How to Play Hanabi: Clues, Plays, Discards & Fireworks
Hanabi is a cooperative deduction game where you can see everyone’s cards except your own. The team tries to build five colored fireworks in ascending order from 1 to 5 using limited clues.
Hold your hand facing away from yourself
Your teammates can see your cards, but you cannot look at them. Keep the order of your hand consistent so clues remain meaningful.
On your turn, choose one action
- Give information: spend an information token to identify all cards of one color or all cards of one number in another player’s hand.
- Play a card: attempt to add one card to a matching firework stack in ascending order.
- Discard a card: discard one card and recover an information token when the token supply allows it.
A legal clue must identify every matching card
If you give a color or number clue, point out every card in that hand matching the clue. You cannot intentionally omit one matching card or add extra coded information outside the permitted clue.
Fireworks must be built 1 → 5
A card can be played only if it is the next required number for that color. A successful 5 completes that firework and normally restores an information token if one is available to recover.
Incorrect plays consume fuse tokens
If you play a card that cannot legally extend its firework, discard it and lose a fuse token. If the final fuse is lost, the team loses immediately.
Drawing the final card starts the last turns
When the draw pile becomes empty, each player receives the remaining final turn sequence specified by the rules. Then score the fireworks unless the game already ended by fuse loss or perfect completion.
Publisher reference: R&R Games. Checked September 21, 2026.