>>61793627The game has an initial learning curve that is a bit annoying, but then you will quickly pick it up by just playing.
If you open your hand (call chi/pon/kan from another players discard) then you will need an open yaku. The most common/easiest open hand yakus are All Simples (tanyao), All Triplets (Toitoi), Half Flush (honitsu) or a yakuhai triplet (Triplet of a dragon or your seat wind or the prevalent wind (the one that it says in the middle of the board, usually only East or South).
If you keep your hand closed, you will always be able to declare riichi when you're in tenpai (your hand only needs 1 tile to complete). Declaring riichi costs 1k points and basically makes the game autoplay for you as you are forced to discard your drawn tile. So keeping your hand closed is kind of easier for new players.
When you're new just focus on completing your hand and improving your tile efficiency rather than points, though aiming for big hands can keep the game fun when you're new, so watch for yakuman's (max scoring hands). Also the shiny tiles (doras) are an easy way to make your hand worth more, try to make use of them if you can.
Also a key part of the game is you cannot win from someone elses discard if your wait (tiles that could complete your hand) includes tiles you have discarded, so avoid this happening or you will be in furiten. This also means tiles other players have discarded are safe as they cannot win off your discard.
This will all sound like complicated nonsense, but it's actually simple to pick up once you understand this.
Use the pic or similar for the yaku's.
