List of special rooms in Mahjong Soul

Special Rooms are offered in Mahjong Soul. They provide players with alternative rooms either with a different ruleset, or used for specific purpose. Most of them are temporarily available during events.

Current Rooms

The special rooms can be accessed by clicking Tournament Match. As of March 2024, the following rooms are available:

• Tournament Lobby
• A weekly rotation room - this changes every week.
• Bloodshed Skirmish
• Battle of Asura
• Casual Room

In addition, Battle of Darkness is available only through Friendly Match (it cannot be accessed through random matchmaking).

Casual Room

Casual Room 「交流の間」 (Kouryuu no ma) is the unranked lobby. The rules are identical to the ranked rooms, but no coppers are spent, no rank points are gained/lost, and no progress towards Casual Chest / bond points are made. Unlike Friendly Match, this room lets you match up with random players (with Friendly Match, you must find players or use AI). Casual Room is a permanent fixture to the game.

Event Room

Event Room 「特別対局」 (Tokubetsu taikyoku) is a room for event purposes. Despite its name, there's nothing special at all to the room: it follows the regular settings of 4P-East gameplay.

Melee Room

Melee Room 「乱闘の間」 (Rantou no ma) is a special room with a predefined subset of local yakus. In Melee Room, players can score a hand with those local yaku, where some of them are not valid under regular riichi mahjong.

Yaku Table (Local)

Red: Closed-hand only; Green: Decreases 1 han when opened; Blue: Open-hand allowed.
1 Han	Tsubame-gaeshi Tsubame Gaeshi Kanburi Kanburi Shiiaruraotai Shiiaru Raotai
2 Han	Uumensai Uumensai Three Chained Triplets Sanrenkou
3 Han	Pure Triple Chow Isshoku Sanjun
5 Han	Iipinmoyue Iipin Moyue Chuupinraoyui Chuupin Raoyui
Yakuman	Hand of Man Renhou Big Wheels Daisharin Bamboo Forest Daichikurin Numerous Neighbours Daisuurin Ishinouenimosannen Ishino Uenimo Sannen
Double Yakuman	Big Seven Stars Daichisei

Tournament

The tournament lobby is a permanent fixture in the game. Users have the ability to pay 60 Jade to create tournament lobbies. They may apply special rule customizations for their desired tournament or otherwise utilize default rule settings. A number of clubs, individuals, and Yostar itself have hosted tournaments.

Chaotic Wall Break

Chaotic Wall Break 「龍の割目」 (Ryuu no wareme) is a special room with three dora indicators revealed in advance, as well as applying a special, altered wareme rule. The maximum amount of dora remains at 5 (not counting uradora), so only the first two kans reveal dora indicators.

One player is designated as the wareme. The payment to and from the wareme player is doubled (excluding honba and riichi bets). Due to the lack of physical wall position, the game determines the wareme player in a different way. In each round, one random player get a wareme marker. This switches randomly every five turns. The same player can be chosen when the marker switches.

DoraDorara

DoraDorara 「ドラさんモード」 (Dorasan moudo) is a special room with 3 dora indicators revealed in advance. The maximum amount of dora remains at 5 (not counting uradora), so only the first two kans reveal dora indicators.

Duel of Divination

Duel of Divination is a special room. Except for the dealer's first draw, whenever a player draws a tile, they get a choice of one of three options. Other players may see these options. Once an option is picked, the other two options persist until they are picked.

Tenhou, chiihou, double riichi, and ippatsu work as normal, even when drawing from option tiles. If three or fewer tiles are in the live wall, no more option tiles appear, and kan is forbidden.

Open Hand Match

Open Hand Match 「配牌公開」 (Haipai koukai) is a special room with the starting hand (haipai) revealed in the beginning. When a round begins, each player's starting hand is revealed, and the starting tiles remain visible in the rest of round. Drawn tiles are concealed as usual.

Other opponents will see the drawn tiles separated from the known tiles, so there is no need to worry about auto-sort. The known tiles will generally make it easier for players to defend, decreasing the frequency of ron.

Path of Trial

Path of Trial 「試練の道」 (Shiren no michi) provides gameplay with a ruleset identical to Ranked Rooms. However, instead of ranking, the goal is to complete mission cards. Each mission card gives multiple missions, which must be finished in at most 5 matches to complete the card. By completing more cards, the player's Trial Level is increased, and the missions increase in difficulty. Players are ranked by level.

Types of mission are listed as follows:

• Complete ____ matches
• Win ____ hands
• Win with ____ doras (including akadora and uradora)
• Complete ____ matches in 3rd place or above
• Complete ____ matches with ____ points or above
• Complete ____ matches without dealing into others
• Win ____ hands in Mangan/Haneman/Baiman or above

The first season ran from 7/24/2020 - 10/24/2020. There have been no future seasons since.

Battle of Asura

Battle of Asura 「修羅の戦」 (Shura no sen) is a special mode with two major changes:

• The charleston: at the start of the hand, players must select 3 tiles of their choice to exchange with another opponent.
• Resumed play: after a player wins a hand, the round does not end. It only ends when three players have won, tiles are drawn into ryuukyoku, or when a player falls into a negative score. Players that win are out of the game - they no longer draw tiles or lose points.
  • The point system works like sanma. If at least one player has won the hand, wins by tsumo are reduced in value. A win by ron always receives full points.

Bloodshed Skirmish

Bloodshed Skirmish 「赤血の戦」 (Sekketsu no sen) applies the gameplay of Sichuan Bloody Rules: Battle to the Bloody End (血战到底). The ruleset and the scoring system are completely different from riichi mahjong. Unlike riichi, offense is heavily preferred, and many defensive strats are no longer useful (some even punished with a heavy penalty).

Gameplay

• Each match has only four rounds.
• There is no score bonus for being the dealer. Instead of dealership rotating, the first player who won the previous round becomes dealer. If nobody won, the seats are kept.
• Honor tiles are not used, meaning only suited tiles are available, for a total of 108 tiles.
• At the start of the game, each player is forced to exclude a suit (Voided Suit 「絶一門」 (Zetsuichimon)), thus making a valid hand with at most two suits. Failing to do so leads to a heavy penalty in exhaustive draw.
• The call of chii is not allowed.
• Like most non-riichi versions of mahjong, there is no furiten, dora, or dead wall (wanpai) tiles. Also, the scoring system and yaku are much different than riichi.

A complete round is processed as follows:

• Choose three tiles in a same suit and switch between players. You cannot switch tiles of a suit you have less than three tiles of.
• Determine and declare the unwanted suit.
• Make winning hands without using any tiles from the unwanted suit.
• Round ends when three players declare a win, running out of tiles from the wall, or any player is bankrupted.

Scoring

The score of a hand is only determined by han value, if it won via tsumo, and # of players left.

A hand's base score as follows:

Formula: Score = 1000 * 2 ^ (Han - 1)

• (1 han) 1,000 points
• (2 han) 2,000 points
• (3 han) 4,000 points
• (4 han) 8,000 points
• (5 han) 16,000 points
• (6 han) 32,000 points

These points are then converted based on if it won via ron or tsumo:

• Deal-in win (Ron): Only the deal-in player needs to pay exactly the score to the winner.

  Formula: RonPoints = Score

• Self-draw win (Tsumo): Every current player pays the score to the dealer, plus an extra 1,000 points for each player.

  Formula: TsumoPoints = (Score + 1000) * CurrentPlayers

In brief, when there is more than one opponent left, tsumo is worth much more than ron. Also, there is no bonus for being the dealer.

Kan:

In addition, when a kan is declared, an instant bonus is applied to each kan immediately.

• Straight kan (Daiminkan): Kan-feeder pays 2,000 points to kan-claimer.
• Added kan from draw (Tsumogiri kakan): Each non-winner pays 1,000 points towards kan-claimer. However, if this tile deals into others, the bonus is cancelled and no payment will be applied.
• Added kan from hand (Tedashi kakan): No payment. This prevents players from declaring pon, then kakan, to gain more points than a regular open kan.
• Concealed kan (Ankan): Each non-winner pays 2,000 points towards kan-claimer.

However, if the round ends by exhaustive draw, and a kan-declaring payer is not tenpai, any kan payments are refunded. If a kan player is holding an excluded suit at exhaustive draw, the kan payment is also refunded.

Yaku list

There are two types of yakus.

Base yakus are the main yaku. Only one of these yaku can be scored per hand (the highest one is always used). Base yaku can usually be combined, but this is done by scoring a separate "combined yaku". For example, if a hand could score both Full Flush (3 han) and All Triplets (2 han), it does not actually score either of those yaku. It is instead scored as Pure Triplets (4 han).

Bonus yakus are additional. They can be stacked arbitrarily as long as the condition is satisfied. Usually those are occasional yakus aside from Root. However, if some bonus yaku can be always guaranteed by the base yaku, these bonus yaku will be deducted when counting.

Base yaku

• (1 han) Yakuless Win 「無番和」 (Uufanhou):

  A hand with no other yaku gains this by default.

  This can be treated as satisfying the minimum winning condition: Voided Suit.

• (2 han) All triplets 「対々和」 (Toitoi):

  All of the sets are triplets or quads.

• (3 han) Full Flush 「清一色」 (Chinitsu):

  All tiles made with only one suit.

• (3 han) Seven Pairs 「七対子」 (Chiitoitsu):

  Hand made by seven pairs.

• (3 han) Terminals in All Sets 「帯么九」 (Taiyaochuu):

  All sets and the pair both containing terminal tiles.

• (3 han) Single Wait after 4 Triplets 「金勾釣」 (Kinkoutyao):

  All four sets are melded, waiting on a single tile.

• (4 han) 2/5/8 Triplets 「将対」 (Jantoi):

  All Triplets hand with all tiles made by 2, 5, or 8.

• (6 han) Blessing of Heaven 「天和」 (Tenhou):

  Winning a hand by Tsumo as a dealer in the first turn with the first draw.

• (6 han) Blessing of Earth 「地和」 (Chiihou):

  Winning a hand by Tsumo as a non-dealer in the first turn before any tiles are called.

• (6 han) Four Quads 「十八羅漢」 (Juuhachi Rakan):

  Calling kan for 4 times.

  Root counting is not applied.

Base Yaku that are combinations of other yaku

• (4 han) Pure Triplets 「清対」 (Chintoi):

  Full Flush with All Triplets.

• (4 han) Seven Pairs with One Duplicate 「龍七対」 (Ronchiitoi):

  Seven Pairs hand with two pairs identical.

  Decreases one root from total root amount.

• (5 han) Pure Seven Pairs 「清七対」 (Chinchiitoi):

  Full Flush with Seven Pairs.

• (5 han) All terminals 「清么九」 (Chinyaochuu):

  Full Flush with Terminals in All Sets.

• (5 han) Pure Single Wait after 4 Triplets 「清金勾釣」 (Chin Kinkoutyao):

  Full Flush with Single Wait after 4 Triplets.

• (6 han) Pure Seven Pairs with One Duplicate 「清龍七対」 (Chin Ronchiitoi):

  Full Flush with Seven Pairs with One Duplicate.

  Also decreases one root from total root amount.

• (6 han) Pure Four Quads 「清十八羅漢」 (Chin Juuhachi Rakan):

  Full Flush with Four Quads.

  Root counting is also not applied.

Bonus yaku

• (1 han) Root 「根」 (Ruuto):

  Having four identical tiles in a hand, counting both melded and concealed parts.

  Not necessarily to be a kan.

• (1 han) After a Kan 「嶺上開花」 (Rinshan Kaihou):

  Winning by the tile drawn from dead wall (rinshanpai) right after declaring a kan.

• (1 han) Dealing into Win after Kan 「嶺上放銃」 (Rinshan Houjuu):

  Winning by the discard from another player who just called a kan.

• (1 han) Robbing a Kan 「槍槓」 (Chankan):

  Winning by the tile from other player's added kan (kakan).

• (1 han) Under the Sea 「海底摸月」 (Haitei):

  Winning a hand in the last turn, by either Tsumo with the last drawn, or Ron with the last discard.

Memorizing base yaku

The most important yaku to know are Full Flush, All Triplets, Seven Pairs, and Root (four of the same tile in hand, in any arrangement).

The following rules can help to memorize the entire list by decomposing the yaku.

• Flushing: Full Flush version values +2 han compared to their based version.
• Triplet-based: All Triplets values 2 han → with +1 han for All Melded → maximum 6 han for All Quads.
• Pair-based: Seven Pairs values 3 han → with +1 han for One Duplicate.
• 2/5/8: 4 han. Only triplet version is available. Pair version is not included. Not applicable to flush.
• Outside-hand: 3 han. Can be upgraded with flushing. Not applicable to triplets or paired.
• Occasional: Tenhou/Chiihou, goes directly to 6 han the maximum.

Penalty

When a round goes to an exhaustive draw, a special hand rechecking is applied to all non-winners.

• Ready (Tenpai): Incomplete hand is winnable with one extra tile.
• Voided Suit: All tiles of unwanted suit are fully discarded.

Failing to achieve those conditions will lead to a heavy penalty.

• Not-ready (noten): Pays for the highest possible score (takame) towards ready players, as if they already dealed into them in game (occasional yakus won't be counted, of course).
• Pied (having tiles of a voided suit): Pay all non-winning opponents, including those who are not-ready. All players are paid a minimum of 4 han (8000 points), unless a ready player's hand would be worth more than that (in which case they are paid their hand's worth).

Strategy

SBR is much more offensive than riichi mahjong. With such high noten penalties, it is always recommended to try to keep tenpai / advance towards tenpai. If you give up going for tenpai, you'll just have to pay it back at the exhaustive draw. Trying to hold a tile from the excluded suit is especially risky and almost never recommended. Due to these penalties, the lack of furiten, and lack of riichi calls, traditional defense is much weaker. Probably the best to play "defensive" is to win fast with cheap hands.

There is no score penalty towards opening your hand. Therefore, triplets are more powerful, and shanpon waits become more common (remember that chii is disabled). Triplets also get the benefit of enabling kan, which increases score through both kan payments and root.

A hand using sequences rarely scores yaku. The only yaku that allow sequences are chinitsu, junchan, root, and the other bonus yaku. Still, keeping sequences will let your hand develop faster, thus allowing you to escape payment from others. Plus, even a yakuless tsumo is worth 6000 points if nobody has won yet.

Battle of Clairvoyance

Battle of Clairvoyance 「明鏡の戦」 (Meikyou no sen) is a room providing gameplay of Washizu Mahjong 「鷲巣麻雀」.

Battle of Darkness

Battle of Darkness 「闇夜の戦」 (Yamiyo no sen) is a room providing gameplay of Dark Mahjong 「闇麻雀」, originated in manga series Mamiya: Dark Mahjong 「闇麻のマミヤ」 (Yami-ma no Mamiya). The room is starting during the collab with Akagi: The Genius Who Descended into the Darkness, and is still available in friendly room. The biggest feature of gameplay is to allow players to cover their discards, in order to avoid negative effect caused by improper discards.

Rules

• Every discard can be concealed with expense of 1,000 points.
  • Concealed discards cannot be melded or deal-in by others.
  • Concealed discards with claiming Riichi will cost 2,000 points in total.
• When a player declares concealed discard, each opponents can reveal this discard with expense of 2,000 points.
  • When multiple player declares revealing, the payment is only applied by the nearest player in counterclockwise order, similar to the atamahane rule.
  • Revealed discard will be able again to meld and deal-in by others.
• When the concealed discard is revealed, the discard player can lock the tile with expense of 4,000 points.
  • Locked tiles will be concealed permanently. Apart from unable to meld and deal-in, they can never be revealed again.
• Players must be able to pay sufficient amount of points before being able to claim for each actions.
• All the action payments are public bets, working similar to riichi bets.
  • The first winner will take all of the bets, while atamahane rule is applied to the bets when multiple player wins.
  • When a game ends, all of the untaken bets will be given to the first place.
• Nagashi Mangan and Furiten will be only determined by visible discards.

Dreamland Odyssey

Dreamland Odyssey 「幻界の戦」 (Genkai no sen) is a special room during collab with Kaguya-sama: Love Is War -Ultra Romantic-. Overall gameplay is identical to regular 4P-East mahjong, however, each match will contains 3 random additional rules which last during the whole game.

Cards

There are three main categories of rule cards. Before starting a match, one random card from each category will be applied.

• Dealer card: Rules only apply to dealer.

Discipline: Dealer can only call Ron when in Riichi or having made the hand Opened (Chii / Pon / Open Kan), i.e. Ron with Hidden Tenpai (Menzen Damaten) is not allowed. (Tsumo is unaffected.)

Long Night: When dealership continues (Renchan), i.e. wins a hand, tenpai in exhaustive draw, or the hand ends due to abortive draw, the Round Bet (Honba) increases by 5.

Forfeit: If a hand ends in a draw, all the Bet Points go to the dealer.

Speculation: Every time the dealer calls Pon or Kan, an extra Dora indicator will be revealed (maximum 4 can be revealed).

Freebie: When the dealer wins with Ron, earns additional 1000 points per Dora.

• Chance card: Positive rules of powering-up the yaku or bonus.

Shadow World: When player wins with Riichi, Han value for normal Dora is ignored, but Han value for Ura Dora is doubled. (Red Five is unaffected.)

Triple Speed: Winning a hand within 3 turns of declaring Riichi counts as Ippatsu. (Tile calls can interrupt as still.)

Goldmine: Dora Indicators are also counted as Dora.

Super All Simples: All Simples (Tanyao) is counted as 3-Han.

Risktaker: Riichi is counted as 2-Han, Ippatsu as 2-Han, Double Riichi as 4-Han.

• Destiny Card: Negative rules of penalty from specific actions.

Boast: No-ten Penalty and winning points for Mangan at Draw are doubled.

Overpreparation: Declaring Riichi costs 2000 points.

Hourglass of Misfortune: After a player declares Riichi, the winning points this player wins will decrease in accordance with the number of tiles they discarded. (-300 points per tile if called Ron or -100 points per tile from every other players if called Tsumo.)

Secret Deal: When a player calls Chii, Pon and Open Kan, they need to pay 500 points to the player who discarded the tile.

Toll of Love: When a player calls Chii, Pon, and Open Kan on a Dora tile another player discarded, they need to pay 2000 Bet Points.

Operation Fortune

Operation Fortune is a special room introduced with the collab with Code Geass. The rules are the same as regular 4P mahjong, except with the addition of fortune tiles.

The first four tiles that each player draws are fortune tiles:

• They are revealed to all players.
• On a win, for each fortune tile in hand, the hand's score is multiplied by x(fortune_tiles + 1). This equates to x5 with four tiles, x4 with three tiles, x3 with two tiles, and x2 with one tile. This does not affect points from riichi bets or honba.
• When calling a tile, the fortune tile is always used for the meld first.
• Once discarded, a fortune tile becomes a regular tile.

Battle of Incantation

Battle of Incantation is a special room introduced with the collab with Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya. The rules are the same as regular 4P mahjong, except with the addition of Azure Bonus and Crimson Bonus.

• Azure Bonus is gained for each consecutive tedashi discard (discarding a tile other than the one you drew) in the pond. The bonus is equal to 1 han for 3 discards, 2 han for 6 discards, 3 han for 9 discards, 5 han for 12 discards, 12 han for 18 discards.
• Crimson Bonus is gained for each consecutive tsumogiri discard (discarding the tile you drew) in the pond. The bonus is equal to 1 han for 3 discards, 2 han for 5 discards, 3 han for 7 discards, 5 han for 9 discards, 12 han for 12 discards.

A hand can score both the Azure Bonus and the Crimson Bonus at the same time. Note that bonuses consider the amount of consecutive tiles in the pond. Therefore, an opponent calling a discard means that the called tile won't count towards either bonus.

In this mode, tedashi discards are marked in the normal color, and tsumogiri discards are greyed out (as with replays).

References

Notes