Bananagrams

1 Game Overview

Bananagrams is a real-time word tile game that comes in a little banana-shaped pouch. Everyone plays simultaneously — there are no turns — racing to arrange their tiles into a valid crossword-style grid.

The genius of Bananagrams is that you can rearrange your entire grid at any time. Made a word you can't build on? Tear it apart and start over. This constant rearranging is what makes the game addictively fast-paced and surprisingly strategic.

It plays in 15 minutes, requires no board, and works anywhere — making it one of the most played travel games ever made.

2 What's in the Pouch

• 144 letter tiles (same distribution as Scrabble, roughly)
• 1 banana-shaped pouch

3 Setup

1. Place all 144 tiles face-down in the center of the table — this is "the Bunch."
2. Each player draws tiles from the bunch: 2-4 players take 21 each; 5-6 players take 15 each; 7-8 players take 11 each.
3. Keep your tiles face-down until the start is called.
4. When everyone's ready, someone calls "Split!" — all players flip their tiles and start building.

4 Gameplay

Building Your Grid

Arrange your tiles into a crossword-style grid: words must connect horizontally or vertically. All tiles must be part of the same connected grid — no isolated words. Proper nouns and abbreviations are not allowed (house rules often vary on this).

You can rearrange your entire grid as much as you want, at any time. This is encouraged and expected.

The Three Calls

• "Peel!" — When you've used all your tiles in a valid grid, shout Peel. Every player (including you) must take 1 new tile from the Bunch. Keep going.
• "Dump!" — At any point, you may discard 1 tile face-down into the Bunch and draw 3 new tiles as a replacement. You can Dump as often as you want — but picking up 3 for 1 is a trade-off.
• "Bananas!" — When a player uses all their tiles AND there are fewer tiles remaining in the Bunch than the number of players, shout Bananas! The other players check your grid. If it's valid, you win. If it has errors, you're out — put your tiles back in the Bunch and keep playing.

5 Strategy Tips

• Don't get precious about your grid. Rearranging everything to open up new paths is a core skill — the best players tear their grids apart without hesitation.
• High-value letters are traps. Q, X, Z, and J are hard to use. If you get stuck, Dump them early for 3 more usable tiles.
• Think in clusters, not individual words. "ING," "TION," "EST" — these letter combos appear on many tiles and can anchor flexible grid sections.
• Two-letter words are your best friends. "EM," "QI," "XI," "ZA," "OX" — Bananagrams rewards obscure Scrabble-legal two-letter words more than any other game.