Looking for the rest of the rules for the game, check out our Skyjo Action how to play post. If you are looking for the rules for the original game, check out our how to play Skyjo post.
Do you need help on the specific meaning of an action card in Skyjo Action: | Swap Your Own Cards | Double Move | Draw Three Cards | Enlightenment | Reactivation | Defense | Swap Cards With Another Player | Action Card Thief | Meteor Shower |
Normally you will use all of the action cards, but you can choose to use only some of them. The game recommends that for beginners you remove the “Action Card Thief” and “Meteor Shower” cards from the deck.
Detailed below are the specific action you will take when you choose to play each action card.
Swap Your Own Cards
When you play this card you will choose two cards from your layout and swap their positions. You can choose face up and/or face down cards. This is mostly useful in order to create a row or column where all of the numbers are the same. When you swap the cards you can choose to place the cards face up or face down in your layout.
Double Move
The Double Move card allows you to take two turns in a row. You will take one of the turns and then the other. You can either draw cards (playing or action), or play other action cards.
Draw Three Cards
When you play the Draw Three Cards action card, you will draw three cards from the playing card deck. Look at the three cards to see if there is a card that you want to put in your layout. If you want to keep one of the cards, you will swap it with one of the cards in your layout. The other two cards you didn’t want and the card you swapped out will be discarded. You choose the order in which you place the cards on the discard pile.
If you don’t want any of the cards, you can discard all of them. You have to flip over one of the cards in your layout though.
Enlightenment
Should you play an Enlightenment card, you will choose a row or column of cards. You can either choose your own row/column, or you can pick another player’s row/column. You will look at all of the face down cards in the row/column you chose. The cards you look at remain face down after you look at them.
Reactivation
When you play the Reactivation card, you will immediately take a card from the action card discard pile and immediately take the corresponding action.
Defense
When you have the Defense card in your layout, you are protected from attack cards (see below) being used against you. Should a player use an attack card against you, the Defense card blocks it from affecting you. The Defense card is then discarded to the action card discard pile.
If you no longer want to keep the Defense card, you can play it to get rid of it. By playing the Defense card you are no longer protected. You immediately get to take another turn though.
Swap Cards With Another Player
This card allows you to swap two cards between two players. You can choose to swap one of your cards with another player’s card, or you can choose two other players to swap one card. The player who plays the card chooses which cards are swapped. You can choose face up and/or face down cards. When you place the cards in their new locations, you can choose to place them face up or face down.
This is an attack card that can be blocked with a Defense card.
Action Card Thief
The Action Card Thief card allows you can choose one action card from in front of another player, and place it next to your own layout of cards.
You also get to take another turn. On your extra turn, you cannot use the card that you just stole. You have to wait for a future turn in order to use the card.
This is an attack card that can be blocked by a Defense card.
Meteor Shower
The player that takes the Meteor Shower card chooses one card from each other players’ layout to discard. Each player has to discard the chosen card (in clockwise order) to the bottom of the discard pile. Each player then draws a new card from the draw pile and adds it to the corresponding space in their layout. The card is placed face up in the empty space.
For each player you can choose a number, star or action card. If you choose an action card, the corresponding player does not get to draw a replacement action card.
This is an attack card that can be blocked by a Defense card.