Hanabi Rules

Hanabi is a cooperative card game, meaning all players play together as a team. Its hook is a single inverted rule: you can see everyone's hand except your own, so you depend entirely on what your teammates choose to tell you.

The box holds 50 fireworks cards in five colors — red, yellow, green, blue and white — with 10 cards per color carrying the values 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5. Alongside them come 10 colorful (multicolor) fireworks cards with those same values, 8 Note tokens plus a spare, and 3 Storm tokens.

Objective

The objective of Hanabi is to create a beautiful fireworks display by playing fireworks cards in ascending order by color and number, all while being unaware of the cards in your own hand. The more fireworks you manage to play correctly, the higher the score at the end of the game.

Setup

One point before anything else: for the basic game the colorful fireworks cards and the spare Note token are not needed at all — set them aside, they only come into use for the advanced game.

The oldest player is appointed first player and sets the tokens in the play area. Eight Note tokens are positioned with the white side up, and the three Storm tokens are placed lightning-side down. The fireworks cards are shuffled, and depending on the number of players, each player receives the corresponding number of cards as follows:

• With 2 or 3 players: 5 cards
• With 4 or 5 players: 4 cards

Each player takes their hand cards with the backs facing them, ensuring that only the other players can see the fronts of the cards. The remaining cards are placed face down in the draw pile in the middle of the table.

How to Play

Play proceeds clockwise. On a player's turn, they must perform one of the following actions:

1. Give a hint
2. Discard a card
3. Play a card

The player can't pass and must choose exactly one action. One more restriction is easy to forget: players are not allowed to give hints or suggestions on other players' turns.

When giving a hint, a player flips one Note token from its white side to its black side. If there are no white-side-up Note tokens, the player can't choose the "Give a hint" action. The hint is then either a Color Hint — the player names a color and points at every card of that color in a teammate's hand — or a Value Hint, working exactly the same way with a number. The crucial constraint is that you must indicate all the cards matching your hint: "you have two yellow cards, here and here." Negative hints are allowed too, so "you have no blue cards" or "you have no twos" are both legal.

If a player chooses to discard a card, they flip one Note token from its black side to its white side. If there are no black-side-up Note tokens, the player can't choose the "Discard a card" action. The player then discards one card from their hand — without looking at the fronts of their hand cards — face-up in the discard pile near the draw deck, and draws a replacement in the same fashion, never looking at the front.

Playing a card involves placing one card face up in the middle of the table. Either it can be played correctly, extending a current firework or starting a new one, or it can't: the gods are angry with the error and send a flash from the sky, so the player turns a Storm token lightning-side-up and the incorrect card goes to the discard pile. Either way, the player then draws a replacement card without looking at its front.

The fireworks

The fireworks are built in the middle of the table, one per color, each an ascending series from 1 to 5. A firework must start with a 1, and every card played onto it has to increment the previous card by exactly one. No firework may ever contain more than one card of a given value.

Bonus: when a player completes a firework by correctly playing a 5, the team is rewarded — one Note token is turned from its black side back to white. If all tokens are already white-side-up, no bonus is received. Play then passes to the next player, clockwise.

Scoring and End of Game

The game can end in three ways:

1. If the third Storm token is flipped lightning-side-up, the game ends immediately, and the players earn zero points.
2. If the players complete all five fireworks correctly, the game ends immediately, and the players celebrate their spectacular victory with the maximum score of 25 points.
3. If a player draws the last card from the draw deck, each player - including the player who drew the last card - gets one last turn. No cards can be drawn in this last round.

Finally, the fireworks are counted: each firework earns the players a score equal to the highest value card in its color series. A blue firework built up to the 4 is worth 4 points, and five completed series make exactly 25.

The rules then grade the show on a scale borrowed from the International Association of Pyrotechnics:

• 0-5 — Oh dear! The crowd booed.
• 6-10 — Poor! Hardly applauded.
• 11-15 — OK! The viewers have seen better.
• 16-20 — Good! The audience is pleased.
• 21-24 — Very good! The audience is enthusiastic!
• 25 — Legendary! The audience will never forget this show!

Common Variants

The advanced game brings in the components set aside during setup: the 10 colorful fireworks cards and the spare Note token. Those multicolor cards carry the same 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5 spread and form a sixth series to build, which sharpens the whole communication problem — one extra color makes every hint that little bit more ambiguous.

What Makes It Tick

Hanabi's whole design rests on one reversal. In most card games you hide your hand from everyone else; here you hide it from yourself. Every player can see exactly what their neighbours ought to play, and stays blind to their own situation. The 8 Note tokens turn talking into a currency: information is a limited resource, spent to give a hint and earned back by discarding a card or by completing a firework with a 5. That is where the tension lives — speaking costs you, and so does staying quiet.

Where to Get the Game

Hanabi card game on Amazon

Beginner Mistakes to Avoid

• Giving a partial hint. Pointing at one yellow card when your teammate holds two is against the rules: a color or value hint must indicate every matching card in that hand, or the information you pass on is simply false.
• Talking out of turn. No hints and no suggestions on another player's turn — a well-timed sigh already breaks the rule.
• Burning every Note token on hints. Spend all eight without ever discarding and the table locks up: with no white-side-up token left, nobody may speak. Discarding a card you know to be useless is exactly how you buy the right to talk again.
• Trying to pass. You can't. Every turn requires one of the three actions, even when none of them looks appealing.

FAQ

1. Can players see their own cards in Hanabi? No, players can only see the cards held by other players. They must rely on hints and communication to play their cards correctly.

2. What happens when the draw deck runs out in Hanabi? As soon as a player draws the last card, every player — including the one who just drew it — takes one final turn. No cards are drawn during that last round, and then the fireworks are scored.

3. Can players discuss strategy during the game in Hanabi? No. Players are not allowed to give hints or suggestions on other players' turns; the only legal communication is the hint action on your own turn.

4. Is Hanabi a competitive game or a cooperative game? Hanabi is a cooperative game, meaning all players play together as a team.

5. Can Hanabi be played with more than 5 players? According to the official rules, Hanabi is designed for 2-5 players. It's not recommended to play with more than 5 players.

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