UNO Quatro Board Game: Rules and Instructions for How to Play

Objective of UNO Quatro

The objective of UNO Quatro is to be the first player to match four tiles by color or number in a row vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.

Setup for UNO Quatro

Pull out the stand on the back of the game base so it stands up on its own. Place the game board in the middle of the table so all of the players can reach it.
Place all of the tiles into the bag and mix them up.
Each player randomly draws three tiles from the bag. This forms your “hand”.
The youngest player starts the game. Play proceeds clockwise.

Playing UNO Quatro

On your turn you will try to play one of the tiles from your hand to the game board.

Choosing A Tile in UNO Quatro — For this player’s turn they need to choose one of these three tiles from their hand to play to the game board.

You will slide one of your tiles into one of the trays/columns. The tile will slide down into the lowest space still left in that column. Once you place a tile into the game board, all of the players can use it.

Placing A Tile in UNO Quatro — The first player has decided to place a red two tile into the center tray.

Before choosing where you would like to place a tile, you must follow a couple rules.

If you place a tile somewhere on the game board where it doesn’t touch any other tiles (below, left, right or diagonal), you can place any tile that you want.

Placing A Tile — The second player has decided to play the blue one tile. As it doesn’t touch any other tiles, the player could have played any of the tiles from their hand.

Placement Rules

To place a tile next to other tiles though, it must match the color or number of at least one of the tiles that it touches. It can either match the tile it touches on left, right, bottom, or diagonally. It does not need to match all of the tiles that it touches.

Playing A Connected Tile in UNO Quatro — The next player played the one red tile. The tile could be played next to the red two tile since they share a color. The red one tile has a special action that you will activate once you play it.

Placing a tile next to another tile — The player that played the blue two tile was able to play it since it matched the number from the red two tile. Since it matched the red two tile, it didn’t have to match the red one tile.

Incorrectly played tile — The last player tried to played the green zero tile. This tile was not played correctly as it does not match the color or number of the red three below it, the blue five to its right, or the blue three that touches it diagonally. This tile would have to be removed since it was played incorrectly.

If you play a tile to the game board, draw a new tile from the bag to fill your hand back up to three tiles.

Should you not have a tile that you can place, you will choose one of the tiles from your hand to discard into the bag. You will then draw a new tile. If the tile you just drew is playable, you can play it immediately.

After you play or draw a tile, your turn ends. Make sure you have three tiles in your hand. If you don’t, draw new tiles until you do. Play then passes to the next player clockwise.

The Tiles of UNO Quatro

Normal Tiles

Some of the tiles in UNO Quatro have no special ability. When you play them you don’t get to take a special action.

Swap

After playing a tile with the Swap symbol on it, you will choose two of the trays on the game board. You will swap the positions of the two trays.

To swap the trays you will pull them up from the top and slide them out. You will then insert each tray into the position of the other tray you selected.

Swapping two trays in UNO Quatro — After swapping the two trays, the player has created a set of four 3’s that are connected. They have won the game.

This action is not optional. When you play a Swap tile, you must swap the positions of two trays.

Push

When you play a tile that has the Push symbol, you will keep pushing on the tile until it knocks the bottom tile out of the tray. This is mandatory and you can’t choose not to push the tile out. After you push the bottom tile out of the tray, you will return that tile to the bag.

If you place a Push tile into a tray that has no other tiles in it, you can choose whether you push the tile out of the tray or keep it as the only tile in that tray.

Normally you can’t add a tile to a tray that is full. You can play a Push tile to a full tray though as it will push the bottom tile out of the tray.

Minus 2

The Minus 2 tile allows you to discard two tiles from the next player’s hand. You will choose the two tiles randomly. The discarded tiles will be returned to the bag.

The next player will only have one tile in their hand for their next turn. At the end of their next turn, they will draw tiles until they have three left in their hand.

Using a Minus 2 Tile — The previous player used a Minus 2 tile. They randomly took the green one and blue two tiles from the next player and will add them to the bag. The next player will have to try and play the red five tile on their turn.

Winning UNO Quatro

The objective of UNO Quatro is to get four tiles in a row vertically, horizontally or diagonally that either match by color or number. The first player to get four in a row wins the game.

Winning vertically — The last player played the red four tile in the third tray from the right. They created a set of four vertically connected tiles. They have won the game.

Winning horizontally in UNO Quatro — The current player was able to get four 3’s in a row horizontally starting on the left side. The current player has won the game.

Winning diagonally — The last player played the yellow 4 Push tile. After pushing the tile out of the tray, they created a diagonal set of four connected yellow tiles. They have won the game.

UNO Quatro FAQ

Can you choose not to play a tile when you have one that you can play?

The instructions do not specifically say that you have to play a tile. The instructions do mention though that the only time you can discard a tile and draw a new one is if you are unable to play any of the tiles from your hand. Additionally if you were allowed to not play a tile when you could, that would be against the spirit of the game. If you could just avoid playing a tile altogether, players could just stop playing tiles once the board started filling up to prevent another player from winning the game. Because of these reasons, in my opinion you have to play a tile on your turn if you can.

Why isn’t UNO Quatro played like normal UNO?

When you first start playing UNO Quatro it may not seem much like normal UNO. This is exactly the feeling my group had when first playing the game. Instead of trying to play all of the tiles from your hand to win, you need to try and create a pattern of four tiles in a row of the same color and number. The game tries create an UNO twist on your typical get four in a row games like Connect 4.

I was still curious though if the game could be played like normal UNO. So our group created house rules to try and make it play more like the original game. We played where all of the players got seven tiles to start with the objective being to get rid of all of the tiles from our hands. This also included tweaking some of the special abilities to fit more with the original game. After playing this variant game, we learned very quickly why this doesn’t work for the game. It is far too easy to play tiles where it became an exercise in who got the most special tiles. While it might not play like the original game, the official game works better than any variant game trying to better emulate the original game.

What do the symbols next to the numbers on the tiles represent?

Each tile in the game has a symbol next to the number inside the colored oval. This symbol is present for colorblind players. Each symbol represents a different color.

Triangle – red
Circle – green
Star – yellow
Diamond – blue

UNO Quatro Components

UNO Quatro has no duplicate tiles. The breakdown of the tiles in the game are as follows:

44 tiles
- 1 – Blue 0
- 1 – Blue 1
- 1 – Blue 1 Minus 2
- 1 – Blue 2 Swap
- 1 – Blue 2 Push
- 1 – Blue 3
- 1 – Blue 3 Swap
- 1 – Blue 4 Push
- 1 – Blue 4 Swap
- 1 – Blue 5
- 1 – Blue 5 Minus 2
- 1 – Green 0 Minus 2
- 1 – Green 1
- 1 – Green 1 Swap
- 1 – Green 2
- 1 – Green 2 Swap
- 1 – Green 3
- 1 – Green 3 Push
- 1 – Green 4
- 1 – Green 4 Minus 2
- 1 – Green 5 Swap
- 1 – Green Push
- 1 – Red 0
- 1 – Red 1 Push
- 1 – Red 1 Swap
- 1 – Red 2
- 1 – Red 2 Minus 2
- 1 – Red 3 Push
- 1 – Red 3 Swap
- 1 – Red 4
- 1 – Red 4 Swap
- 1 – Red 5
- 1 – Red 5 Minus 2
- 1 – Yellow 0 Swap
- 1 – Yellow 1
- 1 – Yellow 1 Minus 2
- 1 – Yellow 2
- 1 – Yellow 2 Push
- 1 – Yellow 3
- 1 – Yellow 3 Minus 2
- 1 – Yellow 4 Push
- 1 – Yellow 4 Swap
- 1 – Yellow 5
- 1 – Yellow 5 Swap
7 trays
game board base
bag
instructions

Year: 2023 | Publisher: Mattel

Genres: Abstract, Family, Strategy

Ages: 7+ | Number of Players: 2-4 | Length of Game: 10-20 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Moderate | Luck: Moderate

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