Tips hanabi

Refer to Game Help Definitions

Thinking

• Check visible cards, including played and discarded to determine the focus and the meaning of a clue.
  • e.g. you are given a 2 clue. You see
    red2

    r

    ,with a

    red2clue,
    was played and the second
    red2

    r

    ,with a

    red2clue,
    is in another hand. Therefore the clue means "2s which are not red".
  • e.g. you are given a 4 clue that marks only your chop. You see no 4s have been discarded and no 4s on the chop of the players next to you. Therefore the clue means "this 4 is playable".

Cluing

• Don't mark trash cards (a.k.a. "good touch" rule).
• Save unique cards as the first priority.
  • Look ahead for unique cards on chop. Sometimes more than one player must help to save consecutive unique cards.
• With few ​clue tokens, work out which players need them.
• Consider how the receiver can interpret your clue.

Discarding

• Trust your teammates to manage your cards.
• When there is nothing urgent to clue, don't be afraid to discard! Discarding is often the best move for the team.

Playing

• When multiple cards are marked, determine the focused card. Each clue only has one focused card.
• Logically playable cards are marked at the earliest opportunity, so the leftmost card is assumed to be the focus of play clues (where no other cards are known to be playable).

Triggering the final round

• Sometimes a specific player should draw the last card to maximise the score.
• Giving empty clues (e.g. "you have no red card") can help to manage which player draws last card.

Last card example

card1

​

,with a

card1clue,

red5

r

,with a

red5clue,

yellow5

y

,with a

yellow5clue,

green3

g

,with a

green3clue,

blue4

b

,with a

blue4clue,

white5

w

,with a

white5clue,

Bob 🡲​ Cathy 🡲​

• Alice and Bob both give empty clues e.g. "to Cathy: you have no white card".
• Cathy plays
  green4

  g

  ,with a

  green4clue,
  and draws the last card.
• Alice discards, Bob plays
  blue5

  b

  ,with a

  blue5clue,
  and Cathy plays
  green5

  g

  ,with a

  green5clue,
  .

Skip

• When a player gives a clue that could have been given by one of the skipped players, it means the skipped players have a better move than to give the clue that was used to skip.
• Skipping should be avoided unless there is a good reason.

A bad skip / steal

​

• Alice skips Bob to clue Cathy red.

red​

r

,with a

red​clue,

yellow3

y

,with a

yellow3clue,

green3

g

,with a

green3clue,

blue3

b

,with a

blue3clue,

white3

w

,with a

white3clue,

Alice 🡲​ Bob 🡲​ Cathy 🡲​

• If Alice discarded instead, Bob would have clued Alice red to finesse
  red1

  r

  ,with a

  red1clue,
  and
  red2

  r

  ,with a

  red2clue,
  .

Potential reasons for skipping players:

• Clue-giver is locked i.e. all cards are marked without any immediate plays.
• Gain tempo to play e.g. skipped player(s) all have playable cards.
• Gain tempo to clue e.g. skipped player(s) must give a fix clue.
• Avoid a bad clue e.g. mark cards with good touch.
• Ensure a good clue e.g. mark cards with good touch.
• Cause a discard e.g. of a playable card so that its copy can be marked with good touch, or of trash.
• Avoid a discard e.g. a double discard, or of nice-to-have (non-unique) cards.

A good skip example 1

red1

r

,with a

red1clue,

yellow1

y

,with a

yellow1clue,

green1

g

,with a

green1clue,

blue1

b

,with a

blue1clue,

white1

w

,with a

white1clue,

Bob 🡲​ Cathy 🡲​

• Alice skips Bob to give Cathy a blue clue so that a duplicate
  white2

  w

  ,with a

  white2clue,
  is not marked.

A good skip example 2

red1

r

,with a

red1clue,

yellow1

y

,with a

yellow1clue,

green1

g

,with a

green1clue,

blue1

b

,with a

blue1clue,

white1

w

,with a

white1clue,

Bob 🡲​ Cathy 🡲​

• Alice skips Bob to give Cathy a blue clue because Bob has let let
  blue2

  b

  ,with a

  blue2clue,
  reach chop and does not want to mark it because he might hold a copy.

Additional interpretation

An additional finesse convention is that skipped player(s) cannot discard.

• i.e. Alice can clue Cathy only if Bob has a play or should give another clue.
• If a skipped player has no marked playable cards and no good clue to give, they can blind play their newest, unmarked card.
• A clue-giver who causes unmarked play(s) purely from a skip is responsible for any misinterpretation.

Example 1: unambiguous skip play

​

• Alice skips Bob to give Cathy a 1 clue.

red​

r

,with a

red​clue,

yellow​

y

,with a

yellow​clue,

green​

g

,with a

green​clue,

blue​

b

,with a

blue​clue,

white​

w

,with a

white​clue,

Bob 🡲​ Cathy 🡲​

• Bob has no clue to give and no known play, so he blind plays his newest unmarked card.
• yellow1

  y

  ,with a

  yellow1clue,
  does not connect to 1, so Cathy interprets Bob's move as a skip play and plays
  red1

  r

  ,with a

  red1clue,
  .

Example 2: bluff

​

• Alice to Cathy: this card is red.

red1

r

,with a

red1clue,

yellow1

y

,with a

yellow1clue,

green1

g

,with a

green1clue,

blue​

b

,with a

blue​clue,

white​

w

,with a

white​clue,

Bob 🡲​ Cathy 🡲​

• Cathy now knows her marked card
  red3

  r

  ,with a

  red3clue,
  is playable.
• Bob does not see the connecting
  red2

  r

  ,with a

  red2clue,
  , so assumes he has to play it now.
• Bob does not have a marked card that could be
  red2

  r

  ,with a

  red2clue,
  , so Bob blind plays his newest unmarked card.
• blue1

  b

  ,with a

  blue1clue,
  successfully plays and the bluff is revealed.
• Before Bob played, Cathy thought her marked card was
  red2

  r

  ,with a

  red2clue,
  .
• After Bob plays, Cathy knows her marked card is any valuable red (
  red3

  r

  ,with a

  red3clue,
  ,
  red4

  r

  ,with a

  red4clue,
  or
  red5

  r

  ,with a

  red5clue,
  ).

Example 3: lie

​

Alice skips Bob to give Cathy a 3 clue.

red2

r

,with a

red2clue,

yellow​

y

,with a

yellow​clue,

green​

g

,with a

green​clue,

blue​

b

,with a

blue​clue,

white​

w

,with a

white​clue,

Bob 🡲​ Cathy 🡲​

• Bob has no clue to give and no known play, so he blind plays his newest unmarked card.
• In this convention,
  yellow1

  y

  ,with a

  yellow1clue,
  does not connect to 3, so Cathy interprets as a bluff and her 3 is not playable.
• This is a lie because
  red3

  r

  ,with a

  red3clue,
  is playable.
• Instead, Alice should have discarded and allowed Bob to clue Cathy so that she knows her
  red3

  r

  ,with a

  red3clue,
  is playable.

2 Player strategy

Basic

1. Marked cards are not discarded.
2. Unique cards are saved.
3. Saves are given as late as possible.
4. Play clue focus is the leftmost card.
5. All known playable cards are played before discarding (including 5s with flamboyants).
6. Marked trash cards are corrected.

Intermediate

1. Playable first copies are clued.
2. Playable cards marked with both colour and number will play first.
3. Last 1clue tokens is only used to mark a unique or playable chop.
4. Off-chop saves for consecutive unique cards.
5. Double discards can be avoided with a stall clue.
   • empty clue
   • splash that marks no new cards
6. Cards are played in clued order.
7. Plays that lead to other plays are prioritised.
8. Lower ranked cards are prioritised.
9. Unique cards are splashed.
10. Black Powder:
    black powder1

    ​

    ,with a

    black powder1clue,
    is only marked on chop unless all other 1s (or
    black powder2

    ​

    ,with a

    black powder2clue,
    ) are already played.

Advanced

1. Number clues that mark a non-unique chop are play clues.
   • e.g. with no 3s discarded, play the left 3.
2. Black Powder: 5s are marked with a playable
   black powder5

   ​

   ,with a

   black powder5clue,
   on chop. In a following turn the 5 to the left of
   black powder5

   ​

   ,with a

   black powder5clue,
   is marked with colour to play
   black powder5

   ​

   ,with a

   black powder5clue,
   .
3. Before playing, a connecting card on chop can be marked.
4. Flamboyants: consider not locking a hand with a 5 save.
5. Avalanche: any card can be multicolor.
   • i.e. wait for negative multicolor on a
     red5

     r

     ,with a

     red5clue,
     before playing as
     red5

     r

     ,with a

     red5clue,
     .
6. Scream discard = save the chop card (and move chop one slot to the left).
7. 1-away from playable cards are splashed.
8. Trash cards are discarded before being splashed.
9. Already-marked trash cards are splashed.
10. An early game 4 may be discarded.
11. Black Powder: avoid discarding after an early game
    black powder1

    ​

    ,with a

    black powder1clue,
    or 5 save.
    • To allow consecutive
      black powder1

      ​

      ,with a

      black powder1clue,
      and colour 5 saves.

Early game

1. At least 3clue tokens are used before the first discard.
2. Black Powder:
   black powder5

   ​

   ,with a

   black powder5clue,
   is marked first if it is the leftmost 5.
3. 2s are marked next.
   • Black Powder:
     black powder4

     ​

     ,with a

     black powder4clue,
     is marked if there are no other 4s.
4. 1s are marked next.
   • With multiple marked unknown 1s in your hand, consider first playing your 1s or marking 1s individually with colour.

Alternative strategy

1. Any card may be saved, including non-unique cards.
2. Cards marked with a number are only splashed with colour:
   1. If a previously unmarked card is playable.
   2. As a stall clue.

Clued misplay example

red1

r

,with a

red1clue,

yellow3

y

,with a

yellow3clue,

green3

g

,with a

green3clue,

blue3

b

,with a

blue3clue,

white3

w

,with a

white3clue,

Bob 🡲​

Discarded:

red4

r

,with a

red4clue,

• There are no misfires.
• Alice needs to save
  red5

  r

  ,with a

  red5clue,
  and
  red4

  r

  ,with a

  red4clue,
  .
• Alice to Bob: these 3 cards are red.

red1

r

,with a

red1clue,

yellow3

y

,with a

yellow3clue,

green3

g

,with a

green3clue,

blue3

b

,with a

blue3clue,

white3

w

,with a

white3clue,

Bob 🡲​

Discarded:

red4

r

,with a

red4clue,

• Bob misfires
  red1

  r

  ,with a

  red1clue,
  as
  red2

  r

  ,with a

  red2clue,
  .
• Bob interprets this as a clued misplay to save the remaining red cards.

Scream discard example

red1

r

,with a

red1clue,

yellow4

y

,with a

yellow4clue,

green2

g

,with a

green2clue,

blue2

b

,with a

blue2clue,

white2

w

,with a

white2clue,

Alice 🡲​ Bob 🡲​

• There are 0clue tokens but Alice needs to save
  blue5

  b

  ,with a

  blue5clue,
  and
  green5

  g

  ,with a

  green5clue,
  .
• Alice discards her chop + 1 = 3rd slot while she has
  yellow5

  y

  ,with a

  yellow5clue,
  to play.
• Bob expected Alice to play their known playable card.
• Bob knows Alice could have discarded her chop to save his chop.
• Bob interprets Alice's move as moving his chop two places from his 3rd slot to 1st slot.
• Bob now has two unmarked unique cards saved and discards
  yellow1

  y

  ,with a

  yellow1clue,
  .

Positional misplay example

red1

r

,with a

red1clue,

yellow3

y

,with a

yellow3clue,

green3

g

,with a

green3clue,

blue3

b

,with a

blue3clue,

white3

w

,with a

white3clue,

Bob 🡲​

• There are 0clue tokens and no misfires.
• Alice really wants
  red2

  r

  ,with a

  red2clue,
  to play so that Bob can play all his marked cards.
• Alice blind plays her second slot and causes a misfire.
• Bob interprets this as a clue for him to play the same position in his hand.

Splash correction example

red3

r

,with a

red3clue,

yellow2

y

,with a

yellow2clue,

green2

g

,with a

green2clue,

blue2

b

,with a

blue2clue,

white2

w

,with a

white2clue,

Bob 🡲​

• Alice to Bob: these 2 cards are red.

red3

r

,with a

red3clue,

yellow2

y

,with a

yellow2clue,

green2

g

,with a

green2clue,

blue2

b

,with a

blue2clue,

white2

w

,with a

white2clue,

Bob 🡲​

• This marks
  red4

  r

  ,with a

  red4clue,
  as playable and splashes
  red3

  r

  ,with a

  red3clue,
  so that Bob knows it is trash.

Self prompt example

red​

r

,with a

red​clue,

yellow​

y

,with a

yellow​clue,

green​

g

,with a

green​clue,

blue​

b

,with a

blue​clue,

white​

w

,with a

white​clue,

Alice 🡲​ Bob 🡲​

• Bob to Alice: this card is red ⇨
  red1

  r

  ,with a

  red1clue,
• Alice to Bob: this card is red ⇨
  red2

  r

  ,with a

  red2clue,

Advanced moves

Discard clue

• A discard clue marks known trash cards to prevent an unwanted discard (or misfire).

Discard clue example

red1

r

,with a

red1clue,

yellow1

y

,with a

yellow1clue,

green1

g

,with a

green1clue,

blue1

b

,with a

blue1clue,

white1

w

,with a

white1clue,

Bob 🡲​

Discarded:

yellow3

y

,with a

yellow3clue,

white4

w

,with a

white4clue,

• yellow3

  y

  ,with a

  yellow3clue,
  and
  white4

  w

  ,with a

  white4clue,
  need to be saved.
• If Alice gives a 3 clue,
  white4

  w

  ,with a

  white4clue,
  might be discarded.
• Alice gives a 1 clue so that Bob discards
  red1

  r

  ,with a

  red1clue,
  and
  white1

  w

  ,with a

  white1clue,
  before his chop card.

Play refusal

• Instead of playing, a player clues or discards their chop.
• The next player must consider if the play refusal is waiting for a potential reverse or if there are unique card(s) to save.

Positional Discard

• In the endgame when you can see all remaining playable cards, you can use a positional discard to communicate the slot position in another hand.
• Typically used with 0clue tokens or where trash cards make it awkward to clue the target.

Positional discard example

red5

r

,with a

red5clue,

yellow5

y

,with a

yellow5clue,

green4

g

,with a

green4clue,

blue5

b

,with a

blue5clue,

white5

w

,with a

white5clue,

Bob 🡲​

• Alice discards slot 1
• Bob plays slot 1 ⇨
  green5

  g

  ,with a

  green5clue,

Long finesse

Long finesse example

​

• Alice to Bob: this card is a 4.

red1

r

,with a

red1clue,

yellow1

y

,with a

yellow1clue,

green1

g

,with a

green1clue,

blue​

b

,with a

blue​clue,

white​

w

,with a

white​clue,

Bob 🡲​ Cathy 🡲​

• Bob has been given a play clue and does not see a playable card in any hand, so Bob blind plays his draw card.
• white1

  w

  ,with a

  white1clue,
  successfully plays.
• Cathy sees that Bob has
  white2

  w

  ,with a

  white2clue,
  in front of
  white4

  w

  ,with a

  white4clue,
  but
  white3

  w

  ,with a

  white3clue,
  is missing, so Cathy knows she must play
  white3

  w

  ,with a

  white3clue,
  at the correct moment.
• Cathy discards, Alice discards and Bob blind plays his 2nd slot
  white2

  w

  ,with a

  white2clue,
  .

red1

r

,with a

red1clue,

yellow1

y

,with a

yellow1clue,

green1

g

,with a

green1clue,

blue​

b

,with a

blue​clue,

white2

w

,with a

white2clue,

Bob 🡲​ Cathy 🡲​

• Cathy blind plays her 2nd slot
  white3

  w

  ,with a

  white3clue,
  .
• Alice discards and Bob plays the marked
  white4

  w

  ,with a

  white4clue,
  .

Layered finesse

Layered finesse example

​

• Alice to Bob: these 2 cards are blue.

red1

r

,with a

red1clue,

yellow1

y

,with a

yellow1clue,

green1

g

,with a

green1clue,

blue​

b

,with a

blue​clue,

white4

w

,with a

white4clue,

Bob 🡲​ Cathy 🡲​

• Bob sees a playable
  blue1

  b

  ,with a

  blue1clue,
  in Cathy's hand, layered behind other playable cards
  red2

  r

  ,with a

  red2clue,
  and
  yellow2

  y

  ,with a

  yellow2clue,
  .
• Bob discards and Cathy blind plays for
  blue1

  b

  ,with a

  blue1clue,
  .
  red2

  r

  ,with a

  red2clue,
  successfully plays.
• Cathy knows this cannot be a bluff because Bob would not discard unless he sees a playable
  blue1

  b

  ,with a

  blue1clue,
  in Cathy's hand.
• So Cathy knows she is promised
  blue1

  b

  ,with a

  blue1clue,
  and keeps playing each slot from left to right until her
  blue1

  b

  ,with a

  blue1clue,
  is played.

Trash bluff

Trash bluff example

​

• Alice to Cathy: this card is a 1.

red1

r

,with a

red1clue,

yellow1

y

,with a

yellow1clue,

green1

g

,with a

green1clue,

blue1

b

,with a

blue1clue,

white​

w

,with a

white​clue,

Bob 🡲​ Cathy 🡲​

• Bob must act now to prevent a misfire of
  red1

  r

  ,with a

  red1clue,
  .
• Bob blind plays
  blue2

  b

  ,with a

  blue2clue,
  .
• Cathy knows Bob would not blind play for a playable 1, so Cathy now knows that her 1 is trash and this was a trash bluff.

Finesse bluff

• If the following two players both have a playable finesse position, you may be able to perform a finesse bluff.
• The first blind play connects to the target.
• The second blind play does not connect to the target.

Finesse bluff example

​

• Alice to Donald: this card is white.

red​

r

,with a

red​clue,

yellow​

y

,with a

yellow​clue,

green​

g

,with a

green​clue,

blue​

b

,with a

blue​clue,

white​

w

,with a

white​clue,

Bob 🡲​ Cathy 🡲​ Donald 🡲​

• Bob blind plays
  white1

  w

  ,with a

  white1clue,
  .
• Donald now thinks his white card is
  white2

  w

  ,with a

  white2clue,
  .
• Cathy must act now to prevent a misfire of
  white3

  w

  ,with a

  white3clue,
  .
• Cathy blind plays
  red1

  r

  ,with a

  red1clue,
  .
• With two blind plays, Donald now knows his white is
  white3

  w

  ,with a

  white3clue,
  and this was a finesse bluff.

Double bluff

• If the following two players both have a playable finesse position, you may be able to perform a double bluff.

Double bluff example

​

• Alice can bluff Bob's
  white1

  w

  ,with a

  white1clue,
  with a blue clue to Donald.
• Instead: Alice to Donald: this card is a 2.

red​

r

,with a

red​clue,

yellow​

y

,with a

yellow​clue,

green​

g

,with a

green​clue,

blue​

b

,with a

blue​clue,

white​

w

,with a

white​clue,

Bob 🡲​ Cathy 🡲​ Donald 🡲​

• Bob blind plays
  white1

  w

  ,with a

  white1clue,
• Without colour, Donald thinks his 2 is
  white2

  w

  ,with a

  white2clue,
  .
• Cathy must act now to prevent a misfire of
  blue2

  b

  ,with a

  blue2clue,
  .
• Cathy blind plays
  red1

  r

  ,with a

  red1clue,
  .
• With two blind plays, Donald now knows his 2 is not
  white2

  w

  ,with a

  white2clue,
  or
  red2

  r

  ,with a

  red2clue,
  and this was a double bluff.

Promise bluff

This move only applies to 1-away-from-playable bluff interpretations.

• Promise bluffs give more information than regular bluffs, as they promise the necessary connecting cards to make the clued bluff target 1-away-from-playable. These connecting cards must be either marked or unmarked in finesse position.

Promise bluff example

​

• Alice to Cathy: this card is white.

red1

r

,with a

red1clue,

yellow1

y

,with a

yellow1clue,

green1

g

,with a

green1clue,

blue1

b

,with a

blue1clue,

white1

w

,with a

white1clue,

Bob 🡲​ Cathy 🡲​

• Bob must act now to prevent a misfire of
  white4

  w

  ,with a

  white4clue,
  .
• Bob blind plays
  blue2

  b

  ,with a

  blue2clue,
  and the bluff is revealed.
• Cathy sees Bob's
  white3

  w

  ,with a

  white3clue,
  was in finesse position behind
  blue2

  b

  ,with a

  blue2clue,
  , so now knows that her marked card is either
  white4

  w

  ,with a

  white4clue,
  or
  white3

  w

  ,with a

  white3clue,
  .
• Bob knows that for the bluff target to be a valid 1-away-from playable, he is also promised
  white3

  w

  ,with a

  white3clue,
  in his slot 2.

Empty clue double save

• With not enough ​clue tokens or turns to save consecutive unique cards, an empty clue can save two chop cards.

Double save example

red2

r

,with a

red2clue,

yellow1

y

,with a

yellow1clue,

green2

g

,with a

green2clue,

blue2

b

,with a

blue2clue,

white1

w

,with a

white1clue,

Alice 🡲​ Bob 🡲​

Discarded:

yellow3

y

,with a

yellow3clue,

green4

g

,with a

green4clue,

• yellow3

  y

  ,with a

  yellow3clue,
  and
  green4

  g

  ,with a

  green4clue,
  need to be saved.
• If Alice gives a 3 clue,
  green4

  g

  ,with a

  green4clue,
  might be discarded.
• A 2 clue will cause a misfire of
  blue2

  b

  ,with a

  blue2clue,
  .
• Alice gives an empty clue (e.g. 1 or 5 or white).
• Bob knows that if Alice did not play her
  white2

  w

  ,with a

  white2clue,
  , this empty clue must mean something.
• Bob does not have a playable card and knows Alice could have saved his chop card with this clue token.
• Bob interprets this as 'do not discard two chop cards' and discards
  red2

  r

  ,with a

  red2clue,
  .