Refer to Game Help Definitions

Thinking

• Check visible cards, including played and discarded to determine the focus and the meaning of a clue.
  • e.g. you are given a 2 clue. You see
    red2

    r

    ,with a

    red2clue,
    was played and the second
    red2

    r

    ,with a

    red2clue,
    is in another hand. Therefore the clue means "2s which are not red".
  • e.g. you are given a 4 clue that marks only your chop. You see no 4s have been discarded and no 4s on the chop of the players next to you. Therefore the clue means "this 4 is playable".

Cluing

• Don't mark trash cards (a.k.a. "good touch" rule).
• Save unique cards as the first priority.
  • Look ahead for unique cards on chop. Sometimes more than one player must help to save consecutive unique cards.
• With few ​clue tokens, work out which players need them.
• Consider how the receiver can interpret your clue.

Discarding

• Trust your teammates to manage your cards.
• When there is nothing urgent to clue, don't be afraid to discard! Discarding is often the best move for the team.

Playing

• When multiple cards are marked, determine the focused card. Each clue only has one focused card.
• Logically playable cards are marked at the earliest opportunity, so the leftmost card is assumed to be the focus of play clues (where no other cards are known to be playable).

Triggering the final round

• Sometimes a specific player should draw the last card to maximise the score.
• Giving empty clues (e.g. "you have no red card") can help to manage which player draws last card.

Skip

• When a player gives a clue that could have been given by one of the skipped players, it means the skipped players have a better move than to give the clue that was used to skip.
• Skipping should be avoided unless there is a good reason.

Potential reasons for skipping players:

• Clue-giver is locked i.e. all cards are marked without any immediate plays.
• Gain tempo to play e.g. skipped player(s) all have playable cards.
• Gain tempo to clue e.g. skipped player(s) must give a fix clue.
• Avoid a bad clue e.g. mark cards with good touch.
• Ensure a good clue e.g. mark cards with good touch.
• Cause a discard e.g. of a playable card so that its copy can be marked with good touch, or of trash.
• Avoid a discard e.g. a double discard, or of nice-to-have (non-unique) cards.

Additional interpretation

An additional finesse convention is that skipped player(s) cannot discard.

• i.e. Alice can clue Cathy only if Bob has a play or should give another clue.
• If a skipped player has no marked playable cards and no good clue to give, they can blind play their newest, unmarked card.
• A clue-giver who causes unmarked play(s) purely from a skip is responsible for any misinterpretation.

2 Player strategy

Basic

1. Marked cards are not discarded.
2. Unique cards are saved.
3. Saves are given as late as possible.
4. Play clue focus is the leftmost card.
5. All known playable cards are played before discarding (including 5s with flamboyants).
6. Marked trash cards are corrected.

Intermediate

1. Playable first copies are clued.
2. Playable cards marked with both colour and number will play first.
3. Last 1clue tokens is only used to mark a unique or playable chop.
4. Off-chop saves for consecutive unique cards.
5. Double discards can be avoided with a stall clue.
   • empty clue
   • splash that marks no new cards
6. Cards are played in clued order.
7. Plays that lead to other plays are prioritised.
8. Lower ranked cards are prioritised.
9. Unique cards are splashed.
10. Black Powder:
    black powder1

    ​

    ,with a

    black powder1clue,
    is only marked on chop unless all other 1s (or
    black powder2

    ​

    ,with a

    black powder2clue,
    ) are already played.

Advanced

1. Number clues that mark a non-unique chop are play clues.
   • e.g. with no 3s discarded, play the left 3.
2. Black Powder: 5s are marked with a playable
   black powder5

   ​

   ,with a

   black powder5clue,
   on chop. In a following turn the 5 to the left of
   black powder5

   ​

   ,with a

   black powder5clue,
   is marked with colour to play
   black powder5

   ​

   ,with a

   black powder5clue,
   .
3. Before playing, a connecting card on chop can be marked.
4. Flamboyants: consider not locking a hand with a 5 save.
5. Avalanche: any card can be multicolor.
   • i.e. wait for negative multicolor on a
     red5

     r

     ,with a

     red5clue,
     before playing as
     red5

     r

     ,with a

     red5clue,
     .
6. Scream discard = save the chop card (and move chop one slot to the left).
7. 1-away from playable cards are splashed.
8. Trash cards are discarded before being splashed.
9. Already-marked trash cards are splashed.
10. An early game 4 may be discarded.
11. Black Powder: avoid discarding after an early game
    black powder1

    ​

    ,with a

    black powder1clue,
    or 5 save.
    • To allow consecutive
      black powder1

      ​

      ,with a

      black powder1clue,
      and colour 5 saves.

Early game

1. At least 3clue tokens are used before the first discard.
2. Black Powder:
   black powder5

   ​

   ,with a

   black powder5clue,
   is marked first if it is the leftmost 5.
3. 2s are marked next.
   • Black Powder:
     black powder4

     ​

     ,with a

     black powder4clue,
     is marked if there are no other 4s.
4. 1s are marked next.
   • With multiple marked unknown 1s in your hand, consider first playing your 1s or marking 1s individually with colour.

Alternative strategy

1. Any card may be saved, including non-unique cards.
2. Cards marked with a number are only splashed with colour:
   1. If a previously unmarked card is playable.
   2. As a stall clue.

Advanced moves

Discard clue

• A discard clue marks known trash cards to prevent an unwanted discard (or misfire).

Play refusal

• Instead of playing, a player clues or discards their chop.
• The next player must consider if the play refusal is waiting for a potential reverse or if there are unique card(s) to save.

Positional Discard

• In the endgame when you can see all remaining playable cards, you can use a positional discard to communicate the slot position in another hand.
• Typically used with 0clue tokens or where trash cards make it awkward to clue the target.

Long finesse

Layered finesse

Trash bluff

Finesse bluff

• If the following two players both have a playable finesse position, you may be able to perform a finesse bluff.
• The first blind play connects to the target.
• The second blind play does not connect to the target.

Double bluff

• If the following two players both have a playable finesse position, you may be able to perform a double bluff.

Promise bluff

This move only applies to 1-away-from-playable bluff interpretations.

• Promise bluffs give more information than regular bluffs, as they promise the necessary connecting cards to make the clued bluff target 1-away-from-playable. These connecting cards must be either marked or unmarked in finesse position.

Empty clue double save

• With not enough ​clue tokens or turns to save consecutive unique cards, an empty clue can save two chop cards.