8-bit Miniboss fucked around with this message at 01:57 on Jan 28, 2017

• You're trying to make 4 sets of 3 tiles, either a triplet (5-5-5) or a straight (2-3-4). On top of that, you want a pair. The trick is that in order to win you have to make your hand 'valid'. You do this by getting certain special hands, called yaku. Getting multiple yaku in the same hand is how you score big.
  
• Don't always pick poo poo up if you're given the offer. You can complete a set of 3 with an opponent's tile, but this will 'open' your hand. Not doing this (keeping it 'concealed') is a prereq for many common yaku, and will make others give you more points. You can gently caress yourself or the value of your hand doing this.
  
• Pon - a triplet. Chi - a straight. Kan - a set of four. Riichi - Declaring you're one tile off winning. Ron - Winning by picking up someone else's tile. Tsumo - Winning by drawing your own tile.

• *** The simplest way to win is by calling riichi (PRESS SQUARE TO DO THIS) when you're one tile away from winning, regardless of hand. Once you call riichi you can't change your hand, so don't do this if things look dicey. Must be concealed when you call riichi.
  
• Scrubby quick tier (allows you to open your hand and win quickly. Dora (see below) are important for making these actually worth a drat):
  • Get a triplet / kan of dragons.
    
  • Get a triplet / kan of the round wind (see the middle - it'll be East or South.)
    
  • Get a triplet / kan of your wind (see next to your name.)
• Pretty common, and much better if concealed / including a riichi:
  • *** 4 straights. This only counts if you're not waiting on the middle tile of a straight (i.e. 6-8).
    
  • *** Get two copies of a straight, e.g. (5-5-6-6-7-7)
    
  • Only use tiles 2-8.
    
  • Only get triplets / kans. (This is not a high scoring hand but if you start with a lot of pairs it does leave you super free to pick up people's tiles)
    
  • Get the same straight in every suit. (1-2-3 bamboo, 1-2-3 characters, 1-2-3 circles)
• Fiddly:
  • Involve a special tile (1, 9, dragon or wind) in each part of your hand, pair included. (1-2-3 7-8-9 1-2-3 Red-Red-Red White-White, for instance)
    
  • Get a full straight, e.g. (1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9)
    
  • *** Seven pairs. Y5 had a trophy around getting this loving hand together.
• NB: You cannot ron if you have previously discarded a tile you could have won with! This is furiten and the biggest reason you can't complete a given hand. If you get into this situation, try to rework your hand a little to get out of furiten. Don't riichi, because you'll be proper hosed.

• That tile in the middle is the dora indicator. Try to work the tile one number above it into your hand for extra points, multiple times if you can.
  
• Calling riichi and then winning gets you a second one, but you don't know what it is 'til points are tallied.
  
• Calling kan will get you another two. (Again, be careful you don't open your hand if you don't want to! If you collect all 4 tiles of a given type, you can call kan yourself with square. This is a 'concealed' kan and doesn't open your hand.)
  
• If you're playing ranked, look out for red 5 tiles, and use them in your hand rather than normal 5s.

• If someone else calls riichi and you're nowhere near a full hand, consider playing defensive. To do this, look at their discards. Because of furiten, all those tiles face up in front of them are totally safe. Stick to those where you can.
  
• Also check what other players have discarded since the riichi call. Those tiles must be safe too, or the guy would've won off them.
  
• If you're out of tiles, or you want to keep most of your hand in hopes of winning, you have some options. Have they thrown away a bunch of 1s and 9s? He's probably trying for the hand that doesn't use them, so they're probably safe. Do you have a wind tile or a dragon, and there are 2 of the same tile in people's discards? Those are probably safe because 99% of the time they're used for triplets. (In general, pitch them when 2 have been discarded.)
  
• If all that fails, then try to discard something that's 3 away from a tile your opponent has put down. The reasoning here is that, if your opponent has discarded a (3 bamboo), he can't be waiting on (4-5 bamboo) because he could have won with that 3. So, a 6 is somewhat safer than any alternatives.
  
• If possible, try to reach the end of the round in a situation where you'd only need one tile to complete a hand. In this case, yaku don't matter - as long as you could make 4 sets of 3 and a pair, you'll get some consolation points at the end, so open your hand or go furiten if need be.

Stelas fucked around with this message at 13:03 on Aug 30, 2018