Riichi mahjong scoring has a reputation problem. New players hear “you multiply fu by two to the power of two plus han” and quietly decide the game isn’t for them. That’s a shame, because the reputation comes from teaching it in the wrong order.
Here’s the truth: scoring in riichi is layered, and the layers have very different payoffs. One layer (han) directly changes how you play every hand and is genuinely worth learning early. Another layer (fu) matters so little at the beginner level that you can postpone it for months without anyone at the table noticing. And the top layer (the limit hands: mangan and above) is a short fixed table that takes five minutes to learn and covers most of the big payouts you’ll ever see.
This guide separates those layers explicitly. For each one I’ll tell you whether to learn it now, skim it, or bookmark it for later. If you don’t yet know how hands are built or what winning looks like, start with How to Play Riichi Mahjong and come back; this article assumes you know that a hand is four sets plus a pair and that you need at least one yaku to win.
The 30-Second Version
If you retain nothing else, retain this:
- Your score is driven by han. Han come from yaku (scoring patterns) and dora (bonus tiles). Each extra han roughly doubles the value of your hand. Going from 1 han to 4 han isn’t four times the points; it’s closer to eight times.
- Fu is a small adjustment, not the engine. Fu nudges the score up or down within a han level. Beginners can treat almost every hand as “about 30 or 40 fu” and be close enough to make decisions.
- From 5 han upward, fu stops mattering entirely. Mangan, haneman, baiman, sanbaiman, yakuman: fixed payouts, no math.
- If you play online, the app scores for you. Mahjong Soul, Tenhou, and Riichi City all calculate automatically. I’ve played plenty of Mahjong Soul, and the practical skill there isn’t computing scores; it’s knowing roughly what your hand is worth before you commit to it.
The only place you’re ever asked to score by hand is a physical table, and even there, experienced players aren’t doing arithmetic. They’ve internalized a lookup table, and the table is smaller than it looks. From my own nights at Japanese mahjong parlors: nobody at the table is computing exponents at 3 a.m. They hear “3 han 30 fu” and say “3,900” the way you’d answer “what’s 7 times 8.”
Han: The Part You Should Actually Learn
Han (translated as “doubles,” which is exactly what they do) come from two sources:
- Yaku — the recognized hand patterns. Riichi itself is 1 han. Tanyao (all simples) is 1 han. A full flush is 6 han. Every yaku has a fixed han value, and they stack.
- Dora — bonus tiles indicated at the start of the hand. Each dora in your winning hand adds 1 han. Dora are not yaku: they add value but don’t give you the right to win on their own.
Counting han is just addition. Riichi (1) + tsumo (1) + two dora (2) = 4 han. That’s the whole skill, and it’s a skill worth having early because it shapes real decisions: whether a cheap hand is worth pushing, whether to break up your hand to chase a bigger yaku, whether calling a tile (which kills some yaku) costs you more than it gains.
The actual learning investment is the yaku themselves, and you don’t need all of them at once. Around a dozen cover the overwhelming majority of hands you’ll win. The full list, with which ones to learn first, is in The Complete Riichi Yaku List; treat that page as the companion to this one.
Why do han matter so much more than fu? Because of where they sit in the formula. Fu enters the score as a multiplier; han enters as an exponent. Each han doubles the base value of the hand, so a difference of one han routinely outweighs any realistic difference in fu. That single fact is the justification for everything else in this article.
Fu: The Part You Can Postpone
So what is fu for? Historically, fu measures how hard your hand was to assemble: concealed sets score more than open ones, triplets more than runs, awkward waits more than flexible ones. Han measures how rare your patterns are; fu measures the fine texture of the tiles. Together they were meant to produce a precise value for every hand.
In practice, fu’s influence is small and it gets rounded twice (once to the nearest 10 fu, then the final score up to the nearest 100 points), so most hands land on 30 or 40 fu. The minimum realistic structure explains why: every hand starts at 20 fu, a closed ron adds 10, and the total rounds up. You have to try fairly hard to leave the 30–40 range. Treating an ordinary hand as “30-ish fu” is a reasonable first approximation as long as you know it’s an approximation and not a rule.
Here is the full breakdown. Read it once so the concept isn’t a mystery, but do not memorize it. It will still be here later.
Base fu (every hand starts here):
| Situation | Fu |
|---|---|
| Base (“fūtei”) | 20 |
| Winning by ron with a closed hand | +10 |
| Winning by tsumo | +2 (except pinfu tsumo) |
| Winning by ron with an open hand | +0 |
Fu per set (runs are free; the harder the set, the more fu):
| Set type | Simples (2–8) | Terminals & honors |
|---|---|---|
| Run (sequence) | 0 | 0 |
| Open triplet | 2 | 4 |
| Closed triplet | 4 | 8 |
| Open kan | 8 | 16 |
| Closed kan | 16 | 32 |
Pair and wait:
| Element | Fu |
|---|---|
| Pair of yakuhai (value tiles) | +2 |
| Any other pair | 0 |
| Open wait (two-sided) | 0 |
| Dual-pair (shanpon) wait | 0 |
| Closed wait (middle of a run) | +2 |
| Edge wait | +2 |
| Pair (single-tile) wait | +2 |
Fixed-fu special cases:
- Seven pairs (chiitoitsu): always 25 fu. No additions, no rounding.
- Pinfu + tsumo: always 20 fu. (Explained in the FAQ.)
- An open hand with a pinfu-style shape (all runs, valueless pair, open wait) is counted as 30 fu.
After adding everything, round up to the next 10 (so 32 fu becomes 40 fu). One wrinkle worth flagging: in most rulesets, if you ron on a dual-pair (shanpon) wait, the completed triplet is counted as an open triplet, since the winning tile came from an opponent. Rules like this are exactly why beginners shouldn’t try to compute fu live at the table; even intermediate players double-check the edge cases.
The honest advice: learn to read this table when a score surprises you, and let recognition build from there. Memorizing it on day one is effort spent on the layer of scoring with the smallest payoff.
From Han and Fu to Points
Now the machinery, shown once so the tables make sense.
Step 1 — base points: base = fu × 2^(2 + han).
Step 2 — cap: if the base exceeds 2,000, it’s capped at 2,000. This is the mangan line, and it’s the reason fu becomes irrelevant for big hands.
Step 3 — multiply by who won and how:
| Result | Payment |
|---|---|
| Non-dealer ron | Discarder pays base × 4 |
| Non-dealer tsumo | Dealer pays base × 2; the other two pay base × 1 each |
| Dealer ron | Discarder pays base × 6 |
| Dealer tsumo | All three players pay base × 2 each |
Step 4 — round each payment up to the nearest 100.
Two things fall out of this table that you should absorb even if you skip the math. First, dealer hands are worth 50% more, which is why the table tenses up when the dealer declares riichi. Second, ron concentrates the entire payment on one player while tsumo spreads it across three — the strategic consequences of that split (and the related rule that makes tsumo its own yaku) are covered in Tsumo vs Ron.
One worked example, then we’re done with arithmetic forever. You’re a non-dealer, you ron with riichi plus one dora: 2 han, and say your hand comes to 30 fu. Base = 30 × 2⁴ = 480. Ron as non-dealer: 480 × 4 = 1,920, rounded up to 2,000. That’s the famous “riichi plus a little” payout you’ll collect constantly.
And here is the column that worked example lives in — the most common line in all of riichi, non-dealer, 30 fu, alongside its neighbors:
Non-dealer ron:
| Han | 25 fu (7 pairs) | 30 fu | 40 fu | 60 fu |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | — | 1,000 | 1,300 | 2,000 |
| 2 | 1,600 | 2,000 | 2,600 | 3,900 |
| 3 | 3,200 | 3,900 | 5,200 | 7,700 |
| 4 | 6,400 | 7,700 | Mangan (8,000) | Mangan (8,000) |
Dealer ron:
| Han | 30 fu | 40 fu |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,500 | 2,000 |
| 2 | 2,900 | 3,900 |
| 3 | 5,800 | 7,700 |
| 4 | 11,600 | Mangan (12,000) |
Tsumo payments follow the same base values, split per the multiplier table (each payment rounded up separately). The classic example: pinfu + tsumo as a non-dealer is 2 han 20 fu, base 320, so the dealer pays 700 and the others 400 each — the “400/700” you’ll hear called out constantly online.
If you learn any column by heart, make it non-dealer 30 fu: 1,000 / 2,000 / 3,900 / 7,700. Those four numbers alone will let you follow most of what happens at a table.
Mangan and Beyond: Where Fu Stops Mattering
Here’s the pleasant surprise at the top of the scoring system: the big hands are the easy part. Once the base hits its 2,000 cap, fu drops out of the equation and everything becomes a fixed table.
You reach mangan at 5 han regardless of fu, and also at 4 han with 40 fu or more, or 3 han with 70 fu or more (those combinations push the base past 2,000 on their own).
| Limit | Han | Non-dealer | Dealer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mangan | 5 (or capped base) | 8,000 | 12,000 |
| Haneman | 6–7 | 12,000 | 18,000 |
| Baiman | 8–10 | 16,000 | 24,000 |
| Sanbaiman | 11–12 | 24,000 | 36,000 |
| Yakuman | 13+ / special hands | 32,000 | 48,000 |
That’s it. Five rows. A player who knows this table plus the 30-fu column from the previous section can announce the score of the majority of winning hands without touching the formula — which is, in practice, what most experienced players are actually doing when they “calculate” instantly.
Notice the progression: haneman is 1.5× mangan, baiman is 2×, sanbaiman 3×, yakuman 4×. Once you see it as multiples of 8,000 (or 12,000 for the dealer), it stops being memorization at all.
For tsumo, the same totals are split by the usual pattern; a non-dealer mangan tsumo, for example, collects 2,000 from each non-dealer and 4,000 from the dealer for the same 8,000 total.
Your Actual Learning Path
To put the layers in order of return on effort:
- Now: count han (yaku + dora). Learn your first dozen yaku from the yaku list.
- Now (five minutes): the mangan-and-up table, and the fact that dealers score 1.5×.
- Soon: the non-dealer 30 fu ron column (1,000 / 2,000 / 3,900 / 7,700) and the 400/700 pinfu tsumo.
- Eventually, if you play in person: how to read the fu table. Full payment charts exist precisely so you can look the rest up — and if you don’t have tiles and point sticks to practice with yet, our riichi set buying guide covers the sets that actually include the score sticks this whole system runs on.
- Possibly never: computing fu from scratch under time pressure. Online clients do it for you, and at live tables someone will gladly check your count.
Scoring knowledge in riichi is like opening theory in chess: a little goes a long way, and the returns diminish fast after the basics. Spend the saved effort on the decisions that actually win games — what to keep, what to fold, and when a cheap fast hand beats a slow expensive one.
FAQ
What is “rounded-up mangan” (kiriage mangan)?
Two specific scores sit awkwardly close to mangan: 4 han 30 fu and 3 han 60 fu, which both work out to 7,700 for a non-dealer (11,600 for the dealer). Many rulesets round exactly these two up to a full mangan — 8,000 and 12,000 — under a rule commonly called kiriage mangan. Adoption varies by platform and house rules, so check the ruleset you’re playing under before assuming it. If you’ve ever wondered why a scoring app showed you 8,000 where you expected 7,700, this rule is usually the answer.
Why is seven pairs always 25 fu?
Seven pairs (chiitoitsu) doesn’t fit the normal fu structure — it has no sets and no standard wait — so it’s assigned a flat 25 fu with no additions and no rounding. Since the yaku itself is 2 han, the common scores are easy: 1,600 / 3,200 / 6,400 for a non-dealer at 2, 3, and 4 han. Note that 25 fu genuinely doesn’t round up to 30; it’s its own column in every score table.
Why is pinfu + tsumo only 20 fu?
Pinfu is, by definition, the “no-fu hand”: all runs, a valueless pair, an open two-sided wait. Every element scores zero fu beyond the base 20. Winning by tsumo would normally add 2 fu, which would contradict the definition, so the tsumo fu is waived and the hand scores a flat 20 fu. The result is the cheapest tsumo in the game per han — that 400/700 at 2 han — but pinfu hands are fast and stack well with riichi, tsumo, and dora, which is why strong players love them anyway.
What are the extra 300 points I keep seeing added to scores?
Those are honba (repeat counters). Under the common rule, each counter on the table adds 300 points to the winning hand: the discarder pays the extra 300 on a ron, and on a tsumo each of the three players pays an extra 100. Counters accumulate when the dealer wins or a hand ends in a draw, which is why late repeats of a dealership can quietly inflate scores. Riichi bets work differently: each riichi declaration puts a 1,000-point stick in the pot, the next winner takes the whole pot, and on a drawn hand the sticks typically carry over to the next one.
Next steps: if you haven’t already, learn the winning framework in How to Play Riichi Mahjong, build your han vocabulary with the yaku list, and see how the two ways of winning change the payments in Tsumo vs Ron.