Rulebooks

Every box comes with quick-start rules, and the free Game Night app has a built-in how-to for both games. The full rules for both games are below. Lost your rulebook? Email ryan@mtnboxgames.com and we will send one over.

Printed rulebooks (PDF): Fighting Fruit rulebook and Wolfpack Showdown rulebook.

Fighting Fruit

2 to 10 players, ages 6 and up, under 5 minutes a game.

Goal: be the last fruit standing.

Setup: deal each player 5 cards and place the rest face down as a draw pile.

Play: battle head to head in fruit duels. A hand is won by how many players your card beats, not by the highest card alone. Cherry and Blender beat everything, with one exception: Rotten beats Blender when the two meet. Win hands, outlast the table, and settle tournament ties with a sudden death draw off.

Wolfpack Showdown

2 to 6 players, ages 6 and up, about 10 to 30 minutes. Sharpest with 3 or 4 players.

Goal: win rounds, collect wolves, and finish with the highest score.

The cards

  • Playing cards come in two colors, blue and pink. Each color has numbered wolves 1 to 9 plus three special cards.
  • Pup = 1, 2, 3. Delta = 4, 5, 6. Omega = 7, 8, 9. Higher number beats lower number.
  • Beta beats every numbered card and can be played on either color. Loses only to Alpha or The Pack.
  • Alpha beats every card except The Pack.
  • The Pack wins the round the moment it is played.
  • Showdown cards are a separate deck numbered 1 to 20. They only come out during a Showdown.

Setup

  1. Separate the Showdown cards from the playing cards and shuffle each deck on its own.
  2. Deal 5 playing cards to each player. Put the rest face down in the middle as the draw pile, with the Showdown deck next to it.
  3. The player to the left of the dealer goes first.

How a round works

  1. The first player lays any playing card face up. Its color, blue or pink, is the color for the whole round. That card is now the Pack Leader.
  2. Going clockwise, each player must either beat the Pack Leader with a higher card of the same color (or a Beta, Alpha, or The Pack), or discard one card face up onto the discard pile next to the playing pile. You can only discard a card of the round's color unless every card in your hand is the other color. Passing is never an option.
  3. If you beat the Pack Leader, your card goes on top of the playing pile and you are the new Pack Leader.
  4. After every play or discard, draw back up to 5 cards.
  5. Keep going around the table. When play comes back to the current Pack Leader and nobody has beaten them, the round is over. The Pack Leader collects every card in the playing pile and the discard pile and starts the next round.

Showdown

If you play the exact same card as the Pack Leader (blue 7 on a blue 7, for example), a Showdown happens right away. You draw first from the Showdown deck, the Pack Leader draws second, and both cards are flipped. The higher number takes the whole pack and the round ends. The winner starts the next round.

When the draw pile runs out

Keep playing until everyone has played the cards left in their hand. Then score.

Scoring

Score the cards you collected during the game:

  • Pups (1, 2, 3): 1 point each
  • Deltas (4, 5, 6): 2 points each
  • Omegas (7, 8, 9): 3 points each
  • Beta: 4 points
  • Alpha: 5 points
  • The Pack: 0 points (its job is winning the round)

Quick way to count: sort your pile into Pups, Deltas and Omegas, count each stack, and multiply by 1, 2 and 3. Then add 4 for each Beta and 5 for each Alpha. The free Game Night scorekeeper does the math for you.

Ways to play

  • Quick Play: play through the deck once. Highest score wins.
  • Classic Play: keep playing games until someone reaches 100 points.
  • Family variant (optional, for younger players): skip the point values. Every card you collect is worth 1 point and Betas and Alphas are worth 2. Same game, simpler count.

Tips for a great first game

  • Play your first game with 3 or 4 players. Rounds stay tight and every hand matters.
  • Read the five special cards out loud before you start: Beta beats numbers, Alpha beats Beta, The Pack beats everything.
  • Remember you can never pass. If you cannot beat the leader, discard a card and draw.