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Gyrating Hamsters

How To Play

Gyrating Hamsters plays in about 20–30 minutes and teaches in one round. Here is everything you need to get a table going.

The objective

Two ways to win

Be the first to complete one of the two ways to win and you will be crowned Hamster King.

1

Hoard 16 hamsters

Collect 16 total hamsters in your Horde, from any mix of clans.

2

Rule one clan

Collect 9 hamsters from a single clan in your Horde.

Round structure

On your turn

  1. Step 1

    Draw two cards

    Take two cards from the draw pile. If you draw a Chaos card, resolve it immediately — it does not count toward your two cards, so keep drawing until you have added two new cards to your hand.

  2. Step 2

    Play a Clan Hamster

    Add a Clan Hamster from your hand into your Horde. Stack matching hamsters together so everyone can read your Horde at a glance.

  3. Step 3

    Play any additional card

    Optionally play one more card — a Clan Hamster, an Attack Hamster, an Action card, or the Gyrating Hamster.

  4. Step 4

    Battle

    Finish your turn with a Duel or a Clan Battle — one or the other, never both.

Step four

Battle types

You may choose a Duel or a Clan Battle on your turn — one or the other, never both. Roll the dice; the highest roll wins.

Duel

One vs. one

Any hamster versus any hamster. Both players roll, and the highest roll takes the pot.

Clan Battle

Up to four vs. four

The challenger chooses up to four hamsters to battle from both their own Horde and the opponent's Horde. Every hamster in a Clan Battle must be from the same clan.

Tie-breaker: Tied on the highest die during a Clan Battle? Each of you re-rolls exactly ONE die for an epic re-match. Keep going until someone wins.

121 cards

Know your deck

  • Clan Hamsters

    The backbone of your Horde, split across the Red, Green, Orange, and Blue clans. Nine of one clan wins you the game outright.

  • Attack Hamsters

    Specialists with a printed effect — Houdini steals a hamster from another player's Horde, Hercules hides and protects two of your own.

  • Action Cards

    Tempo swings: draw from another player's hand and play it immediately, draw three and keep two, or stop a battle between any two players cold.

  • Chaos Cards

    Played the instant they are drawn. The Hurricane shuffles every Horde and redistributes them equally; Battle Royale drags all players into one take-all brawl.

  • The Gyrating Hamster

    The wild card. Play it as any Clan Hamster, or discard it to steal one hamster from every other player's Horde.

Every card type in the Gyrating Hamsters deck

Reference

The rules at a glance

Gyrating Hamsters objective and setup reference sheetGyrating Hamsters turn order and battle instructions reference sheet

Want the full rulebook?

The complete instruction sheet ships in every box. Got a rules question in the meantime? The FAQ covers the edge cases players ask about most, or email us at info@gyratinghamsters.com.

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