Cup the Crab

About this board game

Cup the Crab is a competitive card game for 3–5 players, with games lasting about 30 minutes. Set on a peaceful beach, it challenges hermit crabs and octopuses to build homes from discarded cups and bottles.

Players work together to create piles of Cup cards, but cooperation only goes so far. Since Cup cards provide victory points, everyone is watching for the most valuable stacks and planning how to claim them with their Crab and Octopus cards.

Bottle cards add a sharp tactical twist. Only an Octopus card can follow a Bottle card, creating opportunities to disrupt another hermit crab’s plans by mixing a bottle into a cup stack. Choosing when to build, when to claim, and when to sabotage is central to every round.

• For 3–5 players
• Approximately 30 minutes to play
• Seven rounds of card selection and play
• Crab, Octopus, Cup, and Bottle cards create changing tactical choices

Each player begins with 14 random Cup cards, 3 Crab cards, 2 Octopus cards, and 2 Bottle cards. At the start of every round, players select three cards to play, making careful hand management essential across the game’s seven rounds.

In Cup the Crab, a promising stack can become a valuable home—or a target for clever interference. Balance your available cards, read the developing piles, and aim to claim the Cup cards that will bring the most victory points.