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 red2r,with a red 2clue, was played and the second red2r,with a red 2clue, 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

1cards in the deck red5r,with a red 5clue, yellow5y,with a yellow 5clue, green3g,with a green 3clue, blue4b,with a blue 4clue, white5w,with a white 5clue,

red3r,with a red 3clue,yellow1y,with a yellow 1clue,green1g,with a green 1clue,blue5b,with a blue 5clue, Bob 🡲 green2g,with a green 2clue,red1r,with a red 1clue,green4g,with a green 4clue,green5g,with a green 5clue, Cathy 🡲

• Alice and Bob both give empty clues e.g. "to Cathy: you have no white card".
• Cathy plays green4g,with a green 4clue, and draws the last card.
• Alice discards, Bob plays blue5b,with a blue 5clue, and Cathy plays green5g,with a green 5clue,.

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.

redr,with a red clue, yellow3y,with a yellow 3clue, green3g,with a green 3clue, blue3b,with a blue 3clue, white3w,with a white 3clue, red2r,with a red 2clue,yellow1y,with a yellow 1clue,white1w,with a white 1clue,blue3b,with a blue 3clue, Alice 🡲 blue1b,with a blue 1clue,yellow5y,with a yellow 5clue,white5w,with a white 5clue,blue4b,with a blue 4clue, Bob 🡲 red1r,with a red 1clue,white4w,with a white 4clue,white4w,with a white 4clue,white3w,with a white 3clue, Cathy 🡲

• If Alice discarded instead, Bob would have clued Alice red to finesse red1r,with a red 1clue, and red2r,with a red 2clue,.

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

red1r,with a red 1clue, yellow1y,with a yellow 1clue, green1g,with a green 1clue, blue1b,with a blue 1clue, white1w,with a white 1clue,

white1w,with a white 1clue,yellow2y,with a yellow 2clue,white2w,with a white 2clue,red2r,with a red 2clue, Bob 🡲 white2w,with a white 2clue,red1r,with a red 1clue,blue2b,with a blue 2clue,green1g,with a green 1clue, Cathy 🡲

• Alice skips Bob to give Cathy a blue clue so that a duplicate white2w,with a white 2clue, is not marked.

A good skip example 2

red1r,with a red 1clue, yellow1y,with a yellow 1clue, green1g,with a green 1clue, blue1b,with a blue 1clue, white1w,with a white 1clue,

white1w,with a white 1clue,yellow2y,with a yellow 2clue,white2w,with a white 2clue,red2r,with a red 2clue, Bob 🡲 yellow4y,with a yellow 4clue,white2w,with a white 2clue,red1r,with a red 1clue,blue2b,with a blue 2clue, Cathy 🡲

• Alice skips Bob to give Cathy a blue clue because Bob has let let blue2b,with a blue 2clue, 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.

Skipped players cannot discard example 1

​

• Alice skips Bob to give Cathy a 1 clue.

redr,with a red clue, yellowy,with a yellow clue, greeng,with a green clue, blueb,with a blue clue, whitew,with a white clue, yellow1y,with a yellow 1clue,yellow2y,with a yellow 2clue,white2w,with a white 2clue,red2r,with a red 2clue, Bob 🡲 white2w,with a white 2clue,red1r,with a red 1clue,blue2b,with a blue 2clue,red4r,with a red 4clue, Cathy 🡲

• Bob has no clue to give and no known play, so he blind plays his newest unmarked card.
• yellow1y,with a yellow 1clue, does not connect to 1, so Cathy interprets Bob's move as a skip play and plays red1r,with a red 1clue,.

Skipped players cannot discard example 2: bluff

​

Alice to Cathy: this card is red.

red1r,with a red 1clue, yellow1y,with a yellow 1clue, green1g,with a green 1clue, blueb,with a blue clue, whitew,with a white clue, blue1b,with a blue 1clue,yellow2y,with a yellow 2clue,white2w,with a white 2clue,red2r,with a red 2clue, Bob 🡲 yellow4y,with a yellow 4clue,red3r,with a red 3clue,white3w,with a white 3clue,blue2b,with a blue 2clue, Cathy 🡲

• Cathy now knows her marked card red3r,with a red 3clue, is playable.
• Bob does not see the connecting red2r,with a red 2clue,, so assumes he has to play it now.
• Bob does not have a marked card that could be red2r,with a red 2clue,, so Bob blind plays his newest unmarked card.
• blue1b,with a blue 1clue, successfully plays and the bluff is revealed.
• Before Bob played, Cathy thought her marked card was red2r,with a red 2clue,.
• After Bob plays, Cathy knows her marked card is any valuable red (red3r,with a red 3clue,, red4r,with a red 4clue, or red5r,with a red 5clue,).

Skipped players cannot discard example 3: lie i.e. don't do this

​

Alice skips Bob to give Cathy a 3 clue.

red2r,with a red 2clue, yellowy,with a yellow clue, greeng,with a green clue, blueb,with a blue clue, whitew,with a white clue, yellow1y,with a yellow 1clue,yellow2y,with a yellow 2clue,white2w,with a white 2clue,red2r,with a red 2clue, Bob 🡲 white2w,with a white 2clue,red3r,with a red 3clue,blue2b,with a blue 2clue,red4r,with a red 4clue, Cathy 🡲

• Bob has no clue to give and no known play, so he blind plays his newest unmarked card.
• In this convention, yellow1y,with a yellow 1clue, does not connect to 3, so Cathy interprets as a bluff and her 3 is not playable.
• This is a lie because red3r,with a red 3clue, is playable.
• Instead, Alice should have discarded and allowed Bob to clue Cathy so that she knows her red3r,with a red 3clue, 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 1 clue 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 powder 1clue, is only marked on chop unless all other 1s (or black powder2,with a black powder 2clue,) 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 powder 5clue, on chop. In a following turn the 5 to the left of black powder5,with a black powder 5clue, is marked with colour to play black powder5,with a black powder 5clue,.
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 red5r,with a red 5clue, before playing as red5r,with a red 5clue,.
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 marked 4 may be discarded.
11. Black Powder: avoid discarding after an early game black powder1,with a black powder 1clue, or 5 save to allow for consecutive black powder1,with a black powder 1clue, and colour 5 saves.

Early game

1. At least 3 clue tokens are used before the first discard.
2. Black Powder: black powder5,with a black powder 5clue, is marked first if it is the leftmost 5.
3. 2s are marked next.
   • Black Powder: black powder4,with a black powder 4clue, 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.

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Clued misplay example

red1r,with a red 1clue, yellow3y,with a yellow 3clue, green3g,with a green 3clue, blue3b,with a blue 3clue, white3w,with a white 3clue,

blue1b,with a blue 1clue,red1r,with a red 1clue,blue2b,with a blue 2clue,red4r,with a red 4clue,red5r,with a red 5clue, Bob 🡲 Discarded: red4r,with a red 4clue,

• There are no misfires.
• Alice needs to save red5r,with a red 5clue, and red4r,with a red 4clue,.
• Alice to Bob: these 3 cards are red.

red1r,with a red 1clue, yellow3y,with a yellow 3clue, green3g,with a green 3clue, blue3b,with a blue 3clue, white3w,with a white 3clue, blue1b,with a blue 1clue,red1r,with a red 1clue,blue2b,with a blue 2clue,red4r,with a red 4clue,red5r,with a red 5clue, Bob 🡲 Discarded: red4r,with a red 4clue,

• Bob misfires red1r,with a red 1clue, as red2r,with a red 2clue,.
• Bob interprets this as a clued misplay to save the remaining red cards.

Scream discard example

red1r,with a red 1clue, yellow4y,with a yellow 4clue, green2g,with a green 2clue, blue2b,with a blue 2clue, white2w,with a white 2clue,

card back,with a clue,card back,with a clue,card back,with a clue,card back,with a clue,card back5,with a 5clue, Alice 🡲 yellow1y,with a yellow 1clue,green5g,with a green 5clue,blue5b,with a blue 5clue,white5w,with a white 5clue,red5r,with a red 5clue, Bob 🡲

• There are 0 clue tokens but Alice needs to save blue5b,with a blue 5clue, and green5g,with a green 5clue,.
• Alice discards her chop + 1 = 3rd slot while she has yellow5y,with a yellow 5clue, 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 yellow1y,with a yellow 1clue,.

Positional misplay example

red1r,with a red 1clue, yellow3y,with a yellow 3clue, green3g,with a green 3clue, blue3b,with a blue 3clue, white3w,with a white 3clue,

red1r,with a red 1clue,red2r,with a red 2clue,red3r,with a red 3clue,red4r,with a red 4clue,red5r,with a red 5clue, Bob 🡲

• There are 0 clue tokens and no misfires.
• Alice really wants red2r,with a red 2clue, 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

red3r,with a red 3clue, yellow2y,with a yellow 2clue, green2g,with a green 2clue, blue2b,with a blue 2clue, white2w,with a white 2clue,

red4r,with a red 4clue,red3r,with a red 3clue,white3w,with a white 3clue,blue3b,with a blue 3clue,blue5b,with a blue 5clue, Bob 🡲

• Alice to Bob: these 2 cards are red.

red3r,with a red 3clue, yellow2y,with a yellow 2clue, green2g,with a green 2clue, blue2b,with a blue 2clue, white2w,with a white 2clue, red4r,with a red 4clue,red3r,with a red 3clue,white3w,with a white 3clue,blue3b,with a blue 3clue,blue5b,with a blue 5clue, Bob 🡲

• This marks red4r,with a red 4clue, as playable and splashes red3r,with a red 3clue, so that Bob knows it is trash.

Self prompt example

redr,with a red clue, yellowy,with a yellow clue, greeng,with a green clue, blueb,with a blue clue, whitew,with a white clue,

card back,with a clue,card back,with a clue,card back,with a clue,card back,with a clue,card back1,with a 1clue, Alice 🡲 white4w,with a white 4clue,yellow4y,with a yellow 4clue,green4g,with a green 4clue,green4g,with a green 4clue,red2r,with a red 2clue, Bob 🡲

• Bob to Alice: this card is red ⇨ red1r,with a red 1clue,
• Alice to Bob: this card is red ⇨ red2r,with a red 2clue,

Advanced moves

Discard clue / Know Trash Clue

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

Discard clue example

red1r,with a red 1clue, yellow1y,with a yellow 1clue, green1g,with a green 1clue, blue1b,with a blue 1clue, white1w,with a white 1clue,

white1w,with a white 1clue,red1r,with a red 1clue,white4w,with a white 4clue,yellow3y,with a yellow 3clue, Bob 🡲 Discarded: yellow3y,with a yellow 3clue,white4w,with a white 4clue,

• yellow3y,with a yellow 3clue, and white4w,with a white 4clue, need to be saved.
• If Alice gives a 3 clue, white4w,with a white 4clue, might be discarded.
• Alice gives a 1 clue so that Bob discards red1r,with a red 1clue, and white1w,with a white 1clue, 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 0 clue tokens or where trash cards make it awkward to clue the target.

Positional discard example

red5r,with a red 5clue, yellow5y,with a yellow 5clue, green4g,with a green 4clue, blue5b,with a blue 5clue, white5w,with a white 5clue,

green5g,with a green 5clue,blue2b,with a blue 2clue,red4r,with a red 4clue,blue3b,with a blue 3clue, Bob 🡲

• Alice discards slot 1
• Bob plays slot 1 ⇨ green5g,with a green 5clue,

Trash bluff

Trash bluff example

​

• Alice to Cathy: this card is a 1.

red1r,with a red 1clue, yellow1y,with a yellow 1clue, green1g,with a green 1clue, blue1b,with a blue 1clue, whitew,with a white clue, blue2b,with a blue 2clue,yellow4y,with a yellow 4clue,green4g,with a green 4clue,red4r,with a red 4clue, Bob 🡲 red1r,with a red 1clue,white2w,with a white 2clue,red2r,with a red 2clue,yellow5y,with a yellow 5clue, Cathy 🡲

• Bob must act now to prevent a misfire of red1r,with a red 1clue,.
• Bob blind plays blue2b,with a blue 2clue,.
• 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.

redr,with a red clue, yellowy,with a yellow clue, greeng,with a green clue, blueb,with a blue clue, whitew,with a white clue, white1w,with a white 1clue,yellow4y,with a yellow 4clue,green4g,with a green 4clue,blue4b,with a blue 4clue, Bob 🡲 red1r,with a red 1clue,white4w,with a white 4clue,green4g,with a green 4clue,green3g,with a green 3clue, Cathy 🡲 red4r,with a red 4clue,white3w,with a white 3clue,yellow3y,with a yellow 3clue,blue2b,with a blue 2clue, Donald 🡲

• Bob blind plays white1w,with a white 1clue,.
• Donald now thinks his white card is white2w,with a white 2clue,.
• Cathy must act now to prevent a misfire of white3w,with a white 3clue,.
• Cathy blind plays red1r,with a red 1clue,.
• With two blind plays, Donald now knows his white is white3w,with a white 3clue, 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 white1w,with a white 1clue, with a blue clue to Donald.
• Instead: Alice to Donald: this card is a 2.

redr,with a red clue, yellowy,with a yellow clue, greeng,with a green clue, blueb,with a blue clue, whitew,with a white clue, white1w,with a white 1clue,yellow4y,with a yellow 4clue,green4g,with a green 4clue,blue4b,with a blue 4clue, Bob 🡲 red1r,with a red 1clue,white4w,with a white 4clue,green4g,with a green 4clue,green3g,with a green 3clue, Cathy 🡲 red3r,with a red 3clue,white3w,with a white 3clue,yellow3y,with a yellow 3clue,blue2b,with a blue 2clue, Donald 🡲

• Bob blind plays white1w,with a white 1clue,
• Without colour, Donald thinks his 2 is white2w,with a white 2clue,.
• Cathy must act now to prevent a misfire of blue2b,with a blue 2clue,.
• Cathy blind plays red1r,with a red 1clue,.
• With two blind plays, Donald now knows his 2 is not white2w,with a white 2clue, or red2r,with a red 2clue, 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.

red1r,with a red 1clue, yellow1y,with a yellow 1clue, green1g,with a green 1clue, blue1b,with a blue 1clue, white1w,with a white 1clue, blue2b,with a blue 2clue,white3w,with a white 3clue,green4g,with a green 4clue,red4r,with a red 4clue, Bob 🡲 red1r,with a red 1clue,white4w,with a white 4clue,red2r,with a red 2clue,yellow5y,with a yellow 5clue, Cathy 🡲

• Bob must act now to prevent a misfire of white4w,with a white 4clue,.
• Bob blind plays blue2b,with a blue 2clue, and the bluff is revealed.
• Cathy sees Bob's white3w,with a white 3clue, was in finesse position behind blue2b,with a blue 2clue,, so now knows that her marked card is either white4w,with a white 4clue, or white3w,with a white 3clue,.
• Bob knows that for the bluff target to be a valid 1-away-from playable, he is also promised white3w,with a white 3clue, 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

red2r,with a red 2clue, yellow1y,with a yellow 1clue, green2g,with a green 2clue, blue2b,with a blue 2clue, white1w,with a white 1clue,

card back,with a clue,card back2,with a 2clue,card back,with a clue,card back,with a clue, Alice 🡲 blue2b,with a blue 2clue,red2r,with a red 2clue,green4g,with a green 4clue,yellow3y,with a yellow 3clue, Bob 🡲 Discarded: yellow3y,with a yellow 3clue,green4g,with a green 4clue,

• yellow3y,with a yellow 3clue, and green4g,with a green 4clue, need to be saved.
• If Alice gives a 3 clue, green4g,with a green 4clue, might be discarded.
• A 2 clue will cause a misfire of blue2b,with a blue 2clue,.
• Alice gives an empty clue (e.g. 1 or 5 or white).
• Bob knows that if Alice did not play her white2w,with a white 2clue,, 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 red2r,with a red 2clue,.

More

This tips page is brief to keep it concise. For more moves, convention and strategy check out:

• Sammy's BGA wiki
• Romain's Google doc.