ClapOut guides
Everything you need to play ClapOut well — from your very first deal to the long game to 500 — written by the people who make it.
ClapOut is a free colour-and-number card game you play with friends on any phone. You match the pile, shed your hand, and when you are down to your last card you clap — before anyone catches you. On top of that familiar core sits a layer of its own: the four suits are elements that act on each other, so every time you change the pile's suit you are making a real decision.
These guides go from the rules to the craft. If you have never played, start with How to play; it covers a whole game in about ten minutes of reading. If you already know the basics, the elements guide and the strategy tips are where games are won.
Articles: games, play and game nights
Longer reads for anyone who loves games, whether or not you ever play ClapOut.
- Clapping games around the world: a short historyHand-clapping games turn up almost everywhere people live, and children have been passing them to each other for centuries. Here is where they come from and why they last.
- How to host a game night for mixed agesA table with a seven-year-old and a grandparent can be the best night of the month or a long hour of sulking. The difference is in the planning.
- Rhythm and reaction games: what they actually trainMany of the games people love are tests of how fast and how accurately you respond. Here is what is really going on, and what these games can and cannot do for you.
- Hand-clap games with kids: classic rhymes and how to teach themTwo pairs of hands and a rhyme are all you need. The basic patterns, the classic rhymes and how to teach them without frustration.
- Card game etiquette and house rules that keep the peaceMost fallings-out over cards are not about who won. They are about who peeked, who dealt wrong and which rules everyone thought they were playing.
- Keeping remote family game nights funA regular game night over video is one of the best ways to stay close to family far away. Most of the problems are predictable, and a little planning fixes them.
Learn the game
- How ClapOut worksThe whole journey from opening the link to the last clap, and what runs on your phone versus our server.
- How to playThe complete rules: the 108-card deck, the deal, a turn, the action cards, the clap and the catch, going out.
- The four elementsTide douses Ember, Ember lights Dusk, Dusk sets Sol, Sol dries Tide — the Clash and the Surge explained with examples.
- House rulesStacking, Jump-in, Seven-zero, Storm challenge, the long game and the Twist pack: what each does and when to switch it on.
- GlossaryEvery ClapOut term from Active element to Window, in plain words.
Play better
- Strategy tipsWhen to hold a wild, how to ride a suit into a Surge, and why the clap window is a race.
- Meet the botsNana, Rocket, Sly and Chaos each play differently. Here is how they think, and how to beat each one.
- Two-player gamesHow the rules change with two at the table, and the tactics that matter most head to head.
- Quick play, levels and ranksHow the queue finds you a table, which bots fill it, how every game earns XP, and the six ranks from Paper to Storm.
Play together
- Host a table and invite friendsFour-letter codes, invite links, bots in the empty seats, voice chat and clapping into your phone's microphone.
- Clapping out loudHow your phone hears a real clap, why nothing is recorded, and tips to make every clap count.
- Family game nightTeaching ClapOut to children and first-timers: the gentlest settings and a plan for the first three games.
- Claps, the Club and the storeHow the free Claps work, what the Club adds, and our promise that nothing you buy changes the rules.