Classic Uno Rules

Quite a few people reach this site looking for traditional Uno rules. Although this site is geared towards variations on Uno, I figured it wouldn't hurt to include a summary of the rules of Uno. If you are looking for a replacement set of instructions, an official English or Spanish set can be printed directly from Mattel's website. If you are looking for the rules for a Special Wild card that is unique to each deck of Uno cards, you might find it on the ever-growing List of Special Wild Cards page. Once you are familiar with the basic rules of Uno, check out our Gameplay Variations to shake things up.

Uno Rules:
Object of the Game:
Be the first player to get to 500 points. When a player discards all of her cards, she collects points for all of the cards in her opponents' hands. Alternately, players can tally the points for cards in their own hands and the winner is the person with the fewest points when one player reaches 500 points.

Setup:
Each player is dealt 7 cards. The unused cards are placed face-down as the draw pile and the top card is flipped face-up next to the draw pile to form the discard pile.

Gameplay:
Play begins with the person left of the dealer and continues in a clockwise direction. If the card flipped over to form the discard pile is an Action Card, that action is applied to the first player (i.e. skipped turn for a skip card, choose the color of play for a Wild card, etc.). If the first card is a Wild Draw 4 card, it is returned to the deck and another card is flipped over.

On a player's turn, the player may play a card from his hand to the discard pile if the card either matches the color or the symbol of the card on top of the discard pile (i.e. a red card on a red card; a skip card on a skip card, etc.). A player may also play a Wild card on top of any card and may play a Wild Draw 4 card on any card in limited circumstances (see Action Cards below).

If a player cannot play a card or chooses not to play a card, she must draw a card from the draw pile. If that card is playable, the player may play that card immediately, but may not play any other card in her hand. If the draw pile is depleted, the discard pile (except the top card) is shuffled and becomes the new draw pile.

When a player plays his second to last card, he must yell "Uno" to indicate that he only has one card left. If he forgets to yell "Uno" and is caught before the next player begins her turn, he must draw two cards from the draw pile.

When a player plays his last card, the round is over. If the last card is a Draw 2 card or a Wild Draw 4 card, the next player still draws the corresponding number of cards.

Action Cards:
Draw 2: The next player must draw two cards and forfeit her turn.

Reverse: The direction of play is reversed.

Skip: The next player misses his turn.

Wild: The player who plays this card chooses any color of play (including the current color).

Wild Draw 4: The player who plays this card chooses any color of play, plus the next player must draw four cards and miss her turn. This card can only be played when the player does not have any color of card that matches the discard pile (matching numbers or action cards are okay). If the player who is drawing four cards believes the card was played illegally, he may challenge the player who played the card. The challenged player must show the other player his cards. If the challenged player played the Wild Draw 4 card illegally, he must draw the four cards instead of the player who challenged him. If the challenged player played the card correctly, the challenger must draw six cards instead of four.

Scoring:
Number cards (0-9): Face value
Draw 2: 20 points
Reverse: 20 points
Skip: 20 points
Wild: 50 points
Wild Draw 4: 50 points

Note:  If you are interested in a good Uno scoring app, check out Scored! from the iTunes store (free for up to 4 players), developed by reader Philippe Champeaux.  It incorporates both official methods of Uno scoring.

2 comments:

  1. How many Wild Cards can you play on top of one another consecutively?

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    1. Under official/classic Uno rules, there is no limit to the number of Wild cards that can be played consecutively.

      I am also not aware of any house rules (specifically stacking and matching) that would limit the number of Wild cards that can be played consecutively.

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