave of Tacos: A game of Taco Fight consists of two mild, two medium, and two hot waves of attacking tacos, in that order. The number of attacking tacos increases with each pair of waves.

   Reference the chart below to see how many tacos to deal to each player for the next wave. This is also reflected on the taco board. Taco cards must be dealt ingredient-side-down in the same order every wave. As taco cards are dealt to each player, players align those cards with their plates however they choose (one taco per plate). See Diagram, page 4.

   Difficulty	Setup	Wave 2	Wave 3	Wave 4	Wave 5	Wave 6
   Normal	1	1

End Game

If you have defeated all of the attacking tacos and special opponents by the end of the sixth fight phase, congratulations! You have won the game!

Food Coma

You enter a food coma and your group loses the game if:

• a single player is holding more than two tacos at any time.
• a player ends the final fight phase with any living tacos remaining. A taco is not defeated if you are holding it. You must end the final fight phase with no tacos in your hands to win the game.
• a player fails to defeat a special opponent. See "Special Opponents", page 11.

High Score

After winning a game of Taco Fight, count the total number of fork cards in the sink (representing the number of tacos eaten). Write this number in the back of this rulebook as your group's score. As you play more games of Taco Fight, try to set the highest score you can for 2, 3, and 4 player games by eating more tacos.

The back of the rulebook contains a score table with the columns NAMES, DIFFICULTY, and TACOS EATEN.

Madness Mode

If you've successfully beaten the game on hard difficulty and you're looking for a real challenge, see if you can survive this! In madness mode, all players are attacked by more tacos than ever before and prep phases are only 30 seconds long.

When a fight phase ends, immediately flip the timer to the next prep circle on the taco board and enter the prep phase. You'll have 30 seconds to complete the six prep steps while strategizing for the next wave of attacking tacos. When time runs out on the current prep phase, immediately flip the timer to start the next fight phase. If the prep steps have not been completed when the timer is flipped to start the next fight phase, players must finish these steps during the fight phase before searching for ingredients. Good luck. You're gonna need it.