Mahjong Soul – What is Yaku?

Quick Guide to Yaku

In Mahjong Soul, when your hand is almost complete and on the brink of winning, the tiles that are needed to win will be indicated as seen in the picture. However, sometimes the No Yaku alert will appear at the same time. So what is Yaku, and when does No Yaku appear?

Explanation

In Riichi Mahjong, to win a hand, you need 14 tiles that fit into the pattern of 4 Sequences/Triplets + 1 Pair (a Sequence is a set of 3 consecutive tiles, a Triplet is a set of 3 identical tiles, a Pair is a set of 2 identical tiles), and this pattern must include at least 1 Yaku.

Yakus are similar to poker hands. When you form a certain pattern that fits the Yaku, you win and receive the corresponding points.

Let’s take an example of Teacher Ichihime’s favorite Yaku, which is also the most beginner-friendly Yaku, All Simples. It requires that you don’t have any Number Tile of 1 or 9, Wind Tile, or Dragon Tiles (collectively they are called Terminal Tiles).

The picture shows a hand that aims to achieve All Simples, but though it does include 3 Sequences + 1 Triplet + 1 Pair, there is still a Terminal Tile and thus it’s not fulfilling the requirements for All Simples, making this hand No Yaku.

To actually achieve All Simples, the player can discard the Terminal Tile:

And wait for one of two specific tiles (either by drawing or from another player’s discard).

Then the hand again achieves the pattern of 4 Sequences/Triplets + 1 Pair and meets the requirements for All Simples, which means the player can win with this hand.

In-Game Feature

For players, knowing Yakus is very important, so before you get familiar with most Yakus, having a reference to check in matches is very useful.

Mahjong Soul provides a quick check for Yakus. You can always click the “?” button to see the Yaku Overview tab.

When your hand is one tile away from winning, the indicator on the right will tell them with what tiles you can win.

I hope you found this helpful!