How to Play ONO: Rules, Special Cards and Winning Tips

The cards

The deck has 108 cards. There are four colours, red, yellow, green and blue, and each colour has 25 cards: one 0, two each of the numbers 1 to 9, and two each of three action cards, Skip, Reverse and Draw Two. On top of those 100 coloured cards there are 4 Wild cards and 4 Wild Draw Four cards, which have no colour.

Setting up

Each player is dealt seven cards, face down in their own hand. The rest of the cards form the draw pile, and the top card is turned over to start the discard pile. The first card turned over is never a Wild Draw Four. If it is an action card, it applies to the first player: a Skip skips them, a Draw Two makes them draw two cards, and a Reverse starts play in the other direction.

How a turn works

1. Look at the top card of the discard pile and the current colour.
2. Play one card from your hand that matches: the same colour, or the same number, or the same symbol (a Skip on a Skip, for example). Wild cards can be played on anything, and you choose the colour.
3. If you have no card that fits, draw one card from the draw pile. You may only draw when you have nothing to play. If the card you draw fits, you may play it straight away. If it does not, or you would rather keep it, your turn passes.
4. Play then moves to the next player in the direction of play.

On boardflix the cards in your hand that you can play are lifted up, so it is easy to see your options.

What the action cards do

• Skip: the next player misses their turn.
• Reverse: the direction of play changes, from clockwise to anticlockwise or back. In a game with two players, Reverse works like a Skip, so you play again.
• Draw Two: the next player draws two cards and misses their turn.
• Wild: play it at any time and choose the colour that play continues in.
• Wild Draw Four: choose the colour, and the next player draws four cards and misses their turn. You are only meant to play it when you have no card in your hand of the current colour (a card of another colour with the same number does not count). The next player may challenge it, as described below.

Boardflix uses the standard rules without stacking: you cannot answer a Draw Two with another Draw Two. A pop-up and a sound mark each action card, so nobody misses what just happened.

Challenging a Wild Draw Four

When someone plays a Wild Draw Four, the player who would draw the four cards has a choice: take the four cards and miss their turn, or challenge. A challenge asks whether the player really had no card of the colour that was in play. The game checks the hand in secret and tells everyone the result.

• If the player was bluffing (they did hold a card of that colour), they draw four cards themselves, and the challenger carries on and plays normally.
• If the player was honest, the challenger draws six cards, four for the Wild Draw Four and two as a penalty, and misses their turn.

You can bluff too. If you hold a Wild Draw Four and a card of the current colour, you can still put the Wild Draw Four down and hope the next player does not challenge, but you will be warned that it is a bluff.

Calling ONO with one card left

When you are down to one card, you are about to win, so everyone needs to know. In the paper game you must call out the name of the game as you play your second-to-last card, and if you forget and get caught, you draw cards as a penalty. On boardflix the call is made for you automatically, with a loud alarm sound and a pop-up, so there is nothing to forget and no one is caught out by a missed button.

Winning the round

The first player to play their last card wins the round. This is a single round, with no points counted. If the draw pile ever runs out, the discard pile (except its top card) is shuffled to make a new one, so the game can always carry on.

Tips for winning

• Count your colours. Try to steer the game towards the colour you hold the most of, by playing a card of another colour that has the same number, or by choosing that colour with a Wild.
• Save your Wild cards. They are most useful when you are stuck, or as your very last card, when you can always play them.
• Keep your action cards for the right moment. A Skip or a Draw Two is worth the most when the next player is down to one or two cards.
• Do not rush your Wild Draw Four. It is honest only when you have no card of the current colour. A bluff can pay off, but a challenge makes you draw four yourself.
• Think before you challenge. A wrong challenge costs six cards, so it is best used when the player has a big hand, and so is more likely to hold the colour.
• Watch the other players' card counts. When someone has two cards left, it is time to slow them down.

Playing ONO on boardflix

Pick how many computer players join you, from one to five, and choose Easy, Medium or Hard. The Hard players save their action cards for the moment someone is close to winning and choose the colour they hold the most of. Cards are shuffled and dealt with secure random numbers, and in a private room the server holds every hand, so no player can see another's cards. Up to six people can join a room with a code, and if someone leaves, the computer plays their cards.

Frequently asked questions