How to play
WIREBURN , System Manual
Simple or Advanced. Switching versions starts that track from the beginning.
Cheat cards first, then the table rules underneath.
▸ Cheat cards · learn in 60 seconds
Table rules
Empty your hand, shout SYSTEM CLEAR, then survive one full round untouched. 2-6 players, 9 cards each, three Docks (Teal / Purple / Orange). Youngest starts.
- Open a dock: a card matching the dock's marker colour, or a NULL. Nothing else. One new dock per turn.
- Step: same colour, one up or one down.
- Hijack: same number, any colour - the dock becomes your colour.
- Grey: plays on ANY colour at ±1 or an exact match. A Grey on top opens the dock to any colour.
- Chain: play as many valid cards as you like in one turn.
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Draw up to 3 cards, one at a time. Play any drawn card that fits - playing ends your digging. If the 3rd card is playable, you MUST play it. Still stuck: keep the cards and pass.
- Attach to Grey cards only. Shift the value up or down - never past 1 or 10 (they clamp).
- A Grey pushed to 1 or 10 is NOT an attack - no clear, no damage.
- A [+] and [-] played together cancel straight to the discard.
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NULL is the universal wild. It opens any dock, or plays as a pass-through: the next card follows the value beneath it, any colour.
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- Tripwire (10) & Defuse (1): the stack clears. Your turn ends.
- VOLT: plays on 1, 2, 9 or 10. Only a 1, 10, another VOLT, or NULL can follow. Unanswered, the stack clears at turn end. Turn continues - no new dock.
- STASIS: plays on 4, 5 or 6. Sets the dock to 5 and it stays open - follow with 4/5/6 any colour, a NULL, or more STASIS (stack as many as you hold). Never a VOLT. No new dock this turn.
→→→✕All damage from your turn lands at once when your turn ends. The victim draws that many cards and skips - but only the immediate next player skips. Anyone further down the line just draws.
NULL shield: when hit, play a NULL out of turn to deflect the whole bundle to the next player. They can deflect too. If it loops back to the attacker, they take their own damage.
- Play your last card: SYSTEM CLEAR. Survive until your next turn without taking damage and you win.
- All damage from every player now targets Firewall players - the attacker chooses if there is more than one.
- The skip only applies if the Firewall player is the immediate next player; otherwise they draw only.
- NULL Clause: if a penalty card you draw is a NULL - you instantly win.
Draw pile empty? Shuffle the discard into a new one (never shuffle active docks). Both empty? No penalty draws - play on from hands until a cleared stack refills the discard.
