Stranger Things Attack of the Mind Flayer Board Game: Rules for How to Play

Objective

The objective of Stranger Things Attack of the Mind Flayer is to either survive until the end of the game without becoming possessed or possess/eliminate the rest of the players.

Set Up

Each player chooses a Character tile and places it in front of them with the In Play side visible.

Depending on the number of players, you may have to remove some of the Adventure cards.

If there are four or five players, you will put all of the 6+ and 9+ cards back in the box.
If there are six to eight players, you will put all of the cards with 9+ back into the box.
Should there be nine or ten players, you will use all of the Adventure cards.

Determining Initial Roles

From the remaining Adventure cards you will take out a number of Mind Flayer and Waffle cards depending on the number of players.

Players	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Mind Flayer Cards	1	1	2	2	2	3	3
Waffle Cards	3	4	4	5	6	6	7

You will shuffle all of the cards you selected from above and give one facedown to each player. Each player looks at their card. If you have a Mind Flayer card, you join the possessed team. If you received a Waffle card, you are sane for now.

Receiving a Waffle card at the start of the game — This player received a Waffle card at the start of the game. They will start the game on the sane team.

Shuffle the remaining Adventure cards and deal three cards facedown to each player. You should add them to the card you received earlier.

If you have three Hard Hit cards at this time, shuffle all three Hard Hit cards back into the deck and draw three new cards.
If you have three Mind Flayer cards, you join the possessed team.

Create the Common Deck

You will now create the common deck.

Take the remaining Adventure cards and break them up into three piles that are as even as possible.
Shuffle the twelve Meeting cards. Randomly choose three of them and return the rest to the box.
Create the final common deck by alternating between one of the Meeting cards and the piles. It should go as follows (bottom to top): Meeting card, pile, Meeting card, pile, Meeting card, pile.

If there are six to ten players, all of the players will close their eyes. All of the possessed players will open their eyes so they can see who else is possessed. All of the players should then close their eyes. After five seconds all of the players open their eyes and the game begins.

The youngest player starts the game. Play moves clockwise during the game.

How to Play Stranger Things Attack of the Mind Flayer

To begin your turn you will flip over the top card from the deck. Place it on the table so all of the players can see it.

If you flipped over an Adventure card, you will have to choose another player to give it to. You can give it to any player, except yourself. The players can discuss who should get the card before you decide who to give the card to. While discussing you can say whatever you want. You can tell the truth or lie about what cards you have in your hand. Never show the other players the cards in your hand unless a Meeting card specifically tells you to. You get to make the final choice no matter what the other players say. For more details on what each Adventure card does, see the Adventure card section below.

Should you flip over a Meeting card, you will resolve it effect and then participate in a Meeting. See the corresponding section below for more details.

Reveal a Meeting card — The current player revealed a Meeting card on their turn. For this Meeting card all of the players will vote for one player that won’t participate in the Meeting.

After you have taken the action corresponding to the card you drew, your turn ends. Play passes to the player on your left.

Stranger Things Attack of the Mind Flayer Adventure Cards

Mind Flayer

Whenever you receive a third Mind Flayer card, you immediately become possessed. You will join the Mind Flayer’s team and will remain on it until the end of the game. Your objective for the rest of the game is to possess or knock out the rest of the non-possessed players.

Memories

Memories cards work as a defense against Mind Flayer cards. Each Memories card you have in your hand nullifies one Mind Flayer cards. This only applies when you are still sane. Once you are possessed, Memories cards have no effect on you.

Let’s say you have three Mind Flayer cards and one Memories card. Currently you have two Mind Flayer cards working against you. If you didn’t have the Memories card, you would already be possessed. With the Memories card though, you are still sane.

Hard Hit

Once you acquire three Hard Hit cards, you are knocked out of the game. You will tell the other players that you are out of the game. You will then turn over your Character tile to the Knocked Out side and slide all of your cards facedown underneath it. For the rest of the game you can no longer talk, take turns or participate in any Meetings. At the end of the game you can still win the game if your team (sane or Mind Flayer) wins the game.

Knocked out player — This player has three Hard Hit cards. They have been knocked out of the game.

If you should be knocked out and possessed in the same turn, you are knocked out of the game and will be part of the Mind Flayer team at the end of the game.

Helping Hand

Helping Hand cards are useful cards because they help nullify Hard Hit cards. Each Helping Hand card you have in your hand cancels out one Hard Hit card.

For example say you have four Hard Hit cards and two Helping Hand cards. Only two of the Hard Hit cards will count against you preventing you from being knocked out.

Waffle

Waffle cards have no impact on the gameplay. Their only value is if you are playing a series of games. Each Waffle card is worth one point towards your final score.

Meetings

When a player reveals a Meeting card, stop the normal gameplay

First you will read the card and take the corresponding action. Any action applies to all players still in play including the player who draws the card. After you have taken the action, you will put the Meeting card back into the box.

Using a Meeting card's action — For this Meeting the player that draws the card gets to choose a type of card. They will ask two players how many of that type of card they have. For example they could ask about Mind Flayer cards. This could be used to find out who is possessed.

Passing Cards

After you resolve the card, the players can no longer talk. Each player chooses two cards from their hand. They will give one card to the player on their left, and one card to the player on their right. You will place the cards facedown under their Character tiles. Ignore any players that have been knocked out of the game. You will pass the card to the next player in same direction. Any player that is possessed can pass Mind Flayer cards to other players. Sane players may not pass Mind Flayer cards to other players.

Once all of the players have passed two of their cards, everyone takes the two cards that they were given by the player on their left and right. They will mix up the two cards without looking at them. This is so they don’t know which player gave them each card. After mixing up the cards, you will look at both of them and add them to your hand.

Looking at the cards passed to you — This player was passed a Mind Flayer and a Memories card. This player now knows that one of the players to their left or right are possessed. Due to receiving a Memories card, the other player likely is still on the sane team.

After everyone has added the new cards to their hand, the Meeting ends. Play then returns to normal.

End of Game

Stranger Things Attack of the Mind Flayer can end in one of two ways.

Only one or two players are still in play.
The players have completed the third Meeting.

Once the game ends all of the players will count up to three. All of the possessed players start growling and the sane player stand up and applaud.

If there is at least one sane player still in play (not knocked out), all of the sane players including those who were knocked out win the game.

Sane team wins Stranger Things Attack of the Mind Flayer — The player one the left is still sane as they only have two Mind Flayer cards counting against them. Therefore the sane team wins the game.

If all of the remaining players are possessed, all of the possessed players (in play and knocked out) win the game.

Mind Flayer team wins — Both remaining players are on the Mind Flayer team. The possessed team has won the game.

Should you want to play a series of game, the game recommends playing three games. Each player on the winning team scores one point plus one point for each Waffle card in their hand. After three games, whichever player has the most total points wins the game.

Scoring points in Stranger Things Attack of the Mind Flayer — This player was on the winning team. They will score one point for winning the game, and three points for the Waffle cards in their hand. They will score a total of four points this game.

Stranger Things Attack of the Mind Flayer 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

20 Mind Flayer Cards
16 Hard Hit Cards
12 Waffle Cards
5 Memories Cards
5 Helping Hand Cards
12 Meeting Cards
10 Character Tiles
Instructions

Year: 2022 | Publisher: Repos Production | Designer: Joey Vigour

Genres: Card, Deduction, Party

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

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

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.