Crazy Eights
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Resets every Monday (UTC).
About Crazy Eights
Crazy Eights is the classic shedding card game for two. Each player gets seven cards from a standard 52-card deck, and a single card starts the discard pile. On your turn you play a card that matches the top card by suit or by rank. The first player to get rid of every card wins the round, and the eights are wild.
You can face the computer or switch to a two-player mode on one shared device. Rounds take around five to ten minutes. A good game is about timing your eights, keeping a mix of suits in your hand so you always have a legal card, and forcing your opponent to draw when they run out of matches.
How to play Crazy Eights
- Pick the mode with the button at the top: against the computer, or two players sharing one device.
- Play a card that matches the suit or the number or letter of the top card on the pile. Cards you can play are lifted slightly while the others are dimmed.
- Play any eight at any time and then choose the suit the next player must follow.
- If nothing in your hand fits, tap the deck to draw; you keep drawing until you pick up a playable card.
- Empty your hand first to win the round.
Controls
| Keyboard and mouse | Click a raised card in your hand to play it, or click the face-down deck to draw when you cannot play. You can also use the left and right arrow keys to choose a card, Enter or Space to play it, and D to draw. When choosing a suit after an eight, press 1 to 4 or click a suit. |
|---|---|
| Phone and tablet | Tap a lifted card in your hand to play it, and tap the face-down deck to draw when nothing in your hand fits. After playing an eight, tap one of the four suit buttons to choose the new suit. |
Scoring
A win earns 300 points plus 20 for each card still in the other hand, so finishing while your opponent holds many cards pays best. If the computer wins, you still receive a small consolation score of 50 minus 5 for each card left in your hand, never below zero. In two-player mode the winner's score is submitted.
Tips and strategy
- Hold your eights back when you can. An eight is the one card that always plays, so it works as insurance for a turn when your hand has no matches.
- Play cards from your biggest suit last. Having several cards of one suit gives you more matches later, and the computer tends to favour its own most common suit.
- After you play an eight, call the suit you hold the most of. That sets up a run of easy plays on your following turns.
- Pay attention to the card counts at the top. When your opponent is down to one or two cards, shed anything you can and avoid ending on an eight.
- You cannot draw while you hold a playable card. Look through the whole hand before tapping the deck, because the game will block the draw if a match exists.
Crazy Eights FAQ
▸How does the two-player mode work?
Both players share the same screen and take turns. After each turn a cover screen asks you to pass the device, and the next player taps to reveal their own hand, so nobody sees the other's cards.
▸Do other cards have special effects?
No. In this version only the eights are special, as wild cards that let you choose the suit. Every other card just needs to match the suit or rank of the top card.
▸What happens when the deck runs out?
The discard pile, except for the top card, is shuffled and becomes the new draw pile. If there is nothing left to draw at all, your turn is simply passed.
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