Card game · Free app · Play in browser
Skip the Salad
Gather up for a trick-taking game with a twist: you're trying to LOSE the right tricks, not win them. Dodge the penalty veggies, unleash your toppings, and keep the whole table guessing.
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- Players
- 3–8
- Ages
- 8+
- Play Time
- 20–40 min
- Type
- Trick-avoiding
- Digital
- iOS, Android & Web
Why You'll Love It
- •Trick-taking with an inverted goal — completely flips the usual card game mindset
- •Modular topping system keeps every game fresh and unpredictable
- •Original custom vegetable kitchen artwork
- •Accessible for families, satisfying for experienced card players
- •High replayability — no two games play the same
Gallery
How to Play
Lead any card
Follow suit, or sluff if you can't
Dodge the round's penalty — lowest score wins
Let the app teach you
Prefer to learn by doing? The free Skip the Salad app has a built-in interactive tutorial that walks you through your first hands step by step. It's the easiest way to pick up the game. Download it and you'll be playing in minutes.
Full Rules Reference
Setup
Remove cards based on how many are playing, then deal the rest out evenly.
| Players | Cards each | Setup notes |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 15 | Remove all 2s, 3s, 4s, and 5s |
| 4 | 15 | Remove 1 Wild |
| 5 | 12 | Remove 1 Wild |
| 6 | 10 | Remove 1 Wild |
| 7* | 10 | Remove all 2s |
| 8* | 9 | Remove 3 Wilds |
* Include the Corn suit for 7–8 player games (3–6 player games don't use it).
Each player's area has a hand, a face-down kitchen for tricks won, the current round's reference card, and any Extra Toppings in play laid face up for everyone to see.
How a Round Works
The player who most recently ate a salad deals first. Shuffle, deal the hand out evenly, and the player to the dealer's left starts the round.
- The player to the dealer's left leads by playing any card from their hand.
- Play continues clockwise around the table.
- Each player must follow the lead suit if they have a card in it.
- If you have no cards in the lead suit, you may sluff — play any other card.
- The highest card in the lead suit wins the trick.
- The trick winner collects the cards face-down into their kitchen.
- The trick winner leads the next trick.
Example: Alex leads the two of Broccoli, so Broccoli is the lead suit. Bailey follows with the seven of Broccoli. Casey has no Broccoli at all, so she sluffs the King of Onions — since it's not the lead suit, it can't win. Bailey's seven beats Alex's two, so Bailey takes the trick, banks it face-down in her kitchen, and leads the next one.
Rounds & Scoring
A game runs six rounds in order, each with its own penalty to dodge. The lowest total score after all six wins.
| Round | Avoid | Penalty |
|---|---|---|
| 1. No Tricks | Winning tricks | +10 per trick |
| 2. No Tomatoes | Tomato cards | +10 per tomato |
| 3. No Queens | Queen cards | +25 per queen |
| 4. No Onions | Onion cards | +10 per onion, +100 for the King of Onions |
| 5. No Last Trick | Winning the last trick | +100 |
| 6. Tossed Salad | Everything at once | All of the above, combined |
In Tossed Salad, every penalty from the first five rounds is live simultaneously — it's easiest to tally as you go rather than waiting until the round ends.
Wild Cards
- Wild cards can be played with any suit, and you choose whether it counts high or low.
- If a Wild is led, the first card played with an actual suit becomes the lead suit.
- If every card played in a trick is a Wild, whoever played the first one wins the trick.
- Wilds never count toward suit-specific penalties.
Extra Toppings (Advanced Rules)
Optional twists you can mix into any game — pick any combination before you start and lay them face up so everyone knows what's in play.
- Rotten Tomato — passes to whoever wins a trick containing a Tomato; whoever's holding it at round's end takes +25.
- Pass the Veggies — before each round, everyone passes two cards to the player on their right.
- Cornucopia — flips the whole game: the highest total score wins instead of the lowest.
- Spicy Pepper — Carrots are trump in round one; after that, whoever's in last place picks the trump suit each round.
- Blue Cheese Moon — collect every available penalty in a round (except No Last Trick) and that round's score flips negative.
- Salad Dressing — the highest card in the game; it wins any trick it's played in.
- House Salad — make up your own topping and bring it to the table.
Bonus Rounds
Want more chaos? Swap any of these in for a base round, or invent your own.
- No Kings — +25 per king collected.
- No Assassins — +25 per assassin collected.
- No Royalty — +25 per Jack, Queen, or King collected.
- No Evens — +10 per even card (2, 4, 6, 8, 10) collected.
- No High Low — +25 per one or Assassin collected.
Key Terms
- Hand — the cards you're currently holding.
- Trick — one card played by each player during a single turn cycle.
- Round — the full sequence of tricks played until every hand is empty.
- Suit — Carrots, Broccoli, Tomatoes, and Onions (add Corn for 7–8 players).
- Lead suit — the suit of the first card played in a trick.
- Follow suit — playing a card that matches the lead suit.
- Kitchen — the cards you've won so far this round.
- Sluff — playing a card that doesn't match the lead suit because you have none to follow with.
- Penalty — points added to your score for certain cards or tricks.
- Trump — a suit that beats all other suits, regardless of the lead suit.
Ready to play?
Get Skip the Salad
The deluxe deck comes with every topping and a free companion app. Prefer to go digital? Download the app or play free in your browser.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you play Skip the Salad?
Skip the Salad is a trick-avoiding card game: instead of winning tricks, you try to lose the right ones. Each round names a penalty ingredient to avoid collecting, and the player with the lowest score at the end wins.
How many people can play?
Skip the Salad plays with 3 to 8 players and is built for ages 8 and up.
How long does a game take?
A typical game runs about 20 to 40 minutes.
Is there a Skip the Salad app?
Yes. The free Skip the Salad app is available on the App Store and Google Play, with online multiplayer, score tracking, and all the toppings. You can also play free right in your browser.
What are toppings?
Toppings are optional rule modifiers like Spicy Pepper, Rotten Tomato, Blue Cheese Moon, Cornucopia, and Salad Dressing. Mix and match them to change the strategy every game.
Where can I buy Skip the Salad?
The deluxe physical deck, with all extra toppings included and a free scorekeeping app, is available at the Gotta Play Games store.
Rules Questions
The mid-game questions that come up most — the same answers our in-app assistant gives.
Can you play a Wild card instead of following suit?
Yes. A Wild card is an exception to the follow-suit rule — you can play a Wild instead of following suit, even when you have a card in the lead suit. (Otherwise, if you have a card in the lead suit and aren't playing a Wild, you must follow suit.)
Do you have to follow suit?
If you have a card in the lead suit, you must play one — with one exception: you may always play a Wild card instead. If you have no card in the lead suit, you can play anything, which is called sluffing.
What happens if you can't follow suit?
If you don't have any cards in the lead suit, you can play any card — that's called sluffing. A sluffed card can never win the trick, so it's a good moment to unload dangerous cards like Queens or the King of Onions.
How much is the King of Onions worth?
In the No Onions round, the King of Onions is worth +110 points: +100 for being the King of Onions, plus +10 because he's also an Onion card. Regular Onion cards are +10 each.
How do you win Skip the Salad?
Skip the Salad is a trick-avoiding game, so you want the lowest score. Each of the six rounds names a penalty to avoid collecting, and the final round (Tossed Salad) combines them all. After six rounds, the lowest total wins.