Exploding Kittens

01Discover the game

Exploding Kittens is a survival game: you use cards to avoid picking an explosive kitten. Pioched cards usually finish the turn, instead of starting it. This chapter follows Original Edition, 56 cards, official booklet 2022. Some first boxes distributed fewer cards; keep the preparation of this version from beginning to end.

02Equipment

The package contains 56 cards: 4 Exploding Kittens, 6 Disbooting Kits, 4 Attacks, 4 Pass, 4 Favourites, 4 Mix, 5 See the future, 5 Nope and 20 Chat cards, divided into five families of four identical. French names can change slightly depending on the draw: check the effect and illustration of your cards. No extension is required.

03The goal

Be the last person still in play. You're eliminated if you pick an Exploding Kitten without being able to play a Disbooting Kit. Cards still in hand don't earn points.

04Prepare the package

Removes the four Exploding Kittens and the six Disbooting Kits. Gives each one a Kit. Mixes the other 46 cards and distributes seven hidden cards to each person: each one has eight cards, including its Guaranteed Kit.

Then put in additional Kits in the remaining package: two to two or three players, two to four players, one to five players. The other Kits come out of the game. Adds exactly an Exploding Kitten less than the number of players: one, two, three or four.

Mix this Stock and put it down hidden, leaving a place for the Waste. Choose a person to start, then play in the clockwise direction. No one looks at the opposing cards or the contents of the Stock.

05Play its turn and know all the cards

In your turn, play zero, one or more cards, completely resolving each effect. To play, put the card visible on the waste. When you decide to stop, pick up the card from the top: this Stock ends your turn, unless it imposes another spin.

• Exploding Kitten If you don't have a deboot kit, you'll be eliminated; you'll have to undo your whole hand and the explosive. An explosive is never kept in hand for a while.
• Disabling kit : if you have just picked up an explosive, discard the Kit. secretly put the explosive wherever you want in the Stock, even at the top, without looking at or reordering the other cards. Do not mix then. This Stock is finished; any other tricks have to be played.
• Attack : end your turns without drawing and make the next player take two turns. These are two full turns. The affected player can play cards before each draw. If they play another Attack, they pass on all remaining turns plus two. A second Attack before either of the first two turns is taken therefore gives the next player four turns.
• Pass If you still have two more laps because of an Attack, a Pass card removes one; there is one left.
• Favor Choose an opponent; he gives you a card of his choice. You do not choose in his place and do not look at his hand.
• Mix Mix the whole stock without looking at the cards. It doesn't end your turn: you still have to pick or use an effect that avoids the Stock.
• Seeing the future : Look secretly at the first three cards of the Stock, or all those that remain if there is less. Put them in the same order. This card does not allow to move the Explosive.
• Nope : cancels an action before its application, even out of your turn. It can't cancel an Exploding Kitten, or a Disbooting Kit. Another Nope can cancel the first one: two cancellations are compensated. The cards thus played remain undone. Don't play Nope after the effect is already accomplished.
• Chat Cards Two identical chats played together make it possible to steal a card at random in the hand of an opponent. Choose the person, then shoot without looking.

Special combinations

After the first part, you can use the combinations of the booklet: any pair of cards of the same name, not only the Cats, steals a card at random. Three cards of the same name allow you to name a card and ask an opponent for it. If he has it, he must give a copy; otherwise you do not gain anything. A combination replaces the individual effects of the cards spent: three Attacks do not give six turns in addition to one flight.

The combinations can be cancelled by Nope. The combination of five different cards from some old records is not used in the chosen booklet. There is no hand limit. An empty hand does not remove: you simply play without a card before your next pick.

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06An example to understand

Lina plays See the future and discovers, in order, Exploding Kitten, Chat and Mix. She puts the cards back exactly in place. She plays Pass: she does not pick up, and her neighbor now faces the dangerous top. If he plays Mix, the location of the explosive becomes unknown, but he will have to finish his turn again.

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Another case: you have two laps. You pick up an explosive, use a Kit and put it back in the back. Your first lap is over; you still have to play one. You can then play Pass to avoid his Stock.

07Win and finish

Elimination reduces the number of players and removes the explosive that just killed. The game continues with the survivors, in the same direction. As soon as there is only one left, it wins. The eliminated people no longer play Nope. With the correct preparation, the Stock contains the explosives necessary to eliminate all but one player: never recycle the waste.

08Frequent errors

Don't pick up at the beginning of the round. Don't add as many explosives as players: you need one less. Don't cancel a deboot with Nope. Don't spontaneously repel after you have replaced an explosive. Finally, an Attack imposes complete turns: one Passer doesn't erase them all.

09Start well

Keep a few cards that avoid the Stock for the end, when the Pack becomes small. Count the remaining cards without looking at them. A Kit only protects once. Varies the location where you put an explosive back, otherwise your opponents will eventually guess your habits.