The basics
The tiles
Characters, dots, bamboo, honours and eight flowers: what each of the 144 tiles is and how to read it.
Suits: characters, dots and bamboo
There are three suits, each numbered 1 to 9, with four copies of every tile.
1s and 9s are “terminals”, used by Outside Hand, All Terminals and Honors, All Terminals and Thirteen Orphans. 2 to 8 are “simples”; a hand of only simples scores All Simples.
Honours: winds and dragons
Honour tiles cannot form runs — only pungs, kongs or the pair.
A pung of any dragon is Dragon Pung (2 points). A pung of your seat wind or the round’s prevalent wind scores Seat Wind or Prevalent Wind (2 points each); any other wind pung is a Pung of Terminals or Honors (1 point).
Flowers
There are eight flowers, one of each. Lay a flower out as soon as you draw it and draw a replacement from the end of the wall — it never stays in your hand.
In MCR flowers have no seat: each is worth 1 point, but they do not count toward the 8-point minimum. Your hand must reach 8 points on its own; flowers are added after you win.
How many tiles
| Tiles | Copies | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Characters, dots, bamboo (1–9) | 4 | 108 |
| East, South, West, North | 4 | 16 |
| Red, Green, White | 4 | 12 |
| Flowers | 1 | 8 |
144 tiles in all. Everyone starts with 13, the dealer with 14. Next: Winning hands.
Read nextWinning hands →