How to play Open Mercy From first click to last card

Getting in

Press PLAY NOW on the home page. That is the whole sign-up. You get a guest account straight away with a made-up handle, and you land in the lobby. You do not need an email to play, solo or online. A full account is optional and exists to keep your stats; you can claim one later from the lobby with CLAIM ACCOUNT.

The lobby asks HOW DO YOU WANT TO PLAY? and gives you four ways in:

Once a game starts, everyone gets 7 cards. Your hand sits at the bottom of the screen. In the middle you will see the discard pile, where played cards land, and the deck. You draw by tapping the deck; there is no separate draw button.

A strip across the middle of the table keeps score of the things you need to track. It shows the direction of play (CW for clockwise, or the reverse), a dot in the current color, the size of any live draw stack, and a meter such as 7/25 that counts your hand against the 25-card elimination limit. When it is your move, a YOUR TURN badge lights up at the top.

Playing against a bot

Play vs bot puts you against one computer opponent. The bots are a ladder of eight, starting with Scrap and ending with Terminator. There is no difficulty menu. You face the first bot you have not beaten yet, and beating it unlocks the next one.

There is also TODAY'S DEAL, a daily challenge with its own PLAY button. It is always you against Terminator, on official stacking rules, and everyone who plays that day gets the same shuffle. It is a good way to compare notes with friends, because you all faced the same cards.

Starting a game with friends

A private room

1. In the lobby, pick a stacking mode (OFFICIAL, HOUSE or CASUAL) and press CREATE GAME.
2. Press SHARE LINK or COPY LINK and send the invite link to your friends. You can also just read them the 6-character room code.
3. Friends open the link, or choose Join with code in their lobby and type the code.
4. Wait in the waiting room until everyone you expect shows up.
5. As host, press START GAME. The button shows how many players are in, and you need at least 2.

A room holds up to 20 players. If it is full, anyone else trying to join gets a "Game is full" message. If people are slow to arrive, PLAY VS BOT INSTEAD gets you out of the waiting room, and LEAVE ROOM takes you back to the lobby.

A public room

Quick match puts you in a public room with strangers. Nobody presses start. The room counts down from 60 seconds, and each new player who joins takes 5 seconds off, down to a floor of 10 seconds. When the room is full it starts in 5. If you want more people, WAIT LONGER adds another 60 seconds, once.

What happens on a turn

1. Look at the top card of the discard pile and the current color.
2. Find a card in your hand that matches it. A card matches if it has the same color, the same number, or the same action (a Skip on a Skip, for example). Wild cards can always be played.
3. Play it. If it is a wild, pick the next color.
4. If nothing in your hand matches, tap the deck. You keep drawing until you pull a card you can play, and the game plays it for you. If that card is a wild, you get asked for a color first.
5. Deal with any follow-up the card asks for, like choosing who to swap hands with.
6. Keep an eye on your hand size. At 2 cards, it is time to think about the MERCY! call.

There is no turn timer, so you can think. If someone disconnects on their turn, the game waits 20 seconds and then draws for them. It never plays a card on their behalf.

Example: an ordinary turn

The top card is a blue 5. It is Priya's turn, and she holds a blue 2, a green 5, a yellow Skip and a Wild.

• The blue 2 is legal because it matches the color.
• The green 5 is legal because it matches the number. Playing it changes the color to green.
• The yellow Skip is not legal. It matches neither the color nor the number, and the top card is not a Skip.
• The Wild is always legal. If she plays it, she chooses the next color.

Priya plays the green 5 because she has more green in her hand than blue, and keeps the Wild for later. The turn moves on to the next player.

Example: a stacking decision

Draw cards stack. When one is played on you, you can pass the penalty along by playing another draw card on top, or you can take the lot. On the default official rules, the card you add must have a draw value equal to or higher than the one on top.

Marcus plays a Draw 2. The stack is at 2. Jo holds a Draw 4 and plays it, since 4 is higher than 2. The stack is now 6 and it is Sam's turn. Sam has a Draw 2, but a 2 cannot go on a 4. Sam taps the deck, draws all 6 cards, and the turn ends.

The other two stacking modes loosen this. The stacking guide has the full table and worked examples for each.

Special decisions

Choosing a wild color

When: you play any wild card. What you see: a color picker. Choices: red, blue, green or yellow. Example: Jo plays a Wild with three yellows in hand and picks yellow, so the next player has to match it.

Color Roulette

When: the player before you plays Color Roulette. What you see: a "ROULETTE TRAP DETECTED" window that says CHOOSE YOUR FATE, with one button per color. Choices: you, the victim, pick the color. What happens: you draw cards until one of that color turns up. Wild cards do not count. The matching card stays in your hand, and you lose your turn. Example: Marcus plays Color Roulette on Sam. Sam picks red, draws a blue 3, a Wild and a green 8, then a red 1. Sam keeps all four cards and play moves on.

Skip Everyone

When: you play Skip Everyone. What happens: every other player is skipped and you go again straight away. Example: in a four-player game, Priya plays Skip Everyone. Marcus, Jo and Sam all sit out, and Priya takes another turn.

7: swap hands

When: right after you play a 7. What you see: a SWAP HANDS prompt listing the other players. Choices: pick someone to trade your whole hand with, or press KEEP MY HAND to skip the swap. You cannot pick a player who has been eliminated. Example: Sam plays a 7 holding 9 cards and sees that Jo has 2. Sam swaps, and now Jo is the one with 9.

0: rotate hands

When: anyone plays a 0. What happens: every player still in the game passes their hand one seat along the current direction of play. There is no choice to make. Example: play is going Priya, Marcus, Jo, Sam. Priya plays a 0, so Priya's hand goes to Marcus, Marcus's to Jo, Jo's to Sam, and Sam's to Priya.

Discard All

When: you play a Discard All on a matching color or on another Discard All. What happens: every card of that color leaves your hand at once. If more than one card goes, a PICK TOP CARD window asks which one ends up on top, and that top card's effect fires as if you had just played it. Example: Jo plays a green Discard All holding a green 4, a green Draw 2 and a green Skip. Jo puts the Draw 2 on top, so the next player faces a stack of 2. If a Discard All empties your hand, you win on the spot, and you do not need to call MERCY! first.

The MERCY! call

When: you are about to be down to one card. What you see: a MERCY! button. Online you can press it any time you hold 2 cards or fewer, even when it is not your turn. What happens if you forget:

• If you go from 2 cards straight to 0 without calling, you draw 2 cards and the turn passes.
• If you sit on 1 card without having called, the other players get a short window (8 seconds online) to press CAUGHT!. If they do, you draw 10 cards.

Example: Marcus plays down to 1 card and forgets to call. Priya spots the "CAUGHT! Marcus forgot MERCY" button and taps it. Marcus goes from 1 card to 11. Bots watch for this too, so call it in solo games as well. Drawing a card resets your call, so you may need to press it again.

The 25-card rule

When: you draw a card that takes your hand to 25 or more. What happens: you are out of the game immediately. Your hand goes into the discard pile and play carries on without you. Being forced to take a big stack is the usual way this happens. Example: Sam holds 15 cards and cannot answer a stack of 12. The draw takes Sam past 25, Sam is eliminated partway through, and the game continues with the others.

How a game ends

Each game is a single round. It ends the moment one player gets rid of their last card, or when everyone else has been knocked out by the 25-card rule and only one player is left. Either way, that player wins.

If you are eliminated before the end, you can stay and watch. A SPECTATING bar appears with a LEAVE button if you would rather go.

In an online game, the host sees a REMATCH button that deals a new game in the same room. Everyone else sees BACK TO LOBBY. Stay put if you want the rematch.