Bomb Busters

A game by Hisashi Hayashi, illustrated by Dom2D

Complete Guide to Not Explode

👥 2-5 players | ⏱️ 30′ | 🎂 12+

Aim of the Game

Bomb Busters is a cooperative game. Each player is a bomb disposal expert and all the players form one team. The objective is to defuse the assigned mission’s bomb. Beware! The bomb will explode if you cut a red wire or if the detonator reaches the end!

Game Components

• 1 board (with an arrow to install on the board before the 1^st game)
• 70 Wire tiles:
  • 48 blue wires (“1” to “12”, 4 of each)
  • 11 red wires (“1,5” to “11,5”)
  • 11 yellow wires (“1,1” to “11,1”)
• 17 cards:
  • 12 Equipment cards
  • 5 Character cards
• 5 tile stands
• 7 pawns: 4 yellow and 3 red
• 40 tokens:
  • 26 Info tokens (including 2 yellow ones)
  • 12 Validation tokens
  • 1 “=” token
  • 1 “≠” token
• 5 “Surprise” boxes to open later
• 8 large Mission cards
• 8 resealable bags
• 1 Bomb Busters pawn (You will need it for mission 66! Don’t worry about it before then 😉 )
• 1 set of rules

1. Select one of the Mission cards. The missions get more and more difficult. You do not have to play the missions in order (but it is strongly recommended!). Above all, do not skip too many or you risk losing your bearings between teammates…
   • On your first mission:
     • Beginners: The 3 tutorials (Missions 1 to 3) allow you to review the rules.
     • Optimists: The 4 training sessions (Missions 4 to 7) allow you to practice and prepare you for the exam (Mission 8).
   • Once you have passed the exam, you can open the 9-19 Mission box.
2. Choose a Captain (a random bomb disposal expert for the 1^st mission, then the bomb disposal expert on their left for the next mission etc.) and put the “Captain” Character card in front of them. All the other bomb disposal experts put a Character card face up in front of themselves.
3. The Captain reads the Mission card aloud and then puts it in the bottom left of the board where everyone can see the special rules.
   • Front: the mission’s specific set-up.
   • Back: the mission‘s specific rules. The usual rules apply by default.
4. Distribute tile stands:
   • With 2 bomb disposal experts: 2 tile stands each.
   • With 3 bomb disposal experts: the Captain takes 2 tile stands, the others take 1.
   • With 4 and 5 bomb disposal experts: 1 tile stand each.

5. Prepare the Wire tiles for the mission:
   1. Always take the 48 blue wires (except for training missions 1, 2 & 3). Numbers 1 to 12 appear 4 times.
   2. Take the number of red and yellow wires shown on the Mission card by drawing them at random.
   3. Indicate the red and yellow values by placing the appropriate red and/or yellow pawns in the spaces on the board with their non “?” side up.
   4. Then shuffle all the Wire tiles (blue + red + yellow) together face-down.
      

      

Partially Known Wires

In some missions, the number of red and/or yellow wires is indicated as “1 out of 2”, “1 out of 3” or “2 out of 3”: In this case, the wires involved are only partially known. For example, when setting up “2 out of 3” yellow wires:

1. Reveal 3 yellow wire tiles.
2. Put 3 pawns in the corresponding slots of the board with their “?” side up, to indicate that they may be in play.
3. Shuffle the 3 tiles face-down and add 2 of them face-down to the blue tiles. Set the 3^rd tile aside without revealing it.

Thus, there are only 2 yellow wires in play among 3 possibilities, indicated by the “?” pawns.

6. Deal the wires face down between all the tile stands, as equally as possible (one stand may have more than another).
7. Sort wires: On each tile stand, each player sorts the wires in ascending order from left to right facing themselves.

NOTE: When a bomb disposal expert has 2 tile stands, the wires of each stand are independent and are therefore sorted separately. The tile stands now form your hand and will always be considered as a single hand (for equipment, Info tokens, specific rules, etc.).

The values of yellow and red wires are used for this classification only. After that, they have no value, just “RED” or “YELLOW”.

8. On the board:
   • Take as many Equipment cards as there are bomb disposal experts, and put them face up over the checkmark , as you cannot use them yet. This is the only equipment available for this game.
   • Put the detonator on the section corresponding to the number of bomb disposal experts.
   • Put all the Info tokens and the 12 Validation tokens here.

9. Starting with the Captain and going clockwise, each player puts an Info token of their choice in front of one of the blue wires in their hand of the corresponding value.

⚠️ You cannot use the yellow during setup.

⚠️ Remember: 2 tile stands = 1 hand. So be aware, when a player has 2 tile stands, they only put 1 Info token (in front of the tile stand of their choice).

The bomb disposal experts play clockwise, starting with the Captain. On their turn, a bomb disposal expert (called “active bomb disposal expert”) must perform one of the following 3 actions:

• Duo cut action
• Solo cut action
• Reveal your red wires action

Duo Cut Action

The active bomb disposal expert must cut 2 identical wires: 1 of their own and 1 of their teammates’. They designate a teammate’s wire and announce the value. For example: “this wire is a 9”.

A. If the active bomb disposal expert is correct, the action is successful :

• Their teammate puts the wire in question face up in front of their tile stand, without changing its position.
• Then the active bomb disposal expert puts their identical wire (or one of them if they have several) face up in front of their stand.

B. But if they are wrong, the action fails :

• If the wire in question is red, the bomb explodes and the mission is unsuccessful.
• If the wire in question is blue or yellow, the detonator moves up a space (the bomb explodes on the skull and the mission fails), and their teammate puts an Info token in front of the wire in question to show its real value.

Note: The active bomb disposal expert does not show the wire in their hand that they wanted to cut.

Solo Cut Action

The active bomb disposal expert may cut 2 OR 4 identical wires in their hand on their own given that those are the only wires of that value still remaining in the game:

• Either all 4 wires (if they are lucky enough),
• Or the 2 remaining wires because the other 2 have already been cut.

They then put them face up just in front of their hand.

Reveal Your Red Wires Action

This action can ONLY be performed when all remaining uncut wires of the active bomb disposal expert’s are RED. They can then be safely revealed.

Clarifications

No More Wires?

When a bomb disposal expert has no wires left, the mission just carries on without them.

Communication

Communication is strictly limited for the good of the game. It is forbidden to discuss the wires in your hand or to intimate their value. However, you can talk about general tactics, such as equipment use, or specific rules.

For example, you can advise a teammate to use their Double detector card or ask a teammate to use an Equipment card if you need it when playing.

The Yellow Wires

• They are cut the same way as the blue wires (Duo or Solo cut): Their ONLY value is FOR THE ORDER OF THE NUMBERS. Then, they are considered as all having the same value: “YELLOW”. So, to cut a yellow wire, the active bomb disposal expert must have one in their hand and say “this wire is yellow” when pointing to a teammate’s wire. If they are correct, the 2 wires are cut. Otherwise, just like for blue wires, an Info token is placed and the detonator moves forward one space.
• If a yellow wire is pointed out incorrectly, a yellow Info token is used and of course the detonator moves forward one space.
• A Solo cut action can only be carried out by a player who has ALL the remaining yellow wires in their hand.

The Equipment Cards

• A piece of equipment can be used as soon as the 2 wires of the value shown in the top left corner of the card are cut. Move the Equipment cards up as the mission progresses to show they can be used.
• All equipment can only be used once: turn it over after use.
• Each card indicates when the equipment can be used. Most can be used at any time by anyone, even if it is not their turn. A bomb disposal expert can use several in a row.

NOTE: The X or Y ray equipment can be combined with the Triple detector, Super detector and Double detector (to indicate 2 values along with several wires!).

The Character Cards

Each bomb disposal expert can use their personal equipment once per mission, by turning their Character card face down.

Double detector: During a Duo cut action, the active bomb disposal expert can say a value and designate TWO wires in a teammate’s stand instead of one.

• If 1 of these 2 wires is named correctly, the action is a success.
  • If both wires are named correctly, the teammate does not specify the value and cuts the wire of their choice.
• If neither of the 2 wires is named correctly, the action is a failure.
  • The detonator moves up a space and the teammate puts an Info token in front of one of the two named wires (whichever they choose).
  • If only one of the 2 named wires is red, the bomb does not explode. The teammate does not name it and must put an Info token in front of the “not red” wire.

Validation Tokens

Each time the 4 wires of the same value are cut, put a Validation token on the corresponding number on the board. This visual aid can save time and maybe even your life!

Mission Outcome

• Success: The mission is considered a success when all the bomb disposal experts have no more wires in their hand.
• Failure: If it is a failure (red wire cut or detonator on ), change Captain and restart the mission!

Campaign Progression

After mission 8, congratulations, you have earned the right to open the first “Surprise” box (Missions 9-19) and can complete the table on the back of the box.

Quick Reference Guide

Setup:

• Everyone takes a Character card.
• Shuffle the 48 blue wires with the red/yellow ones from the selected mission. Then distribute all the wires face down per tile stand.
• With 2 bomb disposal experts, everyone has 2 tile stands. With 3 bomb disposal experts, only the Captain has 2.
• The number of pieces of equipment and the detonator vary depending on the number of bomb disposal experts.
• Each player puts an Info token in front of their hand (but never a yellow one ).

On your turn:

On your turn, select and carry out one of the following actions:

• Duo cut:

  Pick a value (that you have in your hand) in a teammate’s hand.

  • Correct value: the 2 wires are revealed.
  • Wrong value: the detonator moves on and if it hasn’t reached the skull, an Info token is placed in front of the chosen wire.
  • Red wire: the bomb explodes!
• Solo cut:

  Reveal the 4 or 2 remaining wires of the same value and place them in front of your hand.

• (At the end of the mission) Reveal your red wires:

  Show all your wires if they are all red.

End of the game:

• Win: All the tile stands are empty!
• Loss: The bomb exploded (red wire was cut or detonator on the !).

REMEMBER:

• Each character has one personal equipment that can be used once per game.
• A piece of equipment can be used when 2 wires of its value have been cut.
• All the yellow wires are considered to have the same value.
• All the red wires are considered to have the same value: “red”.
• There are 4 copies of each wire from 1 to 12. When 4 wires of the same value have been cut, put a Validation token on the board as a reminder.
• Lexicon: 2 tile stands in front of one player is one hand.

Cocktail Games • 2, rue du Hazard, 78000 Versailles, France • www.cocktailgames.com
Questions about the rules? Find the official FAQ at: www.cocktailgames.com/jeu/bomb-busters/