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Uno Show ‘Em No Mercy is a relatively new variant of Uno which just came out in 2023 that conveys a brutal, no holds barred feel to our otherwise family friendly game. If you’re bored of the classic Uno, this version can spice things up with a variety of new rules and new cards.

Altogether, there are 168 cards in a deck, and you win by getting rid of all your cards, OR knocking out everyone else. Just don’t forget to yell out “Uno” when down to your last card. Now let’s learn the Uno Show ‘Em No Mercy rules!

Starting the Game

As usual, choose a dealer who will shuffle the cards and hand them out to the others, 7 cards each (2-6 players may take part). The remaining cards are then placed face down to form the Draw pile. The topmost card of the Draw pile is then flipped over to form the Discard pile which everyone will base gameplay on, although Action cards should be ignored and the next card beneath it turned up instead (until you get to a numbered card).

Gameplay

The first player to put down cards is the one to the left of the dealer, as play initially moves in a clockwise direction. Everyone needs to match the card on the Discard pile with one of their own, through color, number, or symbol. If there are no suitable cards in hand, you must draw cards from the Draw pile UNTIL you get a playable card that you can play! This differs from other Uno variants.

Play continues until there is only one last player remaining. If the Draw pile is depleted before the game is over, simply reshuffle the Discard pile to form a new Draw pile and continue from there.

Special Rules

Stacking Rule

Uno Show ‘Em No Mercy adopts “stacking”, which is a concept of adding onto Draw cards and is not supported in classical Uno. But in Uno Show ‘Em No Mercy, you can pile on the punishment without worry!

How does stacking work here? If someone plays a Draw card of any kind (+2/+4/+6/+10), you can escape by stacking onto the penalty through playing another Draw card from your hand of equal or greater value, and passing that onto the next player after you. In other words, you “pass on the buck” to the next person!

The next player has to draw the number of cards that you AND the previous player played, or else stack on a Draw card that equals to, or is greater than the sum of the penalty from you and the previous player. For example, if someone played a +2 on you, and you played a +4 on the next player, they now have to play a +6 or greater Draw card to “pass on the buck” or else draw 6 cards from the Draw pile.

The buck only stops when some unlucky player is unable to play any Draw card that equals or exceeds the accumulated penalty. They will have to draw the combined total of all the Draw cards played!

Mercy Rule

If any player is saddled with 25 or more cards in their hand, they are knocked out of the game, and all their cards are set aside until the Draw pile is depleted to zero, by which then their cards are added back into the new Draw pile.

7 and 0 Rules

The 7 and 0 rules apply exclusively to Uno Show ‘Em No Mercy.

If you play a 7 card of any color, you must then swap all the cards in your hand with another player of your choice. If you play a 0 card of any color, ALL players (including yourself) must pass on their cards in hand to the next player according to the current direction of play. In other words, this means you receive the cards from the player before you while the same applies to everyone. Play resumes with the player after you.

Action Cards

Some new Action cards are introduced with Uno Show ‘Em No Mercy.

• Draw 2 Card: Play this and the next player must draw 2 cards and miss their turn.
• Draw 4 Card: Play this and the next player must draw 4 cards and miss their turn.
• Skip Card: Play this and the next player losses their turn.
• Skip Everyone Card: Play this everyone is skipped. In short, you get another turn.
• Reverse Card: Play this and the direction of play is reversed. In short, the player before you gets another turn after you play this card and the direction of play is reversed.
• Discard All Card: Play this and you get to discard all the cards in your hand with the same color as the Discard All Card that you just played. Those same color cards should be placed underneath the Discard All Card.

Wild Cards

Wild cards are technically Action cards as well, but since there are 4 types of Wild cards in Uno Show ‘Em No Mercy, let’s go through them one by one. All the Wild Cards can change the color of play, allowing the player who plays them to choose a different color from the current one in play.

• Wild Draw 6 Card: Play this and the next player must draw 6 cards and miss their turn.
• Wild Draw 10 Card: Play this and the next player must draw 10 cards and miss their turn.
• Wild Reverse Draw 4 Card: Play this and you reverse the direction of play, making the player before you to draw 4 cards and miss their turn (although their turn was already over before this).But if there are only two players playing, then this card just creates more mayhem by forcing the player who played it to draw 4 cards! That player can escape by using the Stacking rule (described above) to pile on more Draw cards and send it back to the other player, who can likewise do the same, until someone loses!
• Wild Color Roulette Card: Play this and the next player chooses a color (this is the only Wild card that allows the next player to choose the color). They must then draw cards from the Draw pile by showing the other players what color it is UNTIL they get a card of the color they chose earlier (Any Wild cards drawn are not counted). Then all the cards will be added to their hand and they lose their turn! Ouch.

Winning the Game

The first player to discard all their cards wins the game. Otherwise, if all the others are knocked out by the Mercy rule, the last player remaining wins the game.

There is another way to win the game if you’re playing more than one round – Score more points than the others; a suggested figure by Mattel is 1000 points. However, since each Show ‘Em No Mercy game lasts a fairly long time due to all the vicious attack cards available, this method of winning via scoring points probably won’t be too popular.

Score points by keeping a running tally of the cards left in the other’s hands (round by round) as follows:

• All numbered cards (0-9) – Face value
• All Color Action cards – 20 points each
• All Wild cards – 50 points each

Any player knocked out by the Mercy rule during the round – 250 points each (ignore their cards when they got knocked out).