Exploding Kittens: 2-Player Edition Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• What a Game Looks Like
  • In Simple Terms
  • For Example
• Setup
  • Defuse Cards
• How to Take a Turn
  • Remember
• End of the Game
  • And 3 More Important Things
• Guide (Card Reference)
  • Exploding Kitten (1 card)
  • Defuse (3 cards)
  • Attack (2x) (2 cards)
  • Skip (3 cards)
  • Favor (3 cards)
  • See the Future (3x) (3 cards)
  • Shuffle (2 cards)
  • Nope (3 cards)
  • Cat Cards (4 of each kind)
• Example of a Turn
• Special Combinations
  • Two Identical Cards
  • Three Identical Cards

What a Game Looks Like

A deck of cards lies in the center of the table. Among them is an Exploding Kitten. On their turn, a player plays cards from their hand (optional) and then draws the top card of the deck (mandatory!).

Having drawn an Exploding Kitten card, the player explodes and is out of the game.

The opponent of the exploded unfortunate becomes the winner.

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

In Simple Terms

Explode and you lose, and you get burned up by anger and resentment. Don't explode and you become the winner! You can shine everyone with the radiance of your own greatness. Well done, buddy! All the other cards will help you avoid meeting Exploding Kittens for longer.

For Example

Use the "See the Future" card to look at the top few cards of the deck. If among them is an Exploding Kitten, you can play a "Skip" card to end your turn without drawing a card.

Setup

1. To start, remove the Exploding Kitten and the Defuse cards (3) from the deck.
2. Deal each player 1 Defuse card. Put the remaining Defuse cards back into the deck.
3. Shuffle the remaining deck and deal each player 7 cards face down, so that each player has 8 cards in hand. You may look at your cards, but under no circumstances show them to your opponent!
4. Put the Exploding Kitten back into the deck.
5. Shuffle the deck and place it face down in the middle of the table. (Don't forget to leave a little room next to it for the discard pile.)
6. Together decide who goes first in any way you like (the longest beard, the smelliest socks, etc.).

Defuse Cards

At the start of the game each player has 1 Defuse card. This is the most powerful card in the game and the only way not to turn into a pile of ashes. Having drawn an Exploding Kitten, you can play a Defuse card and return it to any place in the deck without showing your opponent. That way you will stay alive.

Tactical tip: try to collect as many Defuse cards as possible.

How to Take a Turn

1. Take all your 8 cards into your hand and study them carefully. You can:

   Play a card. Play a card by placing it face up on the table and follow the instructions on it. Read the text on the card to find out what it does. Having applied the effect of one card, you may play the next. Play as many cards as you like.

   OR

   Skip. Do not play any cards at all.

2. At the end of your turn, draw the top card from the deck into your hand and pray that it is not an Exploding Kitten. Note that, unlike most other games, you draw a card at the end of your turn. The turn passes clockwise.

Remember

Play any number of cards, then draw a card to end your turn. "Play-or-skip, then draw. Play-or-skip, then draw."

End of the Game

Eventually one of you will explode. Such is its sad lot. And the other duelist becomes the winner!

Pluses: your deck will never run out, because fluffy evil will catch up with someone sooner or later.

And 3 More Important Things

• It is not a bad strategy to save your cards at the beginning of the game while the chance of exploding is low enough.
• You can always count the number of cards left in the deck to estimate your chances of exploding.
• The number of cards in hand is not limited. If you have no cards left in hand, you have no choice but to skip on your turn and draw 1 card.

Still have questions about specific cards? Turn this sheet over.

Guide (Card Reference)

Exploding Kitten (1 card)

Immediately show this card. If you do not have a Defuse card, you have exploded. Here is the end of the fairy tale, and of the game.

Defuse (3 cards)

Having drawn an Exploding Kitten, you can avoid exploding: play this card, placing it in the discard pile.

Then place the defused Exploding Kitten anywhere in the deck, without changing the order of the cards in it and without looking at them.

Want to play a dirty trick on your opponent? Put the Exploding Kitten on top of the deck. If you wish, hold the deck under the table at this moment so your opponent cannot see where you put the Exploding Kitten.

After you have played this card, your turn is over.

Attack (2x) (2 cards)

Immediately end your turn(s) and do not draw a card from the deck. Your opponent must take 2 turns in a row. They take their turn as usual (play-or-skip, then draw), end it, after which they immediately go again.

But if your opponent in reply plays the same card, all their turns end immediately, and you must take as many turns as your opponent had left, + 2.

Example: player A became the victim of an Attack card. On their first turn they themselves play an Attack card and make player B take 4 turns. If player A plays such a card on their second turn, player B will need to take not 4 but 3 turns in a row.

Skip (3 cards)

Immediately end your turn and do not draw a card.

If you play Skip cards while under the effect of an Attack card, it ends only 1 of your turns (2 played Skip cards end 2 turns, etc.).

Favor (3 cards)

Make your opponent give you one card of their choice.

See the Future (3x) (3 cards)

Look at the top 3 cards of the deck without showing them to other players, and return them in the same order.

Shuffle (2 cards)

Thoroughly shuffle the deck. Useful when you know that an Exploding Kitten is coming.

Sometimes it is useful to know where the Exploding Kitten has hidden in the deck.

Nope (3 cards)

Cancel the action of any card except an Exploding Kitten or a Defuse card. Just imagine that the card played before the Nope card never existed.

You can also cancel the action of someone else's Nope card, right away playing another. And that one too can be canceled by yet another Nope card.

You can play a Nope card at any moment before another player begins to apply the action of the played card, even not on your turn. Any cards canceled by a Nope card are immediately placed in the discard pile. Their actions do not apply! You can even play a Nope card to cancel the action of a special card combination (see the section on the right).

Cat Cards (4 of each kind)

By themselves these cards are useless. However, if you collect 2 identical cat cards, you can play them as a pair to steal a random card from your opponent.

Cat cards are also used for special combinations.

Example of a Turn

You suspect that the top card of the deck is an Exploding Kitten. So instead of skipping and drawing this card at the end of your turn, you decide to play a "See the Future" card, which lets you look at the top 3 cards of the deck without showing them to your opponent.

Having looked at these 3 cards, you realize you were right and the top card (the one you would have to draw) is indeed an Exploding Kitten.

You play an "Attack" card to end your turn and make your opponent take two turns.

However, your opponent plays a "Nope" card, which cancels the action of your card, and your turn continues.

You do not want to draw the top card from the deck and explode, so you play a "Shuffle" card and shuffle the cards in the deck.

Having thoroughly shuffled the deck, you end your turn and draw the top card, hoping you do not run into an Exploding Kitten.

Special Combinations

(Read this section after you have finished your first game.)

Two Identical Cards

The ability to play a pair (and steal a random card from your opponent) is no longer limited to cat cards. Now you can play as a special combination a pair of any cards with the same name (a pair of "Shuffle" cards, a pair of "Skip" cards, etc.). If you play a special combination of cards, the text on them has no meaning.

Three Identical Cards

As with playing two identical cards, you get a card from your opponent, but now you yourself say which card you want to get. If they have that card, they give it to you. If not, you get nothing.

If you play a special combination of cards, the text on them has no meaning.