Exploding Kittens is a last-player-standing card game: on your turn you play as many cards as you like, or none at all, and then draw one card to finish. Draw an Exploding Kitten without a Defuse and you're out; the last player who hasn't exploded wins.
This page follows the Original Edition rules sheet (the 2025 print, 56 cards, 2 to 5 players), as of November 2026. It covers the base game only. Other editions and expansions add cards and change counts, so check which box you've got before you settle an argument with it.
Setting up for 2 to 5 players
Setup is where most first games go wrong, because the number of Kittens and Defuses in the deck depends on how many of you are playing.
- Take out all 4 Exploding Kittens and set them aside.
- Take out all 6 Defuses and deal 1 to each player.
- Shuffle 2 of the leftover Defuses back into the deck and remove the rest from the game. In a 5 player game there's only 1 leftover Defuse, so that's the one that goes back.
- Shuffle and deal 7 cards face down to each player. With the Defuse, everyone holds 8 cards. Look at yours but keep them secret.
- Put Exploding Kittens back into the deck so there's 1 fewer than the number of players. Remove any extras from the game.
- Shuffle and put the deck face down in the middle as the Draw Pile, leaving room for a Discard Pile. Pick who goes first; play then moves clockwise.
| Players | Exploding Kittens in the Draw Pile |
|---|---|
| 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 2 |
| 4 | 3 |
| 5 | 4 |
Because there's always one Kitten fewer than players, everyone explodes except one person, and the Draw Pile can never run out before the game ends.
The sheet also has a faster game variant, recommended for 2 and 3 players. Before you put any Kittens in, randomly remove about one-third of the deck, then shuffle in the right number of Kittens. You end up playing with roughly two-thirds of a deck, and nobody knows which cards are missing.
Your turn: play or pass, then draw
The sheet sums a turn up in four words: play or pass, then draw.
- Look at your cards.
- Either play a card face up on the Discard Pile and follow its instructions, then play another if you like, as many as you want; or pass and play nothing.
- End your turn by drawing the top card of the Draw Pile into your hand.
Passing is allowed, but drawing isn't optional: unless a card ends your turn without drawing, you always finish by taking that top card. There's no maximum or minimum hand size, and if your hand runs empty there's nothing special to do. You simply draw at the end of your next turn.
What every card in the Original Edition does
| Card | Copies | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Exploding Kitten | 4 | Show it straight away. Unless you play a Defuse, you're dead: put the Kitten face up in front of you and the rest of your cards face down. |
| Defuse | 6 | Play it instead of dying. Put the Defuse on the Discard Pile, then secretly put the Kitten back in the Draw Pile anywhere you like, without looking at or reordering the other cards. |
| Nope | 5 | Stops any action except an Exploding Kitten or a Defuse. Can be played at any time before an action has begun, even on someone else's turn. |
| Attack | 4 | End your turn without drawing and force the next player to take 2 turns in a row. |
| Skip | 4 | End your turn straight away without drawing. |
| Favor | 4 | Force any other player to give you 1 card. They choose which. |
| Shuffle | 4 | Shuffle the Draw Pile at random. |
| See the Future | 5 | Privately look at the top 3 cards of the Draw Pile and put them back in the same order. |
| Cat Cards | 4 of each | Useless on their own. Play any 2 matching Cat Cards as a pair to steal a random card from any player. |
The Defuse placement is where the game turns nasty. You choose exactly where the Kitten goes, and the sheet suggests that if you want to hurt the player after you, you put it right on top. You can even hold the deck under the table while you do it, so nobody sees the spot.
Nope chains: what a Nope can and can't stop
A Nope cancels the card beneath it as if it had never been played, and any Noped cards stay lost in the Discard Pile. What it can't stop is an Exploding Kitten or a Defuse, so you can't Nope your way out of a draw or stop someone saving themselves.
The bit people forget is that a Nope can be Noped. Playing a Nope on a Nope cancels it, which the sheet calls a Yup, and the chain can keep going for as long as people hold Nopes. You can also Nope a Special Combo.
The sheet's own example turn shows how this plays out. You suspect the top card is a Kitten, so you play See the Future and you're right. You play an Attack to escape, but another player Nopes it, so it's still your turn. You play a Shuffle instead, then draw the top card and hope.
Attack and Skip arithmetic, worked through
Attacks stack, and this is the rule that causes the most confusion. If the victim of an Attack plays an Attack of their own on any of their turns, their turns pass to the next victim, who must take the attacker's current and remaining untaken turns plus 2 more.
| What happens | Turns the next player owes |
|---|---|
| You're hit by an Attack | You take 2 turns in a row |
| You're hit, and you answer straight away with your own Attack | The next player takes 4 turns |
| You're hit, you finish 1 turn, then play an Attack on your second | The next player takes only 3 turns |
| You're hit, and you play 1 Skip | The Skip ends 1 of your 2 turns; you still owe the other |
| You're hit, and you play 2 Skips | Both of your turns are over |
The Skip line is the one people miss. Against an Attack, one Skip only clears one of the two turns. You need a second Skip to clear both.
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Special combos for your second game
The sheet says to read this section after your first game, and that's sensible. Once you know the basics, two combos open up.
- Two of a Kind. Any pair of cards with the same title, not just Cat Cards: a pair of Shuffles, a pair of Attacks and so on. Ignore the instructions on the cards and steal a random card from another player.
- Three of a Kind. The same, except you name the card you want. If they have it, you take it. If they don't, you get nothing.
Strategy-wise, the sheet offers three lines. Try to collect as many Defuses as you can. Save your cards early in the game while your chance of exploding is low. And count the cards left in the Draw Pile to work out your odds of exploding.
My verdict: how I'd teach Exploding Kittens
I'd teach play or pass, then draw, then the Defuse, then the Nope, in that order. That's enough to start, and the card text covers the rest. I'd also do the Kitten count out loud during setup, because one Kitten too many or too few changes the whole game.
I'd skip the special combos until everyone has played one full game, just as the sheet suggests, and I'd use the faster game variant for 2 or 3 players. If it goes down well, it sits nicely alongside the party board games I've rounded up, and for nights with just two of you there are more card games for two that are worth a look.
Frequently asked questions
How many cards are in Exploding Kittens?
56 cards in the Original Edition, for 2 to 5 players.
What does a Defuse do?
It saves you from an Exploding Kitten. You discard the Defuse and secretly put the Kitten back anywhere in the Draw Pile.
Can you play more than one card per turn?
Yes, as many as you like, or none. Then you draw a card to end your turn.
How do you win Exploding Kittens?
Be the last player who hasn't exploded.
If your group likes short rounds of cards, Sushi Go rules in plain English are worth a look.
How many Exploding Kittens go in the deck?
One fewer than the number of players, so 3 Kittens for 4 players and 2 Kittens for 3 players.
