Remove any extra Exploding Kitten cards from play. For example, for a game with 5 players, there will be 4 Exploding Kitten cards within the deck. The amount of Exploding Kitten cards used is determined by counting the number of players and subtracting one. Everyone should have 5 cards in their hand.

Shuffle the deck and deal 4 cards face down to each player.Begin by taking out all of the Exploding Kitten cards and Defuse cards from the deck.