UNO Party! Card Game: Rules and Instructions for How to Play

UNO Party! is a new version of UNO made for larger groups of players. Most of the rules are the same as normal UNO, but there are a couple of differences and additions. For those already familiar with UNO, check out the Speed Play, Point Taken Card, Wild Pile Up Card, and Wild Drawn Together sections for the new rules exclusive to this version of UNO.

Objective of UNO Party!

The objective of UNO Party! is to be the first player to get rid of all of the cards from your hand.

Setup for UNO Party!

Remove the Direction Tracker Card and Link Cards from the rest of the cards.
Choose one player to be the dealer. They will shuffle the rest of the cards together.
Deal seven cards to each player.
Place the rest of the cards face down on the table to form the Draw Pile.
Place the Direction Tracker Card in the middle of the table with the clockwise side face up. The Link Cards should be placed near the Direction Tracker Card.
Flip over the top card from the Draw Pile to form the Discard Pile. If the card is an Action Card, ignore its effect. Flip over another card to start the Discard Pile.
The player to the left of the dealer starts the game. Play will proceed clockwise to start the game.

Playing UNO Party!

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

Color
Number
Symbol

If you can play one or more cards from your hand, choose one to place on top of the Discard Pile. If the card is a number card, nothing special happens. Should you play an Action card, you will take the corresponding action (see the UNO Party! Cards section below).

Playing A Card — The top card on the Discard Pile is a red three. Along the bottom are some examples of cards that the player could play on their turn. The blue three could be played because it matches the number. The red seven matches the color. You could play the four wild cards because they match every other card.

If you do not have any cards in your hand that you can play, you will take the top card from the Draw Pile. You will add this card to your hand. Should you be able to play this new card, you can play it immediately.

When you have a card that you can play from your hand, you will usually want to play it. If for some reason you have a card that you can play but you don’t want to, you don’t have to play it. You will take the top card from the Draw Pile. The only card you will then be able to play is the card you just drew.

Should the Draw Pile ever run out of cards, shuffle the Discard Pile to form a new Draw Pile.

Once you have played or drawn a card, your turn will end. The next player in turn order will then take their turn.

Speed Play

One of the new mechanics in UNO Party! is the ability to speed play.

Should the top card on the Discard Pile be a number card that matches both the number and color of one of the cards in your hand, you may immediately play the card to the Discard Pile. You can do this even if it is not currently your turn. Play will then continue with the next player in turn order from your position.

Speed Play Example — The top card on the Discard pile is a red seven. As this player has a red seven in their hand, they can play the card immediately even it is not currently their turn.

You need to make sure you play the card before the current player plays their card. If they play a card before you are able to play your matching card, you lose the ability to play the card.

Should you play a non-matching card using the speed play rule, you will take the card back into your hand. As a punishment for incorrectly playing the card, you will also have to take one card from the Draw Pile.

UNO Party! Cards

Number Cards

Number cards have no special action. You can only play them is they match the number or color of the top card on the Discard Pile.

Draw Two

When a player plays this card, the next player in turn order has to draw two cards. They will also lose their turn.

Reverse

A Reverse card changes the direction of play. If play was moving clockwise, it will now move counter-clockwise. Should play be moving counter-clockwise, it will now move clockwise.

When you play a Reverse card you should flip over the Direction Tracker Card so all of the players can easily see the current order of play.

Turn Order Card — Turn order is currently moving clockwise. If a Reverse card is played, you will flip over the card to indicate that play is now moving counter clockwise.

Skip

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

Point Taken

The Point Taken card is unique to UNO Party!.

When a player plays the Point Taken card they will start to count down from three. On one all of the players will point towards one other player.

You will count up how many people pointed at each player. Each player that was pointed at will have to take cards from the Draw Pile equal to the number of players that pointed at them. The maximum number of cards that a player can draw due to this card is five. To make sure the players draw the right number of cards, have one player draw cards at a time. When that person has drawn cards, all of the players that pointed at them, will put their hands down. This will continue until all of the players draw the required number of cards.

Point Taken Card Example — This player was pointed at by three of the other players. They will be forced to draw three cards from the Draw Pile.

Wild

A Wild card matches every other card in the game. Therefore you can play it on top of any other card.

Additionally the player who plays the card gets to choose the color for the Discard Pile.

Wild Pile Up

The Wild Pile Up card is unique to UNO Party!. The card is a wild so it can be played on top of any other card.

When you play the Wild Pile Up card, you will take the top card from the Draw Pile. You will place the card face up in front of the next player in turn order. This card will form a pile referred to as the mini pile. If the card is one of the wild cards, draw another card until you get a card that is not wild.

Wild Pile Up Example — A yellow three card was turned over to start the mini pile. Starting with the next player in turn order, each player will take turns playing a yellow card to the pile.

The next player in turn order must then play a card that matches the color of the top card on the mini pile. You can play wild cards, but they do not change the color. Action cards can also be played, but you do not take the corresponding action.

Playing to the Mini Pile — The next player in turn order played a yellow two to the mini pile.

After playing a card to the mini pile, the player will pass the pile to the next player in turn order. They will also have to play a card that matches the pile’s color.

This will continue until a player is unable to play a card that matches the pile’s color. The player that is unable to play a card to the mini pile, has to add all of the cards in the mini pile to their hand.

Taking the Mini Pile — The current player is unable to play a yellow card to the mini pile. They will be forced to add all of the cards from the pile to their hand.

Play will then continue with the next player in current turn order. The color of the Discard Pile is based on the color used for the mini pile. You do not get to pick the color by playing the Wild Pile Up card.

Wild Drawn Together

The Wild Drawn Together card is unique to UNO Party!.

When you play the Wild Drawn Together card you will choose two of the players. You will place one Link Card in front of both players that you chose.

On future turns should either of the players with a Link Card in front of them have to draw cards for any reason, the other linked player has the draw the same number of cards.

Link Cards in UNO Party! — Here are the two link cards in UNO Party!. When these cards are placed in front of players, the two players are linked together. When one of the players is forced to draw cards, the other has the draw the same number of cards.

If two players are already linked when a Wild Drawn Together card is played, you will have to choose two new players to give the Link Cards to.

The effect of the Wild Drawn Together card ends when a Point Taken card is played.

You can play the Wild Drawn Together card on any other card since it is a wild. You will also get to choose the color of the Discard Pile.

Wild Draw Four

A Wild Draw Four card matches every other card in the game. The one restriction is that you can only play the card if you have no cards in your hand that match the current color of the Discard Pile. Wild cards are considered matches for the current color.

The next player in turn order then has a choice to make.

They can draw four cards from the Draw Pile and add them to their hand. They will also lose their turn.

Otherwise they can challenge the player that played the Wild Draw Four card. If they decide to challenge, the player who played the Wild Draw Four has to show them their entire hand.

Playing A Wild Draw Four — The current player played a Wild Draw Four. The next player in turn order has to decide whether they want to challenge the play of the card.

If the player played the Wild Draw Four correctly (they have no cards that match the color of the Discard Pile), the challenging player has to draw six cards from the Draw Pile. They will also lose their turn.

Playing A Wild Draw Four Correctly — The player who played the Wild Draw Four had no red cards in their hand. They played the Wild Draw Four correctly. The challenger will now have to draw six cards and will lose their turn.

If the player played the Wild Draw Four incorrectly (they had one or more cards that matched the Discard Pile’s color), the player that played the Wild Draw Four has to draw the four cards.

Playing A Wild Draw Four Incorrectly — The player who played the Wild Draw Four had a red seven in their hand. Therefore they played the Wild Draw Four card incorrectly. The player that played the Wild Draw Four will have to draw four cards.

A Wild Draw Four also allows the player who plays it to choose the color for the Discard Pile. They will get to choose the color even if they lose a challenge.

Calling UNO

Should you only have one card left in your hand, you should call out “UNO” as quickly as possible. You need to call out UNO to alert the other players to let them know that you are close to winning the game.

If another player catches you not saying UNO before the next player starts their turn, you will have to take two cards from the Draw Pile.

Calling UNO in UNO Party! — This player only has one card left in their hand. They should call out UNO as soon as possible. If they don’t and another player catches them, they will have to draw two cards.

Winning UNO Party!

The game ends when one of the players play the last card from their hand. The player who plays the last card from their hand wins the game.

Alternative Scoring

Instead of just playing one hand to determine a winner, you can use the alternative scoring rules in order to play several rounds.

When a round ends, the player that played the last card from their hand takes all of the cards from the other players’ hands. They will then score points for each of the cards.

Number cards – Face value
Draw Two, Point Taken, Reverse, Skip – 20 points
Wild, Wild Draw Four, Wild Drawn Together, Wild Pile Up – 50 points

Scoring in UNO Party! — At the end of the game these twelve cards were left in the other players’ hands. The winner of the round will score 22 points from the number cards (2 + 4 + 7 + 9). They will score 20 points each from the four cards in the second row. They will also score 50 points for each of the wild cards in the bottom row. The winner of the round will score a total of 302 points from these cards.

You will keep a running total of each players’ score. The game ends when one player scores 500 or more points. The player that scored the most points wins the game.

Number of Players

While UNO Party! is meant to be played with larger groups (it has a recommended player count of 6-16), it is possible to play the game with less than six players. Some of the new Actions cards don’t work quite as well as they would with larger groups though. You could also end up playing hands that could take a long time as you are forced to keep drawing cards.

Year: 2022 | Publisher: Mattel | Designer: NA | Artist: NA

Genres: Card, Family, Party

Ages: 7+ | Number of Players: 6-16 players | Length of Game: 15-30 minutes

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

Components: 224 cards, instructions

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

If you are interested in other UNO games, check out our complete list of UNO spinoff games. For other board and card game how to plays/rules and reviews, check out our complete alphabetical list of board game posts.