Read the usage line before you look for a button. An Activation card is used on purpose. An Active card waits for its trigger. A Passive card changes play while it stays in your hand. Clicking every card will not create a button that the type does not have.
Cards are dealt by the clown every few turns, from Split or Steal, and from the Puppet in the Box event. Choose a Card, Free Card, Pick a Card, and Card Risk are other ways a card enters a hand. Passive cards expire after the turns shown at the top left. Active cards expire on use or after those turns, and the player does not activate them manually. Activation cards expire when you use them.
Basic cards can leave the rotation to make room for seasonal cards. The text on the card you are holding beats an older name.
Names that changed in older guides
| Older name you may see | Name to read now | What the later text says |
|---|---|---|
| Shield | Safety | If the clown shoots you, Safety breaks and you survive |
| Tutelar | Guardian | Activation. Gives someone a Safety card for one turn, then breaks |
| Prize | Bounty | Neutral Passive. Eliminating you pays cards and cash; if you survive until it breaks, you get the rewards |
| Mounted | Rigged | Your votes count double |
| Nighttime | Nocturnal | You can see during lights-out events |
The Still standing badge still says shield card. That is the badge wording, not a second card you need to find.
Cards worth reading before a timer
Vision is Passive. A pictured copy let the holder see other players' cards and showed a four-round counter. Seeing a defense does not prove it stops every hazard.
Disarm is Activation. A pictured copy gives someone a Blank card for one turn. The recipient is part of the effect. Confirm the selected player before you use it.
Blank makes the next bullet you fire a blank in the pictured text, and that text excludes PVP events. Event notes add that Blank does not work in Duels, and that Disarm and Blank matter when the clown has given you the gun. Do not carry a normal-round Blank into a duel.
Thief is Activation, steals cards, and breaks on use. Chained and Thief themselves are described as not stealable. Enemy is Activation and places a 50 cash bounty for free. It is not the Bounty card.
Skip, while held, skips your turn when the clown chooses you. Hunter adds a card for eliminating players who hold Bounty, and those elimination attempts are described as succeeding. Magnet forces the clown to pick you and breaks on use. Drawing that attention without a relevant defense is a way to be chosen, not a way to hide.
Death makes the clown's gun fire when you are the target, and a second Death card makes the clown attempt to eliminate you immediately. The shotgun is also described as firing for certain if you hold Death. Vengeance lets you try to eliminate a player who attempted to eliminate you. It is described as not working during duels, a stab, or hostage.
Jester, after a vote against you, eliminates one player who voted to kill. Clown Hostage notes say Jester does not work in that event. Rigged doubles your vote. Angel is described as stopping the turn counts on your other cards, including negative ones, so a Death card would also stay.
Ace is the conflict to remember. A May 2026 write-up said you can consume Ace and receive the Activation card back. A later play session read the card as removing an Activation card when one is used. Those are not the same result. Use the sentence printed on your Ace.
Hidden stays unknown until it can be used, and it is only Passive or Active. Ricochet, listed as Positive Active, bounces a shot onto a random player. It was announced with the April Fools 2026 update and is also listed among basic cards.
Reverse is exclusive to Roundabout. Its effect sentence was not in the text available here. Die, from April Fools, is Positive Activation, and the update note said the effect was not known. Fart is listed as Godly and Activation for April Fools, without an effect sentence in the table that was readable.
Seasonal cards return with their holiday: Trick or Treat, Ghost, Pumpkin Eater, and Possessed for Halloween; Gift, Snowball, and Frozen for Christmas; Cupid, Adoring, and Heartbreaker for Valentine's Day. Pumpkin Eater is also described as triggering when you steal in Split or Steal. A note said Heartbreaker together with Vision allowed an elimination if the target already had Death. That note is written in the past tense, so treat it as a reported interaction, not a promise about the current card.
There is no single best card. Vision is useless if the prompt closes before you can act on it. Safety does nothing about a wire you were supposed to read. Compare the event, the remaining turns, and the legal target. The full entries are in Cards.