How to play uno

UNO Flash Game Rules

Components

Object of the Game

Race the timer and your opponents to be the first player to get rid of all of your cards in each round!

The winner of the round scores points for the cards everyone else is left holding. Points in rounds accumulate and the first player to reach 500 points wins.

Setup

Before beginning, decide how fast you would like to play. On the bottom of the unit, use the Speed Switch to select your desired speed. Then, flip the On/Off Switch to the «On» position. Turn the unit back over.

Each player draws a card; the player that draws the highest number deals (count any card with a symbol as zero).

The dealer shuffles and deals each player 7 cards.

Place the remainder of the deck facedown in one side of the tray to form a DRAW pile.

The top card of the DRAW pile is turned over to begin a DISCARD pile in the remaining side of the tray. NOTE: If any of the Action Cards (symbols) are turned over to start the DISCARD pile, see FUNCTIONS OF ACTION CARDS for special instructions.

To begin play, each player presses the Player Button in front of them. The button you press will be your personal Player Button for the game.

To Resume or Reset

If you pause the unit during a game, or the unit goes to sleep due to inactivity, press the Play/Pause Button to resume playing. If any Player Button is flashing, press that button and the unit will select the next player to take a turn.

If you want to start a new game, you can reset the unit by holding down the Play/Pause Button and SLAP Buttons simultaneously for about 3 seconds, until the lights and sounds activate.

Game Play

When your Player Button lights up, it’s your turn and the clock is ticking!

On your turn, you must match a card from your hand to the card on the top of the discard pile, either by number, color or symbol (symbols represent Action Cards).

Example: If the card on the discard pile is a red 7, the player must put down a red card OR any color 7. Alternatively, the player can put down a Wild card.

If you don’t have a card that matches the one on the DISCARD pile, you must take a card from the draw pile. If the card you picked up can be played, you are free to put it down in the same turn.

You may also choose NOT to play a playable card from your hand. If so, you must draw a card from the draw pile. If playable, that card can be put down in the same turn, however you may not play any other card from your hand after the draw.

If you do not press your Player Button before time runs out, indicated by a buzzer, you must draw two cards from the DRAW pile as a penalty for taking too long. Add them to your hand.

Note: If you play the SLAP card on your turn, do NOT press your Player Button; you will press the SLAP Button instead.

Action Cards

Draw Two Card

When you play this card, the next player selected by the unit must draw 2 cards and miss their turn (even if that player is you!).

The player drawing the 2 cards must do so and press their own Player Button before time runs out; if time does run out the player must draw an additional 2 cards.

This card may only be played on a matching color or on another Draw Two card. If turned up at the beginning of play, the same rule applies.

Skip Card

When you play this card, the next player is «skipped» (loses their turn). The skipped player must still press their Player Button before time runs out, so this is not the time to snooze.

This card may only be played on a matching color or on another Skip card. If a Skip card is turned up at the beginning of play, the same rule applies.

Wild Card

When you play this card, you get to choose the color that continues play (any color including the color in play before the Wild card was laid down). You’ll want to call the color out fast or risk the wrath of the next player!

You may play a Wild card on your turn even if you have another playable card in your hand. If a Wild card is turned up at the beginning of play, the player chosen by the unit to take the first turn chooses the color that continues play.

Wild Draw Four Card

When you play this card, you get to choose the color that continues play PLUS the next player selected by the unit must draw 4 cards from the DRAW pile and lose their turn (even if that player is you!).

The player drawing the 4 cards can pause the unit in order to have enough time to do so. Playing this card comes with a catch, however!

You may only play this card when you do NOT have another card in your hand that matches the color on the discard pile (but it is acceptable to play this card if you have matching number or Action Cards).

If turned up at the beginning of play, return this card to the deck and pick another card. If turned up at the beginning of play, return this card to the deck and pick another card.

Note: If you suspect that a Wild Draw Four card has been played on you illegally (i.e. the player has a matching card), then you may challenge that player. The challenged player must show you (the challenger) their hand.

If guilty, the challenged player must draw the 4 cards instead of you. However, if the challenged player is innocent, you must draw the 4 cards PLUS an additional 2 cards (6 total)!

Slap Card

Slapping this card down will make everyone slap happy! As soon as you play this card, press the SLAP Button on the game unit (do not press your Player Button).

The unit will instantly go into Slap mode and all of your opponents must race to slap (press) their own Player Buttons as fast as they can. The Player Button of the last player to slap will then flash and that player must draw 2 cards in penalty.

Press the flashing Player Button to resume the game. If turned up at the beginning of play, return this card to the deck and pick another card.

Remember: If you accidentally press the Player Button instead of the SLAP Button after playing this card, you cancel the SLAP action and play continues as normal.

Going Out

When you play your next-to-last card, you must yell «UNO» (meaning «one») to indicate that you have only one card left. If you don’t yell «UNO» and you are caught before the next player begins their turn, you must draw two cards.

Once a player has no cards left, the round is over. Points are scored (see SCORING) and play starts over again.

If the last card played in a round is a Draw Two or Wild Draw Four card, the next player must draw the 2 or 4 cards respectively. These cards are counted when the points are totaled.

If no player is out of cards by the time the DRAW pile is depleted, the DISCARD pile is reshuffled and play continues.

Scoring

The first player to get rid of their cards in a round receives points for all of the cards left in their opponents’ hands as follows:

Once the score for the round has been tallied, if no player has reached 500 points, reshuffle the cards and begin a new round

End of the Game

The WINNER is the first player to reach 500 points.

Alternative Scoring And Winning

Another way to score points is to keep a running tally of the points each player is left with at the end of each round. When one player reaches 500 points, the player with the lowest points is the winner.

Targeted Draw 2 & Wild Draw 4 Cards

Want a little less randomness? Want a little more control over who gets slammed with penalties? Want to save yourself and hurt your opponents? Then you’re going to love this alternative way to play the Draw 2 and Wild Draw 4 cards!

Everyone must agree before beginning the game that you will play using this alternative rule. Now when you play one of these Action Cards, instead of letting the unit decide who takes the penalty, you call out the opponent that you want to draw the cards.

Don’t press the Player Button when you do this-you can press the pause button or just let time run out while your targeted victim draws the appropriate amount of cards

Other Uno Games

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How to Play UNO

The Spruce / Meg MacDonald

The rules to UNO are simple once you get used to them. We’ve also included a few common house rules to spice up the game.

UNO is a fast-paced card game played similar to Crazy 8s that includes special cards that ramp up the fun. Just like another game by the makers of UNO called Phase 10, UNO is suggested for ages 7 and above, but younger kids can still enjoy the game. It can even be a good game to reinforce numbers and colors.

The Objective

The goal of UNO is to be the first person to play the very last card in your hand. The fun of UNO is the requirement to yell «UNO!» when you are down to that last card. When playing multiple games, the winner is the player with the lowest score.

How to Set up the Game

The dealer is determined by shuffling the deck and each player drawing a card. The player with the highest number on their card is the dealer. If a player draws a special card that does not have numbers, like the Wild card, the player should return that card to the bottom of the deck and draw a new card. If two or more players draw the same high number, those players should return the cards to the deck and draw new cards until one player draws higher than the other(s).

After the dealer is chosen, each player is dealt seven cards. The remaining cards are placed face-down. These cards are called the «draw pile.» The dealer takes the first card on the draw pile and places it face-up next to the draw pile. If this card is a Wild or Wild Draw 4 card, that card is placed in the middle of the draw pile, and a new card is drawn.

The player on the dealer’s left is the first person to play unless the initial card flipped over is a Reverse card. The Reverse is considered active even if a player did not play it, so it would be the person to the right of the dealer.

A common house rule is to alternate dealers when playing multiple hands of UNO, moving the dealer to the person on the left in a clockwise direction from the last dealer. When playing with younger children, an alternative to drawing for the highest card is to allow the youngest child to be the initial dealer.

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The Spruce / Meg MacDonald

How to Play

The gameplay of UNO consists of each player taking turns that consist of either matching the upmost face-up card in the stack or playing one of the special cards.

If the last card is taken from the draw pile, all of the cards that have been played except the topmost face-up card should be shuffled and used as a new draw pile. This can continue as many times as it may take for someone to finally run out of cards in their hand.

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The Spruce / Meg MacDonald

Special Cards

The fun of UNO is all of the special cards that can change the game in a heartbeat. These cards add a certain amount of strategy to a game that would otherwise be the luck of the draw. In some decks, these cards are only marked with a symbol. Other decks also spell out the special card’s name.

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The Spruce / Meg MacDonald

«UNO!» How to Win the Game

A player is required to say «UNO» before playing their second-to-last card. If a player only has one card in their hand and another player says «UNO» before the next player begins their turn, the player must draw four new cards from the draw pile.

If the next player begins their turn, and no one says «UNO,» play will continue as if the original player did say «UNO.» They are not forced to draw any new cards for not saying «UNO.» A player is considered to have taken their turn when they either match the face-up card with a card from their deck, play a wild card, or choose a card from the draw pile. Once they begin drawing from the draw pile, players cannot call «UNO.»

Calling «UNO» does not win the game. The player must still play their last card. If they are unable to play the last card, they must take cards from the draw pile until they can play. It’s possible to have several UNOs before the game is won.

If the winning card is a Draw 2 or Wild Draw 4 card, the next player must still draw those cards before the game ends. These cards are used in scoring.

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The Spruce / Meg MacDonald

How to Score

The official rules state that matches are won when the first person makes it to 500 points. The winner is the person with the least number of points at that time. House rules can change the number of points needed to end the match from 500 to any other number.

At the end of each game, all of the cards are tallied up, and the score for that game is written down and totaled to determine if any player passed the 500 point mark.

A common house rule for scoring and determining the overall winner is to eliminate the player(s) whose point total reaches 500 or more, but continue playing until all but one players have been eliminated this way.

For more family card fun, War, Snap, Beggar My Neighbor and Memory can all be played with a standard deck of cards and are suitable for children.

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How to Play UNO

This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Jessica Gibson. Jessica Gibson is a Writer and Editor who’s been with wikiHow since 2014. After completing a year of art studies at the Emily Carr University in Vancouver, she graduated from Columbia College with a BA in History. Jessica also completed an MA in History from The University of Oregon in 2013.

There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.

wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, several readers have written to tell us that this article was helpful to them, earning it our reader-approved status.

This article has been viewed 3,276,367 times.

If you’re looking for a fun card game to play with friends, give Uno a try! Each player gets dealt a hand of 7 Uno cards to start. To play, you’ll match one of your cards with the card that’s been dealt from the draw pile. The first player to get rid of all of their cards wins the round. Then all players tally up their scores. The game continues until one person scores 500 points. We’ll walk you through the main Uno instructions, and a few variations you can try once you get the hang of this fun card game.

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Tip: If the player has a Wild card, they can use it at any time.

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Did You Know? Playing a Wild Draw 4 card is like playing a standard Wild card, but it makes the next player draw 4 cards and skip their turn as well.

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\u00a9 2022 wikiHow, Inc. All rights reserved. wikiHow, Inc. is the copyright holder of this image under U.S. and international copyright laws. This image is not licensed under the Creative Commons license applied to text content and some other images posted to the wikiHow website. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc.
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\u00a9 2022 wikiHow, Inc. All rights reserved. wikiHow, Inc. is the copyright holder of this image under U.S. and international copyright laws. This image is not licensed under the Creative Commons license applied to text content and some other images posted to the wikiHow website. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc.
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\u00a9 2022 wikiHow, Inc. All rights reserved. wikiHow, Inc. is the copyright holder of this image under U.S. and international copyright laws. This image is not licensed under the Creative Commons license applied to text content and some other images posted to the wikiHow website. This image may not be used by other entities without the express written consent of wikiHow, Inc.
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Tip: Since you’ll go through more cards, consider making the winning score at least 1,000 points instead of 500.

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