How to Play One Night Ultimate Werewolf

Who doesn’t love a game where you get to be someone else for a little bit, and if you get to get up to mischief while you’re at it, all the better, right? You’re in in the right spot as One Night Ultimate Werewolf fits the bill perfectly.

This game is similar to our Mafia Murder game but has a different feel and play to it. It would be prefect for Halloween—pair it with Grim Reaper or Vampire Dice or even Bones and Pips are you’re on your way to an awesome Halloween game party. Not Halloween? That’s okay because One Night Werewolf is great for any game night.

This is a quick game that is best played with a group.

Let’s get into how to play and is it worth adding to your game shelf.

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Setting Up One Night Ultimate Werewolf

First, this game is a little intimidating to start. There are lots of moving parts and it’s a little confusing. It is best to just dive in a play a round as it’s really not a very difficult game to play. Trust me when I say that it really is easy you just need to play a game or two to get it.

The setup of the game changes depending on how many players there are. There should always be three more cards than there are players.

The basic starting for a three player game is to have 2 werewolves, 1 Seer, 1 Robber, 1 Troublemaker and 1 villager. For a 4 and 5 player game you should add villagers.

The cards are shuffled and each player gets one that they keep secret. The remaining three cards go in the middle face down. Players should look at their card and see what role they have but not let anyone else see it.

Playing One Night Ultimate Werewolf

Once everyone has seen their role you’re ready to play. The game is played at “night”. All players close their eyes and then there is an order to when players can do their actions based on their character. Not all roles have actions to play.

There can be an announcer or you can get the app that will announce for you.

To start, everyone closes their eyes. First to open their eyes are the werewolves. They get to look to see who else is a werewolf. The announcer will then tell the werewolves to close their eyes.

Next up are the Seers. The seer can choose to look at one player’s card or look at two of the three cards in the middle.

When the Seers have closed their eyes, the robber gets to open his eyes. He gets to exchange his card with someone else’s card that he can look at and see his new role.

Next is the Troublemaker. This player can exchange two other player’s cards. She does not get to look at any card.

When the Troublemaker closes her eyes, the announcer will then announce that it is now day and everyone should wake up and open their eyes.

Day Time

Now players discuss who they think are the werewolves. At this time, players can say anything that they like, including lie. However, no one can show their card to anyone else. You also can’t look at your own card to see if it was changed. The object is for the werewolves to go unsuspected and for the people to figure out who the werewolves are.

After a few minutes of discussion, the game then moves to the voting stage.

Voting Stage

During the voting stage, the announcer says one, two, three vote. Everyone then points to a player that they think is a werewolf. The player who has the most votes dies.

If there is a tie for the most votes, then all players who are tied die.

If there is a tie where all players receive one vote, then no one dies. Players could use this method if they believe that there are no werewolves.

Winning One Night Ultimate Werewolf

The village team wins if at least one werewolf dies. They also win if there are no werewolves (the werewolf cards are both in the middle) and no one dies.

On the other hand, the werewolves win if there is at least one werewolf in the game and no werewolves die.

Role Tokens

One Night Ultimate Werewolf comes with game tokens. These show the order of actions during the night phase. The announcer can use these to keep track of the over. These tokens can be sued during the day time phase to figure out character roles. It also helps keep track of the roles that are in the game and how many of each. This is helpful when you move past the starter lien up and venture into using other cards.

Other One Night Ultimate Werewolf Roles

Aside from the roles that I showed you in the starter setup, there are a few other roles to make the game even more interesting.

The Doppelganger is the most complicated role. She will wake up before anyone else at night. He will then look at another player’s card and assume that role. So if she sees a werewolf card she is now a werewolf. The role is more complicated depending on what role she sees but I’ll leave it at this.

The Minion in One Night Werewolf is one the side of the Werewolves. If he dies and no other werewolf dies his team wins.

The Mason cards must be used together. When it is there turn, they open their eyes and see who each other are.

The Drunk is a funny card because she is so drunk that she can’t remember what she does. When she opens her eyes at night, she exchanges her card with one in the middle but doesn’t look at it. She now has no idea what her role is.

The Insomniac gets to wake up and look at his card to see if he is still in the role that he started the round in.

The Tanner hates his job and wants to die. She wins if she dies.

The last One Night Ultimate Werewolf role is the Hunter. If the hunter dies then the player who he is pointing at also dies no matter what the vote shows.

What We Liked

We like that this is a fast play game. It’s prefect as a filler game in between longer games. Next, the quality of this game is great and the box size is small and handy.

We also like that it is simple to teach new players. You just have to tell them not to worry and just listen to the announcer when it’s their characters turn.

Last, we like that it is different each time and that you can play with different roles that change the game.

What We Don’t Like

First, all the rules are in white text on black paper. Although this fits the theme it makes it hard to read. We groan every time we have to check the rules.

Second, we didn’t like that feeling of being overwhelmed the first time we went to play. It’s definitely easier to learn to play with players who have played before.

Last, every time we bring this game to play with new people everyone says that they know how to play but then get confused when we go over the rules. There must be a game out there that is similar but has different rules. We once played with multiple nights in the game at the instance of a friend but it was a giant mess. Now this isn’t One Night Ultimate Werewolf’s fault but it does diminish the experience and has had us leaving this one at home.

Is One Night Ultimate Werewolf Worth Adding to your Family Game Shelf?

We believe that it is worth adding to your game collection. It plays fast and you can teach it quickly. It plays differently every time you play with lots of options to mix things up. It’s best played with a medium sized group but can be played with a smaller one which is nice. Altogether, it’s a nice, small game that is great for player who love deduction games and a little bit of arguing, um, discussion.

And of course it’s prefect for Halloween! Add it to a game of Halloween Whacky Putt or a night of Pumpkin Seed Minute To Win it games, or one of our Halloween games in our shop and you have the makings of a Howling good fall night.

To get your copy of One Night Ultimate Werewolf, shop here. Canadians can get copy here. Be on the lookout for Daybreak, One Night Vampire and One Night Alien too.

Rating:

Pros: fast, easy to teach, small box, lots of game play
Cons: confusing to start, hard to read instructions
Mom: observation skills, drama skills, deduction skills