HOW TO BRAWL
Barista Brawl is a cooperative, deck-building card game where you run a coffee shop, survive an escalating rush of customers, and take down the Boss Customer at the end of the line. Here's everything you need to play.
THE OBJECTIVE
In Barista Brawl, you and your crew run a coffee shop together and must serve — and survive — a relentless rush of customers, culminating in a showdown with a Boss Customer at the end of the line. It's built for a semi-casual audience with a streak of edgy, adult humor.
The game was designed for exactly 2 players, but it can accommodate any number, even solo. Other player counts work mechanically but aren't balance-tested, so expect some imbalance away from 2.
A companion app is required. It runs the customer simulation and tracks shared game state. Throughout this rulebook, anything the app handles is called out in blue, just like the design doc.
DECKBUILDING
Before playing, each player builds a deck from their collection. There are four card types, each with a distinct role in the shop.
Baristas
Cost Tips to playYour workforce. Cost Tips to play. Exhaust them to perform the core actions of the game — Serving Customers and Setting Up Equipment & Inventory. Permanent in the Shop unless a game effect Discards or Banishes them.
Equipment
Requires Baristas to set upPlayed by having a Barista Set Up Equipment. Each has a unique Ability triggered by Exhausting it. Permanent in the Shop unless Discarded or Banished.
Inventory
Requires Baristas to set upPlayed the same way as Equipment. Stays in the Shop until Exhausted, at which point it helps Fulfill a Customer's Order Requirements and is then Discarded (or Banished).
Actions
Always freeNever cost anything and never enter the Shop. Played straight from the Hand: resolve the unique effect, then Discard. Many carry a trigger requirement that must be met to play them.
DECKBUILDING RULES
- Each deck must be exactly 36 cards.
- Each deck must contain at least 1 Barista card.
- Every card in the deck must be unique — no duplicates.
- Gold-foil versions don't count as duplicates, so you may run one regular and one gold-foil copy of the same card.
- Different players may run the same card in their own decks in the same game.
GAME SETUP
In the App
Before the first turn, configure the session: choose a Boss Customer (or Random), choose a Difficulty (or Random), and optionally set the player count. Random selections stay hidden until the game begins.
Pressing Start Game populates the UI from the chosen Difficulty: a Sanity tracker per player, one shared Tips pool, a two-slot Customer Line (Front & Back) per player, and a Boss Countdown tracker. Then the Let's Do This! button starts the first turn.
Physical Setup
Each player removes one Barista from their deck as their Starting Barista, shuffles the rest, then places that Barista face-down on top. You now have a guaranteed opening draw followed by 35 randomized cards. Lay out your play space into these zones:
Draw Pile
Your shuffled deck with your Starting Barista face-down on top.
Discard Pile
Starts empty; discarded cards land here face-up. When you must draw with too few cards left, draw what remains, shuffle the Discard Pile back in, then finish drawing. You only ever discard your own cards to your own pile.
Hand
Cards drawn each turn. Since the game is cooperative, it's recommended to keep your Hand face-up so teammates can plan with you.
Shop
The main play area. Baristas, Equipment, and Inventory live here. Shared for gameplay purposes, but keep each player's cards visually separate so ownership stays clear.
Banished Cards
Not a true zone — Banished cards are removed from the current game entirely and can never return this playthrough. Keep them well away from the Discard Pile. They go back to their owner's deck once the game ends.
READY VS. EXHAUSTED
Cards in the Shop are either Ready or Exhausted. Exhaust a card (turn it sideways is the recommended method) to use it — for an Ability or to pay a cost. A card can only be Exhausted once, but effects that Ready a card early mean it can be Exhausted, Readied, and Exhausted again in the same turn. All cards Ready during Turn Resolution.
TURN STRUCTURE
The game runs over any number of turns until the players win or lose. Every turn moves through three phases in order.
Simulate Customers
The Boss Countdown drops by 1, then the app simulates every Customer Line: the Customer at the Back advances to the Front (triggering any advance Abilities), a new Customer spawns at the Back, and a Boss Customer check runs.
Player Actions
Each player draws 5 cards, then the team takes any number of actions in any order — play cards, trigger Equipment, Serve Customers, and Kick Out Customers — fully resolving each before the next.
Turn Resolution
Players discard their remaining Hands, every Customer left at the Front of the Line Storms Out (dealing Stress), and finally all cards in the Shop Ready for the next turn.
The Four Player Actions
During the Player Actions phase the team may take as many actions as they like, of any type, in any order — resolving each fully before starting the next. Strategize together.
Play a Card
Pay the cost from the Hand. Baristas cost Tips from the shared pool. Equipment & Inventory require Exhausting Baristas whose combined Stats meet the requirement — any player's Baristas count. Actions are free but may carry a trigger requirement.
Trigger Equipment
Exhaust a Ready Equipment card to fire its Ability. If the Ability lists an extra requirement you can't meet, you can't Exhaust it.
Serve a Customer
Only Customers at the Front of the Line can be Served. Meet every Stat Requirement (Exhaust Baristas — always at least one, even for a 0-Stat Customer) and every Order Requirement (Coffee, Booze, Grub, Merch) in a single action. Success pays out the Customer's Tips.
Kick Out a Customer
Certain effects remove a Customer anywhere in the Line with no Tip reward and no replacement. Their advance Abilities never trigger. Boss Customers can never be Kicked Out.
The app drives Customer simulation, since it has no knowledge of your decks. It advances and spawns Customers, rolls their requirements by Threat Level, and prompts you to confirm Abilities and their consequences. Tap any Customer to inspect its name, Ability, requirements checklist, and Tip reward — and to Serve or Kick them Out.
Storm Outs: any Customer still at the Front of the Line during Turn Resolution Storms Out. The team takes 1 Stress (applied to the player with the most Sanity), then any extra Storm Out effects resolve. The first turn skips this, since all lines start empty.
Ready Shop: once Storm Outs resolve, every Exhausted card in the Shop Readies. The phase ends with empty Hands and a fully Ready Shop.
THE BOSS CUSTOMER
When the Boss Countdown hits 0, the Boss Customer spawns in its own dedicated Boss Customer Line — in the Back, so you get one turn to scout it. No regular Customers ever spawn in this line.
Bosses have three Stages. Each must be Served in order, at most once per turn. Serving a Stage rewards Tips and evolves the Boss into its next Stage, sending it to the Back of the Line with re-rolled, harder requirements — instead of being eliminated. The same happens if a Boss Storms Out.
Boss Abilities are cumulative: Stage 2 keeps Stage 1's Abilities, and Stage 3 keeps both. With multiple Abilities firing per trigger, late Stages get dangerous. Boss Customers can never be Kicked Out.
INSTANT VICTORY
The moment the Final Stage of the Boss is Served, the game ends in victory — no matter what else is on the board, what effects are pending, or who has already Crashed Out. Everything halts and the players win.
STRESS & CRASH OUTS
Stress damage is split as evenly as possible across the team. Each point is applied one at a time to whoever currently has the most Sanity — ties broken randomly. So two Stress dealt to two equal players reliably costs each of them one.
When a player loses their last point of Sanity, they Crash Out. Their Draw Pile, Discard Pile, and Hand are all Banished — no more drawing or playing from Hand. Their Shop cards stay in play and can still be Exhausted to help teammates, but if one would be Discarded it's Banished instead.
A Crashed-Out player can't take further Stress — it all redirects to the survivors. In a 2-player game, that means one player eats everything. If all players Crash Out, the game ends in defeat.
The app applies and visualizes Stress directly to the right player, and lets players manually raise or lower any Sanity for card effects it isn't tracking (capped at the starting maximum). Dropping a player to 0 prompts a confirmation, then runs the Crash Out — removing their Sanity display and excluding them from all future Stress calculations.
BARISTAS
Baristas stay in your Shop and do the heavy lifting: Serving Customers and Setting Up Equipment & Inventory. Each costs Tips and carries 1–5 Stats. Exhaust a Barista once per turn (including the turn it's played); it Readies again at Turn Resolution unless an effect does so sooner.
THE FIVE STATS
Stats with two primary uses (Sass, Mojo) show up in requirements about half as often as single-purpose Stats — so a balanced spread of Stats across your deck is usually wise, since you can't control which Customers the app spawns.
EQUIPMENT
Equipment stays in your Shop and grants a new Ability. To play one, Exhaust any Baristas whose combined Stats meet or exceed its requirement. Once down, it's permanent and can be Exhausted once per turn to fire its Ability.
Some Abilities carry an extra cost in their text. If it says “your” (e.g. “discard a card from your Hand”), only the user can pay it; if it says “the Shop”, any card in the Shop qualifies, even a teammate's. Can't pay? You can't use the Ability.
Example
The Bar Boss 5,000
Requires Mojo 3. Exhaust this card and discard a card from your Hand to Fulfill 1 Booze or 1 Grub while Serving a Customer.
INVENTORY
Inventory plays just like Equipment (Exhaust Baristas to meet its requirement), but every Inventory Ability begins with “Discard this card from the Shop to…” or “Banish…”. They primarily supply the resources you need to Fulfill Order Requirements when Serving a Customer.
Each Inventory card applies to a single Serve — excess resources are wasted and never carry into the next one.
THE FIVE RESOURCES
The most commonly requested Order resource.
Tied for second-most common. Its cards typically need Mojo.
Tied for second-most common. Its cards typically need Hustle.
The rarest request; its cards often cost more.
Never requested directly, but substitutes for any other resource — each point can become a different type.
ACTIONS
Actions never enter the Shop and are always free. Play one from your Hand, resolve its effect, then Discard it. If it carries a trigger requirement, you must meet it after playing but before discarding — otherwise the card can't be played at all.
Crucially, Actions can be played during other actions — mid-Serve, in response to an effect — letting you chain Equipment, Abilities, and Actions into powerful combos.
Déjà Brew
Place a card from your discard pile back on top of your draw pile.
Lady, I AM the Manager
Banish this card to Kick Out a non-Boss Customer.
DON'T FORGET THE APP
The free companion app is your game master — it runs the customer waves, tracks Sanity, Tips, and the Boss Countdown, and keeps the whole shop in sync. You'll need it on the table to play.
Learn about the app