Introduction
If you’re like me, Mahjong is a new game to you! While it seems very complicated and intimidating, don’t worry. Once you have the vocabulary down and understand the process, it’s quite simple!
Additional Reading
Here are some other guides for your convenience. It’s recommended to read this guide first
Mahjong Tiles
Mahjong has 5 kinds of tiles: Man (Characters), Pin (Dots), Sou (Bamboo), Wind, and Dragon.
Man, Pin, and Sou are suited tiles, numbered 1 to 9, while the Wind and Dragon tiles are honor tiles. The 4 variations of Wind cards (east, south, west, and north) and three Dragon cards (blank/white, green, and red). There are 4 of each tile for a total of 136 tiles.
Basics
Every player receives 13 tiles that they keep in their hand, which are not revealed by default. Play proceeds in a counter-clockwise direction from east to north. In this example, my position is the West player, so I will go third.
On your turn, you will draw one tile and discard one tile in front of you face up. In order to prepare to win, you will need to have some combination of 4 melds plus one pair . There are three kinds of melds
- A sequence is any 3 tiles of the same suit in numeric order (e.g., Man 1, Man 2, Man 3),
- A triplet is three of the same tile (e.g., Man 1, Man 1, Man 1).
- A quadruplet (aka, Kan) (4 of the same tile) can be used to replace any triplet.
However, since you need 14 tiles to win, getting the tiles by self-draw alone (i.e., picking up from the deck) is difficult! Because of this, you can also take advantage of calls to add tiles to your hand from other players’ discard piles to complete melds.
- You can Chii a tile from the previous player to complete a sequence and display the sequence for other players to see.
- You can Pon a tile from any player to complete a triplet and display the triplet for other players to see.
- If you Pon a tile from a player and then later draw the 4th tile in that triplet, you can declare an Added Kan, adding that tile to your triplet to create a quadruplet.
- You can Open Kan a tile from any player to complete a quadruplet and display it for other players to see.
- Alternatively, if you draw from the draw pile a 4th tile to complete a quadruplet, you can perform a Closed Kan and place the four tiles face down next to you.
Since all of these events involve adding a tile to your hand, it also requires that you discard a tile at the end of each event.
Here is a summary of the various calls in Mahjong
| Call | Used to complete | Using a tile |
| Chii | A Sequence | just discarded from the last player |
| Pon | A Triplet | just discarded from any player |
| Kan (Closed) | A Quadruplet | drawn from the deck |
| Kan (Open) | A Quadruplet | just discarded from any player |
| Added Kan | A Quadruplet from an existing Triplet | drawn from the deck |
| Ron | Any meld or pair to win the game | just discarded from any player |
| Tsumo | Any meld or pair to win the game | drawn from the deck |
How to Win
So, now you have 13 of the 14 total tiles you need to win, and only need to get one more tile to complete your hand. This is called Tenpai (aka “ready state”). However, you cannot actually declare victory until you also achieve at least one Yaku, which is one of any designated “winning hand” combinations. Here are some simple Yakus for you to remember. Remember that all Yakus must be achieved with Tenpai, and cannot win the game on their own.
- Yakuhai: If you have a triplet of any of the dragon tiles or a triplet in Wind tiles corresponding to either the round name (Round Wind) or your player position (Player Wind), you can declare Yaku and win.
- In this screenshot, I am the East player playing in the East round. I can achieve this Yaku only with the East triplet and dragon tile triplets.
- In this screenshot, I am the South player playing in the East round. I can achieve this Yaku with either the East or South triplet, and the dragon tile triplets.
- Tanyao: You must meet both of the following conditions to declare this Yaku
- You must not have any Wind or Dragon tiles
- You must not have any 1 or 9 tiles (terminal tiles) of any suit
- Riichi: When declaring this Yaku, you will bet 1000 points and place a sign on the table to declare Riichi. To do this, you must not have used any calls that reveal your hand (aka Menzenchin). These include Chii, Pon, or Open/Added Kan. Closed Kan is ok because it does not reveal anything in your hand. To put it simply all of your tiles must still be in your hand and you must be only one tile away from victory (and of course, you must have at least 1000 points so that you can bet that many points).
After declaring Riichi, you will automatically draw and discard tiles until you can add the tile needed to complete your Yaku to your hand.
All Yakus can be completed by either drawing the final tile from the deck, (tsumo) or by picking up a freshly discarded tile (ron). The game will prompt you to call tsumo or ron to finish your Yaku and end the round when appropriate.
Remember, if you have 4 triplets/sequences + a pair (Tenpai) but haven’t fulfilled one of the Yakus, you cannot win the round. While the game will prompt you to use Mahjong special moves any time you can, you don’t always want to do so.
For example, if you make a Wind triplet out of any wind tiles not corresponding to the round name or player designation, you’ll keep yourself from being able to win with Tanyao and it won’t even help you win with Yakuhai. Be mindful of the melds you’re making and make sure you don’t accidentally lock yourself out of a Yaku for no reason!
Conclusion
Those are the basics of Mahjong! While there are other Yakus you can use to win, they are beyond the scope of this guide. However, you can see them in the in game help. With this guide and the assistance provided to you by Mahjong Soul itself, you should be well on your way to winning (or at least understanding) some Mahjong matches now!
If you’re interested, read my scoring guide to determine how many points a winning hand is actually worth, or check out my yaku cheat sheet to help keep them all straight!
