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This article was reviewed by Ashton Wu. Ashton Wu is a Board Game expert at Shelfside. After delving into the Yugioh tournament community while growing up, Ashton launched himself into the board gaming community in 2014 and went into reviewing board games as a career full-time in 2019. His YouTube channel Shelfside has over 53K subscribers and over 4 million views, assisted by written reviews on the Shelfside website and BoardGameGeek.com. He also consults with gaming companies to build high-quality gaming products. Ashton is a tournament commentator, board game playthrough director, and host of the Shelfside Podcast, where he talks about board games with his business partner, Daniel. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in addition to the Technology Management Certificate.
This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources.
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UNO Attack includes a card shooter and a special deck of cards that add a surprising twist to the classic card game UNO. UNO Attack is not too complicated to learn and if you already know how to play normal UNO, you’ll only have to learn how to deal with the launcher. Expect lots of laughs and groaning as you witness the unpredictable card launcher deal someone a bunch of cards just as they're about to win.
Steps
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Grab 1-9 friends or family members to play with you. The game is pretty simple, so you can include people of a wide range of ages, starting at about 7 years old. If you want to play with a really little kid, you can have them join up with someone older to help them out. -
Shuffle the cards and deal 7 per player. Deal one card face up in the middle where everyone can see it. This will be the start of your discard pile. If the first card is a Trade Hands, put it back in the deck and choose a new one to start the discard pile.[1]- If you can’t decide who should be the dealer, have everyone pick a card, and whoever has the highest number on it gets to deal. (Special cards count as 0 for this purpose.)
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Set up the card launcher by adding batteries and inserting cards. If this is the first time you’ve played the game, you’ll have to take the top and bottom halves of the launcher out of the packaging and click them together. If it’s a new launcher or out of power, put batteries into the battery compartment on the bottom of the launcher. Once the launcher's ready, open it up and put the remaining cards facedown inside. Close the launcher back up. Now you’re ready to start playing!
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Match one card on your hand to the top card on the discard pile. You can use any of the cards in your hand, and it can match by number, color, or word. If you have a match, place it face up on the discard pile. This will become the card that the next person uses to start their turn.[2]- For example, if the card on top of the discard pile is a blue 3, you can discard a 3 of any color, or a blue of any number or word.
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Press the Launcher button if you don't have any cards you can play. The Launcher will shoot an unpredictable number of cards out to keep you on your toes. Sometimes you won’t get any, but you have to take any cards it shoots out and add them to your hand. Your turn is now over once you've collected your cards—you don't get to discard any.[3]- If there are some cards sticking halfway out of the launcher, you have to take all of those too!
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Continue playing clockwise, until there is a reverse card. Each person uses the previous person's discarded card as the starting point for them to play. As it becomes each person’s turn, rotate the launcher in their direction, so they can easily get the cards. -
Follow the special card instructions. The special cards have words on them, not just numbers, and these words will either effect you or other players when you play the card. Most of the cards are self-explanatory, but some can be more confusing. Here's a list of what each does:[4]- Reverse: reverses direction of play.
- Skip: skips the next player’s turn.
- Hit 2: You have to hit the Launcher button twice.
- Trade Hands: Trade your hand with a player of your choosing.
- Discard All: This card lets you discard all the cards of the same color as the last card on the discard pile.
- Wild Card: can be played on any card. The person who played it gets to decide the color going forward.
- Wild All Hit: The person who played it calls a color, and then everyone has to hit the Launcher button except the player who played Wild All Hit. The play continues with the color the player called.
- Wild Hit-Fire: The person who played it calls a color, and the person after them presses the launcher button until it launches cards. Then they take all the cards and lose their turn.
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Yell “Uno” when you first put down your second to last card. Make sure to do this, because if someone catches you sneakily putting down your second to last card, you have to press the Launch button twice!- You can’t catch a player for not saying UNO after the next player begins their turn, so pay close attention to your fellow players’ hands.
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Discard all the cards before anyone else to win the round. You can’t go out on a Trade Hands card, so play this one earlier. It's surprisingly hard to discard all your cards, because once your fellow players see you're down to just one, they'll try to skip your turn or stick you with new cards.[5]- Younger players will appreciate having a winner after every round, instead of the more complicated scoring system if you extend the game.
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Play multiple rounds and keep score of points to create a longer game. If you don't want to end the game after just one round, you can play until one person scores 500 points. You get points for the cards left in your opponents’ hands once you are out of cards.- Numbered cards are counted by their face value, Reverse/Skip/Hit 2 are 20 points, Discard All/Trade Hands are 30 points, and all Wild cards are 50 points.[6]
Join the Discussion...
- UNO All Wild: Every card is a Wild, but they have special abilities when you play them.
- UNO House Rules: Some cards let you make new rules players have to follow when a number is played.
- UNO Flip: UNO cards can be flipped over to trigger even more powerful abilities.
- UNO Flex: Some cards have a “Flex” side you can activate to change their color before playing them.
- UNO Show ‘Em No Mercy: Wild and Draw cards are more powerful, and you’re eliminated if you have 25 cards in your hand.
- UNO Teams: Play 2-vs-2, and win as a team if one member plays all their cards.
- UNO Stacking: Play multiple Draw cards at the same time to make the next player draw more cards.
- Speed UNO: Players can play cards from their hands even when it’s not their turn.
- Elimination UNO: Instead of drawing if you’re not able to play a card, you’re out of the game.
- Open Hand UNO: Keep your hand of cards visible to other players for a more strategic game.
The most thoughtful UNO product is UNO Golf, where you have a 2x3 grid of facedown UNO cards in front of everyone, and the goal is to remove them to score the least amount of points when the game ends. You play multiple rounds, like "multiple holes' for golf. There's a surprising amount of new ways to think about clearing cards, because sometimes you want to wait to clear them before your opponent(s) clear, because you can clear on anyone's turn, and clearing may trigger an effect.
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Community Q&A
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QuestionWould we get a penalty if no one notices we didn't say UNO?
Kidz1212Community AnswerYes, if somebody doesn’t say UNO and they have an UNO, the penalty is 2 more cards (three cards in total).
Tips
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If you choose not to play a card that you could play, you have to hit the Launcher button.Thanks
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If you are playing with just two players, you can play a Reverse card as if it were a Skip card.Thanks
References
About This Article
UNO Attack is a fun variation of UNO that includes a card launcher and a special deck of cards that can add a twist to the game. To play, first shuffle the cards and deal 7 to each player. You can play UNO Attack with up to 9 people. Deal one card face up in the middle of the table to make a discard pile, and then place the rest of the cards inside of the card launcher face down. The player to the left of the dealer goes first. On a player’s turn, they can discard a card in their hand in the same color or number as the top card on the discard pile. If they can’t play a card, they have to press the button on the card launcher. The card launcher will shoot out a random number of cards for them to add to their hand. Play continues clockwise around the table. Players can also play special cards from their hand on their turn. The Reverse card reverses the direction of play, the Skip card skips the next player, the Wild Card can be played on any card and turned into the color of the player’s choosing, the Hit 2 card makes the next player hit the launcher button twice, the Trade Hands card lets you trade hands with any other player, the Discard All card lets you discard all cards of the same color as the last card on the discard pile, the Wild All Hit works the same as the Wild Card except all of the other players also have to hit the launcher button one time. The Wild Hit Fire card works the same as a Wild Card except the next player also has to press the launcher button, and they lose their next turn. When a player is down to one card in their hand, they must say “Uno.” If someone catches a player not saying “Uno” after playing their second-to-last card, that player has to press the launcher button. Whoever discards all of their cards first wins the game!
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