Skyoo rules

The cards

The deck has 150 cards:

• 5 cards of -2, 10 cards of -1 and 15 cards of 0;
• 10 cards of each value from 1 to 12.

Setup

• Each player gets 12 face-down cards, laid out in a grid of 3 rows and 4 columns.
• The rest forms the face-down draw pile; its top card is flipped to start the discard pile.
• Before the first turn, each player flips 2 cards of their choice.

On your turn

Choose one of these two options, then it's the next player's turn:

• Take the discard: swap it with a card of your grid, face-down or not. The replaced card goes face-up on the discard pile.
• Draw a card: look at it, then either swap it with a card of your grid, or discard it and flip one of your face-down cards.

You can't look at a face-down card before swapping it.

Identical column

As soon as three cards of the same value are face-up in one column, the whole column goes to the discard pile. Its space stays empty until the end of the round.

End of a round

When a player has flipped all 12 cards at the end of their turn, every other player gets one last turn. The remaining face-down cards are then flipped and points are counted.

Scoring

Each player adds up the cards of their grid; this round score, positive or negative, is added to their total.

Finisher's penalty: if the player who ended the round does not have the strictly lowest round score, their score is doubled, unless it is zero or negative.

Example: Ana ends the round with 10 points, Leo has 24 and Zoe 10. Ana is not strictly the lowest: she scores 20, Zoe 10 and Leo 24.

End of the game

After a round, if a player has 100 points or more in total, the game ends: the player with the fewest points wins.

Game settings

The host can change the target score, the time per turn, the grid size, the number of cards flipped at the start, the removal of identical rows, whether the round score is shown, and the type of finisher's penalty. Ready? Start a solo game.