Mahjong Soul – Four Essential Yaku and How to Use Them

There are 37 generally recognized yaku in the game. But in reality, you only see a handful of them in common play.

Guide to Use Four Essential Yaku

To borrow words from a certain martial artist, fear not the player who has practiced 37 yaku once, but the player who has practiced 4 yaku 37 times. I don’t think that’s how it went, but whatever. By mastering these 4 yaku, you will have a very strong foundation to build up from. I will simply give basic guidelines here, but it is all fundamental information.

Riichi

This is the strongest yaku in the game by far. This yaku gives every hand shape a way to win, as long as you stay closed. Due to the presence of Riichi, it’s usually correct to avoid calling Chii, Pon, or Kan on other players’ tiles, and build your hand by yourself. And the increase in hand value (remember, it also gives chances for Ippatsu and extra Dora) is so strong that you should generally play to call Riichi, and as soon as you can.

In order to build towards Riichi efficiently, you will need to learn tile efficiency. Other articles will go in further depth for how tile efficiency works, but I will provide a simple list of basic ideas here.

  • Building sequnces is more efficient than building triplets.
  • Honors are the weakest, because they can’t make sequences.
  • Number tiles from 3 to 7 are the strongest, because they can make all kinds of sequences.
  • 2-sided sequence ryanmen blocks (i.e. [2p][3p] waiting on [1p][4p]) are the strongest; then closed wait kanchan (i.e. [2p][4p] waiting on [3p]). Weakest is the edge wait penchan (i.e. [1p][2p] waiting on [3p]).
  • Build using a hand that can separated into 5 blocks (5 Block Theory).
  • Keep 2 pairs in your hand until tenpai.
  • Try to build towards a good wait at tenpai (A wait with 6+ tiles left is good). However,
  • If you’re the first to tenpai, just call Riichi, even if your wait is bad. If someone else has called Riichi, you can still chase their Riichi, but that will require slightly finer judgment at times.

Yakuhai

This is the general term for Honor tiles that give you a yaku when you have a triplet of them. The 3 types of Dragons are always Yakuhai. Your Seat Wind and the Round (Prevalent) Wind are also Yakuhai. This means that you have up to 5 different types of Yakuhai to work with at a time.

It can be worth keeping lone Yakuhai in your hand early on, if you’re not particularly close to Riichi. A pair of Yakuhai functions as a key that opens the door to calls and massively increases your speed to tenpai. Here are some general tips for when and how to aim for Yakuhai:

  • If you start out with 2 completed sets, you don’t need Yakuhai. Drop them and aim for Riichi.
  • Otherwise, you may keep Yakuhai over lone edge numbers like 1 and 9. Sometimes you can even keep them over 2 and 8 too. But…
  • If you’re not sure, just drop your lone Yakuhai. You can always fall back to Riichi or Tanyao (All Simples) as an option.
  • A Yakuhai is useless if 2 copies are already out on the board (including the dora indicator). If 1 copy is out, it is still useful.
  • You only need one Yakuhai to pair up to be able to Pon for a yaku. But if you’re fishing for Yakuhai, it’s better to have multiple types of Yakuhai in hand, to increase the chance that one of them pairs up.
  • Your Seat Wind is the strongest Yakuhai. The Prevalent Wind is the weakest Yakuhai (if it isn’t also yours).
  • Once you have a pair of Yakuhai, you may call anything that advances your hand, though preferably, call your weak blocks first. You don’t need to wait until you get your triplet.
  • You should also generally call the first copy of Yakuhai that comes out, to secure your yaku.
  • However, keep in mind that you will need a pair other than your Yakuhai. Calling a bunch and landing on a single pair wait is to be avoided. If you don’t know where your pair’s going to be yet, you can consider holding back calls until you have a pair candidate or two.

All Simples (Tanyao)

Ichihime’s favorite yaku, and for good reason. Only use tiles numbered from 2-8, in any suit. It’s a really strong yaku. Not only does it allow you to complete a hand open, it also can be a strong boost to your value when playing for Riichi. As mentioned in the Riichi section, tiles from 3 to 7 are the strongest. And guess what, those are all tiles you can use in Tanyao. Efficient play will lead to many Tanyao hands naturally. It’s also generally correct to head towards Tanyao if it’s plausible (don’t go and drop entire triplets). Thus, instead of giving guidelines for when to go for Tanyao, I’ll give some rough guidelines on when to call for Tanyao.

  • If you have bad shapes and have at least 4 blocks in Tanyao, strongly consider opening your hand.
  • If you have 2 or more dora in Tanyao, you may call aggressively to complete your hand, and pon the dora, with Tanyao as your out.
  • Try to call your weak blocks first. This means shapes like 24, 35, or 46. Once open, 23 and 78 are also weak blocks, because they can’t accept 1 or 9, respectively. You may also call Pon on pairs, as long as you still have a pair remaining in hand, or a good way to make a pair, afterwards.
  • You may pass calling from strong shapes like 67. If you’re still closed, just let the tile pass by you; completing a shape that’s already likely to complete is generally not worth losing the right to call Riichi.
  • Once open, try to avoid final wait shapes 23 and 78. If you draw 1 or 9, respectively, not only can you not win, but you will also be furiten after dropping it. That said, don’t be afraid of furiten. Even worse than risking furiten is being unable to get tenpai in the first place.

Half Flush (Honitsu)

By far the most restrictive and elusive of the essential yaku. You can only use numbers from a single suit, and Honor tiles. This generally means you’ll be slower to get tenpai due to the low number of effective tiles. However, a Flush hand is a great out to have, as it has a good chance to be expensive, while also maintaining defense.

  • When your hand has many honors and only a few good blocks in one suit, strongly consider a Flush. Going for a simple Yakuhai hand is also an option.
  • It’s good to have at least 1 additional han other than the Flush, as generally, expensive hands start from 3 han.
  • With this in mind, if the Dora is an Honor tile or in your intended Flush suit, going for a Flush becomes much stronger.
  • On the other hand, if you have a good shape or dora in another suit, going for a Flush becomes much weaker.
  • Try to avoid committing until you have 4 blocks of Flush. Don’t be too impatient; allow your hand time to develop, sometimes in ways other than Flush.
  • Once you’ve committed, though, actively drop off-suit numbers. Generally, if they’re not useful to you, you should let go of them as soon as possible, before they deal into someone else’s hand.
  • Try to avoid Chii until you have 5 blocks. If you call Chii, you lose the chance to draw a tile that could give you your 5th Flush block.
  • Be prepared to fold. Don’t get carried away. As stated earlier, Flush hands don’t complete nearly as easily as the other essential hands. If a Riichi comes on the board, or someone looks dangerous, and we’re still not in tenpai yet, we can generally safely bail using our honor tiles.

As stated before, these are only general guidelines; breaking them will be correct at times. This article is meant to give a basic overview of the most essential yaku, and to make a point, that learning all the yaku isn’t actually all that important: learning how to use the most common yaku is much more useful.

Happy kicking!

Egor Opleuha
About Egor Opleuha 4460 Articles
Egor Opleuha, also known as Juzzzie, is the Editor-in-Chief of Gameplay Tips. He is a writer with more than 12 years of experience in writing and editing online content. His favorite game was and still is the third part of the legendary Heroes of Might and Magic saga. He prefers to spend all his free time playing retro games and new indie games.

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