Palia Hotpot Minigame Guide | How to Play and How to Win

Our guide will tell you how to play the Palia Hotpot Minigame and what you need to do to secure yourself a win in this delicious co-op card game!

It should come as no surprise that the cozy life-sim MMO Palia has special holiday events. These events will often have minigames to play. After all, we could always use a break from all of that Gardening and Hunting! In this guide, we'll tell you how to play the Hotpot Minigame found in the Luna New Year event and Black Market — and how to win.

Palia Hotpot Minigame Board Explanation

1. Your Play Area: This is where your Hand is located.
2. Other Players' Play Areas: Each of the other 1 to 3 players have their own play area.
3. Discard and Draw: Each player's most recent Discarded Ingredient is shown in front of their play area. The face-down center Ingredient is where you can draw a new, random Ingredient from the Deck.
4. Turn Counter: This will show whose turn it currently is and how much time they have left in that turn.
5. Discards: This shows every Discard that all players have made since the start of the game.
6. Exit Game: You will immediately leave the game
7. Your Hand: This shows you your current Hand; this option exists so that you can check your Hand when drawing a new Ingredient from the center.
8. Tutorial: This will bring up the tutorial pop-up that tells you the rules of the Hotpot MInigame.

How to Play the Hotpot Minigame

The Palia Hotpot Minigame can be found in the Black Market year-round and in the Fairgrounds during the Luna New Year event. It is essentially a card game where you are trying to make up to three "Sets". Each card has an "Ingredient" and a "Category."

You can go up to any of the Hotpots in the Black Market or Fairgrounds and start a game or join a game that is about to start. You cannot join a game that is already in progress.

The Category is essentially the food group; examples include "meat," "vegetable," and "mushroom." Categories are represented by a unique symbol in the corner and a color. The "Ingredient" is the food item in the center of the card.

You can score points by forming one of two types of Set:

• Three of a Kind: Three cards of the same Category (corner icon & background color) and Ingredient (food item in the center of the card). Worth 120 points.
• Category Set: Three unique cards in the same Category.

Getting three of the same Category but with duplicate Ingredients will award no points. Similarly, having fewer than 2 cards of a Category will award no points. You will only get points for having a Three of a Kind or a Category Set.

At the start of the game, all players will be dealt a random Hand of 8 cards. They must then draw a face-down, random card from the center of the Hotpot. Finally, players must Discard 1 card, either from their Hand at the bottom or the most-recently drawn card at the top of their play area.

Starting on the second turn, players can opt to either draw a random card from the center or the most recent discard from one of the other players.

How to End the Hotpot Minigame

The Hotpot Minigame will end when one player has completed a total of three Sets.

Hotpot Minigame Start Time

You can start playing the Hotpot Minigame at 6:00 PM Palian Time during the Luna New Year event. It is otherwise available to play in the Black Market, albeit for non-event rewards.

Hotpot Minigame End Time

You can't play the Hotpot Minigame after 3:00 AM Palian Time during the Luna New Year event. You have until 2:59 AM

Hotpot Minigame Availability

The Hotpot Minigame is available year-round in the Black Market. The special Luna New Year Hotpot MInigame will be available for the duration of the Palia Luna New Year Event which typically concludes at the end of February.

How to Win the Hotpot Minigame

You can win the Hotpot Minigame in Palia by being the first to complete three Sets, regardless of whether they are Three of a Kind or Category Sets.

A total of eight Ingredient cards can be "held" in your Hand on the bottom row. The ninth and final Ingredient card is shown above the rest of your Hand. When you draw a new Ingredient card (or pick one of the other player's Discards), it will appear in this top slot.

You should first focus on building two Sets in the bottom row of 8 Ingredient cards. When you have two Sets completed, you should then focus on getting two of the three cards needed for the final Set in the remaining spaces in your Hand. Take a look at this example image:

In the above image, I have three Carrots (a Three of a Kind Set) and one each of the Spice cards (a Category Set). If I get one more Mountain Morel (the red Mushroom), I'll win.

The game will automatically end when someone has gotten three Sets, and the winner gets some bonus points. All players will get points based on the total number of Sets that were made in the entire game. The winning player will also get a bonus just for them.

Since the game ends when someone has made three Sets, your focus should be on getting to three Sets as fast as possible. A Three of a Kind Set is worth more than a Category Set, but you'll get no points for any incomplete Sets — take a Category Set if it seems easier to get!

Winning the Hotpot Minigame will get you prizes depending on which version you're playing. The Black Market version will give you special coins to spin Zeki's Wheel in the Black Market, and the Luna New Year version will give you prizes related to that limited-time event. The game itself is the same; only the prizes are different.

Strategy aside, there is a fair amount of luck involved in the Hotpot Minigame — you can't really control which Ingredient cards you (or the other players) start with! Ultimately, the key to maximizing your earnings is to try to win as fast as possible so you can play as many games as you can squeeze into one Palian Day.

Thanks for checking out our Palia Hotpot Minigame Guide. Have a gander at our other guides below!