How to Teach King of Tokyo and Run a Great First Game

King of Tokyo is easy to teach and easy to over-teach. Hosts read out every face, both card types, Tokyo Bay, and the edge cases before anyone touches a die, and nobody remembers any of it. Teach the turn, start playing, and explain the rest the moment it happens.

Print the King of Tokyo teach sheet and put it in the middle of the table. For advice that works with any game, our guide on how to teach a board game in five minutes pairs well with this one.

Before anyone sits down

Set up from the sheet before you start talking. Let everyone choose a Monster. In the base game the Monsters all start equal, so the choice is pure fun.

Check your player count. With 5 or 6, Tokyo Bay is in play. With 2, decide whether to use the rulebook’s optional 2-player rule, where Tokyo pays Energy instead of points.

The five-minute teach

Minute 1: the goal. “We are giant monsters fighting over Tokyo. First to 20 points wins, or be the last monster standing. You each start with 10 Life.”

Minute 2: the dice. Pick up the black dice. “On your turn, roll all six. Keep what you like, reroll the rest. Up to three rolls, like Yahtzee.”

Minute 3: the faces. Point at each one on the sheet.

• “Numbers only score in threes. Three 2s is 2 points. Each extra 2 is 1 more.”
• “Lightning is Energy. It buys cards.”
• “Hearts heal you.”
• “Claws are Smash. They hurt other monsters.”

Minute 4: Tokyo. This rule makes the game, so slow down.

• “If Tokyo is empty, you have to go in. Going in is 1 point. Starting your turn there is 2 more.”
• “In Tokyo, your claws hit everyone outside. But everyone outside hits only you, and hearts can’t heal you there.”
• “When someone hits you in Tokyo, you can leave. The monster who hit you moves in.”

Ask: “Questions on Tokyo?”

Minute 5: the cards. “After your roll, spend Energy on these cards. Keep cards stay with you. Discard cards happen once. Two Energy clears the row.”

Then: “Everyone roll the black dice. Whoever rolls the most claws goes first.” And play.

Teach these when they happen

• The first Yield. When a Monster in Tokyo first takes a hit, pause and walk through the choice: stay for the points, or leave and heal next turn. The Life is lost either way.
• Card damage. The first time a Power card hurts the Monster in Tokyo, mention that card damage does not let you Yield. Only Smash results do.
• Green dice and tokens. Explain them when someone buys a card that uses them.
• Tokyo Bay. In a 5 or 6 player game, explain it when Tokyo City is taken. At 4 Monsters left, the Bay closes.
• The finish. When someone nears 20, remind the table that you must survive your turn to win.

First-game slips to watch for

These rules are easy to miss on a first read of the rulebook.

• Healing in Tokyo. Hearts do nothing there.
• Scoring pairs. Two 3s score nothing.
• Forgetting the 2 points for starting a turn in Tokyo.
• Yielding at the wrong time. Only right after another Monster’s Smash results wound you.
• Skipping Tokyo. If it is empty during your enter Tokyo step, moving in is not optional.
• Healing above 10. Life tops out at 10 unless a Keep card says otherwise.

One habit helps everyone: read each Power card out loud when someone buys it.

Keeping eliminated players happy

King of Tokyo can knock a player out early. The game runs about 30 minutes, so the wait is short, and an eliminated player can stay at the table as the card reader. If someone goes out early, play a second game right away.

For groups where direct attacks sting, our piece on take-that games explains why King of Tokyo’s attacks land softer than most: you chose to stay in Tokyo, and you knew the claws were coming.

After the first game

IELLO makes more for tables that want it. The Halloween expansion adds two new Monsters and costume cards. Monster packs such as Cthulhu and King Kong each add a new Monster. The Monster Box collects the base game with the Power Up! and Halloween expansions.

The expansions lesson covers player counts, variants, and every expansion in more detail.

For online play, IELLO lists King of Tokyo on Board Game Arena, which the rulebook says runs regular tournaments.

Want to compete?

The World Boardgaming Championships (WBC) is an annual tournament convention at Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Pennsylvania. King of Tokyo crowned its first WBC champion in 2014, and the event history shows fields of 90 to 127 players in every year it ran from 2014 through 2025 (it lists no event from 2020 to 2023). It is on the WBC 2026 winners list too.

The 2026 event preview describes the format:

• Base game rules, Tokyo Bay included. Expansion Monsters are allowed, but no variant rules.
• Tables of 5 or 6, with one-hour rounds.
• Single elimination. Each table’s winner moves on, until six or fewer players meet in the final.
• Survival first. In tiebreakers, Monsters still alive outrank eliminated ones. Then points decide, then Life.
• Coached. The game master teaches during play, so new players are welcome.

WBC 2027 is scheduled for July 24 to August 1, 2027, according to the WBC page.

Finding local play

Ask your local game store whether it runs open game nights; King of Tokyo is an easy game to bring because it teaches in minutes. To build your own group, our guide on how to start a play group walks through it.

If you are near Indianapolis, join the Indianapolis list for first word on local learn-to-play nights as The Ludarium grows.

That is the host’s side: set up, teach, and run King of Tokyo from a single sheet. The rest of the course is about playing well, from your first three games to the endgame math, and the final lesson goes further into online play and tournaments. The game is the reason. The people around the table, groaning and cheering at every roll, are the point.