Two new crystalline salts, namely, hypoxanthinium bromide monohydrate, C5H5N4O+·Br−·H2O (I) and xanthinium bromide monohydrate, C5H5N4O2
+·Br−·H2O (II), were synthesized and characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction technique and Hirshfeld surface analysis. The hypoxanthinium and xanthinium cations in salts I and II are both in the oxo-N(9)–H tautomeric form. The crystal packing of the two salts is governed predominantly by N–H...O, N–H...Br, C–H...Br and O–H...Br interactions described by R
2
3(9) and R
2
2(8) synthons. The crystal packing is also consolidated by carbonyl...π interactions between symmetry-related hypoxanthinium (HX+
) cations in salt I and xanthinium cations (XA+
) in salt II. The combination of all these interactions leads to the formation of wave- and staircase-like architectures in salts I and II, respectively. The largest contributions to the overall Hirshfeld surface are from Br...H/H...Br contacts (22.3% in I and 25.4% in II) .