How to Play Bomb Busters: Dual Cuts, Solo Cuts & Deduction

Overview

Bomb Busters is a cooperative deduction game for 2–5 players with 66 replayable missions. Each player can see their own sorted wires, while teammates see only the backs and any public Info tokens. Cut matching wires without cutting a red wire or letting the detonator reach the skull. This guide explains the English base rules; later mission cards can change them.

Set up a mission

1. Choose a mission. The first eight are training; the rulebook recommends playing in order. The Captain reads its setup and special rules aloud.
2. Use the blue, red and yellow wires specified by that mission. The standard pool has four copies of each blue number from 1 through 12; early training missions use exceptions. Deal the tiles face down across the stands.
3. Each player sorts each stand in ascending order where only they can see the faces. At two players, both use two stands; at three, the Captain uses two. Two stands held by one player count together as one hand.
4. Set the detonator for player count and make the specified equipment available but locked. Each player points one public Info token at a blue wire of their choice during setup.

On your turn choose one of three actions

Play passes clockwise from the Captain. Choose Dual Cut, Solo Cut, or Reveal Your Red Wires when its condition is met. Equipment can modify an action according to its card, but it is not a fourth standard turn action. Skip a player whose stands are empty.

Dual Cut: guess a matching wire

Choose a value you hold, point at one specific wire in a teammate’s stand and say the value you think it has. If correct, both players reveal and set down the matching wires in front of their stands. If the selected wire is another blue or yellow value, the detonator moves one space and the teammate places an Info token showing the selected wire’s real value. If the selected wire is red, the bomb explodes immediately under the standard rule.

Example: you hold a blue 9 and call a teammate’s covered tile “9.” On a match, each of you removes a 9. On a miss where that tile is a blue 11, the teammate marks it 11 and the detonator advances. The active player does not indicate which of their own 9 tiles they intended to cut.

Solo Cut: all remaining copies are yours

If every uncut wire of an identical value is in your hand, you may reveal the remaining pair or full set of four as one Solo Cut action. This applies across both of your stands when you have two. For blue values, a pair may remain after the other two of the four copies have already been cut. Do not use Solo Cut merely because you see two matching wires in your hand while copies could remain with teammates.

Reveal Your Red Wires

If every uncut wire left in your hand is red, use this turn action to reveal those red wires and empty your stands. Red decimal numbers matter for sorting during setup; in play they are simply RED. The yellow decimals likewise sort during setup; all yellow wires share the in-game value YELLOW and can be cut by legal Dual or Solo Cuts.

What do Info, validation and equipment do?

An Info token publicly labels a true value at one position. Once all four wires of a blue value have been cut, put a validation token on that value as a reminder. Shared equipment becomes usable when two wires of the number printed on its card have been cut, and is normally single-use. Each character also has personal equipment once per mission. Read the printed timing: a Double Detector, for example, can check two selected wires in a Dual Cut and has a specific rule when one selected wire is red.

Communication is restricted

The English rules forbid talking about the wires in your own hand, implying their values, or sharing guesses and assumptions aloud. You may discuss general tactics and the use of equipment, and remind players of special rules. Do not verbally recap earlier wire information or share guesses and assumptions. A strategy table should not turn hidden wire values into spoken clues.

When does a mission end?

Success is immediate once all stands are empty. Failure occurs if a red wire is cut, the detonator reaches the skull, or a mission’s special rule says so. Change Captain and restart a failed mission. Completing training mission 8 unlocks the first surprise box; keep later boxes closed until instructed.

More Bomb Busters guides

• Game guide
• Deduction strategy
• Win and loss FAQ
• The Pro Kit expansion

Sources and scope

Checked September 2026 against the Cocktail Games/Pegasus English rulebook and publisher game page. A mission’s printed special rules can override this overview; no surprise-box contents are disclosed here.