User talk:Sammy McSam

Overview

• Hanabi is a cooperative game. Your goal, as a team, is to build a fabulous fireworks show.
• You have to put together fireworks (red, yellow, green, blue and white) by playing each individual colour in series (1 ⇨ 2 ⇨ 3 ⇨ 4 ⇨ 5).

• You cannot see your own cards; you can only see the cards of your teammates.
• You can only communicate with your teammates via clues, playing and discarding cards (see below).
• No other communication is allowed.

Final Score Ratings

Points	Overall impression
0-5	horrible, booed by the crowd...
6-10	mediocre, just a spattering of applause.
11-15	honourable, but will not be remembered for very long...
16-20	excellent, crowd pleasing.
21-24	amazing, will be remembered for a very long time!
25-29	legendary, everyone left speechless, stars in their eyes!
30	Divine, the display outshines the stars!

Setup

​clue tokens clue tokens

# cards dealt to each player

# Players	2	3	4	5
# Cards (official)	5	5	4	4
# Cards (unofficial variant)	6	5	4	3

Options

Colors

Normal: 5 colors

50 cards

Red (r)	111	22	33	44	5
Yellow (y)	111	22	33	44	5
Green (g)	111	22	33	44	5
Blue (b)	111	22	33	44	5
White (w)	111	22	33	44	5

Tricky: 6th color (10 cards)

• These cards are marked by a separate multicolour clue.

+10 cards

Multicolour (m)	111	22	33	44	5

Difficult: 6th color (5 cards)

• These cards are marked by a separate multicolour clue.

+5 cards

Multicolour (m)	1	2	3	4	5

Avalanche of Colors: Multicolor (10 multicolor)

• These cards are marked by any colour clue.

+10 cards

Multicolour (m)	111	22	33	44	5

Black Powder

• Clues cannot be given for the colour black.
• Black cards must be played in reverse order 5 ⇨ 4 ⇨ 3 ⇨ 2 ⇨ 1.

+10 cards

Black Powder (k)	555	44	33	22	1

Five Flamboyants

After playing the last card of a colour, one of the following bonuses is randomly selected without replacement for immediate use:

Bonuses

Regular	Gain ​clue tokens
Flamboyants	Gain ​clue tokens and recover a life. Give a colour clue. Give a number clue. Shuffle a discarded card into the deck (optional). Play a discarded card (optional).

Game play

Players take turns to either:

• Give a clue
• Play a card, or
• Discard a card

Clue

Possible with at least ​clue tokens available:

• All cards of a colour, or
• All cards of a number, or
• No cards of a colour, e.g. "Player1 to Player2: you have no red card" or
• No cards of a number e.g. "Player1 to Player2: you have no 5"

1. The active player selects a card in another player's hand.
2. The active player selects a clue option.
3. ​clue tokens is moved from 'available' to 'used'.

Play

1. The active player selects a card in their hand.
2. The active player selects the 'Play selected card' button.

   • If the played card fits in any of the sequences, it is placed in the appropriate colour stack on the table.

   • If the played card does not fit, it is placed in the discard pile and the team gets a misfire token.

3. A replacement card is drawn.

Discard

Possible with fewer than ​clue tokens available:

1. The active player selects a card in their hand.
2. The active player selects the 'Discard selected card' button.
3. The discarded card is placed in the discard pile.
4. ​clue tokens is moved from 'used' to 'available'.
5. A replacement card is drawn.

Game end

The game can end in several ways:

• All cards have been drawn from the deck. After this happens, each player has one more turn. The game ends with the score after the last turn.
• Your team played all possible cards. In this case, the game ends immediately.
• Your team made three mistakes that caused misfires. In this case, all players lose the game and receive -10 ELO points.
• Your team concedes the game. All players receive -10 ELO points.
• A player quits the game. Only the player that quit first receives -10 ELO points. All other players' ELO is unchanged.

ELO rating

1. Hanabot's ELO is generated from:
   • Final score¹
   • Average team ELO
   • Colour option²
2. ELO change is calculated as if tied with Hanabot³.

Hanabots' ELO ratings were set by an experienced player - i.e. ratings are not random or simply proportional to score or players' ELO.

¹Hanabot's ELO = 1000 with scores <18 (5 colours) and <21 (6 colours).

²+5 card multicolor option is unrated (too dependent on draw to reflect skill).

³ELO change with a perfect score is calculated as if Hanabot lost.

Cheating

• Players can cheat at Hanabi by sharing information via the chat user interface. This is why ranking has been disabled for this game.

Conventions

• There are not enough ​clue tokens to clue both colour and number of every played card, so the team must agree on a set of clue, play and discard interpretations, known as a convention.
• Many players use different conventions and if teammates have very different clue interpretations, the game becomes unsuccessful.
• Read about some of the most common conventions in this forum post by Romain672.

Note: the BGA list of conventions does not cover all conventions, so please respect the convention the table creator wants to play. This is why there is an option to display the convention for the table.

Definitions

Marked: A card that is highlighted by a clue.

Focus: The target card of a clue.

Play clue: Clue that marks a focused card to play.

Playable: A card that can be marked by a play clue.

Trash: A card that can never be played successfully.

Bomb: A play that causes a misfire.

Draw: The newest card in a hand.

Chop: The oldest, unmarked card in a hand.

Unique: The last remaining card of its rank and colour (that can be played successfully at some point).

Save: A (number) clue that marks a chop card to prevent discard.

Early save: A save clue with a known playable card in the same hand, or does not mark the chop card¹. i.e. a play clue.

Double save: Two consecutive saves in the same hand.

Double discard: Two consecutive players discard copies of the same chop card, resulting in a unique discard. A special problem, since, to each of the consecutive players, a number clue that marks their chop card does not look like a save clue (and therefore looks like a play clue).

Splash: Additional new colour or rank information of cards that are not the focus.

Fix clue: Follow-up clue required to change the focus of a play clue (and prevent a misfire).

Discard clue: Clue that marks trash card(s) to be discarded (to prevent a misfire or unwanted discard).

Good Touch Principle: All marked cards will eventually be played.

Prompt: A play clue that causes connecting marked card(s) to play.

Finesse: A play clue that causes connecting unmarked card(s) to play.

Bluff: A play clue that causes a non-connecting unmarked card to play immediately.

Bluff seat: The player directly before the player who is bluffed.

Bottom-decked: When the remaining copy of a playable card is too near the bottom of the deck to achieve a perfect score.

Skip / steal: When a player gives a clue that could have been given by one of the skipped players.

Convention: Agreed set of clue, play and discard interpretations. e.g. a number clue that marks the chop card should be interpreted as a unique card save (if there is a unique card of that number).

Strategy: Plan to achieve the highest score. e.g. to mark first copies of cards.

Standard Convention

Players assume:

• Every marked card will be playable at some point.
• The oldest, unmarked (chop) card is safe to discard.
• Cards known to be trash are discarded in priority e.g. cards marked blue when the blue stack is completed.

Play clue

• A clue that does not mark a (unique) chop card¹.
• Focus is the newest card.

Priority:

1. Lead to plays in other hands.
2. Lower rank.

Save clue

• A (number) clue that marks a (unique) chop card¹.
• Focus is the chop card.

Priority:

1. Lower rank.
2. Older.

¹Exception: 2 player game with 2+ consecutive saves.

Fix clue

• A follow-up clue on the same hand as an initial play clue.
• Required to change the focus (and prevent a misfire).

Fix clue example 1

2 5 5 5 5

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

1

1

2

4

Bob 🡲

4

5

3

3

Cathy 🡲

• Cathy's 3 must play next.
• The focus of a 3 clue on its own will be 3 and the focus of a red     clue will be 5.
• Alice to Cathy: these 2 cards are red    .

2 5 5 5 5

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

1

1

2

4

Bob 🡲

4

5

3

3

Cathy 🡲

• Bob to Cathy: these 2 cards are 3s - this fix clue changes the focus from 5 to 3 (now visible).

2 5 5 5 5

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

1

1

2

4

Bob 🡲

3

3

4

5

3

3

Cathy 🡲

Fix clue example 2

   1            

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

5

4

3

5

Bob 🡲

4

4

2

2

Cathy 🡲

• Avalanche of colors option is on, so multicolour cards are marked by any colour clue.
• Cathy's 2 should play before it is discarded.
• The focus of a 2 clue on its own will be 2 and the focus of a yellow     clue will also be 2.

• Alice to Cathy: these 2 cards are yellow    .

   1            

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

5

4

3

5

Bob 🡲

4

4

2

2

Cathy 🡲

• Bob to Cathy: these 2 cards are 2s - this fix clue changes the focus from the left 2 to the other 2.

   1            

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

5

4

3

5

Bob 🡲

2

2

4

4

2

2

Cathy 🡲

• Note: if a multicolour card is the intended target of a play clue, the clearest clue would be a colour that does not splash any other card.

Bad clue

• Mark 0 new cards and no information.
• Tell a lie e.g. a clue that marks 2 as playable without the required 1.
• Mark unknown trash or duplicate cards e.g. mark    s in another hand when your hand could have a copy of that    .

Sometimes, a "bad" clue cannot be avoided e.g. a colour clue from a flamboyant must be used and marks 0 new cards.

Standard convention: Play clue

1 5 1 3 4

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

5

2

4

3

5

Bob 🡲

4

1

4

3

Cathy 🡲

• Alice to Bob: these 2 cards are red    .
• Bob now knows his newest card is the next playable in the sequence (2), and the other marked card is 3, 4 or 5 (because every marked card will be playable at some point).

Standard convention: Prompt

2 5 1 3 4

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

5

5

4

3

5

Bob 🡲

2

4

1

4

Cathy 🡲

• Alice to Cathy: this card is red    .
• Cathy now knows her marked card is the next playable in the sequence ⇨ 4, because 3 is already marked.
• Bob now knows his marked red card is 3 and he must play it now.

Finesse Convention

Players assume:

• Standard convention
• Play clues may also include the newest, unmarked cards in every hand.

Finesse example

              

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

1

5

3

1

Bob 🡲

5

2

2

2

Cathy 🡲

• Alice to Cathy: this card is blue    .
• Cathy now knows her marked card 2 is playable.
• Bob does not see the connecting 1, so assumes he has to play it now.
• Bob does not have a marked card that could be 1, so Bob blind plays his newest unmarked card.
• 1 successfully plays.

Reversed finesse example

              

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

5

2

2

2

Bob 🡲

1

5

3

1

Cathy 🡲

• Alice to Bob: this card is blue    .
• Bob now knows his marked 2 is playable.
• Bob sees the newest, unmarked card in Cathy's hand is of the same colour and playable now. Bob assumes it is a finesse with the players in reversed order and his blue card is 2.

Bluff example

              

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

1

5

3

1

Bob 🡲

5

2

2

2

Cathy 🡲

• Alice to Cathy: this card is blue    .
• Cathy now knows her marked card 2 is playable.
• Bob does not see the connecting 1, so assumes he has to play it now.
• Bob does not have a marked card that could be 1, so Bob blind plays his newest unmarked card.
• 1 successfully plays and the bluff is revealed.
• Before Bob played, Cathy thought her marked card was 1.
• After Bob plays, Cathy knows her marked card is another valuable blue card.

All conventions interpret Cathy's card as a valuable, not-yet-playable blue card.

Some interpretations are more stringent, also must be a 1-away-from-playable 2.

If a marked card is discarded it means:

• A copy of that card is already marked in someone else's hand; or
• A copy of that card must be marked in a future save clue; or
• An unmarked copy of that card is playable (known as gentleman's discard)

Tips_hanabi major revision

Refer to Game Help Definitions

Example Strategies

• Mark as many first copy cards as possible.
• Prioritise lower rank cards.
• Keep nice-to-have (non-unique) cards in the game to reduce the risk of being bottom-decked.
• Mark 12 cards with the first ​clue tokens.
• Don't use the last ​clue tokens for single card plays.

Average clue tokens per played card

Imagine the end of an 'ideal' game (without flamboyants):

---

👤​players✋​cards in hand55555:

50 (deck) ➖ 25 (played) ➖ 12 (👤​players× at least✋​cards in hand) 🟰 13 discards

​clue tokens (discards) ➕ ​clue tokens (start) ➕ ​clue tokens (55555) ➖ ​clue tokens (   ) 🟰 ​clue tokens

​clue tokens ➗ 25 🟰 ​clue tokens /   

---

👤​players✋​cards in hand55555 ⇨ ​clue tokens ➗ 25 🟰 ​clue tokens /   

---

👤​players✋​cards in hand5555551 ⇨ ​clue tokens ➗ 35 🟰 ​clue tokens /   

Basic rule #0: thinking

• Check visible cards, including played and discarded to determine the focus and the meaning of a clue.
  • e.g. you are given a     clue. You see 2 was played and the second 2 is in another hand. Therefore the clue means "   s which are not red".
  • e.g. you are given a     clue that marks only your chop. You see no    s have been discarded and no    s on the chop of the players next to you. Therefore the clue means "this     is playable".

Basic rule #1: cluing

• Don't mark trash cards
• 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.

Basic rule #2: 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.

Basic rule #3: 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).

Basic rule #4: triggering the final round

• Sometimes a specific player should draw the last card to maximise the score.
• Giving useless (empty) clues can help to manage which player draws last card.

Last card example

    5 5 3 4 5

5

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

3

1

1

3

Bob 🡲

4

5

2

1

4

5

Cathy 🡲

• Alice and Bob both give empty clues e.g. "to Cathy: you have no white card".
• Cathy plays 4 and draws the last card.
• Alice plays 5.
• Bob discards.
• Cathy plays 5.

Example

              

1

1

2

2

Alice 🡲

1

1

3

1

Bob 🡲

1

4

4

3

Cathy 🡲

​clue tokens

• Alice can clue     to Bob, but that will mark a second, trash 1, so it's not the best option.

1. Alice to Cathy: this card is blue    

              

1

1

2

2

Alice 🡲

1

1

3

1

Bob 🡲

1

4

4

3

Cathy 🡲

​clue tokens

2. Bob to Alice: these 2 cards are    s

              

1

1

1

1

2

2

Alice 🡲

1

1

3

1

Bob 🡲

1

4

4

3

Cathy 🡲

​clue tokens

3. Cathy plays 1

         1   

1

1

1

1

2

2

Alice 🡲

1

1

3

1

Bob 🡲

1

4

4

3

Cathy 🡲

​clue tokens

4. Alice plays 1

         1 1

1

4

1

2

2

Alice 🡲

1

1

3

1

Bob 🡲

1

4

4

3

Cathy 🡲

​clue tokens

5. Bob to Cathy: these 3 cards are red    

         1 1

1

4

1

2

2

Alice 🡲

1

1

3

1

Bob 🡲

1

4

4

3

Cathy 🡲

​clue tokens

6. Cathy plays 1

1       1 1

1

4

1

2

2

Alice 🡲

1

1

3

1

Bob 🡲

5

4

4

3

Cathy 🡲

​clue tokens

7. Alice plays 1

1 1    1 1

3

4

2

2

Alice 🡲

1

1

3

1

Bob 🡲

5

4

4

3

Cathy 🡲

​clue tokens

8. Bob discards 1

1 1    1 1

3

4

2

2

Alice 🡲

2

1

1

3

Bob 🡲

5

4

4

3

Cathy 🡲

​clue tokens

9. Cathy to Bob: these 2 cards are    s

1 1    1 1

3

4

2

2

Alice 🡲

1

1

2

1

1

3

Bob 🡲

5

4

4

3

Cathy 🡲

​clue tokens

10. Alice discards 2

1 1    1 1

4

3

4

2

Alice 🡲

1

1

2

1

1

3

Bob 🡲

5

4

4

3

Cathy 🡲

​clue tokens

11. Bob plays 1

1 1 1 1 1

4

3

4

2

Alice 🡲

1

5

2

1

3

Bob 🡲

5

4

4

3

Cathy 🡲

​clue tokens

12. Cathy to Alice: this card is a    

1 1 1 1 1

2

4

3

4

2

Alice 🡲

1

5

2

1

3

Bob 🡲

5

4

4

3

Cathy 🡲

​clue tokens

Advanced Moves

Discard clue

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

Discard clue example

1 1 1 1 1

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

1

1

4

3

Bob 🡲

Discarded: 34

• 3 and 4 need to be saved.
• If Alice gives a     clue, 4 might be discarded.
• Alice gives a     clue so that Bob discards 1 and 1 before his chop card.

Play refusal

• When you have a card to play and the next player’s chop card is unique but you have ​clue tokens to tell them, you can discard your chop card.

• Always try to give the team at least ​clue tokens or help them play their hand as fast as possible.
• So the next player must interpret this play refusal as their chop card is unique.

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 ​clue tokens or where trash cards make it awkward to clue the target.

Positional discard example

5 5 4 5 5

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

5

2

4

3

Bob 🡲

​clue tokens

• Alice discards slot 1
• Bob plays slot 1 ⇨ 5

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

2 1 2 1 1

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

2

2

4

3

Bob 🡲

Discarded: 34

• 3 and 4 need to be saved.
• If Alice gives a     clue, 4 might be discarded.
• A     clue will cause a misfire of 2.
• Alice gives an empty clue (e.g.     or     or white    ).
• Bob knows that a clue that marks 0 new cards is a bad clue, so this empty clue must mean something.
• Bob does not have anything to play now and knows Alice could have saved his chop card with this clue.
• Bob interprets this as 'do not discard two chop cards' and discards 2.

3+ Players

Skip / steal

• 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

   3 3 3 3

2

1

1

3

Alice 🡲

1

5

5

4

Bob 🡲

1

4

4

3

Cathy 🡲

• Alice skips Bob to clue Cathy red     to play 1.
• If Alice discarded instead, Bob would have clued Alice red     to finesse 1 and 2.

• Skipping players can give other players the time to play, discard or clue more cards.
• There are two main interpretations of skipping to give a play clue.

a) Skip / steal ⇨ 'discard'

By skipping players at good moments, nice-to-have (non-unique) cards are kept in the game for longer.

Good reasons for skipping players:

• To discard a duplicate playable card so that the other copy can be marked with good touch.
• Most or all of the skipped player(s) cards are trash.
• Avoid double discards.
• All cards in the clue-giver's hand are marked without any immediate plays.
• The skipped player(s) may give a bad clue e.g. mark    s when they already have a marked copy of a    .
• The skipped player(s) may not give a good clue because they think it might be a bad clue e.g. let a     be discarded when they already have    s marked.
• The skipped player(s) need to give a fix clue.

This can work well for a team who play efficiently and are not short of ​clue tokens.

A good skip example 1

1 1 1 1 1

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

2

2

2

1

2

2

2

Bob 🡲

2

1

2

3

Cathy 🡲

• Alice skips Bob to give Cathy a green     clue so that a duplicate 2 is not marked.

A good skip example 2

1 1 1 1 1

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

2

2

2

4

2

2

2

Bob 🡲

4

1

3

2

Cathy 🡲

• Alice skips Bob to give Cathy a green     clue because Bob has let let 2 reach chop and does not want to mark it because he might hold a copy.

b) Skip / steal ⇨ 'play'

A more stringent interpretation of skipping in finesse convention is that the skipped player(s) cannot discard.

• If a skipped player has no marked playable cards and no good clue to give, it means blind play their newest, unmarked card.
• Skipping to give a save clue is not a finesse, and should be used:
  • to save "nice-to-have" cards³;
  • to prevent a double discard⁴;
  • to speed up the discard of trash cards⁵.

This can work well for a team who are short of ​clue tokens.

³non-unique saves cause information desynchronisation

⁴a double discard avoidance save clue is less likely to cause a misfire when given by the last possible player

⁵contradiction of Skip / steal ⇨ 'play'

Example 1: lie

2            

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

1

2

2

2

Bob 🡲

3

2

3

2

3

Cathy 🡲

• Alice skips Bob to give Cathy a     clue.
• Bob has no clue to give and no known play, so he blind plays his draw card.
• 1 does not connect to    , so Cathy interprets as a bluff and her     is not playable.
• This is a lie because 3 is playable.
• Instead, Alice should have discarded and allowed Bob to clue Cathy so that she knows her 3 is playable.

Example 2: bluff

1 1 1      

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

1

2

2

2

Bob 🡲

4

3

3

2

Cathy 🡲

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

Trash bluff

Trash bluff example

1 1 1 1   

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

2

4

4

4

Bob 🡲

1

1

2

2

5

Cathy 🡲

• Alice to Cathy: this card is a 1
• Bob must act now to prevent a misfire of 1.
• Bob blind plays 2
• Cathy now knows that her     is trash and this was a trash bluff.

Double bluff

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

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

Double bluff example

              

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

1

4

4

4

Bob 🡲

1

4

4

3

Cathy 🡲

2

3

3

3

2

Donald 🡲

• Alice can bluff Bob's 1 with a green clue     to Donald.
• Alice to Donald: this card is a 2
• Bob blind plays 1
• Without colour, Donald thinks his     is 2.
• Cathy must act now to prevent a misfire of 2.
• Cathy blind plays 1
• With two blind plays, Donald now knows his     is not 2 or 2 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

1 1 1 1   

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

2

3

4

4

Bob 🡲

1

4

2

5

Cathy 🡲

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

2 Players

Strategy #0

Pro's:

• Aligns closely with 3+ player standard convention.
• Easy and logical convention.

Con's:

• Nice-to-have (non-unique) cards are not saved.
• Easy to get locked hands.

Guidelines

• Mark    s first.
  • Mark 4 first if there are no other    s.
• Mark    s next.
  • Mark 5 first if it is the leftmost    .
  • If you hold multiple    s, consider first playing your    s or marking    s individually with colour.
• Mark    s when 5 reaches chop and in a following turn colour the     to the left of 5 to play 5.
• As in 3+ player avalanche, assume any card (even with colour and number) can be multicolor.
• When a player has a known card playable now, a number clue on chop is a play clue unless the following chop card is saved.
• Only save unique cards.
• A number clue on chop when there are no unique cards of that number is a play clue.
• Play cards in the order clued.
• When a colour clue is given and you see the following connecting card on chop, consider marking it before it is discarded.

Self prompt example

              

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

4

4

4

2

Bob 🡲

• Bob to Alice: this card is red ⇨ 1
• Alice to Bob: this card is red ⇨ 2

• When playing with flamboyants, consider not saving a     if it locks a hand.
• Avoid using the last ​clue tokens where possible, unless there is a unique save or playable card on chop.
• Try to splash cards (i.e. mark cards that are not the focus) that are 1-away from playable, even    s.
• As in 3+ player, try to mark and play as many first copies as possible.
• Prioritise plays that give the other player plays.
• Prioritise lower rank cards.
• Wait for trash cards to be discarded instead of marked from a play clue.
• Do not discard with a known play, even    s with flamboyants.
• Use a scream discard (i.e. discard chop if you have a known play, or off-chop without a known play) to save cards without using a clue.

Scream discard example

1 4 2 2 2

5

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

5

1

5

5

5

Bob 🡲

​clue tokens

• There are ​clue tokens but Alice needs to save 5 and 5.
• Alice discards her chop + 1 = 2nd slot while she has 5 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 1.

• Use a positional misplay for critical or unique cards.

Positional misplay example

1 3 3 3 3

5

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

3

4

5

2

3

4

5

Bob 🡲

​clue tokens

• There are ​clue tokens and no misfires.
• Alice really wants 2 to play so that Bob can play all his marked cards.
• Alice blind plays her draw and causes a misfire.
• Bob interprets this as a clue for him to play the same position in his hand.

Strategy #1

Pro's:

• Easy to execute.

Con's:

• Double discard possible for    s.
• Easy to get locked hands.

Guidelines

1. Number clues mean “save all cards marked by this clue”.
   • Give save clues as late as possible.
2. Non-unique    s and    s must be saved as much as possible.
   • Try to avoid double saves if possible.
   • Always save unique cards.
3. Colour clues mean “play the newest card marked by this clue”.
   • Cards not previously marked by a number clue may be discarded.
4. Discarding unknown cards should be avoided with >​clue tokens.
5. Only give colour clues with ​clue tokens:
   1. If it leads to two or more plays in a row.
   2. If the playable card is on chop.
6. A colour clue may splash a card already marked with number if:
   1. A previously unmarked card is playable. Either immediately, or immediately after playing the card marked with number.
   2. As a stall clue (see next).
7. With 2 slots filled with non-saved cards, that player should avoid discarding in consecutive turns.
8. Clues given to avoid discarding in consecutive turns:
   • guideline 4 no longer applies; also stall clues may be given:
   1. A colour clue that splashes a saved card, without marking an unmarked card.
      • e.g. to indicate an accidental double save, or to clarify a playable card.
   2. An empty clue: a clue that marks none of the cards. This can be used to convey information on multiple cards.
   3. A 5 clue. If 5a and 5b are not possible, a re clue on the    s is allowed.
9. In the endgame when # saved cards + # cards in the deck = # cards to be played for the maximum possible score, discarding should be avoided - stall clues may be given, non-unique    s may be saved, etc.

Strategy #2

Pro's:

• Guarantees a score of 28+

Con's:

• Easy to get locked hands.

Guidelines

The game is divided into three stages:

1. Opening: The first 3 or 4 moves of the game.
2. Middlegame: Everything that's not early or late game.
3. Endgame: The last moves, starting from the point where # "saved cards" + # deck = maximum achievable score.

Opening

• All cards are equally old in the beginning, so the goal is to 'sort' cards into "old" and "new".
  1. No discards before ​clue tokens are used.
  2. After the opening, the right-most un-marked card will be considered "old" and therefore discard-able. Opening clues should save the valuable three right-most cards.
  3. Mark    s with colour.
  4. Only give     clues when it marks three or more unique    s.
  5. Only give     clues when the 4 is blocking a colour clue. Opening    s should be discarded in middlegame.

Middlegame

• Play and save as many first copy cards as possible.
  1. Efficient cluing ​clue tokens.
  2. All first copy    s,    s are saved.
  3. Play clues mean "play the newest, previously unmarked, card".
  4. Cards are marked by:
     1. Number clue that marks the chop card.
     2. Splash from a play clue.
     3. Scream discard.
        • Player 2 should avoid discarding in case of multiple unmarked unique cards.
     4. A clue that causes a misfire.
        • All cards older than the misplayed card are saved.
  5. Trash marked cards must be corrected.
     • e.g. re-mark trash cards to indicate a card should be discarded, without marking any other cards.

Splash correction example

3 2 2 2 2

5

  

  

  

  

Alice 🡲

3

3

3

4

3

3

3

Bob 🡲

• Alice to Bob: these 2 cards are red    
• This marks 4 as playable and splashes 3 so that Bob knows it is trash.

A stall clue must be given to avoid double discards.

1. Don't give play clues with ​clue tokens or fewer, unless it leads to multiple plays.
2. Avoid discarding with only two unmarked cards.
3. Avoid discarding with only one unmarked card.

Endgame

Sort cards to maximise the score.

• Avoid discarding.
• Give stall clues.
• Prioritise cards by the number of plays unlocked so that the number of saved cards is minimised.