The Beginner's Guide

Intro

• Are you looking to start playing Hanabi with the H-Group? Fantastic - we are always looking to welcome new players. Take 60 minutes and go through this guide so that you can get up to speed with the basics.
• Alternatively, are you looking to learn some solid fundamental strategies to use to play Hanabi with your own group of friends? Feel free to adopt these strategies.
• Is a one hour briefing really necessary? Well, yes and no. If you try to play with our group and don't understand what basic clues mean, it is going to be analogous to a group of people trying to find each other in a dark room by running around with their arms flailing.
• We know that 60 minutes might be too long for some people to sit through. So, we've split up the guide into bite-sized chunks with fun challenge questions at the end of every section in order to keep you interested.

Warning

• Note that the beginner's guide assumes that you are already familiar with the basic rules of Hanabi. If you need to brush up on them, either read them here or watch this video.
• If you know the rules but you've never actually played Hanabi, then it might be best to play a practice game or two before reading the guide so that you are more familiar with the game mechanics.

Overview

In this guide, you'll learn the following strategies:

1. The Chop - The oldest unclued card.
2. Card Notes - After every clue, manually record information for later.
3. Two types of clues:
   • Play Clues - Promise that a card can be played.
   • Save Clues - Prevent a card from being discarded.
4. Single Focus - Only one card is the Focus of every clue.
5. Good Touch Principle - Only clue cards that will be played. Do not clue cards that will never be played.
6. Save Principle - Save all important cards.
7. Minimum Clue Value Principle - Get at least one new card with every clue.
8. Prompts & Finesses - If possible, get two or more cards played with one clue.

Ready?

Ready to begin? Click on the "Next" button below.