Exploding Kittens: The Rules

How It Works

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

Exploding Kitten Card: A card depicting a kitten with dynamite, labeled 'EXPLODING KITTEN'.

When that happens, that person explodes. They are now dead and out of the game.

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

The more cards you draw, the greater your chances of drawing an Exploding Kitten.

Basically

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

All other cards will lessen your chances of getting exploded by Exploding Kittens.

For Example

You could use a 'See the Future' card to peek at the top few cards in the Draw Pile. If that reveals an Exploding Kitten, you could then use a 'Skip' card to end your turn and avoid drawing it.

See the Future Card: A card labeled 'SEE THE FUTURE' with an illustration of three cards being viewed.

Skip Card: A card labeled 'SKIP' with a symbol indicating skipping a turn.

Setup

1. To start, remove all the Exploding Kittens (4) and Defuse Cards (6) from the deck.
2. Shuffle the remaining deck and deal 4 cards face down to each player.
3. Deal 1 Defuse Card to each player so that everyone has a hand of 5 cards total (including the Defuse Card).
4. Defuse Cards: Each player starts with a Defuse Card; the most powerful card in the game. These are the only cards that can save you from Exploding Kittens. If you draw an Exploding Kitten, instead of getting exploded, you can play the Defuse Card and reinsert the Kitten back into the Draw Pile anywhere you'd like in secret. Try to get as many Defuse Cards as possible.
5. Insert enough Exploding Kittens back into the deck so that there is 1 fewer than the number of people playing. Remove any extra Exploding Kittens from the game. For example: For a 4 player game, insert 3 Kittens. For a 3 player game, insert 2 Kittens. This ensures that everyone eventually explodes except for 1 person.
6. Insert the extra Defuse Cards back in the deck.
7. Two Player Variant: Put only 2 of the extra Defuse Cards back in the deck. Remove the other 2 from the game.
8. 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.)
9. Pick a player to go first. (Some sample criteria: most impressive beard, most intimidating odor, shortest spleen, etc.)

Taking Your Turn

1. Gather all 5 of your cards into your hand and look at them. Do one of the following:
   • Pass: Play no cards.
   • 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 more cards. You can play as many cards as you'd like.
2. Cards with no instructions on them (Cat Cards): These cards must be collected and played as matching Pairs. If you play matching Pairs of Cat Cards, pick another player and steal a random card from their hand.
3. End your turn by drawing a card from the top of the Draw Pile into your hand and hoping it's not an Exploding Kitten. (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.

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 Kittens to kill all but 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!

Example Turn

You suspect the top card in the draw pile is an Exploding Kitten, 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.

See the Future Card: A card labeled 'SEE THE FUTURE' with an illustration of three cards being viewed.

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 Kitten.

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

Attack Card: A card labeled 'ATTACK' with an illustration of a kitten attacking another.

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

Nope Card: A card labeled 'NOPE' with a prominent 'NOPE' symbol, indicating cancellation.

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

Shuffle Card: A card labeled 'SHUFFLE' with a symbol indicating shuffling.

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

Exploding Kittens Cards

• Exploding Kitten

  Cards: 4 | Effect: You must show this card immediately. Unless you have a Defuse Card, you're dead. Discard all of your cards, including the Exploding Kitten.

  Visual: Card depicting a kitten with dynamite, labeled 'EXPLODING KITTEN'.

• Defuse

  Cards: 6 | Effect: If you drew an Exploding Kitten, you can play this card instead of dying. Place your Defuse Card in the Discard Pile. Then take the Exploding Kitten, and without reordering or viewing the other cards, secretly put it back in the Draw Pile anywhere you'd like. Want to screw over the player right after you? Put the Kitten 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. Your turn is over after playing this card.

  Visual: Card depicting a kitten defusing a bomb, labeled 'DEFUSE'.

• Attack

  Cards: 4 | Effect: Immediately end your turn(s) without drawing and force the next player to take 2 turns in a row. The victim of this card takes a turn as normal (play-or-pass then draw). Then, when their first turn is over, it's their turn again. (If the victim of an Attack Card plays an Attack Card, their turns are immediately over, and the next player must take 2 turns.)

  Visual: Card depicting a kitten attacking another.

• Skip

  Cards: 4 | Effect: 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.)

  Visual: Card labeled 'SKIP' with a symbol indicating skipping a turn.

• Favor

  Cards: 4 | Effect: Force any other player to give you 1 card from their hand. They choose which card to give you.

  Visual: Card depicting a kitten giving a card to another.

• Shuffle

  Cards: 4 | Effect: Shuffle the Draw Pile without viewing the cards until told to stop. (Useful when you know there's an Exploding Kitten coming.)

  Visual: Card labeled 'SHUFFLE' with a symbol indicating shuffling.

• Nope

  Cards: 5 | Effect: Stop any action except for an Exploding Kitten or a Defuse Card. Imagine that any card beneath a Nope Card never existed. You can also play a Nope on another Nope to negate it and create a Yup, and so on. You can play a Nope Card 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. You can even play a Nope on a SPECIAL COMBO (section on right).

  Visual: Card labeled 'NOPE' with a prominent 'NOPE' symbol, indicating cancellation.

• See the Future

  Cards: 5 | Effect: Peek at 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.

  Visual: Card labeled 'SEE THE FUTURE' with an illustration of three cards being viewed.

• Cat Cards

  Cards: 4 of each type | Effect: These cards are powerless on their own, but if you collect any 2 matching Cat Cards, you can play them as a Pair to steal a random card from any other player. They can also be used in Special Combos.

  Visual: Cards depicting various cats, labeled with specific cat names (e.g., Beard Cat, The Catterwocky).

Special Combos

(Read this after you've played your first game)

• Two of a Kind

  Playing matching Pairs of Cat Cards (where you get to steal a random card from another player) no longer only applies to pairs of Cat Cards. It now applies to ANY pair of cards with the same title (a pair of Shuffle Cards, a pair of Skip Cards, etc).

• Three of a Kind

  Exactly the same as Two of a Kind, but you get to name the card you want from the other player. If they have it, you get to take it. If not, you get nothing.

• 5 Different Cards

  If you play 5 different cards (any 5 cards with different titles), go through the Discard Pile to take any single card you'd like. (Grab the Pile quickly to choose your card so that you don't get "Noped!")

When you play special combos, ignore the instructions on the cards.