Hanabi has one principal type of game piece. In most editions of the game, it takes the form of a card; as such, these game pieces are commonly referred to as "cards" in many Hanabi spaces, including throughout this wiki. But it's worth noting that some editions, namely those in the Deluxe Edition series, these pieces are instead tiles.
In the standard game, and moreover in all variants of the game with a known implementation (i.e. those available on hanab-live), each card has two properties: suit and rank.
A card's playability depends on what other cards have already been played of that suit, according to the variant's rules for playing cards of that suit. There are three known play orders:
¶ Standard play order
1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4 -> 5. Simple as. Used in almost all variant-suits.
5 -> 4 -> 3 -> 2 -> 1. Standard but reversed. Used only in "%Reversed" variants, which were inspired by the "Black Powder" variant published in the Grands Feux edition of the game. Black Powder = White reversed + 5 standard suits.
Up or Down variants feature up-or-down suits which, as the name implies, can be played in ascending or descending order. Furthermore, they feature an additional rank called "Start" (s), which is touched by no number clues, and which can stand in as the initial 1 or 5. In other words, up-or-down suits can be played in any of the following orders:
- 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 4 -> 5
- 5 -> 4 -> 3 -> 2 -> 1
- s -> 2 -> 3 -> 4 -> 5
- s -> 4 -> 3 -> 2 -> 1
One consequence of these rules is that players must keep track of all previously played cards in a suit, or in other words, whether the suit is playing up or down.
Each suit in a deck of Hanabi cards comprises cards that follow a distribution of ranks. Several types of distributions can be found among variants in the official game editions and on hanab-live. All suits among known implemented variants span ranks 1 through 5 inclusive, with the exception of up-or-down suits, which additionally feature a card of the "s(tart)" rank.
¶ Standard Distribution
In the Standard Variant, each suit follows the Standard Distribution: three copies of rank 1, two 2s, two 3s, two 4s, and one 5. Visually:
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This design makes it relatively easy to start progressing the suit, and relatively difficult to finish the suit.
The Singleton Distribution describes, as its name suggests, a single copy of each rank. Visually:
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Variants including a singleton suit have been described in the official rulebook since the first edition releases of Hanabi.
¶ Reversed Standard Distribution
The Reversed Standard Distribution reverses the Standard Distribution, as its name suggests. That is: three copies of rank 5, two 4s, two 3s, two 2s, and one 1. Visually:
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The only known variant-suits featuring this distribution also play in reversed play order.
A card is identified by a clue according to its values for each of these two properties, and according to the clue map that constitutes part of the variant definition.
In hanab-live, it's common to name suits as colors, according to the suit's clue map and distribution of ranks.
Some suits are defined such that all of its cards are touched by all or none of the color or number clue values. These are named differently depending on whether they follow the Standard distribution or Singleton distribution
Standard-distribution All-or-nothing suits:
|
No color clues |
One color clue |
All color clues |
| No rank clues |
Null |
Brown |
Muddy Rainbow |
| Own rank clue |
White |
Standard |
Rainbow |
| All rank clues |
Light Pink |
Pink |
Omni |
Singleton-distribution All-or-nothing suits:
|
No color clues |
One color clue |
All color clues |
| No rank clues |
Dark Null |
Dark Brown |
Cocoa Rainbow |
| One rank clue |
Gray |
Black |
Dark Rainbow |
| All rank clues |
Gray Pink |
Dark Pink |
Dark Omni |
¶ Standard suit colors
There are six colors used for standard suits on hanab-live among most variants. The order is generally unimportant, but is used in some applications of game variation like prism.
- Red
- Yellow
- Green
- Blue
- Purple
- Teal
There are further color-names given to Standard suits in variants where suits share clue maps ("Ambiguous" variants on hanab-live).
- Red
i. Tomato
ii. Carrot
iii. Mahogany
- Green
i. Lime
ii. Forest
- Blue
i.Ice
ii. Sapphire
iii. Sky
iv. Berry
v. Navy
vi. Ocean
A prism suit has a color clue map such that ascending ranks cycle through the colors of the other suits in the variant (which is where the color order comes into play, as aforementioned). For example, in the "Prism (5 Suits)" variant, which has four Standard suits and one prism suit, prism cards map to color clues as follows:
Prism 1: red
Prism 2: yellow
Prism 3: green
Prism 4: blue
Prism 5: red
hanab-live also features some variants where all-or-nothing properties have been aligned along ranks rather than suits. Examples: Rainbow-Ones, Pink-Fives.
In a Deceptive-rank variant, cards of a certain rank are touched by the cycle of number clues. For example, in Deceptive-Ones (5 Suits)
- Red 1 is touched by a 2 clue
- Yellow 1 is touched by a 3 clue
- Green 1 is touched by a 4 clue,
- Blue 1 is touched by a 5 clue
- Purple 1 is touched by a 2 clue (wrapping around)
The suits are defined to map to increasingly large subsets of the color clues:
- Red (red)
- Yam (red / yellow)
- Geas (red / yellow / green)
- Beatnik (red / yellow / green / blue)
- Plum (red / yellow / green / blue / purple)
- Taupe (red / yellow / green / blue / purple / teal)
A dual-color suit is touched by a unique combination of two color clues.
In the 6-suit version, there are 4 different colors:
- Orange (red / yellow)
- Purple (red / blue)
- Mahogany (red / black)
- Green (yellow / blue)
- Tan (yellow / black)
- Navy (blue / black)
In the 5-suit version, there are 5 different colors:
- Orange (red / yellow)
- Lime (yellow / green)
- Teal (green / blue)
- Indigo (blue / purple)
- Cardinal (purple / red)
In the 3-suit version, there are 4 different colors:
- Orange (red / yellow)
- Green (yellow / blue)
- Purple (blue / red)
- There are three colors and six suits:
- Red
- Yellow (red / green)
- Green
- Teal (green / blue)
- Blue
- Purple (blue / red)
- The color names are taken from the
colors of light in the RGB model.
- This is a mix of several variants. The suits are as follows:
- Black (one of each)
- Rainbow (all colors)
- Pink (all ranks)
- White (colorless)
- Brown (rankless)
- This is a mix of several variants. The suits are as follows:
- Black (one of each)
- Rainbow (all colors)
- Pink (all ranks)
- White (colorless)
- Brown (rankless)
- Null (clueless)
- This is a mix of several variants. The suits are as follows:
- Tomato (red)
- Mahogany (red)
- Sky (blue)
- Navy (blue)
- Black (one of each)
- White (colorless)
- This is a mix of several variants. The suits are as follows:
- Green (blue / yellow)
- Purple (blue / red)
- Orange (yellow / red)
- Black (one of each)
- Rainbow (all colors)
- White (colorless)
- This is a mix of several variants. The suits are as follows:
- Lime (blue / yellow)
- Forest (blue / yellow)
- Orchid (blue / red)
- Violet (blue / red)
- Tangelo (yellow / red)
- Peach (yellow / red)
¶ Candy Corn Mix (5 Suits)
- This is a mix of several variants. The suits are as follows:
- Red
- Orange (red / yellow)
- Yellow
- White (colorless)
- Brown (rankless)
¶ Candy Corn Mix (6 Suits)
- This is a mix of several variants. The suits are as follows:
- Red
- Orange (red / yellow)
- Yellow
- White (colorless)
- Brown (rankless)
- Cocoa Rainbow (all colors, rankless, one of each)
- This is a mix of several variants. The suits are as follows:
- Dark Pink (all ranks, one of each)
- Green
- White (colorless)
- Sky (blue)
- Navy (blue)
- This is a mix of several variants. The suits are as follows:
- Light Pink (all ranks, colorless)
- Red
- Green
- White (colorless)
- Sky (blue)
- Navy (blue)
- This is a mix of several variants. The suits are as follows:
- Red
- Pink (all ranks)
- White (colorless)
- Light pink (colorless and all ranks)
- Cocoa rainbow (all colors, rankless, one of each)
- This is a mix of several variants. The suits are as follows:
- Red
- Pink (all ranks)
- White (colorless)
- Light pink (colorless and all ranks)
- Cocoa rainbow (all colors, rankless, one of each)
- Null (rankless and colorless)
- One 4 is removed from each suit.
- Each discard or 5 played only generates 0.5 clues. (The team still starts with 8 clues.)
- Color clues touch no suits. (Empty color clues are always allowed.)
- Rank clues touch no suits. (Empty rank clues are always allowed.)
- Color clues and rank clues touch no suits. (Empty clues are always allowed.)
- Color clues cannot be given.
- Rank clues cannot be given.
- The first clue of the game has no restrictions. After that, each successive clue must be the opposite type as the one prior.
- For example, if the first clue of the game is a color clue, then the second clue must be a number clue, the third clue must be a color clue, and so forth.
- This variant was invented by Jake Stiles.
- When players give a clue, they point at the cards clued, but say "moo" if it is a color clue, and "oink" if it is a rank clue.
- When players give a clue, they point at the cards clued, but say "quack" instead of a color or number.
- This variant was invented by Jack Gurev's group.
¶ Odds and Evens
- Rank clues are limited to 1 and 2.
- "O" (Odd) rank clue touches all odd cards, "E" (Even) touches all even cards.
- Only color clues may be given.
- In addition to their normal color, cards with rank 1 count as the first color, cards with rank 2 count as the second color, and so on.
- If the brown suit is in use, its cards only get clued by brown, and not as the color of their rank.
- One of the suits is replaced with a reversed suit.
- The reversed suit must be played in the opposite order (e.g. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1).
- Two 1's are removed from the reversed suit.
- Two 5's are added to the reversed suit.
- Two 1's are removed from each suit.
- One "START" card is added to each suit.
- When a stack is empty, you can play either a 1, a 5, or a START card on it.
- When a stack has a START card on it, you can play either a 2 or a 4 on it.
- If a stack was started with a 1 (or a START + 2), then it works as a normal stack.
- If a stack was started with a 5 (or a START + 4), then it must be completed in reverse.
- A clue token is given when a stack is completed, regardless of whether it is a normal stack or a reversed stack.
- This variant was invented by Sean McCarthy on the BoardGameGeek forums.
- When players play a card, they do not flip it over like normal but instead place it face down in the center of the table.
- The score of the game is not revealed until the game is over.
- Players do not get a clue back for successfully playing a 5.
- The game will automatically end if 3 strikes are accumulated.
- This variant was invented by Jack Gurev's group.
- Rank clues also touch all lower ranked cards.
- Rank clues also touch all higher ranked cards.
- Normal Variants
- Black
- Rainbow
- Pink
- White
- Brown
- Omni
- Null
- Muddy Rainbow
- Light Pink
- Prism
- Dark [Suit] / Gray / Cocoa Rainbow / Gray Pink
- Special Suit Combinations (e.g. Black & Rainbow)
- Suit-Ones (e.g. Rainbow-Ones, Pink-Ones, White-Ones, etc.)
- Suit-Fives (e.g. Rainbow-Fives, Pink-Fives, White-Fives, etc.)
- Deceptive-Ones
- Deceptive-Fives
- Suit-Ones or Suit-Fives with Another Special Suit (e.g. Rainbow-Ones & Pink)
- Ambiguous
- Very Ambiguous
- Extremely Ambiguous
- Dual-Color
- Mixes
- Critical Fours
- Clue Starved
- Color Blind
- Number Blind
- Totally Blind
- Color Mute
- Number Mute
- Alternating Clues
- Cow & Pig
- Duck
- Odds and Evens
- Synesthesia
- Reversed
- Up or Down
- Throw It in a Hole