2 vs 2: A team mode for four players. Partners sit opposite each other, so turns alternate between the teams. A team wins as soon as both its players have no cards left. A Joker can only be played on an opponent.
Base Card: The card at the very bottom of the Pile — the first one played since the last Burn. Normally irrelevant, but a 5 drops the target down to it, so the next player must beat the Base Card instead of the top one.
Best Of Series: Play Friends only: two players play Best of 3 (host Lvl 5), Best of 5 (host Lvl 15) or Best of 7 (both players Lvl 30). The other player can be any level for Best of 3 and 5. Each pays an entry, the game matches the pot, and the series winner takes it all.
Blind Card: See Face-Down Cards.
Bonus Draw: If the card you draw right after playing matches the rank you just played, you get offered a free follow-up play with it before the turn passes — a way to chain extra plays in one turn.
Boss Gauntlet: A daily run against 3 Boss bots with 1 life, unlocked at Level 50 after beating Easy once and Hard three times. Beat all three to complete the run. Choose it on the Gauntlet page; you may enter one Gauntlet mode per day.
Burn: The entire Pile is removed from the game permanently — not picked up by anyone. Caused by a 10, by four of a kind, or by a Joker duel. Whoever burnt it plays again immediately on an empty Pile — unless that was their last card, in which case they finish and the next player carries on.
Card History: The circle in the left column on the table. It shows the card you have to beat; tap it to open the list of recent plays.
Card Powers: The ⓘ button on the table: what every card does. Press and hold any card on the table for the same information.
Challenges: Goals that pay Diamonds: Getting Started, daily and weekly picks, Bots, Ranked and Friends milestones. Menu → Challenges shows every one and what it asks for.
Constraint: A restriction the previous card placed on your turn. A 6 forces an EVEN card, a Jack forces an ODD card, and a 7 forces a card of rank 7 or lower. The banner shows the active constraint.
Custom: Header or Menu → Custom: equip the avatars, tables, card backs, frames, decks, effects and emotes you own. Press and hold any item there (or in the Shop) for a big preview.
Daily Challenges: Three new goals every UK day (Challenges → Daily tab), each paying Diamonds and XP.
Deck: The face-down stack you draw from. After each turn you top your Hand back up to three cards while the Deck lasts. Once it's empty, no more topping up — and your Table Cards become reachable.
Diamonds: The game’s currency (💎). Earned from wins, challenges, the daily login streak and the Gauntlet; spent in the Shop on cosmetics or gifts for friends.
Direction: Which way turn order flows around the table. A 9 flips it — an odd number played at once reverses it, an even number leaves it unchanged. A 5 played on a 9 base, or a 3 played over a 9, both act as a 9 for this purpose too.
Draw: When the same cards keep going round and nobody can ever get out, the game ends in a draw: nobody wins and nobody is the ShitHead.
Duel (Joker Duel): When you play a Joker you choose an opponent to pick up the Pile. If that opponent holds a Joker they may counter with it, and the Pile bounces back to you instead. Both Jokers are burnt either way. Whoever wins the duel plays next; if their Joker was their last card, they finish and the next player carries on.
Face-Down Cards: Three cards dealt beneath your Face-Up Cards that nobody ever sees. Only playable once your Hand, the Deck and your Face-Up Cards are all gone. You flip one blind — if it isn't legal, you pick up the Pile.
Face-Up Cards: Three cards on the table in front of you, visible to everyone. Only playable once your Hand and the Deck are both empty. Because you play them last, the Swap Phase is your chance to stock them with strong cards.
Four Of A Kind: All four cards of one rank on top of the Pile burn it, whether they were played together or across several turns. See Burn and Snap Burn.
Gauntlet: Play Computer games in a row against tough bots, with a few lives: Easy (5 bots, 3 lives), Hard (5 bots, 2 lives, Lvl 20) or Boss (3 Boss bots, 1 life, Lvl 50). One a day. See The Gauntlet above.
Hand: The cards only you can see, held off the table. You play from here first, and top back up to three from the Deck after each turn while the Deck lasts.
Hard Gauntlet: A daily run against 5 tough bots with 2 lives, unlocked at Level 20 after beating Easy once. Losing costs a life and you retry that bot. Choose it on the Gauntlet page; you may enter one Gauntlet mode per day.
Header: The bar along the top. On the home screen it shows Exit, Shop, your Diamonds, Custom, Profile, Inbox, Guide, Settings and Menu. Away from home, Shop, Custom and Guide fold into the Menu. Exit asks before it closes the app or leaves a match.
House Rules: A casual Play Friends mode where the host customises card powers. It is unranked, gives no Challenge progress and awards no Diamonds. Bots follow the same custom rules.
Joker: The strongest card. Play it on anything, then choose an opponent to pick up the Pile. See Duel.
Joker Effect: A cosmetic animation that plays over the table whenever you play a Joker, bought in the Shop’s Joker tab. Everyone at the table sees it, online too.
Last Card: A player down to one card in total gets a pulsing ☝️ LAST CARD badge and a warning, so nobody sneaks out unnoticed.
Leaderboard: Menu → Leaderboard: three tabs, Ranked (rating), Challenges (challenges completed) and Gauntlet (bots beaten). Reach the top 10, #3, #2 or #1 and a congratulations message lands in your Inbox.
Level: You earn XP for finishing games, winning, Ranked, the Gauntlet and challenges. Levels run from 1 to 99; every level up pays Diamonds, and some levels unlock free items (see Level Rewards). While a seasonal event is on, all the XP you earn is 1.5×.
Level Rewards: Free things you unlock by levelling up: 2x game speed at Lvl 5 and 4x at Lvl 10 (signed in), a second saved look at Lvl 10 and a third at Lvl 20, and earn-only avatars (Rookie Rogue 10, Card Shark 25, Burn King 50, Chaos Jester 75, The ShitHead 99) and card backs (First Burn 10, Shark’s Mark 30, Inferno 50, Chaos Crown 70, Master of the Pile 99). Your level badge also changes colour at 20, 40, 60, 80 and 99.
Lives: Your hearts in the Gauntlet. You start with 3; losing a game costs one and you replay the same bot.
Lucky Games: The Daily Spin, Scratch Card, Three Cards and Drop Zone: the round buttons on the home screen. Free plays for Diamonds, XP and items you cannot buy.
Menu: The ≡ button at the right of the Header. It holds Challenges, Friends, Leaderboard, Level Ladder, Stats and Support, and gives you Shop, Custom and Guide whenever the Header has folded them away.
Mode Card: One card in the row on the home screen: Gauntlet, Play Computer, Ranked, Play Friends and More Modes. Swipe or use the arrows, then tap Go (or the middle card) to open it. Press and hold a card to move it.
Multiple Decks: A mode with two decks shuffled together (108 cards, 4 Jokers) for 4 to 8 players. Snap Burns play every matching card and a Joker chain can run to four.
No Mercy: A mode with three extra rules: Queens X-ray a hidden card in the next player's hand, a King makes the next player take the bottom card of the Pile, and no Joker can be played on a 4.
No Power: In House Rules, the rank behaves as a normal card with no special effect. Unlike Please Select, it is a valid completed choice.
Pick Up: Taking the entire Pile into your Hand because you had no legal move. The setback of the game. If your Hand was already empty, you must also take one Face-Up Card (or several of the same rank) along with it.
Pile: The face-up stack in the middle that everyone plays onto. Your card must match or beat the top card of the Pile — if you can't, you take the whole Pile into your Hand.
Play Computer: Games against computer players at Easy, Medium, Hard or Boss. Win games to unlock the next difficulty. Works offline too.
Play Friends: Online rooms with friends: share the room code or an invite link, add bots to fill empty seats, and host a Best Of Series from Lvl 5.
Play Matrix: The ▦ button on the table: a grid showing which card can go on which.
Please Select: An unfinished House Rules setting. A match cannot start while any rank, Joker or four-of-a-kind rule still says Please Select.
Power Cards: The five strongest cards — 2 (Reset), 3 (Transparent), 10 (Burner), Ace (highest rank) and Joker. Worth saving rather than spending, and worth putting in your Face-Up Cards during the Swap Phase.
Puzzle: A set Hand and Pile with one turn to reach a goal: go out, burn the Pile, or leave the Rival nothing to play. A new one arrives every week in More Modes → Puzzles.
Quick Start: The one-minute tutorial for new players. The Tutorial page has longer lessons on every rule.
Rank: A card's value, ignoring suit. Suits never matter in ShitHead — only rank. That's also why several cards of the same rank can be played together in one turn.
Ranked: One-on-one online games against a real player, scored with a rating. Win and your rating goes up; lose and it goes down. Leaving a Ranked game counts as a loss.
Rating: Your Ranked score (everyone starts at 500). It decides your Tier and your place on the Ranked leaderboard.
Recruit: Share your invite link (Profile or Friends). When a new player joins with it and plays 3 games, you both get Diamonds. Recruit 5 for the Recruiter avatar.
Reset: The 2. It can be played on almost anything (except a Jack) and clears the target, so the next player may follow it with any card at all.
Season Pass: A free 50-tier pass that every XP you earn (signed in) fills, over two calendar months. Each tier pays Diamonds the moment you reach it, with an exclusive card back, avatar, burn and table at tiers 10, 30, 40 and 50. Season 3 also gives the Origami Fold burn at tier 20.
Seasonal Event: Halloween, Christmas, Diwali and more: while an event is on, its themed items are sold in the Shop’s Seasonal tab, and winning 3 games earns that event’s avatar.
Select All Of A Rank: With it on (the round button left of your hand count, or S on a keyboard), tapping a card selects every card of that rank in your Hand. Protect Best Cards (Settings → Gameplay, off by default) keeps it to one card for 2s, 3s, 10s and Aces, so you don't waste them.
ShitHead: The loser — the last player still holding cards once everyone else has emptied their Hand, Face-Up and Face-Down cards.
Shortcut Card: The two outer Mode Cards. Pin Puzzles or a mode that is still coming to one of them, and Swap changes it. Puzzles opens straight from its pin.
Skip: The 8. The next player misses their turn.
Snap Burn: Completing four of a kind out of turn. If the top of the Pile already shows some of a rank and you hold the rest, a Snap Burn button appears and you can burn the Pile immediately, even when it isn't your turn.
Stand-In: If a player's app closes during an online game, a Medium bot plays their seat until they're back. After 5 of its turns the absent player is out of that game.
Swap Phase: The setup round before play begins, where you trade cards between your Hand and your Face-Up Cards. Since Face-Up Cards are played last, this is where you protect your Power Cards. Press READY when done.
Table Cards: Collective term for your Face-Up and Face-Down Cards — everything in front of you rather than in your Hand.
Tier: Your Ranked rank from your rating: Novice, Bronze (500+), Silver (1000+), Gold (1500+), Platinum (1800+) and Master (2000+).
Transparent Card: The 3. It sets no target of its own, so the next player must beat whatever card sits underneath it. Playable on anything except a 6.
Weekly Challenges: Five goals every UK week (Monday to Sunday) on the Challenges page, each paying Diamonds and XP.
Win Streak: Wins in a row. In Ranked a streak adds bonus rating on top of the win: +5 at 2 wins, +10 at 3, +15 at 5 and +20 at 10 and every 10 after.
