Exploding Kittens: Good vs Evil Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Setup
  • Faster Game Variant — recommended for 2 and 3 player games
• Taking Your Turn
• Ending the Game
  • Three more things
• What About the Playmat?
  • When You Play the Armageddon Card
• Field Guide
  • Exploding Kitten (4 cards)
  • Defuse (6 cards)
  • Armageddon (3 cards)
  • Godcat (1 card)
  • Devilcat (1 card)
  • Attack (2x) (2 cards)
  • Targeted Attack (2x) (2 cards)
  • Favor (4 cards)
  • Raising Heck (2 cards)
  • Reveal the Future (3x) (3 cards)
  • Shuffle (2 cards)
  • Nope (5 cards)
  • Cat Cards (4 of each)
  • Feral Cat (4 cards)
• Special Combos
  • Two of a Kind
  • Three of a Kind

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.)
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 above), 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. 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. Play-or-Pass, then Draw. Play-or-Pass, then Draw.

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.

Field Guide

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 (1 card)

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.