Yeah, I hated it at first too. I still don't like it, but after figuring it out a little, it's much more bearable. A big problem I had starting out is that I'd often get in a situation where I thought I had a winning hand, but the game wouldn't let me, and it never explains what will PREVENT you from winning. So whether you're completely stumped by Mahjong or you're just trying to figure out the weirder parts of it, allow me to bring you up to speed.

With only a few rare exceptions, every winning hand has to be comprised of four sets of three tiles plus one pair. Those four sets can either be three numbers in a sequence like 4-5-6, or a triplet like 5-5-5. You can also make quads like 5-5-5-5 if you get all four of the same tile (there are 4 of each tile in the whole deck, similar to playing cards). Quads can count as triplets for the purposes of scoring, although a few high-scoring hands require quads specifically.

However, if you had a similar experience that I had when first trying the minigame, you probably ended up in a situation where you seemed to have a move to make 14 tiles into a winning hand, but the round continued anyway. This is because your hand MUST have at least one scoring element aside from "Dora" (more on that later). For example,


Here I have the option to steal that bamboo-9 tile up on the left from my opponent's discard. Doing so would give me what would seem to be a winning hand: a straight of 5-6-7, a triplet of 8-8-8, a straight of 7-8-9, a straight of 2-3-4, and a pair of 6's. However, this is not a winning move. If it were, the prompt would say "Ron" instead of "Chi". So, what gives? Well, the problem is that my hand would not be worth any scoring elements (the red dot on the 5 is a bonus point, but it's not a normal scoring element). If I had drawn that last 9 tile myself instead of having to steal it from someone else's discard, that would give me the "fully concealed hand" bonus (meaning that you never had to take from anyone else's discard pile the whole game), making me now eligible to score a winning hand.

You might be feeling some dread now at the thought that you're gonna have to memorize THE ENTIRE LIST OF WINNING HANDS just to know what stupid little things count as scoring elements. Well, worry not. It's more simple than it looks. The main thing that will get in the way of you winning are 1's, 9's, and pairs of honor tiles (the ones with letters instead of numbers on them). A triplet of any dragon tiles (D) will be worth score by themselves and allow you to have a winning hand if the rest of your tiles complete the hand, but a simple PAIR of dragons does not give you a scoring element by itself. The wind tiles (N, E, S, W) can give you score as a triplet if they match the letter next to Kasuga's name on the board, or if they match what's in the middle of the board (it always starts as east), but, again, if you just have a pair at the end, that's not a scoring element by itself even if it would normally match Kasuga's direction or what's in the middle of the board.

So what's the problem with tiles that have a 1 or a 9? Well, if you peek at the hands list, you'll see one of the most basic hands is called "all simples", which you get if your hand has no 1, 9, or letter tiles. If you fulfill that, it's a scoring element by itself, allowing your hand to win. Referring back to the above image, my "almost winning" hand up there would have had a 9 in it, making me inelligible for the "all simples" scoring element. If I also had something like a triplet of green dragon tiles, or a triplet of E tiles, that would have given me score by themselves and allowed me to win with that stolen 9.

Well, it would help your chances slightly, yeah, but don't worry about the advanced hands too much when you're starting out. Instead, here's a simplified list of the common hand scoring elements. The ones that specify a "closed hand" means you cannot have stolen any tiles (Pon and Chi actions) from your opponent's discard piles, although the final tile that completes your hand can be stolen this way (Ron), and you'll still be considered a closed hand. Note that these winning hands besides the "all simples" can include 1's, 9's, and non-scoring letter tiles with no problem.

- all simples (no 1, 9, or letter tiles)
- at least one triplet of dragons
- at least one triplet of winds that match either your seat or the round
- all straights and a pair (closed hand only)
- all triplets and a pair
- two straights of the exact same numbers and suit, like 112233 (closed hand only)
- three straights of the same number sequence, using all three of the different numbered suits in your hand. Example: 123 of the character tiles, 123 of the bamboo tiles, and 123 of the dot tiles.
- all sets include a 1, 9, or a letter tile, including the pair
- the almighty Riichi!

Ahh, yes, Riichi. If you sat down at the advanced table, you'll notice your opponents love to constantly call Riichi after like turn three. What is it? Well, as long as you haven't taken any "Pon" or "Chi" actions to steal from someone else's discard pile, and you are just one tile away from winning, you can press the "toggle command" button (pause the game to see what your controls are defaulted to if you haven't changed them), and you'll see the option for "Riichi" pop up. Select it, and you'll get your choice of tile to discard that will put you in a position of being one more tile away from winning, and you even get a handy hint pop up in the lower left corner that tells you how many of each possible winning tile for your current 13-tile hand are still in the game, so you should always pick the one that has the highest number of winning tiles that you could draw.

Kasuga will get all dramatic, slam a tile down, and you'll wager an extra 1,000 points. This is a scoring element, meaning your hand is now eligible to win even if it has none of the other scoring elements, so don't worry if you have a few 1 or 9 tiles, or non-scoring letter tiles in there. I would recommend you do this whenever you are about tied, or behind on points.

Yeah, those harder tables have the AI play like absolute demons. My first piece of advice is to just stick with it, listen to some podcasts in the background, and brush off the losses. But my longer advice is to take advantage of "dora" bonuses, and try to put yourself in situations where there are multiple tiles that could give you a winning hand, and be picky about when you steal from opponents' discard piles.

Dora might sound complicated at first, but you can get used to it fast. You'll notice that there's 5 tiles that get dealt to the middle of the table, with only one of them face up at first. These are the "dora" tiles that are telling you which tiles will be worth extra points if you have them in your winning hand. But the weird thing is, the actual bonus-designated tile isn't the one that you see face up in the middle, but whatever number comes AFTER it. So if the revealed dora tile is a 5-dots tile, then that means the bonus point tiles for this round are going to be the 6-dots tiles. So if your winning hand had a 6-7-8 of dots tiles, you get 1 extra "han". If you had a pair of those 6-dot, you get 2 han. If you had a triplet, you get 3 han. These bonuses are VERY important, because higher han is exponential, meaning the difference from 1 to 2 is tiny compared to the difference from 5 to 6, so always keep the dora in mind.

By the way, if the dora is a 9, the bonus that round is going to be the number 1 tile of that suit. If the dora is one of the letter tiles, it works like this:
- white (blank) dragon tile face up in the middle: green dragon is the bonus that round
- green dragon in the middle: red dragon is the bonus
- red dragon in the middle: white dragon is the bonus
- If one of the winds tiles is face up in the middle, go counterclockwise around the compass direction. So a N tile in the middle means that W is the bonus, a W tile there means that S is the bonus, etc.

I assume the reason that it isn't just the tile itself that you see facing up is that it would be harder to score on that way. So if the 5-dots tile was face up in the middle and it really was the 5 that was the bonus that round, you'd only have three of the 5-dot tile left to draw in the whole deck.

There are two ways to reveal more dora tiles. One way is that when anyone makes a quad by putting aside 4 of the exact same tile as a "Kan" (you need to press the toggle command button to be given this prompt to do so), a new dora tile is flipped over, so there will be more tiles designated as bonus tiles that round. The other way to get more dora is Riichi. If you declare Riichi and then win that round, you'll get double the number of dora tiles that were face up. You won't know what these "Ura-dora" are gonna be until you win, though, so it's completely up to chance. But it's a good idea to do in the early stages of the match, because if you can hit it just right and have a 20,000 point lead, it's hard to lose that match.

Building a quad also lets you immediately draw a new tile, too, which is nice.



Now, some quick basic strategy for how to build your hand. I started out making the rookie mistake of constantly ending up in situations where there weren't many tiles left that could give me a winning hand. Sometimes that's unavoidable, but it's better to keep your options open. For example, if 9 of my 13 tiles are ready for a winning setup but my last 4 tiles are 2-2-3-3 of the same dots suit, there's going to be at best four tiles left out in the game that could give me a winning hand (two each of the 2-dot and 3-dot tiles).

But if I had a 2-2-3-4 instead, there's six possible tiles still out in the game that could be drawn or discarded for me to win (two of the 2-dot tiles, and four of the 5-dot tiles, since I have none in my own hand). Don't forget to scan all the meld piles, discard piles and the dora tiles in the middle of the board to see what's already been played, though. If I saw that all four of the 5-dot tiles were already discarded or used by everyone, then my only option in this 2-2-3-4 scenario would be to get a 2-dot tile.

Having a straight of five tiles in sequence is REALLY lucky for this reason. If I've got a 2-3-4-5-6 run and I'm waiting for the winning tile, it could be a 1, 4, or 7. Lotsa choices.

The other rookie mistake I made was stealing from opponents' discards at almost every chance. Remember that losing your "closed hand" status makes you ineligible for some of the easy hands, and makes you unable to Riichi. Especially if you've got quite a few 1 or 9 tiles that you're trying to work with, and you're gonna end up with a dragon or wind pair that won't be worth points on their own, having a closed hand can really save you even though it feels dangerous. It feels like I turn down at least half the prompts I get to steal tiles, and I'd say it's usually to my benefit. Also, stealing a tile as "chi" to form a straight makes it so those melded tiles you put aside can no longer be used for something else if you change your mind later, like if you wanted to form a pair with one of them instead, too bad.

You might want the two-han minimum off, and the Kuitan rule enabled to make the games faster, as I'm pretty sure that rule means that you can do the "all simples" hand without needing a closed hand. And set the game length to half, to make it so that you don't need a crazy string of good luck to win the Mahjong achievements. And when there's certain tiles you're looking for, pay attention to how many of that tile have already been played (including the dora tiles in the middle of the table). If I've got two green dragons in my hand, and I see two more green dragons in the discard piles of the other players, that means I'm not gonna get any more, so I need to decide if I'm okay leaving my two dragons as a pair or not.