Board Game Arena

I was so excited to learn to play Panda Spin, and now I'm confused and still don't know how to play! Here are some notes:

How do I know what suit a card is? You never say!
What are the 5 valid combinations of cards? Number each one as you explain them, ie this is the first type, the second type, etc.
When we play the jack panda, why do we also flip the 9? Is that an ability of the panda? And why the 9? Needs to be explained!
What are the 2 moods of the panda? And what does the panda mood do??
I have no idea what you mean by "Chinese 2"!
What happens exactly when a trick is won? Who gets what? You don't say!
What is an upgraded card??
Why can't we beat a single upgraded card with a set or run?
I don't understand the card flipping - is it a good thing or a bad thing?
How can 5 cards be three runs of 8-9-10??
What are the requirements for playing an element card? How many in each deck?
You do not explain the formation!
"... our opponent led a run with a single card and 2 values" - what does this mean??

Hope you keep your excitement!

I can answer some of the straightforward ones. I post them separately for overview.

It's an amazing game, just grows on you!

Q 5

"I have no idea what you mean by "Chinese 2"!"

That card is shown in the video, f ex at 1:05, up in the right corner.

That is the highest card, so it runs from 3 to 2 instead of from 2 to ace.
The card uses the chinese sign for 2.

It differs from the others in a way. If you play a par of 2:s it will beat any other pair. But the highest run has ace as it's highest as 2 cannot be part of a run.

Q 1

"How do I know what suit a card is? You never say!"

True! It shows on the small symbol on the short end of the card. That is really only important when you play IRL and sort the cards after the game. (Since not all suits always are used)
You don¨t really have to think about what suit a card is, because below the number, on the white side, there are small versions of the symbols that come into act when the card is flipped.

Those can be a panda, a bamboo, a fire, waterdrops, or multiples of a value.

When we play the jack panda, why do we also flip the 9? Is that an ability of the panda? Yes, and the ability changes, depends on the mood.
https://imgur.com/a/MGExQzb
https://imgur.com/a/yreltmK

And why the 9? U can flip any white card to blue side, and the author thinks is the best to flip that card.

I don't understand the card flipping - is it a good thing or a bad thing? Usually, blue side value is better than white side ones.

How can 5 cards be three runs of 8-9-10?? What do u mean? like 88-99-1010?

What happens exactly when a trick is won? Who gets what? You don't say!
You win a trick when everyone else has passed.
Discard all the cards you played to this trick.

BTW, u can directly ask nekonyancer(the author) if u r still confused, or just read the rulebook urself.

" How can 5 cards be three runs of 8-9-10?? What do u mean? like 88-99-1010?"

I understood the question so.
It can happen if one of the cards is flipped, and has two values on the blue side. A card could be 8,8 f ex. So it counts as two cards
Could also happen in the water suit where there is a drop on the blue side which can be used like a joker.

How can 5 cards be three runs of 8-9-10??
You do not explain the formation!

The formation is a set of runs, as mentioned in the tutorial. 4 of those 5 cards were upgraded and they were all water cards. Each upgraded water card has the water drop on it and those are wilds. When I was putting the tutorial together, I wished I had played a single water card before the formation, to introduce that concept, but that wasn't how the game played out. With those 5 cards, we had a total of 9 values. Printed on the cards, we had 3 8s, a 9, and a 10. I've expanded the explanation when it is played.

Why can't we beat a single upgraded card with a set or run?
Because that's the rule of the game. With the exception of a bomb or an element card, you have to play the lead combination. That's at the beginning of the tutorial. (The rules, not the exceptions)

What are the requirements for playing an element card? How many in each deck?
There is 1 element card in a suit and the requirements to play it are printed on the card. Each one has different requirements. The number of element cards are determined by the number of decks used.

How do I know what suit a card is? You never say!
The suit is determined by the Chinese symbol in the middle of the top edge of the card. For the most par, knowing the suit is unimportant because we don't have to match suits in Panda Spin.

When we play the jack panda, why do we also flip the 9? Is that an ability of the panda? And why the 9? Needs to be explained!
The 9 was flipped because of the panda mood. I flipped the 9 to point out the water symbol and set that card up to be played later. That is explained in the tutorial.

What happens exactly when a trick is won? Who gets what? You don't say!
I thought I had said the winner gets to discard all of their played cards, but I can't find in the tutorial where that was said, so I've added that after the first trick when talking about taking the played cards back into our hand.

If you have questions about the tutorial, it is best to send the author a message with your questions, so they can be addressed. We try to make the tutorials as accessible as possible, but everyone's learning style is a little different. I hope this answers the last of your lingering questions.

The game is unusual, it's hard to explain all its twisted mechanisms, the rulesbook is still accessible

I didn't have quite as many questions as the OP here, but I did think this was perhaps the worst tutorial I've seen on BGA. I still have a lot of questions about the game. I think the layout of the cards should have been explained, and it said that water would be explained later, but if it was, I missed it. Is water just wild, and you get to choose the number it will represent?

I also didn't understand what makes a bomb a bomb. Is it just 4 of a kind?

I was also confused and threw my hands up after 4 consecutive "HUH?"s.