Star Wars: Bounty Hunters is a light strategy game, in which players compete to be the best bounty hunter in the galaxy. Players have three goals which will help them earn points: capturing targets, completing contracts, and purchasing droids and crates at the Jawa market.
There is no down-time in this drafting game: everyone plays at the same time. Players start with 4 cards in hand. Each turn, players pick a card from one of the available piles (targets, hunters, contracts, and Jawa market). Then, they can choose to either play or sell a card. Finally, they pass their remaining hand to their left-hand neighbor.
Target cards have defense values, while hunter and droid cards have attack values. To capture a target, players must equal or exceed the target’s defense values by placing hunter and droid cards in front of their targets. Once a target is defeated, it is placed horizontally.
Players may also fill contracts by choosing contract cards. These grant bonus points for capturing specific targets and purchasing crates.
The first player to capture 4 targets earns bonuses, and this triggers the final 2 turns. Using the scorepad, players count the points they earned from capturing targets, filling contracts, and purchasing crates, and they deduce points they spent to hire hunters. The player with the most points is declared the best bounty hunter in the galaxy!