Smash Up rules: how to play and how to score

Smash Up quick rules

The goal

Each player leads an army made of two mixed Factions. In the middle of the table, Base cards are waiting to be taken over: you send your Minions there. Each Base you score earns Victory Points, and the first player to 15 wins.

A turn

First apply the effects that say “at the start of your turn.” Then you may play one Minion and one Action for free, in any order, just one or none. Next check whether a Base scores, draw two cards keeping ten at most, and apply end of turn effects.

Minions and Actions

A Minion has a Power number: put it next to the Base of your choice, facing you, and apply its effect. An Action is applied then discarded, unless it says Play on a base or Play on a minion: it then stays there. An Ongoing effect lasts as long as the card is in play; a Special effect is played at an unusual time, sometimes during another player’s turn.

Scoring a Base

After playing your cards, add up the Power of all Minions on each Base, all players combined. If the total reaches the Base’s Breakpoint, it scores. After “before scoring” effects, the strongest player takes the first Victory Point number, the runner-up the middle one, the third place the one on the right, as long as they have at least one Minion there. Then the Base is discarded and replaced.

Ties on a Base

Two players tied on Power both take the points for the place they’re tied for. Tied for first, they both score the winner’s points, and the next player is third, not second. If several Bases score in the same turn, the player whose turn it is chooses the order.

The end of the game

The score is checked at the end of every turn. If at least one player has 15 Victory Points or more, whoever has the most wins. On a tie at the top, keep playing turns until only one player is ahead: victory is never shared.

Beginner traps

A Base only scores during the scoring step of your turn, never in the middle. Once started, scoring goes all the way, even if Minions leave. A discarded or destroyed card always goes to its owner’s discard pile. And when a card contradicts the rules, the card wins.

How to score Smash Up

Victory Points

The total of the VP tokens earned during the game, Base after Base. The game ends at the end of the turn in which a player reaches 15.

Tie at the top

If several players are tied at the top, play extra turns until only one is ahead.

Madness penalty (The Obligatory Cthulhu Set)

−1 VP per pair of Madness cards: hand, deck, discard pile and buried cards.

Madness cards (tie-breaker)

With The Obligatory Cthulhu Set, on a tie, the player with the fewest Madness cards wins.

Worked example

A Base with a Breakpoint of 20 is worth, say, 4, 2 and 1 VP. Emma has 12 Power there, Jake 8 and Alex 3: 12 + 8 + 3 = 23, so the Base scores. Emma goes from 11 to 15 VP, Jake from 13 to 15, Alex gains 1 VP. At the end of the turn, Emma and Jake are tied at the top: play continues.

Common mistakes

• Counting only your own Minions toward the Breakpoint: you add up everyone’s Power on the Base.
• Giving points to a player with no Minion on the Base: they score nothing.
• When tied for first, making the next player second: they’re third.
• Stopping at 15 VP on a tie at the top: play on until only one player is ahead.
• With The Obligatory Cthulhu Set, forgetting Madness cards in your deck and discard pile: they all count.

How to set up Smash Up

The number of Bases depends on the player count: always one more than the number of players. The player who got up earliest this morning goes first.