UNO BTS Card Game: Rules for How to Play

Objective

The objective of UNO BTS is to play all of the cards from your hand before the other players.

Set Up

Each player randomly draws a card. The player that draws the highest number becomes the dealer. Action cards count as zero.
The dealer shuffles all of the cards and deals seven cards face down to each player.
Place the rest of the cards face down on the table. This forms the Draw Pile.
Turn over the top card from the Draw Pile to form the Discard Pile. If an Action card is flipped over, see the corresponding section below for details on how to handle the card.
The player to the left of the dealer starts the game. Play moves clockwise/left to start the game.

How to Play UNO BTS

On your turn you will try to play one of the cards from your hand. To play a card it has to match one of the elements of the top card from the Discard Pile. The card can match one of the following:

Color
Number
Symbol

If you have a card in your hand that matches one of these elements, you can play it to the Discard Pile. Should you play an Action card, you will take the corresponding action (see the corresponding section below).

Playing a Card in UNO BTS — The top card on the Discard Pile is a blue one. Along the bottom of the photo are some cards that the next player could choose to play. They could play the blue six because it matches the color. The green one could be played because it matches the number. The final three cards could be played because they are wild.

Playing a matching symbol card — The top card on the Discard Pile is a Reverse card. The next player could choose to play their own Reverse card because it matches the symbol.

After you play a card, your turn ends. Play passes to the next player in turn order.

Drawing a Card

If you do not have a card that matches the top card on the Discard Pile, you will draw a card from the Draw Pile. If you can play the card that you just drew, you can play it immediately. Should you not be able to play the card, you will add it to your hand.

If you have a card that you can play but you don’t want to play it, you can choose not to play it. You will draw a card from the Draw Pile. The only card you can play for the rest of your current turn though is the one you just drew.

After you have drawn a card and either played or added it to your hand, your turn ends. Play passes to the next player in turn order.

If the Draw Pile ever runs out of cards, you will shuffle the Discard Pile in order to form a new Draw Pile.

UNO BTS Card Meanings

Numbers

Number cards do not have any special action in the game. You can only play them if they match the color or number of the top card on the Discard Pile.

Draw Two

When you play a Draw Two card, the next player in turn order has to draw two cards. They also lose their turn.

You can play the card on top of another Draw Two card or a card that matches its color. If a Draw Two card is played against you, you cannot play your own Draw Two card in order to pass the punishment onto another player.

If a Draw Two card is revealed to start the game, the player to the left of the dealer draws two cards and loses their turn.

Reverse

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

You may play a Reverse card on top of another Reverse card or a card that matches its color.

If a Reverse card is turned over to start the round, the dealer starts. Play moves counter-clockwise to start the game.

Skip

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

You may play a Skip card on top of another Skip card or a card that matches its color. If a Skip card is played against you, you may not play your own Skip card in order to avoid the punishment.

If a Skip card is revealed to start a round, the player to the left of the dealer loses their turn. The player to their left starts the round.

Wild

Wild cards match every other card in the game. Therefore you can play them at any time even if you have another card in your hand that you can play.

When you play a Wild card you choose the color of the Discard Pile. You can choose any of the four colors including the color it was when you played the card. The next player in turn order then has to play a card matching the color you chose, or their own wild card.

If a Wild card is turned over to start the game, the player to the left of the dealer chooses the color and takes their turn like normal.

Wild Draw Four

The Wild Draw Four card matches every other card in the game. Therefore you can play it at any time. Unlike the normal Wild though, there are limitations on when you can play the Wild Draw Four. You may not play the card if you have another card in your hand that matches the color of the Discard Pile.

If a Wild Draw Four is turned over to start the round, you will return the card to the deck and reveal another card.

Since the card is wild, whoever plays the card gets to choose the Discard Pile’s color. This has no impact on any potential challenge to the play of the card.

The next player in turn order then has two choices.

First they can accept the Wild Draw Four. In this case they will have to draw four cards and they will lose their turn.

Playing a Wild Draw Four card — The current player has played a Wild Draw Four card on top of a yellow five.

Challenging the Card

Otherwise the next player could challenge the play of the Wild Draw Four.

The player who played the Wild Draw Four has to show their entire hand to the challenger. The challenger is looking for a card that matches the color that the Discard Pile was before the Wild Draw Four was played.

If the player had a card that matched the Discard Pile’s color, they played the card incorrectly. The player who played the Wild Draw Four has to draw the four cards. The challenger does not have to draw any cards and they don’t lose their turn.

Playing a Wild Draw Four incorrectly — The player that played the Wild Draw Four had a yellow card in their hand. They played the Wild Draw Four incorrectly so they have to draw the four cards instead of the challenger.

If they played the card correctly (they had no matching colored cards), the challenger is forced to draw six cards instead of four and they still lose their turn.

Playing a Wild Draw Four correctly — The player that played the Wild Draw Four did not have any yellow cards in their hand. Therefore they played the card correctly. The challenger now has to draw six cards.

Dancing Wild

The Dancing Wild card can be played at any time. When you play the Dancing Wild card, the next player in turn order has to perform a BTS dance routine in front of everyone. If the player performs the dance they don’t have to do anything else. If they refuse to dance or they mess up, they have to draw three cards.

The card is also wild so the player who plays it chooses the color for the Discard Pile. They can choose any of the four colors.

Should a Dancing Wild card be revealed to start a round, the player to the left of the dealer chooses the color for the Discard Pile. They will then take their turn normally.

Calling UNO

When you only have one card left in your hand, you should say “UNO” as quickly as possible. By saying UNO you let the other players know that you are close to winning the game.

If someone catches you not saying it, you have to draw two cards. They must catch you before the next player starts their turn though.

End of Round and Scoring

The round ends when a player plays the last card from their hand. That player wins the round.

For winning the round, they will collect all of the cards left in the other players’ hands. If the last played card was a Draw Two or a Wild Draw Four, the player the card was played against has to draw the corresponding number of cards before the winner takes all of the cards. The winner of the round then scores points for the cards that they collected as follows:

Number cards – face value
Draw Two, Reverse, Skip – 20 points
Wild, Wild Draw Four, Dancing Wild – 50 points

Scoring in UNO BTS — The winner of the hand collected these cards from the other players’ hands. They will score 18 points from the number cards (4 + 5 + 9). The Draw Two, Reverse and Skip cards score 20 points each. The Wild, Wild Draw Four, and Dancing Wild cards each score 50 points. The winner scores a total of 228 points.

Record the points earned by the player. If the player has not earned enough points to win the game, you will play another round. Shuffle all of the cards and deal them out to start another round.

Winning UNO BTS

The first player to score 500 or more points in UNO BTS, wins the game.

Alternative Scoring

Instead of scoring points for the cards left in the other players hands, you can instead play UNO BTS where the players score points for the cards left in their own hands at the end of a round. You will score points for each card left in your hand based on the card values in normal scoring.

The game ends when one of the players have scored 500 or more points. At this point whichever player has scored the least points wins the game.

UNO BTS FAQ

If you have any questions about how to play the game, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.

Components

19 blue cards (one 0, two each of 1-9)
19 green cards (one 0, two each of 1-9)
19 red cards (one 0, two each of 1-9)
19 yellow cards (one 0, two each of 1-9)
8 Draw Two cards (two of each color)
8 Reverse cards (two of each color)
8 Skip cards (two of each color)
4 Wild cards
4 Wild Draw Four cards
4 Dancing Wild cards
Instructions

Year: 2018 | Publisher: Mattel

Genres: Card, Family

Ages: 7+ | Number of Players: 2-10 | Length of Game: 30 minutes-1 hour

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: High

For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.

Written By:

Eric Mortensen

Eric Mortensen is an owner and head writer on Geeky Hobbies since 2014. He is an avid board game player and collector with over 3,000 board and card games in his collection. Since 2014 he has written more than 1,100 board game how to play guides.