Johnny Opie

The recipe colors on the cards are in the same order: white, blue, green, red, black. Set out the draw gem stacks and keep your personal stacks in the same order. This makes it easy to see if you have what you need and to find the gems you want. This makes play go a little faster.
Unfortunately, the recipes for the nobles are in a different order. Maybe that’s an oversight that will get changed in a future edition.

After many 2-player plays we have noticed a few factors that caused us to try a variant:
1) The number of 2nd and 3rd row cards taken is very low. The predominant strategy is to go for the Nobles.
2) If the nobles are all looking for a common gem/color, one player can pretty much control that gem and run the table of nobles. This is not uncommon for two players.
3) Reserving a card is too costly for 2 players. (There is no gold in the game).
4) These are much less likely with more players.
Try this simple variant for 2 players.
Set out only 2 nobles instead of 3.
In a few plays this seems to mitigate the runaway leader and makes the game a little different with players going for the 2nd and 3rd row more.
There is nothing wrong with the game the way it is, but this changes it up a bit for those of us who have played it a lot.

The Basilisk is a particularly brutal boss when playing with fewer players (1-2, maybe 3) – since he limits the ability to get the necessary cards to the player taking a turn. In the solitaire game, it can basically make winning impossible. I suggest that when the basilisk is in play that the player only be limited to 1 discard/draw action, rather than being completely prohibited. Another option is to eliminate the Basilisk monster token from the available bosses for solitaire games, but I would rather tweak him to his normal strength than eliminate him.
Added: In the solitaire game, the player is permitted 2 trades with the deck. Presumably 1 of these is to represent the normal game rule of 1 trade and the other is to replace the inter-player trade allowed in a multi-player game. In a multi-player game the Basilisk only blocks 1 of these 2 trades, but both in solo play.

Use the room and the small minions to your advantage with the large ones. Due to the minion placement rules, this is not always possible, but look for options to keep them at bay, behind the little guys.
The tendency is to either stand your ground or attack when sometimes, though maybe not often, moving to a more strategic location is the best first action.

When the initiative track is not exactly in your favor, wait on minions or move to a space that you can time your first enagement with them on your own terms – where you are out of their range, but they are within yours. Then Pounce!

In my experience the most overlooked/forgotten action is Scurry. Don’t forget this valuable ability. Anyone who has had a “pet mouse” in the house (invited or otherwise) knows that a mouse never forgets this inherent ability.

I find that as long as there are minions on the board, everyone is fixated on them. Don’t forget, “Time is short” and you have a quest to complete. Divvy up responsibilities based on the abilities of your mice and keep working on all the tasks at hand, not just the minions. Heal! Move to or near locations that are important to leave or complete the tile. Search for goodies (with prudence).
Caveat: Don’t forget to check the story for special searches. Most are not available until all the minions have been cleared.
Knowing when it is safe to ignore the minions takes some playing time and will change as your mice develop new abilities.

Once you feel that you can manage the adjacent minions, charge the ranged ones. Don’t wait until you have cleared away all the close ones. Stay close until you can manage and then spread out to conquer.

When there are different types of minions on the board, use ranged attack for the ones that also have ranged attack or have nasty buffs to their attack (like poison or knocked-down) and melee attack on the rest.

When the mouse with the lowest initiative kills the last minion on a tile, a strict reading of the rules would suggest that a cheese should be added to the minion wheel. Hoever, the queston is fairly raised, whether “no minions on the tile” is determined at the beginning or end of that mouse’s turn. The first time this happened to me, I though, “that hardly seems fair.”
Elsewhere, Jerry Hawthorne (the designer of this fabulous game) has said to house rule whether the cheese gets added.
We immediately house ruled that a cheese was not added as long as there was at least one minion on the tile at the beginning of that mouse’s turn.
As we have played more, though, I hae seen that this happens with peculiar frequency for my campaign group. Maybe we are exploiting our own convenient house rule. So, I think we will switch. In any case, either is accceptable, but think about your play/campaign group for which is appropriate and don’t hesitate to change if you find that you have been too strict or lax for the group to enjoy the game the most.

Just a simple tip. Put a cheese token on the Roaches Initiative Card if they are “Greedy Roaches” as a reminder that their cheese goes to the minion cheese wheel.

Keep the party close together except when recovering a piece of the ship or uncovering a lone tile. This way you can share water at an oasis and jet pack together.

Excavate tiles in a close pattern so that you don’t have to cross long distances or across buried tiles to get back to un-excavated areas. It is a little less exciting than going searching for a lucky find, but you are more likely to survive.

When playing with 3-Players, there are a few Characters whose special ability has no effect. (EX: Calamity Janet. You can use 1 as 2 and vice-versa.) We just draw another, so no one is stuck with a bummer character.

We throw in one of the blank tiles to the set for a game to be a “Magic Tile.” The house rules on the magic tile are:

1) It can only be played in a space that is completely surrounded/blocked in by other tiles. This tile “magically” fits the landscape on all four sides.
2) If there is no such “land-locked” space when the tile is drawn, it is put back in the stock of tiles.
3) If there is a “land-locked” space when the tile is drawn, it must be played.
4) If there are more than one such space, the player can choose where to play it.

If you like the ability to hamper another player by locking in an important space, then this house rule is not for you, but if you find it more frustrating than strategic when one of these spaces happens, this might relieve at least a little of the frustration.

If your version did not come with the handy tile bag, here’s a quick solution. This was the case when we first picked up this fun game. Look to see if you have an empty Kleenex box around. The cube size is perfect. The plastic flaps at the top of the hole keep the tiles in for mixing and allow most hands in far enough to pluck out a tile. The box is easy to pass around, less fiddly than a limp bag, and can be decorated easily if you want something more thematic.
The box can also fit the other bits in baggies, so you have a small carry box to travel with the game.
There is also an endless ready supply of replacements if the box gets damaged.

I haven’t seen any tips here of this sort, but have heard elsewhere (no disrespect to the video reviewer) about reading body language, ticks, and quirks of the clue-giver to read more from their clue than what was specifically said. Having grown up in a bidding card game family, I have been “trained” to not give any information this way and not to permit it from others. Now, in Hanabi, you are only cheating yourself, not the other partners, if you share additional information this way, so you are welcome to it. But in games I play we take a strict house rule against it. I believe the game is intended to be played through information and inference, “What was the clue you gave me?” “Why did you give me that clue?” “Why did you give me that clue now?” These are all “valid” inferences to determine what your next play or future play should be or should not be. But pointing out cards in a particular order or making voice inflections to communicate more information makes this a very different game.

This game is all about limited “table talk” – the information shared through clues and inferences from clues.
If you have competitive gamers at the table, the house rule regarding any additional table talk beyond what is expressly permitted in the clues might be very strict.
If you are playing with younger players or, in my case, an aging parent, you might allow additional table talk (without destroying the basics of the game). You might ask the person periodically, “What do you know about this card?” (since they have it set aside in their hand) or similar questions to keep their mind focused.

Many of the tips here describe “conventions” that players have established; ways of holding the cards, giving clues, discarding, etc. It is really helpful to establish a few conventions with the players, especially new ones, before starting a game. There are many that are helpful, but here are some basic ones to get started:
1) The side of the hand new cards are added – always use the same side.
2)The opposite side of the hand will then have “old” cards – the first of which will be the discard if the player has no other play.
3) How 5’s will be designated in the hand – hold them out the side or the bottom of the hand. You get no second chance to play a 5…

There are many great strategy tips here already, so here’s a logistical one. If you have the basic deck (that is, not the large cards with table stands), a set of card holders (the kind you usually use for the kids who can’t hold many cards) are worth the $5. These allow you to position the cards you have received clues in ways to help you remember. They also reduce the wear and tear (oil and sweat) on the cards. There are some that will stand up on the table, too.