Rules to Exploding Kittens : Good Vs Evil

exploding KITTENS
Good vs evil
THE RULES
players: 2-5
contents: 53 cards
1 Godcat card
1 Devilcat Card
1 Good vs Evil Playmat

 

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.
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.
and you are full of incendiary loser sadsauce.
if you don’t explode, YOU WIN.
and you are full of greatness. Good job, buddy.
All of the other cards
will lessen your chances of getting
exploded by Exploding Kittens.

For example

If it was your turn to draw, you could play
a Reveal the Future Card to look at the
top three cards in the Draw Pile. If that
reveals an Exploding Kitten, you could
then use a Shuffle Card to shuffle the
Draw Pile and hope to get a different
card on top of the Draw Pile.

SETUP

1. To start, set the Good vs Evil Playmat to the
side, and place the Godcat and Devilcat Cards
face up on their spots on the Playmat.

NOTE: These cards are easy
to find because they’re the only
two cards with different backs.

2. Remove all the Exploding Kittens (4) from the
deck and set them aside.

3. Remove all of the Defuse Cards (6) from
the deck and give 1 to each player.

NOTE: Depending on how
many people are playing,
there will be some Defuses
left over. Shuffle 2 of the
extras back into the deck, and remove the rest from
the game. (In the case of a 5 player game, you’ll only
have 1 extra Defuse to shuffle back into the deck.)

 

DEFUSE CARDS

Defuse Cards are extremely powerful. These are the only
cards that can save you from Exploding Kittens. If you
draw an Exploding Kitten, you can play a Defuse Card
instead of dying. Then, reinsert the Exploding Kitten back
into the Draw Pile anywhere you’d like in secret.
Try to get as many Defuse Cards as you can.

4. 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.

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 dies
except for 1 person.

faster game variant
- RECOMMENDED FOR 2 and 3 PLAYER GAMES -

Before inserting any Exploding Kittens into the deck,
randomly remove about one third of the deck from the
game (you will be playing with approximately two thirds of a
deck, but you won’t know which cards have been removed).
Then, shuffle the appropriate number of Exploding Kittens
into the Draw Pile (see Step 5), and start 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:
youngest player, most excited to go first, most
unclear about the difference between
good and evil, etc.)

Taking your turn

1. Gather all 8 of your cards into your hand and
look at them. Do one of the following:

PLAY

Play a card from your hand by placing it FACE UP on
top of the Discard Pile. Follow 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.

or

PASS

Play no cards.

2. 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

Eventually every player will explode
except for one, who 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 by the end of your next turn.

what about the playmat?

The Playmat (and Godcat and
Devilcat that live on top of it) are
used to play Armageddon:
a battle of good vs. evil between
2 players. This is triggered when
someone plays the Armageddon Card,
and the stakes are:

Godcat: The most powerful card
we’ve ever created. It can be
almost anything you want it to be.

Devilcat: This card causes a
player to immediately explode.
They must put a Defuse Card in
the Discard Pile or die.

See The Field Guide on the other side for more info on
the Armageddon, Godcat, and Devilcat Cards.

When you play the Armageddon carD:

1. Grab Godcat and Devilcat from the Playmat.

2. Shuffle and look at the two cards in secret,
then place one face down in front of you and
one in front of any other player so that only you
know which is which.

3. Without looking at the cards, the other player
must decide to keep the card in front of them
OR swap with the card in front of you.

4. Once they’ve made their decision, flip over
both cards. The player with Godcat in front of
them gets to add it to their hand. The player
with Devilcat in front of them immediately
explodes, and must play a Defuse Card or die.

5. Either way (if a player exploded or played a
Defuse to save themselves), put Devilcat back
on its spot on the Playmat. The player who got
Godcat gets to keep it in their hand.

6. Your turn is now over. You do not need to draw
a card from the Draw Pile.

Stop reading! go play!

If you have questions about specific cards, continue

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.

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
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 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.

 

ARMAGEDDON 3 cards

This card triggers the Armageddon played with
the two cards on the Playmat. (For details see
“When You Play The Armageddon Card” on the
other side of the instructions.)
An Armageddon Card can only be played if both
Godcat and Devilcat are on the Playmat. (i.e.,
no one currently has Godcat in their hand.) After
the Armageddon, your turn is over—you do not
need to draw a card.
The Armageddon Card can be Noped, but you
have to play your Nope Card before the person
who played the Armageddon Card takes the two
cards from the Playmat!

If you play an Armageddon Card
after someone plays an Attack Card
on you, it only ends 1 of your 2 turns.

Godcat 1card

If you win Godcat in the Armageddon, add it to
your hand. Godcat can be played on your turn
as ANY card in the deck except for a Nope.
This means you can play it as a Defuse, an
Attack, or anything else in the deck!
After playing Godcat, set it next to Devilcat on
the Playmat. DO NOT put Godcat in the
Discard Pile.
NOTE: The back of Godcat is different from the
rest of the cards in your hand, so it’s easy for
other players to steal it from you, even when
you fan out your cards and they get to steal a
“random” card.

The reason you can’t use Godcat
as a Nope is because any time someone
tries to steal it from you, you’d just use it as
a Nope, and the game would be no fun!

Devilcat 1 card

Devilcat explodes if it’s in front of you at the
end of the Armageddon, and you must discard
a Defuse to avoid dying. After the Armageddon,
set Devilcat back on the Playmat.
NOTE: If you play a Defuse to avoid dying from
Devilcat, you do not get to put any card back
into the Draw Pile. Simply discard your
Defuse into the Discard Pile. (This is different
from the normal way a Defuse Card works
because there is no Exploding Kitten to Defuse.)

Never put Devilcat into the Draw Pile.
Always return it to the Playmat.

Attack (2x) 2 cards

Do not draw any cards. Instead, immediately
force the next player to take 2 turns in a row.
Play then continues from that player. 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 any Attack (Targeted Attack or
normal Attack) plays any Attack Card, their turns
are immediately over, and the next victim must
take any remaining turns plus 2 more
(e.g., 4 turns, then 6, and so on).

targeted Attack (2x) 2 cards

Do not draw any cards. Instead, immediately
choose ANY OTHER PLAYER to take 2 turns
in a row. Play then continues from that player.
The victim of this card takes a turn as normal
(play-or-pass, then draw). Then, when their
turn is over, it’s their turn again.

 

For all attacks (normal and Targeted),
if you Defuse an Exploding Kitten, it only
ends ONE of your turns. You still must take
any remaining turns after Defusing the Kitten!

 

Favor 4 cards

Force any other player to give you 1 card from
their hand. They choose which card to give you.

raising heck - 2 cards

Draw the bottom card from the Draw Pile,
then decide whether you want to take it
into your hand or put it on top of the Draw
Pile. Regardless of your decision, this
ends your turn.

REVEAL the future (3x) 3 cards

Reveal the top three cards of the Draw Pile
to ALL players, then put them back without
changing their order.

Shuffle 2 cards

Shuffle the Draw Pile until the next player tells
you to stop.

Useful when you know there’s
an Exploding Kitten coming.

nope 5 cards

Stop any action except
for an Exploding Kitten or
a Defuse Card. Imagine
that any card beneath a
Nope Card never existed.
A Nope can also be
played on another Nope
to negate it and create
a Yup, and so on.
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.
You can even play a Nope
on a SPECIAL COMBO.

Cat cards 4 of each

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 player.

They can also be used in Special Combos.

To take a random card, the targeted player can
shuffle their cards and then must fan them out
with the backs facing you, and then you get to
pick one. “Random” just means you can’t look
at the front of the cards. If someone is holding
Godcat, you can pick it out of their hand by
looking for the different back!

FERAL CAT 4 cards

Use as any Cat Card (any card that is powerless
on its own).
This card cannot be used as a non-Cat Card
(Shuffle, Attack, etc).

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
Attack Cards, etc). Ignore the instructions on
the cards when you play a combo.

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 that card, they must give one to you.
If they don’t have it, you get nothing. Ignore the
instructions on the cards when you play a combo.

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