Fate/Hollow Ataraxia Hanafuda mini-game guide Author: Harleyquin Version 2.2 Table of Contents: 1. Introduction 2. Brief description of the game 3. Why play this mini-game? 4. The cards 5. Winning combinations 6. How to play 7. The teams 8. "Noble Phantasm" descriptions and usage 9. Game Rules 10. Hanafuda EX add-on intro 11. Gameplay changes and changes to existing teams 12. EX add-on new teams 13. EX add-on Noble Phantasms 14. Acknowledgements 15. Legal Notice 16. Version History 17. Contact 1. Introduction Welcome to my guide on the Fate/Hollow Ataraxia (henceforth FHA) Hanafuda minigame. I've completed the main game and unlocked all the pictures and scenes, but this game keeps bringing me back for more. Non-Japanese speakers might also find the game extremely challenging without some help from translation sites or time lost on trial and error. Hence I've written this guide to help others along. 2. Brief description of the game The Hanafuda variant used by FHA is the 2-player "Koi-Koi". The objective of the game is to gather enough cards through play to form winning combinations, each combination is worth different point values and the player's ultimate objective is to score enough points to reduce the opponent's point stock to zero. The team you select at the start of the game determines which "Noble Phantasm" you can use (if at all) and the magic point pool you possess. 3. Why play this mini-game? For those wondering why purpose this game serves in FHA, you will probably have noticed the second gallery labelled "Another" in the extras section. Completing the Hanafuda mini-game will unlock a large majority of the pictures. In addition completing the various campaigns increases the amount of money you have in Tousaka Rin's shrine special allowing you to buy more of the shrine placards (Ema). To activate this mini-game you must first meet Leysritt in the temple grounds to obtain an old book (this is highlighted by the game in one of the game flags), afterwards go to the temple hill in another scene and meet adult Gilgamesh who will trade your old book for a Hanafuda card. Afterwards meet Shinji at the docks and after the scene concludes the game can be accessed from the special menu (it's the option on the top left that was previously blank). 4. The cards There are 48 cards in total, these are divided into the 12 months of the year with each month represented by a unique characteristic, each month is comprised of 4 cards representing the four seasons. For scoring purposes the cards are further divided into "Hikari" (Light), "Tane (Animal)", "Tan (Ribbon)" and "Kasu (Plain)" categories. Generally the four months are comprised of two plain cards, and a pair comprising one light card and an animal card, one light card and a ribbon card or one animal and one ribbon card. Two light cards, ribbon cards or animal cards will never appear in the same month. The two exceptions to the above rules are the months of November and December. November has one light card, one ribbon card, one animal card and one plain card while December has one light card and three plain cards (one plain card coloured differently from the rest). There are 5 light cards in the game, these are represented by the crane and sun (January), Sakura banner (March), Full Moon on red sky (August), Man with Umbrella (November) and Chinese Phoenix (December) . When collected, the December light card also adds one to your collected plain card count. There are 9 animal cards in the game, these are fairly self-explanatory since any card with birds or other animals drawn on it is an animal card. The one card which is less obvious is the animal card for September which depicts a sake cup. Collecting the sake cup adds one to your collected plain card count. There are 10 ribbon cards in the game, the ribbon cards are divided into red and blue ribbons. Three of the red ribbon cards are special as they already have hiragana written on them (January, February and March). Three blue (Purple/Dark blue in-game) ribbon cards are for the months of June, September and October. The remaining 24 cards are plain cards. The only exceptions of note are the sole plain card for November (red card) and the three plain cards for December (Identical flower background but one card has yellow coloured on the bottom of the card) If the above description is too difficult/too tedious to remember, the game assigns a unique colour for the four categories. Light cards have yellow hiragana below the card, animal cards have blue, ribbon cards have red and plain cards have white hiragana. Selecting the tutorial (2nd option from the right) will eventually introduce the card table during the explanations. Alternatively you can look at the card table and winning combinations table from the settings menu (2nd option from top left hand side of the main title screen) and selecting either winning combinations table (top rectangular option on right-hand side of dialog box) or card table (middle rectangular option on right-hand side of dialog box). 5. Winning combinations The whole point of the game is to reduce your opponent's initial stock of points to zero through the course of the game. The game has a table showing all of the winning combinations so I'll give a brief summary below. Plain cards: Collect at least 10 of these to score one point off your opponent, each additional card collected increases your score by one point. Ribbon cards: Any combination of 5 ribbon cards (NOT all 3 special red ribbons or 3 blue ribbons) gives one point, additional ribbon cards increase your score by one point. Animal cards: Collecting 5 of the animal cards (NOT boar, deer and butterflies) gives one point, additional animal cards increase your score by one point. The following hand combinations are special and generally have higher scores than the generic winning combinations listed above. Red ribbon trio: If you can collect the 3 special red ribbons during play and declare a win, this is worth 5 points. Additional ribbons collected increase the score by one point. Blue ribbon trio: Same as the above, difference being the blue ribbon cards are your target. Six ribbons: A combination of the two winning hands above, this yields the player 10 points. Additional red ribbon cards increase the score by one for each card. (This is almost impossible to obtain from my experience, less likely than five lights described below) Boar, Deer and Butterflies: Getting these three animal cards during play (the animal cards for June, July and October) is worth 5 points, additional animal cards collected during play increase your score by one for each card. Moon viewing sake: Collecting the moon light card and the sake animal card is worth 3 points, however collecting the umbrella man light card during play voids this combination. (This hand and the one below are the only winning combinations possible on your first turn, beware the umbrellaman) Flower viewing sake: Collecting the Sakura banner light card and the sake animal card is also worth 3 points, collecting the umbrellaman light card also voids this winning hand. (Fortunately not implemented in this game, but claiming the December light card in other Koikoi variants also voids the sake combinations). Three lights: Collecting any trio of the light cards (NOT umbrellaman) is worth 5 points. Four lights: Collecting four of the light cards is worth 8 points, if one of the four light cards is the umbrellaman card the score is worth 7 points. Five lights: Collecting all five light cards is worth 10 points. (Not impossible to obtain, but it's difficult to pull off). **Four seasons**: This is the game's equivalent of a blackjack hand in blackjack. If your starting hand has all four cards for one month (e.g. your starting hand has the sakura banner, sakura special ribbon and the two plain cards with the sakura flowers), this is an instant win worth 6 points. (Noble phantasms with the exception of God-Hand are ineffective). (An aside, the actual name of this combination is actually 4 in the hand, but the Kanji for the game refer to it as 4 seasons). **Four pairs**: This is another instant-win combination similar to the one above. If your starting hand contains 2 cards each from 4 different months (i.e. 2 cards belonging to January, 2 cards belonging to February etc.) the round ends immediately and the team with the straight scores 6 points. The probability of both players getting either of the instant win combinations in the same round is so low it's generally not worth mentioning (I've had one instance over thousands of rounds), however it seems the game is slightly bugged since what should be a drawn hand leads to a sudden conclusion during the next round of cards. During the game it is possible to combine different winning hands together. A really big score can thus be obtained potentially ending the match by the first round. Meet Shinji at the docks after getting the Hanafuda card from Gilgamesh in the temple's hill to see an example of a 12-point winning score. 6. How to play When you first start the game you will be asked to select one of two cards face down. If you select the card whose month comes earlier in the year you are entitled to go first, otherwise your opponent will start the first round. Both sides are dealt 8 cards in their hands, 8 cards are dealt face up forming the table and the remaining 24 cards are shuffled and remain face down forming the deck. Each turn consists of either matching a pair of cards belonging to the same month (the game highlights matching cards automatically, or you can look at the motif backgrounds for help or use the card table in-game) or discarding a card from your hand if no matches are available. The player then draws one card from the deck and if a valid match is available the game will automatically pair the cards and place them in your tally. If there are two cards on the table which can be matched with the drawn deck card the player can select which card he wants for the pair. The opposing player will do the same until one side declares a win or both sides have exhausted their starting hand of 8 cards. Occasionally 3 cards belonging to the same month will be dealt onto the table, what the game does before starting is to compile these cards into one selection meaning whichever player is fortunate enough to obtain the last remaining card for that month can collect the entire pile of cards. When a player amasses a valid winning combination, a dialog box will appear showing how much the combination is worth and giving the player two choices: the choice on the left continues the game ("KoiKoi") while the one on the right declares the win and the points obtained from the winning combination(s) deducted from the opponent's stock of points (Exceptions do exist when noble phantasms come into play). If a player is in KoiKoi a win cannot be declared unless the player forms another valid winning combination or increases the value of their existing winning combination. Players can go into KoiKoi as often as they wish, however if the player obtains a winning hand or increases the value of their current hand on the last card dealt from their starting hand the game will end and the points obtained deducted from the opponent's score. Obviously postponing the win can backfire if the opponent obtains and declares a winning combination before the "KoiKoi" team can increase its winning score, the decision on when to do declare a win should depend on the cards available and your opponent's card tally. The match ends when one player's initial stock of points (usually 12) is reduced to zero. 7. The teams Here's a short description of the teams and their noble phantasms (if any). Fujimura Taiga (Tiger) and First disciple Ilya (Buruma): Glass Origin (20MP max) This is the main team of the "Trouble" campaign (it's the rightmost choice on the game menu). It's challenging to win with this team but not impossible. A note on their campaign: If you succeed in finishing all of the matches using 2 command mantras or less, you skip one match at the end and the campaign ending is changed slightly. Emiya Shirou and Sabre team: Invisible air, Excalibur, Avalon (20MP max) This team starts off somewhat weak, but gathering enough magic points to use Excalibur and timing the phantasm well can end the match. Tousaka Rin and Archer team: Unlimited Blade Works, Rho Aias (15MP max) This team is more defensive and like the Shirou/Sabre team above needs time to build up its mana points before it can be used effectively. Matou Sakura and Rider team: Blood fort Andromeda, Breaker Gorgon, Bellerophon (15MP max) My personal favourite, although this team starts with minus three(!) magic points prudent activation of Rider's phantasms can help win the match. Ilyasviel von Einzbern and Berserker: God-hand Third-hardest team to win with, the team has no special abilities other than the automatic activation of God-hand at the start of the match. Conversely the player's style of play doesn't prioritise collection of the light cards and should focus more on amassing winning combinations quickly since magic points do not apply to Ilya. Suzuki Souichirou, Caster and Assassin: Ecstatic Crier, Rule Breaker, Swallow Return (Caster 30MP max, Assassin 3MP max) I'm not sure on the romanji pronunciation of Caster's first phantasm so help would be appreciated. Collecting plain cards should be a higher priority for this team compared to the others, the main draw for this team is the insanely annoying Rule Breaker. Kotomine Kirei, Gilgamesh and Lancer: Gate of Babylon, Enuma Elish, Gae Bolg (Gilgamesh 35MP max, Lancer 10MP max) This is THE easiest team to win with in campaign and free modes, Gate of Babylon may not seem like much but it can give you an extra light card in your starting hand under the right circumstances. Enuma Elish can be activated just before collecting any winning combination to more or less end the match straight away. Gae Bolg is a game-breaking phantasm since stealing an opponent's collected cards makes it easier for your team to win and harder for the opponent, although its effectiveness is diminished if the opponent has collected a lot of cards. What's most overpowered about this team is that Gilgamesh seems to gain magic points from a large variety of collected cards. Sera and Leysritt (Ilya's maids): Brainwashing gun (Leysritt 5MP max) Second hardest team to win with, the noble phantasm's use is extremely situational and seldom helps win the match. Matou Shinji: NONE (Only starts with 3 points in his campaign, as compensation he has 99 continues compared to the regular 3 granted to the other teams). THE HARDEST TEAM to win with, I had to disable the use of noble phantasms going through his campaign and it still took me over an hour and non-stop continues to win. Confident and/or masochistic players can activate extreme mode in the options and play with phantasms active. 8. "Noble Phantasms" description and usage All Noble Phantasms require sufficient magic points (MP) before they can be activated. Magic points are acquired through collection of light cards and other cards specific to each team. These other cards vary and the tutorial hints these cards are connected with the team's phantasms, personally I've never worked out which cards acquire magic points for specific teams when collected except that Gilgamesh gathers magic points at an extreme rate. Taiga and Ilya: Tiger's magic field This is a campaign-based noble phantasm with absolutely no gameplay usage. Essentially it explains why all of the masters and servants are playing Hanafuda with each other rather than fighting. Taiga and Ilya: Glass Origin (8MP) If you're one card away from a valid winning combination (represented by the winning hand highlighted in blue), this phantasm will draw that card from the deck making it available for the deck on the same turn the phantasm is used. If the winning card is in the opponent's hand or already in your own a random card is drawn instead. This phantasm is useful if your starting hand already has a matching card or the deck has the matching card allowing you to pair a light card with something else to regain some of the used magic points. Particularly helpful for the 3-point Sake winning combinations. However you'll likely have to declare a win straight away and hope your luck holds for subsequent rounds. Shirou and Sabre: Invisible Air (3MP) Using this noble phantasm prevents the opponent from seeing which cards you've accumulated during the round. This will not stop the opponent from seeing if you're one card away from a winning combination, it will prevent your opponent from updating its winning combination display correctly (for example your opponent has 2 of the Boar, Deer and Butterfly cards and you claim the third. Your opponent will still see that the combination is valid even when it really isn't). This phantasm can only be used on the team's first turn of the round. This phantasm is more annoying for the player when you're taking on the Shirou/Sabre pair since you have to put extra effort into remembering what cards they've collected. Gae Bolg will continue to steal cards from your tally so the only real use for this is to prevent wastage of accumulated magic points when your magic point pool is near its maximum and the opportunity to use Excalibur or Avalon doesn't present itself. Shirou and Sabre: Excalibur (10MP) The value of any winning combination total obtained when this phantasm is active is tripled. This phantasm only last one round so if the win isn't declared the MP is wasted. The value of this phantasm depends on the current value of your winning hand, if you only have 10 plain cards (1 point) then Excalibur will give you a final score of 3 points which isn't too spectacular. Conversely if you complete five lights you're going to get a massive 30 points from the hand which is an instant match-winner. You need an initial winning combination of five points for the bonus to equal Gilgamesh's Enuma Elish, however the cheaper cost of this phantasm offsets its variable benefits. This phantasm allows the team to score absurd winning combination totals (60 points from one round is possible, although you only need to declare a winning total of 24 in one round at most to defeat any opponent outright). Shirou and Sabre: Avalon (15MP) If you have sufficient points to activate this phantasm, your opponent's total score against you will be reduced such that it will take off a maximum of half of your current point score (rounded down). If the Shirou/Sabre team only has one point remaining then the opponent's winning combination will do no damage regardless of the winning total. Example: Shirou/Sabre team has seven points and opponent declares a win with four lights, this combination worth 8 points is reduced to 3 when Avalon is activated leaving the duo with four points in their point stock. Example: Shirou/Sabre team has two points and opponent declares an eleven plain cards win. The combination ordinarily worth 2 points is reduced by 1 leaving the Shirou/Sabre team with one point. Example: Shirou/Sabre team has twelve points and opponent declares a win worth fourteen points. After Avalon is taken into account Shirou/Sabre will be left with five points. This defensive phantasm may be activated if you have the MP and your opponent declares a win. It basically buys you time and lets you run away to fight another day, the downside being the extreme cost of this phantasm leaving you with enough magic points to use invisible air at most at the start of the next round. However saving your hide in that one round may give you the luck required for good hands to turn the match round. Rin and Archer: Unlimited Blade works (8MP) Draws 3-5 non-light cards from the same category out of the deck and puts them in your tally. The category selected is random (Animal, Ribbon or plain). If there are no cards remaining in the deck for the selected category the phantasm will not grant any cards. Unlimited Blade Works can only be used once per round. This is the offensive phantasm for the Rin and Archer team, it's best used at the start of the round when the deck is fresh. For example you can complete the ribbon winning combinations in your first turn and then use the next few turns gathering light cards or increasing your combination tally while your opponent is still struggling for cards. Alternatively you can use this combination just before the end of the round with your tally a card away from winning the round and hope luck flows your way allowing you to declare a win at the death. Rin and Archer: Rho Aias (7MP) When activated, any winning score of seven or less is completely ineffective i.e. team loses points only when opponent's total score is eight or more. This is activated in the same manner as Shirou/Sabre's Avalon. The team's defensive phantasm, this is obviously going to buy you more time if your opponent is on a good run and you're a few points away from losing. Try and use this phantasm only if your opponent has chalked up at least 5 points or when you risk losing the match anyway if the phantasm isn't activated. Sakura and Rider: Blood Fort Andromeda (6MP) When you've postponed a win and this phantasm is active, for every one of your turns which passes, you get back one magic point and your opponent loses one point from their point stock. This phantasm lasts until the end of the round. A personal favourite of mine, this is at its most effective if you managed to get one of the 3-point winning combinations in your first turn and can afford to lengthen the round for as long as possible to regain all of your spent magic points and drain your opponent's point stock dry. This is the only noble phantasm in the game that bypasses Berserker's God-hand and goes straight for Ilya's point stock. If you can combine this with Breaker Gorgon below, you open up a lot of possibilities with a decent spread of cards. Sakura and Rider: Breaker Gorgon (7MP) Your opponent's next turn is skipped, so in effect you get 2 turns in a row. The phantasm is ineffective if you're on your last card, your opponent's skipped turn(s) will be redeemed at the end of the round after you've exhausted all cards in your starting hand. There are many ways to use this phantasm effectively, consecutive turns could mean taking two light cards on the deck, claiming the 3-point sake winning combinations in 2 turns for blood fort fun in the next turn, allowing a light card discard from your own hand for instant collection during the next turn etc. Remember that the skipped turn(s) are handed back to your opponent when you've run out of cards in your hand. Sakura and Rider: Bellerophon (10MP) An unconditional winning combination worth 3 points is activated. The 3 points can be reduced via phantasms such as Avalon and Rho Aias. Unlike Excalibur or Enuma Elish, this winning combination will last until the end of the round. The 3 point winning combination may not seem like much, but this is a perfect counter to an opponent's KoiKoi if they're building up a big score. In addition this can be used to end a match if the additional 3 points to your total pushes your opponent over the edge. Ilyasviel and Berserker: God-hand This is automatically activated at the start of each match. It's basically an additional eleven points to Ilya's starting total of 12. All deductions will first be taken from God-hand until it is exhausted. As mentioned above, point deductions from Blood Fort Andromeda are the only way to bypass God-Hand while it remains active. The Ilya/Berserker team essentially starts with 23 points with Noble Phantasms enabled. Ilyasviel gets no magic points during play so fast play is essential to form winning combinations before your opponent builds up enough momentum to eliminate your 11 point cushion. Souichirou, Caster and Assassin: Ecstatic Crier (5MP) When this phantasm is activated, the point score from a winning plain card combination is doubled. E.g. The team has collected 11 plain cards and declares a win with this phantasm active, the original 2-points from the 11 cards is doubled for a total score of 4. This phantasm allows a player controlling this team to prioritise collecting plain cards over ribbon or animal cards depending on the status of the deck and the given hand of cards. If the conditions are right it is possible to turn a 14-point plain card combination worth 5 points into a 10-point score (this is rare but I've pulled it off in play). Souichirou, Caster and Assassin: Swallow return (3MP) When this phantasm is activated, the opponent cannot declare a win from animal card combinations (Tane cards). A purely defensive phantasm, use it when you see your opponent one card away from completing the Boar, Deer and Butterfly combinations or you see them gathering a significant number of such cards. Conversely it means you can concentrate on grabbing the cards for yourself if your CPU opponent decides to skip this line for other combinations. However since Assassin uses up his entire magic point pool to activate this phantasm it's highly unlikely you can pull off this defence for consecutive rounds at a stretch. Souichirou, Caster and Assassin: Rule Breaker (20MP) Phantasm is automatically activated if the team loses and sufficient magic points are available. Team has 1/3 probability of reversing the loss into a win unconditionally. This is incredibly useful if it works for you and unbelievably irritating when used successfully against you. Considering the lack of reliable offensive phantasms in this team it is usually a last resort saved up against an opponent on a hot streak with the cards. On the plus side Caster's other phantasm is rarely used and her magic points accumulate reasonably quickly over a few rounds to make this useable if the need arises. The team AI realises this and I've never seen it use Ecstatic Crier whenever I play against the team. Kirei, Gilgamesh and Lancer: Gate of Babylon (5MP) When this phantasm is activated, 1-2 plain cards in your starting hand are converted into the corresponding light cards for the same month if said light cards were in the deck to begin with. Otherwise the phantasm has no effect. This can only be used at the start of the round. Gilgamesh starts with 5MP at the start of the match so you can use this phantasm in the first round if you wish. It's usefulness cannot be underestimated especially if you somehow contrive to get all 5 light cards in your starting hand... Kirei, Gilgamesh and Lancer: Enuma Elish (20MP) When this phantasm is active, any winning combination earned and declared is automatically increased by 10(!) points. The phantasm is wasted if the win is postponed and must be reactivated for the bonus to take effect once more. Considering how situational Gilgamesh's first noble phantasm is, this second phantasm is close to overpowered when the cards are favourable. Even a measly ribbon combination worth one point becomes a monstrous 11 points when used. However Berserker's God-Hand, Sabre's Avalon (especially when team has just one point), Archer's Rho Aias and Leysritt's brainwashing gun phantasms can reduce or negate the impact of this phantasm. Although 20MP seems a high price to pay for this phantasm, Gilgamesh has a ridiculously wide range of cards that earns MP for him when collected into the tally so it's entirely possible to use this phantasm in consecutive matches so long as Gate of Babylon is used sparingly. Kirei, Gilgamesh and Lancer: Gae Bolg (3MP) When this phantasm is activated, one card from your opponent's tally is randomly selected and stolen to form part of your own tally. This is the phantasm that makes this team so easy to play and so annoying to play against. It's at its most effective when the opponent has just 2 cards in the tally with one card being a light card. With sufficient luck this phantasm can also turn otherwise invalid combinations into wins e.g. stealing your opponent's blue ribbon card to add to your already collected 2 blue ribbons. Lancer doesn't earn magic points as quickly as Gilgamesh but a run of good cards and judicious use of the phantasm could mean three consecutive turns of stolen cards and a potential win for the round within 5 turns. Sera and Leysritt: Brainwashing gun (5MP) This phantasm is automatically activated when the opponent's declared win deducts enough points from the duo to end the match. The declaration is forced into a KoiKoi postponement. There's not much to say about this phantasm; it's defensive and buys time for the team. Considering activation depletes the entire magic point pool for the duo you're unlikely to see this activated more than once in a match. On the bright side it's probably the only way to negate Enuma Elish and a big Excalibur win for the careless CPU player. Make sure you don't make the same mistake when playing against the maid team. This phantasm is capable of forcing a postponement even if the win is obtained on the opponent's last card. 9. Game Rules If you're unhappy with the default settings for scoring rules or want more of a challenge, you can change which winning combinations are enabled and a bit more in the rules menu (It's the top option on the left side of the main menu). Once you're in the rules menu each option has two choices. The top one enables the rule while the bottom choice disables the rule. A short description of the rules is listed below (reading from right to left in-game): Sake 3-point winning combinations On/Off (Default on) Collecting umbrellaman light card voids Sake 3-point combinations On/Off (Default on) Four lights winning combination with umbrellaman On/Off (Default on) Postponing a win (KoiKoi) doubles score totals On/Off (Default off) Winning scores of 7 or more are doubled On/Off (Default off) Multiple winning combinations counted On/Off (Default on) Noble Phantasms On/Off (Default on) (You'll want to turn this off if you want to finish the Shinji and Maid team campaigns without taking forever) Shura Mode On/Off (Default off) (All maximum magic point pools are doubled for teams which have them, magic points earned from collected cards are doubled) 10. Hanafuda EX add-on I'm not the only one who thought this game was fun, popular reception for the mini-game was sufficient to convince the programmers to make a free add-on for the original game. It's available for download off Type-Moon's official website and numerous mirror download sites. The main draw for this game is the addition of 2 teams featuring characters introduced in FHA and 1 team featuring characters from FSN. 11. Gameplay changes and changes to existing teams There aren't many changes to the core gameplay so I'll be brief: a) Collecting light cards is no longer guaranteed to increase MP for teams. The emphasis is more on specific cards which will increase MP count for some teams. Depending on the team and the cards involved, collecting specific cards can increase MP by a value from 1-3 for each card depending on the cards collected. (For example the September cards are designated MP cards for Sakura's team, collecting special ribbon and the light card for September increases MP by a significant amount. Shirou's team gets large MP points from the December cards). b) Sakura and Rider now start with 0MP instead of -3MP when they begin Normal Mode. c) Caster will now use Ecstatic Crier if she gathers a lot of plain cards and has the MP to do so. (Exceedingly rare, only seems to pull this off when the team's winning score is certain to end the match). d) Kirei's team has been nerfed. Gate of Babylon now requires 7MP to activate while Gae Bolg needs 4MP. Coupled with the changes to MP gathering the end result is Enuma Elish activated far less often than the vanilla version and Gae Bolg much less overpowered/unbalanced compared to vanilla Hanafuda. e) Shinji can now accumulate WP (Wakame Points, 5WP maximum, functions identically to the MP of other teams) and he receives one Noble Phantasm. f) You will encounter the new teams as random opponents during normal mode, however the mid-boss team and final-boss team remains unchanged for all existing teams. g) Not a gameplay addition per se, but playing through normal mode for the 3 additional teams will earn currency for Tousaka Rin's shrine special. 12. EX add-on new teams Caren Ortensia, Lancer (Aloha shirt) and kid Gilgamesh: Magdala red cloth, Gae Bolg (power throw), All-knowing star (Gilgamesh 25MP max, Lancer 15MP max). The team that argubly replaces Kirei's team as the overpowered boss team (to a lesser extent). Noli me Tangere affects 6 of the teams and cannot be removed. Gae Bolg (power throw) functions similarly to Bellerophon but with variable damage. Kid Gilgamesh phantasm is versatile and can be used in many ways to accelerate a win, collect a specific card dealt from the deck or to avoid dealing a card to the table which can be collected by your opponent. The dialogue with the final boss team is hilarious. Bazett Fraga McRemitz, Avenger: Fragrach, Verg Avesta, Unlimited Raise Dead (Bazett 3MP only, Avenger 20MP max) I like using this team since the noble Phantasms described in the main plot of Hollow/Ataraxia have been faithfully recreated in the Hanafuda mini-game. The main problem with this team is that it needs MP to be effective and has no effective method of reversing a good run of cards for the opponent. Note Bazett starts normal mode with 3MP ONLY (the reason should be fairly obvious to those who've finished the game) and her pool doesn't increase. The mid-boss battle for this team has very funny dialogue and is potentially very frustrating for the player. Matou Zouken, True Assassin: Sabaniya (True Assassin 10MP max) The team introducing the two characters from Stay/Night neglected in the original Hanafuda game. Like his Stay/Night iteration True Assassin's Noble Phantasm is extremely dangerous to teams with low MP stocks, fortunately (or unfortunately) this team doesn't receive the services of Black Sakura for this mini-game. The twist on the last boss battle for this team is unusual and worth reading through. 13. EX add-on Noble Phantasms Caren Ortensia, Lancer (Aloha) and Kid Gilgamesh: Magdala red cloth Activation identical to Berserker's God-hand. Before the start of a match the red cloth will bind one male servant on the opposing team and prevent that servant from deploying any of his noble phantasms. This phantasm's effectiveness depends on which team you're playing against. It's completely useless against the Shirou, Sakura and Trouble teams and devastating against the Rin, Bazett and Zouken teams. Suzuki and Kirei's teams don't play as effectively. If there are two male servants (Kirei's team) one servant is randomly chosen and bound by the cloth while the other is free to use phantasms normally. If Karen's team plays against Ilya and Berserker, Berserker's god-hand will activate first followed by the Magdalene red cloth (i.e. God-hand will still work and Berserker spends the rest of the match with his portrait covered by red stripes). Caren Ortensia, Lancer (Aloha) and Kid Gilgamesh: Gae Bolg (Power throw) 15MP I'll refer to this Gae Bolg as the power throw version since it's identical to the phantasm used by Lancer against Archer during the Unlimited Blade Works arc (those who read Kanji or play Fate Unlimited Codes would have realized this anyway). When activated the phantasm activates a winning combination with score calculated by adding 1-2 points (random) for each member in the opposing team. The combination remains active even if you postpone the win on the turn this phantasm is activated. Read the section on Rider's Bellerophon for tips on when to use this phantasm. However the impact is variable and dependent on which team you're facing. It will add 1-2 points to total score if you're facing Shinji, 2-4 points for most of the 2-person teams and 3-6 if you're facing the Kirei and Kuzuki teams. Caren Ortensia, Lancer (Aloha) and Kid Gilgamesh: Omniscient star (Katakana name requires confirmation) 7MP When activated, this phantasm will either reveal the next 5 cards that will be dealt from the deck or show 2 cards from the opponent's hand belonging to the animal and banner categories. Player and CPU AI cannot choose which version is used when the phantasm is activated. An interesting phantasm and one probably best used when the majority of your starting cards can be matched with those on the table or you have no valid matches in your hand and are unsure of which card to discard safely. Like the adult version Kid Gilgamesh gains MP from a wide variety of cards (although to a lesser extent compared to the vanilla Hanafuda) so you'll likely be using this phantasm often to stop MP overflow. You can activate this in consecutive turns to show both the deck cards to be dealt onto the table and your two of your opponent's cards. This phantasm allows the team more planning than other teams on which combination to declare for a fast win. Bazett Fraga McRemitz, Avenger: Fragrach 1MP If the opposing team declares a win with a score-increasing phantasm active, Bazett can activate this phantasm to cancel the opponent's win and score 6 points in addition to any valid winning combinations already attained during the round. If you've played through Hollow/Ataraxia this phantasm's characteristics should be no surprise. This works against Sabre's Excalibur, Rider's Bellerophon, Caster's Ecstatic Crier, Gilgamesh's Enuma Elish and Lancer (Aloha) Gae Bolg. If you're playing through Normal mode for this team you should be able to use it once or twice depending on circumstances and the opponents you face. Unless you're really terrible at playing this game it's unlikely you'll use up all 3 Fragrach charges so use the phantasm when the opportunity presents itself. It's worth seeing this activated since the counter winning animation is quite cool and if the opposing team is still alive you get to see a funny dialogue between Bazett and Avenger talking about the phantasm. Bazett Fraga McRemitz, Avenger: Verg Avesta 10MP If the opposing team declares a win and Avenger has sufficient MP active, he can opt to activate this phantasm provided the opponent's total score for the round is less than the team's current point stock total. When activated the score deducted for the round is also deducted from the opponent. This phantasm can only be used once per opponent. A numerical example best illustrates how this phantasm works. For example the Bazett team has 12 points and loses the round to a five lights combination declared by Kirei's team with 11 points. If Avenger decides to activate the phantasm the 10 points from 5 lights will first be deducted from the Bazett point stock leaving 2 points afterwards the 10 points will also be deducted from Kirei's team leaving them with 1 point. You cannot use this phantasm and Avenger's other phantasm against Caren Ortensia's team, the reflection ability will bypass Berserker's God-hand. Avalon and Rho Aias will not activate to absorb the point score even if the respective teams have sufficient MP to activate the phantasms. You can win the match if you have sufficient points to absorb the opponent's score for the round and your opponent doesn't have enough points to absorb the corresponding deduction. If both teams can continue play after the phantasm has been activated, Bazett's team earns the privilege of going first in the next round. Bazett Fraga McRemitz, Avenger: Unlimited Raise Dead 15MP Activate this phantasm when the team attains any valid winning combination. Once activated the total score for the round is increased by the number of plain cards collected by the team over the round. If the win is not declared when the phantasm is active, the effect is lost and the MP wasted. This phantasm is similar to Caster's Ecstatic Crier in execution but it's more useful since it adds the total number of plain cards collected to your score instead of doubling the score obtained from a plain cards winning combination. Unlike Caster's phantasm a win must be declared the instant this phantasm is activated or the MP is wasted so be careful when taking on Ilya's maids. Unlikely as it seems this phantasm can be used as often as you can against the same opponent unlike Verg Avesta. Obviously the team should collect as many plain cards as possible during a round if they wish to use this phantasm to its maximum potential, collecting 11 plain cards and declaring that combination with the phantasm active is enough to defeat all teams normally. (except Ilya and Berserker and Shirou/Rin teams with Avalon and Rho Aias). Matou Zouken and True Assassin: Sabaniya 7MP Phantasm can be activated at any time during a round. When activated the opposing team randomly loses 3-7 MP from their MP stock. If their MP stock cannot fully absorb the deduction remaining points are taken from the opposing team's point stock instead. Another phantasm that accurately reflects the original noble phantasm's effects from the plot, this phantasm normally buys the team some time during a prolonged match or acts as a head-start for fresh opponents with little to no MP stored. The team cannot win a match using Sabaniya alone, the last point from an opponent's point stock must be deducted through normal means. When used against Ilya's team the deduction goes straight for their point stock bypassing God-hand if it's active. Against teams with multiple MP stocks like the Kuzuki, Kirei and Karen Ortensia teams, the target MP stock is random so final results will vary depending on chance. Not much strategy to this team's phantasm, basically use it as often as you see fit and save it only if you think the next opponent might need the preemptive deduction of points more than your current opponent. Matou Shinji: Wakame Paradise 5WP Phantasm can be activated at any time during the round and only if Shinji has 5 points or less in his point stock. When activated both teams have their point stock totals reduced to 1 and any active phantasms (such as Bellerophon) are disabled for the duration of the phantasm. In my opinion this phantasm was granted to Shinji to make normal mode for him possible with phantasms active (he still gets 99 continues in the EX add-on). Use the phantasm when you are certain you can declare a win immediately and your opponent cannot bypass the score (through Avalon, Rho Aias or active God-hand). The reality marble Shinji conjures is not permanent and after the Shinji-theme is played twice (approximately one and a half rounds gameplay) the effects will disappear and all point stock totals and active phantasms are returned to their original state before the phantasm was first activated. Winning a match with this phantasm gives a special end-quote from Shinji. 14. Acknowledgements Type/Moon for creating the Fate/Stay Night series and this fan disc. Wikipedia for their entries on Hanafuda and Fate Stay Night characters, I've used some of the English names on those websites in this FAQ. Japanese wikipedia entry for the Fate/Stay Night characters and Hollow/Ataraxia for additional character explanation not stated in the English websites. The ingame tutorial by Sara and Leysritt for explaining the rules. Anyone who's bothered reading the guide this far and found it useful. 15. Legal Notice This guide may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site not listed or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. This FAQ is copyrighted by Feng Liangju 2008 www.gamefaqs.com is the only website authorised to display this FAQ. 16. Version History Version 1.0: Initial version Version 1.1: Changed description on how to activate the mini-game. Added additional note on how to access winning combination and card tables from the main menu. Added note on instant-win "Straight". Fixed description of combined cards in table at start of play. Edited additional info on Invisible Air. Gave two numerical examples for explanation of Avalon, fixed Avalon activation description. Reworded Rho Aias description. Fixed activation description for God-Hand. Added info on brainwashing gun with respect to last card wins. Corrected Liza's name (Liza is the more likely spelling for a German homunculus). Rechecked main text for grammatical and logical consistency and corrected minor errors. Added version history. Version 1.11: Checked official translation of the maid names and changed Liza to Leysritt, I'll keep Sara's name as it is since Sera isn't much of a difference. Reworded Excalibur description. Version 2.0: Worked out which cards form the straight instant-win combination. Added information relating to EX Hanafuda such as gameplay changes, new teams, new noble phantasms and changes to existing teams. Small revision to overall text. Version 2.1: Added note on Trouble campaign. Reworded Avalon description for accuracy and added another example to better illustrate the new description. Changed "Maid drugging" to "Brainwashing gun" for the name of the maids' noble phantasm. Corrected a minor error with one of the card categories. Added note in Contact section. Version 2.2: Confirmed MP/WP system for EX-add on. Finally found what WP stands for so Shinji's EX section has been updated. Version 2.3: All "needs confirmation" information has been definitively confirmed, updated names and details for 2nd instant-win combinations. A few miscellaneous details added after reading the Hanafuda wikipedia entry. Added an obvious but unmentioned point regarding two of the cards. 17. Contact If you have anything constructive to add to the above guide, you can email me at snookercue84[ampersand]hotmail[dot]com. Replace the words with brackets with their regular symbols instead of copying and pasting the email address word for word into your email program. Please have FHA Hanafuda guide in your email heading or your email will be ignored and deleted. Henceforth I shall not answer any questions relating to the installation and running of this game. I'm not affliated with Type-Moon and am under no obligation to provide technical support for installation and running of the game. There's plenty of help that can be found online for those who require it.