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Introduction

Welcome to another one of my FAQs. This particular FAQ covers Pocket Mahjong. Pocket Mahjong is a generic game covering the original version of Mahjong - the poker-like version that proliferated mostly on the NES console, but of course would spread later to their GameBoy.

It's been over fifteen years since this game's initial launch back in 1997 by Bottom Up. And since then, not a single FAQ has been written for it. Well, there's always a first time for everything, no? Ever since the start of the GB FAQ Completion Project on GameFAQs several years ago - a project designed to get a guide out for every single GB game out there - many people have now been helped because older, rarer, less popular games have gotten guides.

And so, that is how I came upon this game. Thanks for listening to my ramblin'; hope you enjoy!

Basics of the Game

Traditional Mahjong

^l1|The game field. Firstly, we'll discuss the field layout. At the bottom are your tiles. They form a 13-tile hand, with the rightmost spot being designated for a fourteenth tile that you draw at the start of your turn. The tiles just above your are your discarded ones - the other three piles are your opponents' discarded tiles. In the center of this "box", you'll find the dead wall, atop which sits the "Dora" tile, Circle 9 here. This tile is one under the value of the bonus tile, for which you get bonus points. If the Dora tile is Bamboo 6, for example, then the bonus tile is Bamboo 7.

In mahjong, your goal is to use the 13 tiles in your hand, plus one that you can draw or your opponent discards, to create some various hands. The end goal is to get "mahjong" - the use of all of those tiles in various hands or melds without "overlapping" the sets. These will obviously be based on two things. First is the tile's value - whether it is "one", "two", whatever. With the Circle and Bamboo suits, this is easy - just count the number of figures on there! With the Chinese and Honor suits, it's a bit more difficult. You can just look at the image below. It's not an exact representation of the in-game images, but it's close enough.

^l2|The tiles.

As for the various hands, there are four main ones.

Hand Type	Definition	Examples
Pair	Any two tiles that are exactly alike.	Two Bamboo 4's, two blank tiles.
Pung	Any three tiles that are exactly alike.	Three Circle 2's, three Character 1's.
Kong	Any four tiles that are exactly alike.	Four Circle 5's, four Bamboo 4's.
Chow	Sequence of three tiles of same suit.	Bamboo 1-2-3, Circle 4-5-6.

There are also several special hands. These don't actually seem to use the "use all 13 (+1) tile" definition, so take it with a grain of salt, because I've yet to confirm them. However, also note that, with their rarity, comes extremely powerful attacks - it's a double-edged sword: you'll go for broke intentionally trying for these, so it's best to hope you get something close by chance.

Hand Type	Definition
Thirteen Orphans	1 through 9 of a suit, each wind, each dragon, and one more of those used.
Heavenly Gates	1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 9, 9 of any suit plus one of those used.
Hidden Pong Hand	Four pungs you didn't steal.
Kong Hand	Four kongs.
Honors Hand	Hand consists of only wind and dragon (Honor-suit) tiles.
Pearl Dragon	Three circle pungs/kongs, a circle pair, and a pung/kong of blank tiles.
Ruby Dragon	The above, but uses the Chinese character set in lieu of circles.
Jade Dragon	The above, but uses the Bamboo character set.
Great Dragons	Three pungs of the Dragon tile set.
Great Winds	Four pungs of the four Wind tiles.

When making the hands, there is but one other condition: you are only allowed to use one or zero pairs. The only exception is a hand made of seven pairs, though.

Turns will go from you to your opponent and back again. There is a distinct process to this. During this time, there are references to various actions.

• Firstly, if you're able to steal an opponent's last drawn tile, you can do so. The game will wait for you to confirm this with the A Button, or decline with the B Button. If there are multiple options, use Up/Down on the D-Pad to choose.
  • NOTE: If the tile you are about to steal will complete a mahjong hand, just call mahjong or don't take it. The mahjong option looks more like a square when referring to "stolen completions".

• After that point, if you stole a tile, you'll need to discard one from your hand. Use Left/Right on the D-Pad to choose, and the A Button to discard.

• If you didn't get the chance to steal a tile (normally your first turn), a tile will be drawn for you. This tile will be found in the lower-rightmost part of the screen, in the rightmost portion of your hand.

• Then you get to discard a tile, same as if you'd stolen a tile.
  • Alternative: Call mahjong or tenpai. More on the meaning. You can access the menu with the Up Button on the D-Pad, if such is possible. To call Tenpai, you'll use the Japanese name in the menu that looks like it is two characters with a dash; to call Mahjong, you'll use the other, second option that is only two characters.

• This pretty much loops until the end. This can be upon mahjong being called, in most games, or you'll start a new match after 18 tiles are discarded.

• As you play, you can call Tenpai. This takes away 1,000 points if successful. This means that you only lack a single tile from having a mahjong hand. This forces you to only draw and discard the drawn tile until you get the tile that makes a mahjong hand. Note that the mahjong-making tile can come from either the tile you draw or your opponent's last-discarded tile.
  • This seems to not be allowed if you steal a tile, or with a Tenpai involving a seven-pair hand.

After a match successfully ends, the scores are calculated appropriately. The main basises for this are the rarity of the hands you've gotten, and the "Dora" tiles. If you look at the revealed tile on the central dead-wall during the match, you'll get to see it. That tile is one below the value of a bonus tile - for example, if the "Dora" tile is a Bamboo 5, then the bonus tile is a Bamboo 6. Got it?

Hands will generally end with everyone has discarded eighteen tiles, or someone successfully calls mahjong. After enough matches, an overall winner can be determined due to someone's score hitting zero (usually), and you'll be allowed to continue along to the next match as necessary. To win a mahjong match, your opponent's score must hit zero; you lose if yours does.

Strategies/Tips

• Look at your hand and see what is a meld - and therefore should NOT be discarded - and what is close to a meld. Statistically speaking, completing a Chow (three-tile straight) is more likely in most cases than Pungs or Kongs. If you have an excessive meld (i.e. a four-tile straight), you'll need to analyze other potential options for the outlying tiles of the meld (lowest/highest, or just any one in a five-plus pairing) and, if you can't find one that's very likely, drop it.

• Tiles in the suits (Bamboo, Characters, and Circles) tend to be best used for Pungs, Chows, and Kongs, whereas your others are better left for Pairs, if anything.

• Leave yourself with as many options as possible. For example, let's say you're trying to make a Chow. You have the Circles 3, 4, and 6. Instead of hoping, for some arbitrary reason, for a Circle 5 to come down and make an excessively long Chow, look at the hand. We already have 2/3 of the Chow in Circle 3 and 4, but only 1/3 in Circle 6. You may as well toss out the Circle 6 and let the other Circles get completed with Circle 2 or Circle 5, generally twice as likely to happen than just Circle 5.

• Again, leave yourself with plenty of options! This is extremely, extremely important! The AI will never just hand over a win. You need to leave a lot of flexibility in your strategies! In this way, you can open up your Tenpai call and more easily win the battles because the penalties against your opponent will be steeper.

• You may as well try forming your pairs as early as possible. Don't use suited ones for this, but try to use the "Honor" tile set, which seem to just feature the large Japanese character. This also ties in to discarding tiles that are the least likely to form melds. Sure, it may not always work, but it's better than tarrying over which tile to remove from a more-likely meld!

Credits

In no particular order...

• Wikipedia:
  • A derived image of the tile sets.
  • Info on the various special hands.

• GameFAQs, Neoseeker, and Supercheats:
  • For being the most amazing FAQ-hosting sites I know.

• CJayC, SBAllen, and Devin Morgan:
  • General sucking up to the GameFAQs admins. =P

• Me (KeyBlade999):
  • For making this FAQ. =P

• You, the reader:
  • For hopefully enjoying this FAQ.

Version History

• Final:
  • First and likely only version of this FAQ.
  • Time: 11:11 PM 4/9/2013.

Legalities

This FAQ may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright.

All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders.

ｩ 2013 Daniel Chaviers (a.k.a. KeyBlade999).

If you would wish to contact me concerning this or my other FAQs, use this e-mail: keyblade999.faqs@gmail.com, or PM (Private Message) me on the GameFAQs message boards.

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