Trash Pandas Card Game: Rules and Instructions for How to Play

Objective of Trash Pandas

The objective of Trash Pandas is to acquire and stash cards in order to score more points than the other players at the end of the game.

Setup for Trash Pandas

Place the Token Actions card on the table where everyone can see it.
The player who last took out the trash will be the first player in the game.
Shuffle the cards and deal them out to the players. The cards will be dealt out to the players based on turn order. Players can look at their cards, but shouldn’t show them to the other players.
- Player 1 = 3 cards
- Player 2 = 4 cards
- Player 3 = 5 cards
- Player 4 = 6 cards
Place the remaining cards face down on the table. This pile is referred to as the “trash can”.
Place the six tokens and the die in the middle of the play area.

Playing Trash Pandas

Starting with the first player and proceeding left (clockwise), the players will take turns. The actions you will take on your turn are as follows:

Roll the Die
Resolve Tokens

Roll the Die

To begin your turn you will roll the die. You will take the token from the center of the table that matches the symbol that you rolled.

Die Roll in Trash Pandas — This player has rolled the two trees symbol on the die. They will take the two trees token from the center of the table.

Next you will decide whether to keep rolling the die, or stop. If you choose to stop rolling the die, move onto the Resolve Tokens section.

If you choose to roll the die again, roll it. Then find the token matching the symbol that you rolled. Add this token to the one you collected from your first roll.

Second Roll in Trash Pandas — For their second roll this player rolled the steal symbol. They will take the corresponding token from the center of the table.

After each time you roll the die and take the corresponding token, you will have the option to roll the die again or stop. This will continue until you bust, stop, or you collect all six tokens.

Deciding Whether to Roll Again — This player has already collected four of the tokens. They will have to decide whether they want to risk busting to try and get one of the two remaining tokens.

Should you roll a symbol that you have already rolled this turn, you will bust. You can avoid busting by discarding a Blammo! card or a Nanners card for their effect (see the Trash Pandas Cards section). If you bust you will not get to take any of the actions corresponding to the tokens you already collected during the round. You will return the tokens to the center of the table. When you bust you will get to take one card from the trash can and add it to your hand. Play then passes to the next player in turn order.

Busting in Trash Pandas — The player rolled the trash can/tree symbol. As they already collected that token this turn, they have busted unless they play a Nanners or Blammo! card to avoid busting.

If you acquire all six tokens, you will move onto the Resolve Tokens stage. After completing the Resolve Tokens stage, you will get to take a bonus turn. Return all of the tokens to the center of the table. You will once again start rolling the die to try and collect more tokens. This turn will play the same as a normal turn except that you can only collect a maximum of three tokens. This bonus turn is considered the same turn with regards to the end game. Even if there are no cards remaining in the trash can, you will still get to take the bonus turn.

Acquiring All Six Tokens — This player successfully collected all six tokens. After taking the token actions, they will get to take another turn.

Resolve Tokens

Once you have chosen to stop rolling the die, you will have the opportunity to resolve the tokens that you acquired. If you busted when rolling the die, you will skip this step of your turn.

You can choose to resolve the tokens you acquired in any order that you prefer. See the Trash Pandas Tokens section below for details on what each token does. After you use a token’s ability, you will return it to the center of the table.

Here are some rules that you must follow when using tokens:

You may not use the ability on a card that you acquired in the current turn. You can stash a card that you just acquired though.

A card can only be stashed when you use the Tree or Bandit Mask action. You will place stashed cards face down unless you stashed it through the Bandit Mask action. If you do not stash a card, it will remain in your hand.

After you have used all of your tokens, your turns ends. You will pass the die to the player on your left (clockwise).

If you ever have to draw a card and no cards remain in the trash can, the end game is triggered. The current player finishes their turn, and the game then moves onto final scoring.

Trash Pandas Tokens

Each of the tokens in the game give you a special ability that you can use. Each token’s special ability is as follows:

You can draw up to two cards from the trash can (the draw pile). Add the cards to your hand.

Drawing A Card — This player has used the token that allows them to take two cards from the trash can. They will draw two cards and add them to their hand.

You can stash up to two cards from your hand. You will place your chosen cards face down in a pile in front of you. These cards cannot be used again until the final scoring. You may look at your own stashed cards at any time though.

Stashing Cards — This player is using the token that allows them to stash cards. They have decided to stash these two Nanners cards.

You can either draw one card from the trash can, or stash one card from your hand.

Choose one of the other players. You can steal one of the cards from the chosen player’s hand (not their stashed cards). You will randomly select one of the cards from their hand to take. The chosen player may choose to play a Doggo or Kitteh card to block your ability to steal a card.

Stealing A Card — This player is using the token that allows them to steal a card from another player. They can choose one of the cards from another player’s hand to steal.

Draw the top card from the trash can and turn it over so all of the players can see it. You will add the card to your hand.

The rest of the players now have the option to stash one of the cards from their hand that matches the card that was just drawn. When players stash cards in this way though, they will be stashed face up so the other players can see them.

For each player that chose to stash a card, you will draw one card from the trash can and add it to your hand.

Flip Over A Card — This player has used the token that allows them to flip over the top card from the trash can. They revealed a Feesh card which they will add to their hand. The rest of the players can choose to stash a Feesh card from their hand. For each player that stashes a Feesh card, the current player gets to draw an additional card from the trash can.

This token basically acts as a wild. You will exchange this token for any token that you have not yet taken this turn. If you collect all six tokens on your turn, this token has no special effect.

Using the Wild Token — This player is using the wild token. They can choose to either take the trash can/tree token or the two trash can token.

Trash Pandas Cards

In addition to stashing cards in order to score points at the end of the game, you can also play cards during the game for a special effect. After you take the card’s action, you will put the card on the top of the discard pile. The special effect of each card are as follows:

Blammo!

When rolling the die you can use a Blammo! card to ignore the result of your previous roll. You will then re-roll the die. Usually you will want to use a Blammo! card to avoid busting, but you can also choose to re-roll a symbol if you didn’t like the result.

If you stash a Blammo! card, it will be worth one point at the end of the game.

Doggo

If another player tries to steal a card from you, you can play a Doggo to prevent them from stealing from you.

Additionally you may also immediately draw two cards from the trash can. If there are less than two cards remaining, draw whatever cards remain.

Feesh

When you play a Feesh card, you can look through the discard pile and take one card. You will add the card to your hand. The card you take from the discard pile can be used this turn. For example you can take a Blammo! or Nanners card to avoid busting.

Kitteh

If another player tries to steal from you, you may play the Kitteh card to stop them. Instead of them stealing a card from you, you will get to steal a card from them.

If the player used the Steal action, you will get to randomly take one card from their hand. When the player uses a Shiny card (to steal a stashed card), the Kitteh card allows you to steal one card from their stashed cards.

If you use a Kitteh card against another player, they can use a Doggo card or another Kitteh card against you.

MMM Pie!

When resolving your tokens, you can use the MMM Pie! card to resolve one of your collected tokens two times. For example you can use it with the trash cans token to draw four cards instead of two.

You may not use multiple MMM Pie! cards on the same token in one turn to take the corresponding action more than two times.

Nanners

When you are about to bust you can choose to play a Nanners card. By playing the card you will cancel your last die roll. The card acts like you decided to quit rolling and never rolled the die the last time.

After you play the Nanners card, you cannot continue rolling the die. The one exception to this is if another player plays a Yum Yum card on you forcing you to roll again.

Shiny

You may play a Shiny card in order to steal a stashed card from another player. You will add the card you stole to your hand.

A Shiny card can be used to either steal a face up or face down stashed card. If you choose to steal a face down card, you cannot look at it until you have chosen to take it.

The player you choose to steal from can choose to use a Doggo or Kitteh card in order to block you. In this case you will discard the Shiny card for no effect.

Yum Yum

You can play a Yum Yum card on another player’s turn. You can play the card on another player after they have decided to stop rolling the die. The player will then be forced to roll the die at least one more time.

If the chosen player ends up busting, they can choose to use a Blammo! or Nanners card like normal to avoid busting.

Should the player roll the die and not bust, they can either chose to stop rolling, or they can continue rolling the die.

Trash Pandas End Game and Scoring

After the last trash can card is drawn, the game will end after the current player finishes their turn.

Any cards left in the players’ hands are discarded.

Players will then reveal all of the cards they stashed during the game. You should sort your cards by their types.

The players will then compare how many cards they stashed of each type. The player that stashed the most cards of each type scores points equal to the highest number in the top left corner of the card. The player that stashed the second most cards gets the second highest number of points and so on. In order to score points you need to have stashed at least one card of the corresponding type.

Scoring in Trash Pandas — At the end of the game these are the Feesh cards that were stashed. The top player stashed the most cards so they will receive five points from the cards. The second player stashed the second most cards (two), so they will score three points. The bottom player stashed the third most cards so they will earn one point.

If there is a tie for one of the positions, the tied players will score one point less than what they would have scored if they were the only player to earn that place. The player with the next most cards gets points equal to the next highest position remaining.

Scoring A Tie — In this example the top two players stashed the same number of Feesh cards. They will share the first place title and will score four points each. The player at the bottom will get second and score three points.

Players will also score one point for each Blammo! card that they stash.

Scoring Blammo! Cards — This player stashed two Blammo! cards. They will score two points for the two cards.

After scoring each type of card, players will compare their total scores. The player that scores the most points wins the game.

If there is a tie for most points, the tied player with the greatest variety of stashed cards wins the game. If there is still a tie, the tied player with the most stashed cards wins.

Year: 2017 | Publisher: Gamewright, Red Rook Games | Designer: Lisa Eskue, Michael Eskue | Artist: Kwanchai Moriya

Genres: Card, Dice, Family, Press Your Luck, Set Collection

Ages: 8+ | Number of Players: 2-4 | Length of Game: 15-20 minutes

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

Components: 54 cards, 6 tokens, die, instructions

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