How to Play UNO Show ‘Em No Mercy: Rules and Instructions

Looking for a specific UNO Show ‘Em No Mercy rule?: | Setup | Playing the Game | Drawing Cards | Card Meanings | Stacking | Elimination | Winning the Game | Scoring | FAQ | Components |

Objective

The objective of UNO Show ‘Em No Mercy is to play all of the cards from your hand or eliminate the rest of the players from the game.

Setup

• Choose a dealer who shuffles all of the cards. If you can’t shuffle all of the cards together, you can split the deck into multiple piles and shuffle them separately.
• The dealer deals seven cards facedown to each player. You can look at your own cards, but you shouldn’t show them to the other players.
• Place the rest of the cards facedown on the table to form the Draw Pile.
• Flip over the top card from the Draw Pile and place it next to the pile. This forms the Discard Pile. If the card you flipped over is an Action card (any card that isn’t a number card), you will ignore its effect and flip over another card.
• The player to the left of the dealer starts the game. Play passes clockwise to start the game.

How to Play UNO Show ‘Em No Mercy

On your turn you will try to play a card from your hand to the Discard Pile. To play a card it needs to match one of the following attributes from the top card from the Discard Pile:

• Color
• Number
• Symbol

If you have a card that matches one or more of these attributes, you may play the card. If there are two or more cards that match the attributes, you can choose which of the cards that you want to play. You can only play one card on your turn.

If you play an Action card, a special action will occur. See the corresponding section below for more details.

As the instructions specifically say that you may play a card if you have one that matches, I assume you can choose not to play a card from your hand even if it matches. Most UNO games specifically say this, but this version of UNO does not. If you choose not to play a card, I assume you will treat the rest of your turn like if you didn’t have a card that you could play.

After you play a card, your turn ends. Play passes to the next player in turn order.

Drawing Cards

Should you have no cards in your hand that you can play, you will have to draw cards from the Draw Pile.

Unlike normal UNO, in UNO Show ‘Em No Mercy you will have to keep drawing cards until you draw one that you can play. When you draw a card that you can play, you will play it to the Discard Pile. You will then add the rest of the cards you drew to your hand.

If the Draw Pile ever runs out of cards, you will shuffle the Discard Pile to form a new Draw Pile.

After you have played a card, your turn ends. The next player in turn order takes the next turn.

UNO Show ‘Em No Mercy Card Meanings

Numbers (Except for 0’s and 7’s)

Number cards have no special action in the game. A number card can only be played if it matches the color or number of the top card on the Discard Pile.

0 Pass

When you play a 0 card, all of the players will pass their hand to the next player in the current direction of play. If play is currently moving clockwise, each player passes their hand to the player on their left. If play is moving counter-clockwise, each player passes their hand to the player on their right.

After all of the players swap their hands, play passes to the next player in turn order.

7 Swap

The 7 card is different from other number cards because it has a special action. When you play a 7 card, you must swap your hand with another player. You choose which player you want to swap your hand with.

After you swap hands, play passes to the next player in turn order.

Discard All

When you play a Discard All card, you will discard all of the cards from your hand that match the color of the Discard All card. Place all of the cards you discard underneath the Discard All card.

You can play a Discard All card on top of another Discard All card, or a card that matches its color.

Draw Two

When you play a Draw Two card, the next player in turn order has to draw two cards and will lose their turn. The one exception to this is if the player is able to use stacking (see the section below for more information).

You can play a Draw Two card on top of another Draw Two card, or a card that matches its color.

Draw Four

Whenever a Draw Four card is played, the next player in turn order has to draw four cards and loses their turn. The next player can avoid this by stacking (see the corresponding section below).

You can play a Draw Four on top of another Draw Four, a Draw Two (using stacking), or a card that matches its color.

Reverse

The Reverse card changes the direction of play. If play was moving clockwise, the Reverse card changes it to counter-clockwise. If play was moving counter-clockwise, it will now move clockwise.

Should there only be two players in the game, when you play a Reverse card the other player is skipped so you can take another turn right away.

You can play a Reverse card on top of another Reverse card, or on a card that matches its color.

Skip

When you play a Skip card, the next player in turn order loses their turn.

You can play a Skip card on top of another Skip card, or a card that matches its color. If your turn is skipped due to a Skip card being played on you, you cannot play a Skip card to avoid losing your turn.

Skip Everyone

The Skip Everyone card skips all of the other players. When you play the card, you will immediately play another card.

You can play a Skip Everyone card on top of another Skip Everyone card, or a card that matches its color.

Wild Color Roulette

After a Wild Color Roulette card is played, the next player in turn order chooses a color. The next player then keeps drawing cards from the Draw Pile until they draw a card that matches the color they choose. Wild cards do not count as matching the color. The player adds all of the cards they draw to their hand. They also lose their turn.

Since the Wild Color Roulette card is wild, you can play it on top of any other card. The player that plays the card chooses the color for the Discard Pile.

Wild Draw 6

When you play a Wild Draw 6, the next player in turn order has to draw six cards. They also lose their next turn. You can avoid this punishment by using stacking (see the Stacking section below).

Since the Wild Draw 6 card is wild, you can play it on top of any other card. The player who plays it also chooses the color of the Discard Pile.

Wild Draw 10

When you play a Wild Draw 10 card, the next player in turn order has to draw 10 cards and loses their turn. You can avoid this punishment by using stacking (see the Stacking section below).

The Wild Draw 10 is wild so it can be played at any time. When you play a Wild Draw 10, you will choose the color for the Discard Pile.

Wild Reverse Draw Four

The Wild Reverse Draw Four card is wild so you can play it on top of any other card.

When you play the Wild Reverse Draw Four you will start by reversing the direction of play like a normal Reverse card. The player who is now the next player has to draw four cards and loses their turn. You can use the stacking rules to avoid the punishment from a Wild Reverse Draw Four (see the Stacking section below).

If there are only two players, the other player is skipped. This forces the player who played the card to draw the four cards.

Since the card is wild, you will choose the color for the Discard Pile.

Stacking

When a player plays a Draw Card (any +2, +4, +6, +10 card), if the next player in the turn order has their own Draw Card they can stack it on top.

For example, a player plays a Draw Two card on you. Normally you would have to draw two cards and lose your turn. If you have a Draw Card in your hand, you can play the card (if you want to) instead of drawing the cards and losing your turn. Then the next player in turn order has a chance to play a Draw Card as well. This continues until a player is unable to play a Draw Card. The player that is unable to play a Draw Card has to draw cards equal to all of the stacked Draw Cards. For example, if the previous players played a +2, +2, +4, and +6 cards, the player that was unable to play a Draw Card has to draw 14 cards and loses their turn.

When stacking Draw Cards, you can only play a Draw Card that is equal to or higher than the previous played Draw Card. As an example if the previous player played a +4 card, you can only play a +4 or higher Draw Card. You aren’t allowed to play a +2 card.

Elimination Mercy Rule

If you ever have 25 or more cards in your hand at a time, you are eliminated from the game.

You will set your cards aside. Whenever you have to shuffle the Discard Pile, you will also shuffle the cards that players set aside when they were eliminated.

Calling UNO

When you only have one card left in your hand, you must say “UNO” as quickly as possible. You have to do this to alert the other players that you are close to winning the game.

If you do not say UNO and another player catches you, you must draw two cards. They must catch you before the next player takes their turn.

Winning the Game

UNO Show ‘Em No Mercy can end in one of two ways.

When someone plays the last card from their hand, they win the game.

Otherwise the game can end if all but one of the players have been eliminated. The last remaining player wins the game.

Scoring

If you would like to play a couple of rounds, you can choose to keep score. The winner of the round collects all of the cards left in the other players’ hands. They will score points for each of the cards as follows:

• Number cards – face value
• Discard All, Draw 2, Draw 4, Reverse, Skip, Skip Everyone – 20 points each
• Wild Color Roulette, Wild Draw 6, Wild Draw 10, Wild Reverse Draw Four – 50 points each

The winner does not score points from the cards left in a player’s hand that was eliminated. Instead they score 250 points for each eliminated player.

Keep track of the points that the players score each round.

The first player to score 1,000 or more points wins the game.

UNO Show ‘Em No Mercy FAQs

If you have any questions about how to play the game, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.

What happens if I play a 0 or 7 as the last card from my hand? Do I win the game, or do I have to trade my hand with another player and they win the game?

This exact question has actually been answered by Nick Hayes (game’s creator) on Board Game Geek. If you play a 0 or 7 as the last card from your hand, you still win the game. This is due to the game ending as soon as you play the last card from your hand.

When stacking do you have to play a card that matches the color?

In a video released by Mattel about the game, the example clearly shows the players ignoring colors when stacking. When you are stacking you can play any card that forces a player to draw cards. The only rule is that the card you play has to be equal to or higher than the previous card.

This applies to the wild draw cards as well. When you play a Wild card you get to choose the color of the Discard Pile. If the next player can stack a card though, they can ignore the color you just picked.

Let me give you an example. A player plays a yellow Draw Two card. You do not have to play a yellow draw card to stack. You can play any draw card that is a Draw Two or higher. For example you can play a green Draw Four or a green Draw Two. You could also play a Draw Six or an even higher card.

When stacking can you challenge the play of wilds by the other players?

In most versions of UNO the instructions specifically point out that you can challenge the play of a Wild Draw Four card if you think the player had a card in their hand that matches the current color. UNO Show ‘Em No Mercy does not mention anything about challenging the play of wild cards. It also doesn’t say anything about not being able to play wild cards if you have another matching card in your hand.

Since the rules don’t mention anything about challenging the play of a wild card or that there is even a restriction on the wild cards, I would have to say that you cannot challenge the play of wild cards by the other players while stacking or at any time during the game.

I just played the last card from my hand. It was a card that forced the next player to draw cards (Draw Two, Draw Four, Wild Reverse Draw Four, etc.). Do I win the game since I played the last card from my hand? Or do the other players have a chance to stack cards?

This answer comes directly from the creator of UNO Show ‘Em No Mercy (Nick Hayes) on a post on Board Game Geek.

If the last card you play forces the next player to draw cards, the other players have the opportunity to stack cards before you win the game. If it gets back to you, you will be forced to draw the corresponding number of cards. The game then continues where it left off.

I played a Wild Reverse Draw Four card and another player stacked a color Draw Four card on top of it. The next player was unable to continue the stack. What color is Discard Pile, the color chosen by the player who played the Wild Reverse Draw Four card or the color of the Draw Four card?

This question is not directly addressed in the rules and I couldn’t find any official answer anywhere online. Therefore it is up to the players to decide how the situation should be handled.

When this situation comes up when we play, we follow the color of the last played card. Therefore the Discard Pile becomes the color of the color Draw Four card.

There are only two players left. I played a Wild Reverse Draw Four card. Who is forced to draw the cards or stack cards?

When you play a Wild Reverse Draw Four card and there are only two players, you end up having to draw the four cards instead of the other player. You could also stack cards on top of the Wild Draw Four card.

The rules do not specify what happens should you play another Wild Reverse Draw Four card and are unable to play any other draw cards. As the rules don’t specifically say what you do, the players need to agree to how they will handle this situation.

When this happened to us in a game, we handled it where the player that played the Wild Reverse Draw Four was stuck drawing the cards or stacking. If they would play another Wild Draw Four card, they would be stuck drawing eight cards. The only way they would get out of drawing cards is if they played another draw card other than a Wild Reverse Draw Four.

The previous player played a Draw Two card. Can I play a Draw Four card on my turn?

This question comes down to whether you are stacking. If you are stacking you can place any draw card that is equal to or higher than the previous played draw card. Therefore you can play a Draw Four card on top of a Draw Two card.

This is different if the player played the Draw Two card and the next player couldn’t stack a card. That player has to draw two cards. If it is then your turn, you cannot play a Draw Four card because it does not match a Draw Two card. In this situation you would have to play a Draw Two card, a card that matches the color, or a wild card.

A Wild Color Roulette card was played against me. Do I get to play the card that I drew that matches the color? Who picks the color and what color does the Discard Pile become?

When a Wild Color Roulette card is played against you, you have to keep drawing cards until you draw one that matches the color you chose. You will reveal the cards as you draw them so the other players can verify when you draw a matching card. After you draw a matching color card, you will add all of the cards you drew to your hand. You do not get to play the matching card to the Discard Pile.

The color of the Wild Color Roulette is chosen by the player that has to draw cards. For example they choose to draw for a green card. After they draw a green card, the Discard Pile becomes green for the next player.

Say I have a green Discard All card and the rest of the cards in my hand are also green. Can I play all of the cards along with the Discard All card to win the round/game, or do I have to leave one card in my hand?

The rules say for a Discard All card that you must play all cards from your hand that match the color of the card. Therefore you should be able to play all of the cards from your hand and win the round/game.

The rules do not specifically say anything about how to handle this situation. Based on other versions of UNO though, you can usually ignore saying UNO if you can immediately play your remaining cards at the same time. I would apply this and say you can play all of the cards immediately and win the round/game.

When you play a Discard All card do you have to discard all of the cards of the corresponding color from your hand? If I suspect another player didn’t play all of the cards of the color from their hand, can I challenge them?

When a player plays a Discard All card, they must discard all cards from their hand that match the color of the Discard All card. This is not optional. You must discard all of the cards that match the color.

Unfortunately the game does not have an official rule to challenge a player if you think they didn’t discard all of the corresponding color cards from their hand. A player may not want to discard all of the cards from their hand that match the color. This will mostly happen when they have a draw card that they want to keep for a potential stacking situation. If a player doesn’t play all of the cards that match the color, they are cheating.

Unfortunately there is no official rule for challenging a player to see if they are cheating. You should make sure before the game that all players know the rules. If you still think a player is cheating, you may have to come up with your own way of challenging a player. As there are no official rules for this though, the players will have to come up with their own punishment for a cheating player.

If I have a card in my hand that I can play because it matches the top card on the Discard Pile, can I choose not to play it?

Most versions of UNO specifically mention that you can choose not to play a card on your turn. UNO Show ‘Em No Mercy only says that you “may play” a card that matches the top card on the Discard Pile. Therefore I would interpret that to say you can choose not to play a card. It doesn’t say anything about what you do if you choose not to play a card though.

Since the rules don’t specifically mention how you handle this situation, I can’t give an official answer on what you do for the rest of your turn. I would guess you would follow the same process as when you don’t have a card that you can play. You will draw cards until you find a matching card.

If you decide not to play a card from your hand, I would guess you can’t choose to play that card later in the same turn. I base this on the rules for other versions of UNO where it specifically says that once you decide not to play a card, you cannot play that card for the rest of your current turn. Therefore you will be forced to keep drawing cards until you get one that you can play. You can’t choose to stop drawing cards after a while and play one of the cards that you chose not to play earlier on your turn.

I started drawing cards and ended up drawing a wild card. Instead of playing the card, I want to keep it and keep drawing more cards. Can I do this?

The rules for specifically say that you must keep drawing cards from the Draw Pile until you draw a card that you can play. You then play that card to the Discard Pile.

Based on how this is written, you will stop drawing cards as soon as you draw a wild or any other card that can be played. You must play the card that you drew that can be played. You can’t choose to keep the card and keep drawing.

Components

• 20 Blue Number Cards (2 each of 0-9)
• 20 Green Number Cards (2 each of 0-9)
• 20 Red Number Cards (2 each of 0-9)
• 20 Yellow Number Cards (2 each of 0-9)
• 12 Discard All Cards (3 of each color)
• 12 Draw Two Cards (3 of each color)
• 8 Draw Four Cards (2 of each color)
• 12 Reverse Cards (3 of each color)
• 12 Skip Cards (3 of each color)
• 8 Skip Everyone Cards (2 of each color)
• 8 Wild Color Roulette Cards
• 4 Wild Draw 6 Cards
• 4 Wild Draw 10 Cards
• 8 Wild Reverse Draw Four Cards
• Instructions

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Year: 2023 | Publisher: Mattel | Designer: Nick Hayes

Genres: Card, Family, Party

Ages: 7+ | Number of Players: 2-6 | Length of Game: 15-30 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: Moderate-High

Where to Purchase: Amazon, eBay Any purchases made through these links (including other products) help keep Geeky Hobbies running. Thank you for your support.

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