How to Play Throw Throw Burrito: Game Rules, Setup, & More

Setup

Shuffle all of the cards and deal about 15 to each player. Take all 120 cards and shuffle them face-down so nobody sees what they are. Then, give each player a stack of about 15 cards for their own Personal Draw Pile. The exact number of cards doesn’t matter as long as everyone’s Personal Draw Pile looks about the same. Keep your Personal Draw Pile in front of you to your right. It might seem a little unfair that some players have more or fewer cards in their Draw Pile than others, but the game goes so quickly that it won’t make a big difference.

Set the rest of the cards, tokens, and Burritos in the middle of the table. Split the rest of the cards into 2 stacks to make the Community Piles and put a Burrito next to each of them. Take all 6 of the cardboard Burrito Bruise tokens and set them in a pile as well. Make sure that every player can easily reach at least 1 Community Pile and 1 Burrito.

Draw 5 cards from your draw pile as your starting hand. Take the top 5 cards from your Personal Draw Pile and look at them. Keep your cards a secret from other players though!

Gameplay

Take your turns at the same time. When everyone’s ready, start the round by saying “3, 2, 1, Burrito!” Rather than waiting for your turn, everyone at the table plays as soon as the round begins, so you’ll have to race against the other players to play cards and earn the most points.

Lay down a set of 3 matching cards from your hand if you can. If you have a 3-of-a-kind in your hand, play them in a face-up stack in front of you. Immediately draw 3 new cards from your Personal Draw Pile so you have 5 cards in your hand again. Each set of cards is worth points at the end of the round, so try to play as many as you can. If you run out of cards in your Personal Draw Pile, then draw cards from the Community Piles in the middle of the table.

Discard a card to a player’s draw pile if you want to draw a new card. You can only ever have 5 cards in your hand at a time. If you don’t have a 3-of-a-kind, choose 1 of the cards in your hand and put it face-down on top of the player to your left’s Personal Draw Pile. Immediately draw a card from your Personal Draw Pile to refill your hand. You can only discard 1 card at a time, so decide quickly so you have more time to draw cards and make sets. Be careful not to discard a lot of cards with the same name since the player to your left might collect them in their hand and play a set. Remember, the player to your right is going to be discarding cards they don’t want onto your Personal Draw Pile too.

Play a set of Brawl cards to make the players next to you battle. Brawl Cards either have a green or pink background. As soon as you play 3 Brawl cards of the same color, say “Burrito Brawl!” loudly. The players on your left and right have to grab a Burrito as quickly as they can and try to throw it at the other person. Whoever gets hit with a Burrito first loses the battle. Everything else stops as soon as a battle starts, so you can’t keep playing sets from your hand. You can try to run away, hide, and dodge the Burrito when someone throws it at you. If you catch the Burrito, the player who threw it loses the battle. If the Burrito hits something else before it hits the other player, it counts as a miss. If both players miss each other, they can pick up a Burrito and try again. If someone who isn’t involved in the battle grabs a Burrito, the player who took the Burrito by mistake loses instead.

Lay down 3 War cards to make everyone else at the table battle. If you play a set of War cards with an orange background, shout “Burrito War!” and take cover. Every other player except for you races for a Burrito and tries to throw it at someone else. Whoever gets hit by a Burrito first loses the War. You can’t take both Burritos at the same time and you can’t block another player from picking them up.

Choose 2 players to battle when you play a set of Duel cards. When you play 3 brown Duel cards, shout “Burrito Duel!” and stop playing or passing cards. You can choose anyone at the table, including yourself, to duel each other. Once you pick the players, they’ll each take a Burrito and stand back-to-back. Count to 3 out loud and have each player take a step forward as you say each number. Yell “Burrito!” so the dueling players turn around at the same time and throw the Burrito at each other. The first person who gets hit loses the Duel. After you turn around, you can wait to see what the other player is going to do before you throw your Burrito.

Take a Burrito Bruise if you lose a battle. If you got hit with a Burrito or accidentally took a Burrito when you weren’t supposed to, take one of the tokens from the middle of the table. They’re worth negative points at the end of the round, so you want to try avoiding them as much as possible. If you won the battle, there aren’t any additional rewards, but you get to keep your points.

Resume playing after each battle. As soon as a battle finishes, let everyone sit down and grab their hand of cards again. Count down and say, “3, 2, 1, Burrito!” to start playing and passing cards again.

End the round after a player takes the last Burrito Bruise. After 6 battles, you’ll run out of tokens for the round. Stop playing cards and passing cards from your hand so you can tally up your points!

Scoring and Winning

Score 1 point for normal sets and 2 points for Battle Card sets. Any cards that have a white background are normal sets of cards, while the Battle Cards are either pink, green, orange, or brown. Add up all of your points from the sets you played in front of you. Cards in your hand don’t count toward your score, so if you didn’t have the time to play a set, you miss out on the points.

Subtract 1 point for every Burrito Bruise you have. Count all of the Burrito Bruises you have in front of you and subtract them from your total score. Return all of your Burrito Bruises to the middle of the table when you’re finished. It’s possible to have negative points if you have more Burrito Bruises than sets of cards.

Give the player with the most points the Fear Me Badge. Tell the other players how many points you have for the round. Whoever has the highest number of points wins the first round and keeps the Fear Me Badge in front of them until the end of the game. If there’s a tie between 2 people, resolve it with a Duel. If 3 or more people are tied for points, shuffle all of the cards together and reveal 1 card at a time from the top. As soon as a War card is revealed, every tied player races to grab and throw a Burrito at each other. If you get hit, you’re out but you’ll win the round if you’re the last person standing.

Play another full round until you run out of Burrito Bruises. All games of Throw Throw Burrito are 2 rounds long. Shuffle all of the cards back into a deck and deal about 15 to each player for their Personal Draw Deck. Play just like you did during the first round of the game laying down sets of cards and battling. The game ends once the last Burrito Bruise token gets taken from the center. Your points don’t carry over between rounds, so you’ll start from scratch again.

Win the game if you have the Fear Me Badge and win the second round. Total up your points for the second round, and subtract however many Burrito Bruises you have. If you won the Fear Me badge in the first round and then had the most points in the second round, you’re automatically the winner! If another player has the most points, they have a Duel with the player who has the Fear Me Badge to determine who wins.