One shared deck. Bombs hidden inside.
Everyone draws from the same face-down deck. Draw an Exploding Kitten and you need a Defuse or you are out. The last living player wins.
Your turn
Play as many cards as you want, or none. Then draw one card. Keep it to finish your turn. Drawing a bomb makes you deal with it first.
Defuse
Discard a Defuse to survive a bomb, then secretly put the bomb anywhere in the shared deck. Position 0 is the top. Only the person putting it back knows where it is.
Your tools
- Skip ends one turn without drawing.
- Attack sends extra turns to another player. Attacks can stack.
- See the Future lets you privately look at the next cards.
- Shuffle changes the deck order.
- Favor makes someone give you a card they choose.
- A matching pair steals a random card. Three matching cards let you request a specific card.
Nope
Play Nope before a card’s action begins to cancel it. A Nope can be Noped back. Bombs and Defuses cannot be Noped.
This online table gives everyone a short automatic chance to Nope before an action starts. You do not need to vote or press Resolve.
Optional expansions
The host can turn each pack on or off before dealing. You can play the core game with all expansions off.
- Setup: each player gets 1 Defuse, then 7 cards from the shuffled deck. Up to 2 spare Defuses go into that deck and the rest are put away; with Barking Kittens as the only expansion, every spare goes in. With Barking Kittens, 6 cards are dealt face down as the stash first, and the Tower of Power returns before the hands are dealt.
- Hazards go into the pile after the deal: one fewer than the number of players, or one per player with Streaking Kittens. With Imploding Kittens the Imploding Kitten counts as one of them. Leftover Exploding Kittens are put away. Six players need Imploding Kittens.
- On your turn, play as many cards as you like (or none), then draw from the pile to end your turn. When you draw, you see the card and keep it.
- If you draw an Exploding Kitten, show it and use a Defuse or you are out. After defusing it, secretly return it anywhere in the draw pile. If eliminated, your remaining hand stays face down and out of play.
- Attack: end your turn without drawing; the next player takes 2 turns. If you were attacked, the attacks stack: they take your remaining turns plus 2. Skip, Reverse, and a calmed Exploding Kitten each end only one owed turn.
- Combos: play 2 cards with the same title to steal a random card from another player, or 3 to name a card and take it if they have it. Cat Cards match by family, a Feral Cat counts as any Cat Card, and Targeted Attack is a different title from Attack.
- Nope cancels any action except a kitten or a Defuse. A Nope can cancel a Nope. Cancelled cards stay in the discard pile.
- Online difference: every cancelable action opens a short automatic Nope window (about 6 seconds) for all players, whether or not anyone holds a Nope. Each Nope restarts the window. When it closes, the action resolves automatically. Timing depends on your connection and is not exact.
- Streaking Kitten: while it is in your hand, you may keep one Exploding Kitten you draw yourself, or calm it instead. If Streaking Kitten leaves your hand, that kitten goes off. An Exploding Kitten you receive or steal always goes off.
- Curse of the Cat Butt: you cannot look at any of your cards, including marked ones. Cards you play are chosen at random; if a card cannot be played it is lost. The hex ends when you draw a card without exploding. If you draw an Exploding Kitten while hexed, you play random cards until you hit a Defuse; burned cards are lost, a burned Exploding Kitten goes off too, and a burned Barking Kitten takes effect once you have calmed the kitten.
- Barking Kitten: whoever has the other Barking Kitten must use a Defuse or be out. If nobody has it, the card waits face up in front of you. Holding both lets you pick any player. It cannot be Noped.
- Alter the Future (NOW): any living player can play it before an action begins, even off their turn. It cannot be played in the middle of an action.
- Tower of Power: the player who builds it takes the 6-card stash without looking. Anyone stealing from them takes a random stash card instead, until the stash runs out.
Last cat standing