In the card game Ninja Rivals, you are ninja masters of rival clans battling to finish missions and attain victory. Collect gold by completing objectives, play tricks on your opponents, surprise them with smoke bombs. Keep an eye on the resources in your hand otherwise, you might find the next mission is out of your reach. At the start of the game, a mission is revealed and aloud for all to hear, including objectives and any secondary objectives if available. Then each player draws 2 cards from the NINJA DECK in order. Now the mission phase begins. Starting with the first player, each player must choose to place a card from their hand face down into play directly in front of them or pass and draw a card from the NINJA DECK. After a player has performed one of these two actions their turn is over, if they have over 10 cards in their hand they must discard down to 10 cards. They may also immediately play surprise cards to get their hand size down. Play continues around the table until either, one player has 5 cards in front of them when the FIRST PLAYER is about to START their NEXT turn or All players have passed in succession. Players reveal their cards and compare scores against the mission requirements, the winner claims the mission and the gold for their clan.