The rules (Original Edition)
Players: 2-5
(up to 9 when any 2 decks are combined)
Contents: 56 cards

HOW IT WORKS

You'll have a deck of cards containing some Exploding Kittens. You play the game by putting the dec face down and taking turns drawing cards until someone draws an 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.

BASICALLY
IF YOU EXPLODE, YOU LOSE.
AND YOU ARE FULL OF INCENDIARY LOSE SADSAUCE.
IF YOU DON'T EXPLODE, YOU LOSE.
AND YOU ARE FULL OF GREATNESS. GOOD JOB, BUDDY
AND ALL OF THE OTHER CARDS
WILL LESSEN YOUR CHANCES OF GETTING EXPLODED BY EXPLODING KITTENS

FOR EXAMPLE
You culd 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

SETUP

1. 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. Keep your hand secret.

DEFUSE CARDS
These are the only cards that can save you from Exploding Kittens. If you play a Defuse card afer drawing an eploding Kitten, instead of getting exploded, you get to reinsert the Kitten back into the Draw Pile anywhere you'd like. Try to get as many Defuse cards as possible.

4. 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 1 person.


5. Insert the extra Defuse cards back in the deck.

TWO PLAYER VARIANT
Put only 2 of the extra Defuse cards back in the deck. Remove the other 2 from the game.

6. 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.)

7. Pick a player to go first. (Some sample criteria: most impressive beard, most intimidating odor, shortest spleen, etc.)

TAKING YOUR TURN

1. Play a card from your hand by placing it FACE UP on top of the Discarrd Pile, and following the instructions on the card. Or play no cards at all; that's cool too.

CARDS WITH NO INSTRUCTIONS

Some cards don't have any instructions on them. These cards must be collected and played as Pairs.

If you play matching Pairs with no instructions on them, pick another player and steal a random card from their hand.

2. After you follow the instructions on a card or play a Pair, you can play more cards. You can play as many cards as you'd like.

3. Finally, end your turn by drawing a card from the Draw Pile into your hand and hoping it's not an Exploding Kitten. (This is different from most other games in that you END YOUR TURN by drawing a card.)

Play contines clockwise around the table.

THREE MORE THINGS

You can count the cards left in the Draw Pile.
You won't evver run out of cards in the Draw Pile, so there's never a need to reshuffle.
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.

Exploding Kittens Field Guide

Example Turn.

You decided to play a see the future card. While viewing the 3 top cards, you see that 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. 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 die, so you play a shuffle card and randomly shuffle the draw pile. With the deck frshly shuffled, you draw the top card to end your turn and hope it's not an exploding kitten.

-or-

Instead of playing any of the cards in your hand, you could just draw a card to end your turn.

Card Counts and descriptions

Defuse (6 cards)
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 recording or viewing the other cards, secretly put it back in the Draw Pile anywhere you'd like. Want to screw over the play her right after you? Put the Kitten right on the top of the deck. If you'd like, you can see where you put it. Your turn is over after playing this card.

Nope (5 cards)
Stop any ation except for an Exploding Kitten or a Defuse card. Imagine that any card (or Pair or Special Combo) beneath a Nope card no longer exisits. 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, even if it's not your turn.

Exploding Kitten(4 cards)
You must show this card immediately. Unless you have a Defuse card, you're dead. Discard all of your cards, including the Exploding Kitten.

Attack (4 cards)
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. Then, when their 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.)

Skip(4 cards)
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.)

Favor(4 cards)
Force any other player to give you 1 card from their hand. They choose which card to give you.

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

See the future(5 cards)
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.

Cat cards(4 of each)

These cards are powerless on their own, but can be played in Pairs or Special Combos.

Special combos
(for advanced play)
Combos are any group of cards played at the same time. When you play combos, ignore the instructions on the cards and do the following instead:

Two of a kind

Playing Pairs(where you get to steal a random card from another player) no longer only applies to cards with no instrutions on them, it now applies to ANY cards in the deck with the same icon in their corners.

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 notheing.

5 different cards
If you play any 5 cards that have different icons in the corners(with instuctions, without instructions or any combination to go through the Discard pile to take any single card you'd like (grab the pile quickly to choose your card so you don't get "Noped!")


Copyright Exploding Kittens 2015