Basic rules
The Tiles
A riichi mahjong set has 136 tiles: three numbered suits, seven honor tiles, and red fives.
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Three numbered suits
There are three suits, each numbered 1 to 9:
Seven honor tiles
Honors have no numbers. They cannot form runs, only pairs and triplets.
The white dragon is a blank tile (drawn here as a blue frame). It is not a missing tile.
Four of every tile
34 kinds, four copies each, 136 tiles in all. Riichi mahjong has no flower tiles, unlike Chinese or Taiwanese mahjong.
Because there are only four of each, when you can see three copies on the table you know only one is left. That is how the beginner aid counts the tiles "left".
Terminals, honors and simples
- Terminals and honors: the 1s and 9s of each suit plus all honor tiles, 13 kinds.
- Simples: the numbered tiles from 2 to 8.
You will see this split often: a hand of only simples earns the yaku tanyao; nine or more kinds of terminals and honors on your first draw lets you abort the hand; and thirteen orphans is one of each of these 13 tiles.
Simples connect into runs more easily, so at the start of a hand players usually throw isolated honors and terminals first.
Red fives
Under the default rules, one 5 in each suit is red:
A red five works like any other 5 when building your hand. It just adds 1 han when you win. You can turn red fives off in the menu's rule settings.
The dora indicator
At the start of each hand one tile in the dead wall is turned face up. This is the dora indicator. The dora is the next tile after it:
- Numbered tiles: after 9 comes 1.
- Winds: East → South → West → North → East.
- Dragons: White → Green → Red → White.
Each dora in your hand adds 1 han when you win. Every kan turns over another indicator (kan dora), and a riichi winner also reveals the tile under each indicator (ura dora).
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