Mahjong Soul Scoring Guide

One of the more difficult things to understand is how a winning hand is actually scored once you win. Fortunately, Mahjong Soul handles all of the scoring for you!

Contents

• Guide to Scoring
  • Introduction
  • Calculate Han
  • Calculate Fu
  • Calculate Basic Points
  • Counters
  • Final Points and Place

Guide to Scoring

Introduction

So you understand how to play Mahjong now, but you want to up your game. Obviously, the best way to do that is get more points! But… how do you actually earn points in Mahjong? Fortunately, that’s what this guide is here to tell you!

The long and short of it though is that scoring is complicated, which is why the game figures it out for you. But if you want to know how it works, keep reading.

For the purposes of this guide, it is assumed you are playing Mahjong with a total of four players.

Scoring can be summarized with the following steps

Players generally start with 25,000 points and a winner can only be declared if someone has at least 30,000 points at the end of two rounds, though these values can be changed to preference.

Calculate Han

Han comes from two sources

• Each Yaku has a specific Han value
• Having a Yaku with a Dora tile in your hand gives you one additional Han per Dora. Dora tiles are indicated by their shining/shimmering animation in game.

While Dora are always worth one Han each, the value of your Yaku can vary. Difficult to achieve Yaku are worth more Han.

If your hand is worth at least 5 han (also 3 han + 70 fu or 4 han + 40 fu), you do not need to calculate basic points. Any hand worth 5 or more han is instead calculated as a multiple of Mangan (2,000 points).

The names and point value of each Han value are as follows. Note that if a player achieves multiple Yakuman (explained later) simultaneously, they will earn basic points for each Yakuman achieved.

You can skip straight to step 4 once you know the appropriate Mangan/point value to use for your hand, if applicable.

Calculate Fu

So you calculated the number of Han you earned and don’t have 5? That’s too bad, now you have to calculate your points the hard way!

Fu are additional points awarded based on how exactly you won. Counting Fu is as follows, and the final result is rounded up to the nearest 10 fu.

• +20 fu for winning
• +10 fu if you claim a discarded tile with a closed hand (Menzenchin)
• Additional fu for each meld created based on if the meld is open or closed, from terminal or non-terminal tiles, and the type of meld. See table for details.
• +2 fu for any of the following waits, which are based on the tile you need to complete your hand. All types of waits not listed are worth 0 fu.
  • Closed Wait – Waiting for the middle tile to complete a sequence (e.g., 5 and 7 waiting for 6)
  • Edge Wait – Waiting for either 3 or 7 of a suit to complete a sequence (e.g., 1 and 2 waiting for 3 or 8 and 9 waiting for 7)
  • Pair Wait – Waiting for a single tile needed to complete your pair
• +2 fu if winning by self-draw

Some exceptions apply

• If winning with 7 pairs, you automatically earn exactly 25 fu (not rounded)
• If you only earn fu from winning (i.e., you have an open hand of only sequences completed with a call without earning points from your wait type), you get +30 fu instead of +20.

Calculate Basic Points

The calculation of basic points is done using the following formula

Basic points = fu * 2(2+han)

Basic points are paid out by one or more players to the winning player at the end of each round. The amount paid out varies based on

This can be summarized as follows

Note that Mahjong Soul applies Sekinin Barai (aka Pao Rule) to the Yakuman Four Big Winds and Three Big Dragons. This rule places a penalty on “the responsible player” who discards a tile that brings someone into tenpai for these hands. If this occurs, the responsible player must pay the winning player regardless of whether that player ronned or tsumoed their last tile. In the event that a player is ronned to complete the Yakuman, the point value of the hand is split between the responsible player and the deal-in player. If the winning player tsumos, the responsible player pays the entire value of the hand as if they dealt in.

Counters

Counters (or counter sticks) known as honba are placed on the table when any of the following things happen

• The dealer wins
• The hand is a draw (ryukyoku), even if someone can declare tenpai.
• An abortive draw occurs, which is a draw condition when there are still tiles available. There are four draw conditions which are explained in game for your convenience. A summary is as follows
  • Four Winds Draw – All four players discard the same wind tile in the first turn before any tile is called
  • Four Quads Draw – When two or more players call for a total of four quadruplets
  • Nine Terminal Initial Draw – When your hand consists of 9 different word or terminal tiles after the initial draw before any tile is called, you have the option of declaring a draw
  • Four Riichi Draw – When all players have successfully declared Riichi, the round is a draw.

In game, counter sticks are represented by the stick with 8 dots on it here, while the Riichi counters are represented by the stick with a single red dot on it. Riichi counters are added to the pile whenever someone declares Riichi and are reset at the end of every round unless the round results in a draw .Counter sticks are reset to zero when the non-dealer wins.

If someone wins a hand by self draw, every player pays n * 100 points to the winner, where n is the number of counter sticks on the table. If someone wins a hand by picking up a discard, the discarding player pays n * 300 points to the winner.

The process is the same for paying Riichi sticks.

Final Points and Place

For clarity, the terms used for this explanation are defined as follows

• Raw Score (or score): the points players have before this process takes place. For example, in a standard game of Mahjong players each start with a raw score of 25,000.
• Final Points (or points): the points players have after the step in this process where the score is divided by 1,000.

Points are calculated based on players’ scores at the end of the game as follows.

In Mahjong Soul, these points are used to calculate the amount of copper and rank exp earned (or lost).

Summary

That covers the way that mahjong rounds are scored! I hope this has been educational and will give you some things to think about when trying to win your next round of Mahjong!

More Guides:

• Mahjong Soul – How to Defend
• Mahjong Soul – How to Win Bigger Hands
• Mahjong Soul – Guide to Basics
• Mahjong Soul – Four Essential Yaku and How to Use Them
• Mahjong Soul – Menzenchin / Closed Hand

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