To play Uno, deal seven cards to each player, then place the rest of the deck face down as the draw pile and flip the top card to start the discard pile. The goal is to be the first to get rid of all your cards by matching the top discard card by number, color, or symbol. If you can’t play a card, draw one, and play it if possible; otherwise, your turn ends. When you’re down to one card, you must shout “Uno!” or draw two penalty cards.
UNO Triple Play Cards
The UNO Triple Play Cards Meaning
The “UNO Triple Play Cards” refer to a variation of the classic UNO card game played with a special electronic unit that holds three discard piles instead of one, along with exciting lights and sounds. Players match cards to color, number, or symbol to get rid of their hand, but they can only play to a discard pile that is “lit up”. If a discard pile “overloads” by accumulating too many cards, the player who caused it must draw extra cards as a penalty, with the game’s electronic unit displaying the lights and sounds to indicate which piles are available and when an overload is imminent.
UNO Triple Play Cards Meaning With Pictures
UNO Triple Play uses special electronic units with three illuminated discard piles, dictating which ones a player can discard to on their turn. As cards are added, piles light up green, then yellow, and finally red before a potential overload. Overloaded piles trigger lights, sounds, and a penalty, where the player draws cards based on the displayed number. Special cards like Wild Clear and Discard Two of the Same Color add new ways to manage the piles.
Setup
- Choose whether you are going to play the regular mode or timer mode. Slide the switch on the bottom of the game unit towards the clock symbol to choose timer mode. Slide the switch away from the clock to choose regular mode.
- Slide the on/off switch (on the bottom of the game unit) towards the on symbol (|) to turn on the game unit.
- Shuffle the deck of cards and deal seven cards to each player.
UNO Triple Play GameplayPlay Video
- The rest of the cards will form the draw pile.
- Take the top three cards from the draw pile. Place one card face up on each of the discard piles on the game unit. These cards must be number cards. If one or more of the cards are action cards, replace them with number cards.
- Choose a player to start the game. The instructions don’t specify how to determine who will be the first player.
- Press the yellow button on the front of the game unit to start the game.
Playing the Game
This section will detail how to play the regular mode. These rules also apply to the timer mode. For additional rules for the timer mode, check out the Timer Mode section below.
At the beginning of your turn the game unit will light up one, two or all three discard piles. The lit up sections determine which discard piles that you can play to on your turn. You may not play cards to a pile that is not lit up.
You should look at the discard pile(s) that is lit up. The card on the top of the pile determines what cards you can potentially play. In order to play a card on a discard pile it must match one of three criteria.
- Color
- Number
- Symbol
If a card matches one of these three criteria, you can play the card. After playing the card you will press down on the button for the discard pile that you played a card on. It should make a beep sound when you press it.
Drawing a Card
If you don’t have a card that you can play, you will take the top card from the draw pile. You will then compare this new card to the discard pile(s) that you can play to. If you can play the card to one of the lit up discard piles, you can play it immediately. After playing the card you will press down on the button for that pile.
If you can’t play the card, you will press down on any of the lit up discard piles.
Even if you have a card that you can play, you can choose to instead draw a card. When you draw a card, it is the only card that you can then play to a discard pile.
End of Turn
When you press one of the discard pile buttons after playing or failing to play a card, your turn ends. The lights on the game unit will then rotate for the next player.
Overloading a Discard Pile
Each discard pile can only have a certain number of cards played to it before it overloads. The lights in the center of the board will give you an indication of how close a pile is to overloading.
- Green – safe
- Yellow – caution
- Red – close to overload
Each time you press one of the discard pile buttons, you could potentially overload that pile. A sound is played and the lights change to indicate that a pile overloaded. The game unit displays a number in the middle. This number is how many cards the player that overloaded the pile has to take from the draw pile (between one and four cards).
UNO Triple Play Cards
When you play one of the following action cards, you will take a special action depending on which card you play.
Reverse
When you play a Reverse card, the current direction of play will be reversed. If play was moving clockwise, it will now move counter-clockwise. If play was moving counter-clockwise, it will now move clockwise.
Skip
If you play a Skip card, the next player in turn order will lose their turn.
Discard Two of the Same Color
The Discard Two of the Same Color card can be played with another card of the same color. You will play the Discard Two of the Same Color card first. You can then play another card of the same color on top of it.
If the second card is an action card, the next player will take the action.
You may play a Discard Two of the Same Color card by itself without playing another card with it.
Wild
You can play a Wild card on top of any other card. The next player to play on the same pile, gets to choose its color by playing the card of their choice on top of it. If the next player plays an action card on top of a Wild, the effect of the action card is applied.
Wild Clear
You can play a Wild Clear card on top of any other card. Instead of pressing the discard pile button that you played it on, you will hold the button for two seconds. This will reset the overload color for that pile back to green.
The next player to play on the pile that the Wild Clear was played to, can play any card from their hand. If the player plays an Action Card, the effect goes into play.
Wild Give Away
A Wild Give Away card can be played on top of any other card.
If you play this card to a pile that overloads when you press the button, you will avoid the penalty for the overload. Instead of taking the overload penalty yourself, you will distribute the cards to the other players. Take cards from the draw pile equal to the number displayed in the middle of the game unit. You may then distribute these cards to the other players however you want. You can give all of the cards to one player, or you can give cards to several different players.
If the pile you play the Wild Give Away card to doesn’t overload, the card has no special effect.
The next player to play a card on the pile that a Wild Give Away was played on, can play any card from their hand. If this card is an action card, the effect applies.
Calling UNO
When you only have one card left in your hand, you must call out UNO to let the other players know you only have one card left.
If you do not say UNO and another player catches you before the next player begins their turn, you must take two cards from the draw pile.
Winning UNO Triple Play
The first player to play their last card to a discard pile wins the game.
Before declaring victory though, you must first press the button corresponding to the pile that you played your last card to. If the pile overloads, you will not win the game. You will draw the corresponding number of cards from the draw pile, and the game will continue.
Timer Mode
Timer mode for the most part plays the same as the normal game. You will play cards to the discard piles in the same way.
The one main difference is that you only have seven seconds to play a card on your turn. The center of the game unit tells you how much time you have left. If the timer runs out before you end your turn by pressing one of the discard pile buttons, you will be forced to take six cards from the draw pile. After drawing the six cards, you will press the yellow button to start the next player’s turn.
Alternative Scoring
There is an alternative way of determining a winner if you want to play multiple hands.
The player that wins each hand will take all of the cards left in the other players’ hands. They will score points for them based on the following chart:
- Number cards – face value
- Skip, Reverse, Discard 2 of the Same Color – 20 points
- Wild, Wild Clear, Wild Give Away – 50 points
When a player has acquired 500 or more total points, they win the game.
UNO Triple Play FAQs
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 Discard Two of the Same Color cards (two of each color)
- 8 Reverse cards (two of each color)
- 8 Skip cards (two of each color)
- 4 Wild cards
- 4 Wild Clear cards
- 4 Wild Give Away cards
- Game Unit
- Instructions
Year: 2021 | Publisher: Mattel | Designer: NA | Artist: NA
Genres: Card, Family
Ages: 7+ | Number of Players: 2-6 | Length of Game: 10-15 minutes per hand
Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: Moderate
Where to Purchase: Amazon, eBay Any purchases made through these links (including other products) help keep Geeky Hobbies running. Thank you for your support.
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.
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If you have any questions, comments, or would like to see you product reviewed on Geeky Hobbies, check out our contact us page.
To support the blog and keep it free for all users, Geeky Hobbies utilizes various affiliate programs to earn commissions. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. We are also members of the eBay Partner Ne
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