DOS Second Edition (2022) Card Game: Rules for How to Play

Mattel has released a couple different versions of DOS over the years. While they share the same name and the boxes look very similar, the first and second editions of the game play quite a bit differently. This post is for the second edition of DOS which was released from 2022 to the present. The box has a yellow triangle in the top left corner and it says second edition on it. The first edition was released from 2018-2021. If you have the first edition, check out our how to play guide for the first edition of DOS.

Objective

The objective of DOS Second Edition is to be the first player to get rid of all of the cards from your hand.

Setup

Choose a player to be the dealer. They will shuffle all of the cards.
The Dealer deals seven cards face down to each player.
They will then place the remaining cards facedown on the table. This pile is referred to as the Draw Pile.
Turn over the top two cards from the Draw Pile to create two Discard Piles. If either card you flip over is an Action Card (anything that is not a number card), you will flip over another card. The top card on both Discard Piles cannot be Action Cards.
The player to the left of the dealer starts the game. Play moves clockwise/left to start the game.

How to Play DOS Second Edition

On your turn you will try to play one or more cards from your hand. In normal UNO you can only play one card to the Discard Pile. In DOS you can play to one or both of the Discard Piles. You can only play one card to each Discard Pile with one exception (see below).

To play a card it needs to match the top card on one of the Discard Piles. A card can match in one of three ways:

Color
Number (see below)
Symbol

Playing a card in DOS Second Edition — The top card on the left Discard Pile is a yellow nine. The next player could play the yellow one since it matches the color, or the green nine because it matches the number. Meanwhile the right Discard Pile has a blue three on top. The player could play the blue one because it matches the color or the red three because it matches the number. The Wild Play Two card in the middle could be played on top of either pile because it is wild.

Playing two cards with a Matching Symbol — The top card on the two Discard Piles are a Reverse and a Skip card. The next player could play a Reverse card on the left pile and a Skip card on the right pile because they match the symbol.

After you play one or more cards, your turn ends. Play passes to the next player in turn order. To start the game, play passes clockwise.

Playing Action Cards

Should you play an Action Card, a special action is applied. You can play an Action Card to both Discard Piles. In this case both cards will affect the next player in turn order. For example if you play two Draw Two cards, the next player has to draw four cards and they lose their turn. If you play a Draw Two and a Skip, the next player loses their turn and draws two cards.

Playing two Draw Two cards on the same turn — The current player has played a Draw Two card on top of both Discard Piles. The next player has to draw four cards and they lose their turn.

The rules do not specify what happens if you play a Reverse card along with another Action Card. I would guess the player in the opposite direction has to take the action from the other card you played. For example you play a Reverse and a Draw Two and turn order was previously moving clockwise. In this situation I would say the player on your right now has to draw two cards and they lose their turn.

Matching the Number in DOS Second Edition

In normal UNO you can only match a number if you play a card of the same number. This still applies in DOS as well. For example I can play a green five on top of a blue five.

There is a second way of matching the number in DOS though. If you have two number cards of the same color that add up to the number on one of the Discard Piles, you can play them together to match the card. The two cards have to be the same color, but they do not have to be the same color as the card you are matching. You could also use Wild DOS cards as one of the two cards you are playing to make the match. The rules do not say which of the two cards you will play on top of the Discard Pile. Therefore I would assume you get to choose which of the two cards will be placed on top of the Discard Pile.

Playing cards to match the number — The Discard Pile on the left has a green eight on top. The next player could play a yellow five and three as they add up to eight and they are both the same color. On the right side the top card is a red ten. The next player could play a blue eight plus the Wild DOS card. The Wild DOS card would become a blue two and would combine with the eight to make ten.

Drawing A Card

If you do not have a card that you can play, you will have to draw one card from the Draw Pile. You can also choose not to play a card even if you have one that you could play.

After you draw the card, check to see if you can play it. If you can play the card, you can play it immediately. If you can’t play it, you will add it to your hand.

Once you have drawn a card or played one, play passes to the next player in turn order.

Should the Draw Pile ever run out of cards, reshuffle the cards from both of the Discard Piles to form a new Draw Pile.

DOS Card Meanings

Draw Two

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

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

Reverse

The Reverse cards changes the direction of play. If play was moving clockwise, it will now move counterclockwise. If it was moving counterclockwise, it will now move clockwise.

You can play a Reverse card on top of another Reverse card, or a card that matches its symbol.

Skip

If a Skip card is played against you, you will lose your turn.

You can play a Skip card on top of another Skip card, or a card that matches its symbol. If a Skip card is played against you, you cannot play your own Skip card to avoid the punishment.

Wild DOS

The Wild DOS card counts as a two of any color that you choose. You can play the Wild DOS in two ways.

First you can play it by itself. In this case it can be played on top of any two card. As there are no two cards in the game, I am assuming this means other Wild DOS cards no matter what color the other player chose. In this case you choose the color for the Discard Pile.

Otherwise you can play it along with another card to match a number. Since the card can be any color, it can be used to add two to any other card to make a number match. If you play the Wild DOS card as the top card on the Discard Pile, it will be the color of the other card you played with it.

Playing a Wild DOS card — Pictured are two different ways of how you can play a Wild DOS card. On the left you can play a Wild DOS card on top of another Wild DOS card. On the right the Wild DOS card becomes a yellow two. When you add that to the yellow one it matches the blue three.

Wild Play Two

When you play the Wild Play Two card, the next player in turn order needs to play at least two cards from their hand on their next turn. If they can play two or more cards, the Wild Play Two does nothing.

Should they be unable to play two cards though, they lose their turn and have to draw two cards. If they only have one card that they can play, they cannot play that card.

Should you play two Wild Play Two cards at the same time, the next player has to play two cards on their turn. If they are unable to play two cards, they will be forced to draw four cards and they will lose their turn.

The card is also wild so you can play it on top of any other card. You also get to choose the color of the Discard Pile that you play it to.

Playing two cards after a Wild Play Two card — The previous player played a Wild Play Two card. The next player has to play two cards from their hand, or they will be forced to draw two cards. The previous player made the Wild Play Two red so the next player can play their red three. The player also plays the green four because it matches the number of the right Discard Pile. Since the player was able to play two cards, they avoid having to draw two cards.

Calling DOS

Whenever you play a card and only have two cards left in your hand, you should yell out DOS. This is to tell the other players that you are close to winning the game.

If you don’t say DOS and another player challenges you, you have to draw two cards. They must challenge you before the next player starts their turn though.

Winning the Game

The first player to play all of the cards from their hand, wins DOS Second Edition.

Scoring

If you would like to play multiple hands, you can choose to keep score.

The winner of the hand takes all of the cards left in the other players’ hands. The rules don’t state what happens when you play a Draw Two card(s) or Wild Play Two card(s) on your last turn. In most versions of UNO though if a card is played that forces players to draw cards, they will have to draw the cards before you collect the cards from their hand.

The winner scores points for each card they collect as follows:

Number cards (1, 3-10) – The number printed on the card
Draw Two, Reverse, Skip – 20 points each
Wild DOS, Wild Play Two – 50 points each

Scoring in DOS Second Edition — The winner of the current hand collected these cards from the other players. They will score thirteen points for the top three cards (1 + 4 + 8). The Draw Two, Reverse and Skip are worth 20 points each. Finally the Wild DOS and Wild Draw Two cards are both worth 50 points each. The winner scores 173 total points for these cards.

Record the number of points that the winner received. You will keep playing hands until someone has scored 500 or more points. The first player to reach that amount, wins DOS Second Edition.

DOS Second Edition 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

18 blue number cards (three each of 1s, 3s, and 4s; two each of 5-7, one each of 8-10)
18 green number cards (three each of 1s, 3s, and 4s; two each of 5-7, one each of 8-10)
18 red number cards (three each of 1s, 3s, and 4s; two each of 5-7, one each of 8-10)
18 yellow number cards (three each of 1s, 3s, and 4s; two each of 5-7, one each of 8-10)
8 Draw Two cards (two of each color)
8 Reverse cards (two of each color)
8 Skip cards (two of each color)
12 Wild DOS cards
4 Wild Play Two cards
Instructions

Year: 2022 | Publisher: Mattel | Designer: Nick Hayes

Genres: Card, Family

Ages: 7+ | Number of Players: 2-4 | Length of Game: 30 minutes

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.

DOS Card Game: Rules for How to Play - Geeky Hobbies

Tuesday 18th of June 2024

[…] These rules are for the first edition of DOS. This version was released between 2017 and 2020. A version was released in 2021 (has a white Mattel logo in the top right corner) that slightly changed a couple rules. I will note these changes in the corresponding sections below. The rules significantly changed in 2022 with the second edition. The second edition of the game plays much more like the original UNO. Check out our how to play guide for the rules of DOS Second Edition. […]