Gamehelphanabi

Introduction

Hanabi is a cooperative game. Your goal, as a team, is to build fabulous firework show. You do this by playing the cards in the right order. However, you cannot see your own cards; you can only see the cards of your team mates.

Gameplay

You each take turns. During a turn, a player may take one (1) action. After his action, his turn ends and it is the next player's turn. The game can end in three ways:

1) All cards have been taken from the deck. After this happens, everybody gets 1 more turn. You win the game with the score at the last turn.

2) You have reached the maximum score possible. In this case you win the game with maximum score.

3) You have made three mistakes that caused a misfire. In this game you lose the game, and get 0 points.

Turn

During your turn, you get one (1) action. With this action you can chose to do one of the following:

1) Give a clue. This costs a clue-token (-1). You cannot give a clue if there are 0 clue-tokens left. When you give a clue, you can indicate ALL cards of a certain colour, or ALL cards of a certain number.

2) Play a card. When a card is played, it is evaluated if the card fits in the sequence. If it does, it is placed on the table. If it does not, it is placed on the discard pile and you get a misfire-token.

3) Discard a card. When you discard, the card is placed on the discard pile and you get a clue-token (+1). Note: cards on the discard pile are out of the game and can never return.

When you remove a card from your hand, by either playing or discarding, at the end of your turn, you get a new card. Your newest card is always placed on the left.

Lingo

When you play with others, certain words are used to describe certain objects or situations. Here is a short list. CHOP the oldest, unmarked card. The right-most card that you have no information on. DRAW the newest, unmarked card. The left-most card that you have no information on, this will almost always be the left card. TO BOMB a play that causes a misfire-token. Sometimes also called EXPLOSION MARKED a card that is highlighted by a clue.

Strategy

Please refer to the BGA strategy guide here.

Cards

In a game of Hanabi on NORMAL DIFFICULTY, there are 5 colours of cards of value 1 to 5. In each suit there are: -three 1s -two 2s -two 3s -two 4s -one 5 This makes 10 cards per colour.

There are three variants that add a 6th colour: the multicolour. 1) TRICKY DIFFICULTY adds 10 multicolour cards to the normal game. These cards get marked by a separate multicolour clue. 2) HARD DIFFICULTY adds 5 multicolour cards to the normal game: one of each. These cards get marked by a separate multicolour clue. 3) VERY DIFFICULT DIFFICULTY adds 10 multicolour cards to the normal game. These cards get marked by ANY colour clue.

About "cheating"

In the "real life Hanabi", you can talk. That's why we chose to let the chat open for the online version.

As a consequence, it is very easy to cheat at Hanabi. However, as you can imagine, cheating is very stupid and has no interest... except for ELO boosting. This is why there is no international ranking for this game (ie: best player, second best player) and no trophies associated to it.

ELO rating

If you are playing with ELO rating on, your ELO may be changed at the end of the game.

Here is how it works:

1) Every player on the team is temporarily considered as having the average ELO rating of the team.

2) The system will generate a bot associated with the score your team has achieved (let’s call it Hanabot). Hanabot’s ELO rating depends on the variant you are playing (50 cards, 60 cards, 60 cards multicolor), the number of players on the team and, most importantly, your team's score. All Hanabot’s ELO ratings have been set by an experienced player, they are not random or simply proportional to the score/number of players.

3) Your team (actually your team's average ELO) will now compete against Hanabot. The system will calculate your team’s ELO gain/loss as though your team had tied with Hanabot. If your score is below 18 (50-card game) or below 21 (60-card game), Hanabot's ELO is always 1000.

You can find all bots' ELO ratings here: http://forum.boardgamearena.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4814

The 55-card variant (50 cards + 1 of each value in the sixth color) cannot be played with ELO rating on. This is because this variant is highly dependent on draw and a team’s score may not always reflect the players’ skills.

If you achieve the perfect score and this should cost you ELO points, you will be considered as having beaten the bot associated with the score, so that you lose no ELO points.
To be confirmed: I think the ELO-system has had an overhaul.

Examples

General rules for Hanabi:
The CHOP card is the un-clued card which is furthest to the RIGHT.
The DRAW card is the un-clued card which is furthest to the LEFT, almost always this is the left card.

1) New cards come from the left so DISCARD cards from RIGHT

2) Save - Sometimes players can have important cards that are not playable immediately. To save a card, wait until the card is the CHOP card and clue it BY NUMBER.

3) There are two ways to make somebody play(put/place) a card:

  3.1 BY COLOR: when you get or give color clue it means LEFT COLORED CARD PLAYABLE (unless the clue provides more information on another card)
  3.2 BY NUMBER: when you get or give a number clue it means LEFT NUMBERED CARD PLAYABLE (unless it provides more information on another card AND it is not a SAVE clue)
  3.3 could be another variants(if you got 222 remember that all of them could be played after all 111111)

4) Try not to clue cards which can never be played because they won't discard those cards until you use another clue on them or they can use the process of elimination to determine that they aren't playable.

5) Try not to give unnecessary clues. In advanced play, every clue is played with a purpose behind it.

Advanced Tactics:

5) Intentional Discard - Sometimes players can have hands where all cards are important and unplayable. To tell a player that his hand blocked, discard your CHOP card when you have the LAST CLUE (always try to give him clue to give and play his hand as fast as it possible)

6) Finesse
Example 1
Table:
R Y G B W M
0 0 0 0 0 0

XX|XX|XX - me

??|??|?? - you

5g|2b|4r - 3rd player

I clue the 3rd player BLUE color. The card I clued which would normally be played is UNPLAYABLE and one card would need to be played first. This signals you that you have that card at LEFT POSITION so you can assume that your DRAW card is the playable 1b.

If your hand contain clued card that could be that needed by color or by number, you should play it, not the left. See example 2.
Example 2
Table:
R Y G B W M
0 2 0 1 0 0

XX|XX|XX - me

??|??|2? - you

5g|3b|4r - 3rd player

Suppose on your last turn you received a 2 clue indicating that you should play the 2y. You now have a clued 2 card still in your hand which you aren't sure you can play. I clue the 3rd player BLUE color. Again, the card I clued which would normally be played is UNPLAYABLE and one card would need to be played first. You should, in this case, play the 2 card which has already been clued because you have the information on it.

7) Bluff
Table:
R Y G B W M
0 0 0 0 0 0

XX|XX|XX - me

1g|4b|3w - 2nd player

??|??|?r - you

I clued you RED color. 2nd player will (and does) play his 1 green using the rule of finesse. 2nd player determined that your red is UNPLAYABLE, and trying to fix it, he played the 1g which was not clued. You see that the color of the card played was different from the color of the card you were clued, which gives you the information that the clue you received was a BLUFF. Now you know that your red card is 2r (or possibly also 2m in very difficult difficulty).

8) Reverse
Example 1
Table:
R Y G B W M
0 0 0 0 0 0

XX|XX|XX - me

4g|2y|3w - 2nd player

??|??|?? - you

I clued 2nd player YELLOW color which would clue them to play under ordinary circumstances but instead of playing they discarded. This indicates to you that you have a PLAYABLE yellow DRAW card. In this case, you should play your un-clued draw card.

Example 2
Table:
R Y G B W M
0 0 0 0 0 0

XX|XX|XX - me

??|?y|?? - you

1y|2b|3g - 3rd player

Example 2 is the same hand from the other perspective.

Finesse, Reverse, and Bluff help you to save +50% clues, so getting a score of 30 (in the higher difficulties) becomes possible. There are some other variants of these advanced tricks; you situations like reverse for next 3 turns or finesse when 2-3 players have playable cards at the left sides and you just give clue to the last playable card...

9) Positional Discard (endgame) - Sometimes in the last turns you will have no useful cards to play and need to give a clue to indicate to a player which card to play but you have no remaining clues. In this case, discard the card in the same position as the card that you want that player to play.
Table:
R Y G B W M
5 5 3 5 5 5

XX|XX|XX - me

??|??|3? - you

1y|2b|5g - 3rd player

In this example, I discard my 2nd card. This indicates to you that your 2nd card is the 4g.

10) Having the optimal player draw the last card (endgame) - At the end of the game, the person who draws the last card (which happens either by playing or discarding) triggers the end of the game. After the last card is drawn, each player receives exactly one more turn. Sometimes near the end of the game you will want a specific player to play or discard in order to get the last turn. Giving an unusable clue can prevent a player from drawing the last card and begin the last round.

Table:
1 card remaining in deck - Your turn
R Y G B W M
5 5 3 4 5 5

XX|XX|5b - me

??|??|3? - you

1y|4b|5g - 3rd player

In this situation, assume everyone knows where the remaining playable cards are. Instead of discarding in this situation, you want the 3rd player be the one to play and draw the last card. Give any clue to prevent triggering the endgame so that 3rd player can play 4b triggering the endgame and then in their last turn play the 5g.

11) Hint to discard - You can hint to a player to discard by giving them an unusable clue (for example giving a 5 clue when that player has no 5 cards). This can be done to have a player discard a card which would normally be included in a clue (example: 1m|1r|3y|4g|1m would be a situation would be a hand which can be a better target for a 1 clue after that player discards AND there is also a potential for the player to draw another 1 card before being clued for 1s)