Four Seas Mahjong Changelog

v3.1 — 2026-05-15

After nearly two years of offline play and almost six months of online statistics, we found that three-suit sequence–triplet patterns occurred infrequently and contributed little to the overall hand-building system. The three-suit matching sequence–triplet and consecutive sequence–triplet families have therefore been removed. Seven Honors and Plaid Tiles and Five Honors and All Plaid Tiles have been merged into Knit Unrelated, bringing the total to 100 patterns. The differences between Standard and Professional are now small, so they have been combined into Standard, eliminating one level. The other three levels—Introductory, Basic, and Intermediate—are unchanged.

Four Seas platform launch — 2026-03-09

After more than half a year of development, the Four Seas Mahjong platform is finally online, supporting both single-player and multiplayer play. Players interested in Four Seas are welcome to try it.

v3.0 — 2026-03-09

It has been a long time since the previous version. Four Seas underwent several small adjustments in the meantime, but platform development absorbed the time that could otherwise have gone into publishing updates. Now that the platform has taken shape, the refined version 3.0 rules have also largely settled. Looking back at version 2.1's claim to be the final rules, however, it seems best not to make that declaration too lightly.

The updated chart is shown above. This changelog lists the changes; their reasons will be discussed separately alongside an interim statistical analysis.

• The tiered rules system has been reorganized into three broad rulesets: Basic, Standard, and Expanded. Basic and Standard each have a lower introductory or transitional edition and a higher regular or competitive edition.

Broad ruleset	Editions
Basic	Introductory; Recreational
Standard	Intermediate; Advanced
Expanded	Professional

• A new Introductory Edition contains only seven five- or ten-point patterns: All Sequences, All Simples, One Quad, Value Honor, Two Identical Sequences, Half Straight, and Two Similar Sequences. It is intended for complete beginners.
• Blessing of Heaven and Blessing of Earth have been removed from Recreational, reducing it to eighteen patterns.
• Odd/even patterns, consecutive triplets, similar triplets, and other triplet combinations have moved from Intermediate to Advanced. Intermediate now tops out at 160 points and contains 49 patterns.
• In Advanced, the names Silver Ladder and Golden Ladder have been exchanged. Silver Ladder now denotes Four Shifted Sequences with a consecutive pair; Golden Ladder denotes Four Consecutive Triplets with a consecutive pair. The silver/gold distinction now matches their relative difficulty.
• Professional adds Seven Pairs with Quads, the Tile Hog family, and the Knit Unrelated family, bringing the total to 108 patterns.

v2.1 — 2024-12-31

On the final day of the year, we are publishing adjustments that have been tested for a long time, treating them as the final Four Seas rules.

• Recreational and Intermediate are unchanged.
• In Advanced, Dragon Seven Pairs and Wind Seven Pairs have been replaced by Three Dragon Pairs and Four Wind Pairs. These no longer include the Seven Pairs score; they are combination patterns within a seven-pairs hand. Three Wind Pairs has also been added. All three belong to the honor family.

Change	Pattern points	Total with Seven Pairs
Dragon Seven Pairs → Three Dragon Pairs	120 → 40	40 + 60 = 100
Wind Seven Pairs → Four Wind Pairs	160 → 80	80 + 60 = 140
Add Three Wind Pairs	20	20 + 60 = 80

• All Consecutive has moved from Advanced to Expanded, keeping Advanced at 81 patterns.
• Expanded also adds Mixed Consecutive, worth 20, allowing honors as substitutes. This increases Expanded to 98 patterns. At least three groups—sequences, triplets, or pairs—must use numbered tiles to express continuity. A single numbered group cannot meaningfully be consecutive, while consecutive pairs of groups are too common.
• Mixed Consecutive can combine with the three sequences of Assorted Straight when the remaining triplet and pair are honors, compensating for Assorted Straight's low value. Mixed One-Suit plus Pure Straight likewise combines naturally with Mixed Consecutive when its remaining triplet and pair are honors, slightly strengthening Pure Straight. Besides these straights, Seven Pairs, and All Triplets, compatible three-meld combinations include Horizontal Cross, Horizontal H, Assorted Cross, and Assorted H from the same-suit and three-suit linked sequence–triplet families. All Consecutive and Mixed Consecutive therefore fit the rationale of Expanded's new meld families and belong in that edition.
• Mixed Linked, the shared-rank pattern, has been relaxed to allow just one numbered meld or pair alongside honors. Such hands differ from All Honors by only that group and are rare. At just 20 points, the pattern does not create excessive rewards. This also brings its definition into line with Mixed Outside Hand and simplifies the rules.

v2.0 — 2024-04-21

• A new 40-point pattern, All Consecutive, requires every group in a standard four-meld-and-pair hand, or all seven pairs, to occupy consecutive ranks without overlap or gaps. It replaces Mixed Consecutive Seven Pairs, Cloud Ladder, Mixed Linked Dragon, and Linked Dragon.

Recreational and Intermediate do not include All Consecutive. In Advanced it combines only with Seven Pairs or All Triplets: Mixed Consecutive Seven Pairs becomes Seven Pairs + All Consecutive, totaling 100; Cloud Ladder becomes All Triplets + All Consecutive, totaling 70. Advanced remains at 81 patterns.

With Expanded's linked sequence–triplet families, All Consecutive extends to the more general forms of one sequence, three triplets, and a pair, or two sequences, two triplets, and a pair. Linked Dragon and Mixed Linked Dragon are replaced by All Consecutive, while King Straight moves into the same-suit linked sequence–triplet family. Expanded decreases to 96 patterns.

• In the D rules for Advanced and Expanded, the discard-win minimum rises from 40 to 50. The self-draw minimum remains 20.
• Several pattern values increase:

Pattern	Previous	New
All Types	10	20
Seven Pairs	40	60
Dragon Seven Pairs	80	120
Wind Seven Pairs	120	160
All Unrelated	20	30
Seven All Unrelated	40	40, unchanged
Five Honors and Knitted Straight	40	60
Mixed Outside Hand	20	30
Pure Outside Hand	30	40

• Mirrored Triplets decreases from 160 to 120.

Four Seas 2.0 has become a stable version, and we do not expect further major adjustments.

v1.3 — 2024-02-18

• Add the Expanded rules.
• Add a no-honors version of Recreational.
• Restore the regular Recreational payment-sharing threshold to 25, matching the no-honors version.
• Broaden Mixed Linked to allow two to four melds containing the shared rank, hence one to three honor melds. This gives the shared-rank family a wider scope and makes it a more independent hand-building route.
• Promote the shared-rank and odd/even families from subcategories to categories alongside terminals.
• Extend Cloud Ladder to include one-suit hands, allowing combinations with Three Consecutive Triplets and Two Consecutive Triplets Twice. Silver Ladder's definition consequently includes Cloud Ladder.
• Increase Little Three Dragons from 60 to 80, Three Consecutive Triplets from 60 to 80, and Four Consecutive T from 80 to 120.
• Decrease Four Shifted Sequences from 240 to 160 and Golden Ladder from 320 to 240.

v1.2.1 — 2023-11-27

• Merge the Nine Gates and one-suit families, simplifying the suit class to a single family.
• Change the mnemonic “五不带” to “五不全,” using 全 to represent both the shared-rank and odd/even families.
• Add each family's mnemonic to the right side of the pattern chart.
• Rename the ambiguous “Winning” class containing situational patterns to the clearer “Situational” class.

v1.2 — 2023-11-13

Intermediate adds Consecutive Triplets, a two-triplet pattern worth ten points. Little Three Consecutive Triplets rises to thirty and is redefined as its higher form: among three consecutive ranks, the first or third may be a pair, with the other two forming consecutive triplets.

Advanced adds Two Consecutive Triplets Twice, two such groups, at 120 points.

These additions make the combination families more complete. As the chart shows, a two-meld combination generally has two higher forms: a three-meld combination and a two-meld combination occurring twice. Consecutive Triplets has fewer possible combinations than Half Straight, and Two Consecutive Triplets Twice is harder than Half Straight Twice. The additions strengthen triplet combinations and provide a limit-hand combination of Mirrored Triplets plus Two Consecutive Triplets Twice.

In v1.2, Recreational remains at twenty patterns, Intermediate increases to 56, and Advanced contains 81. The combined chart for all three levels follows.

2023-11-07

Recreational's payment-sharing threshold changes to 50, matching Intermediate and Advanced. The version number remains v1.1. All editions now use one shared threshold.

The threshold was intended to implement shared payments for small hands and greater discarder liability for large hands. Recreational initially used 25 to match Zung Jung, but its difference from Intermediate and Advanced complicated the rules. Unifying all three at 50 simplifies the system without changing that principle. In fact, because Four Seas doubles the discarder's share, its threshold of 50 is equivalent to Zung Jung's 25.

The corresponding Recreational charts and descriptions have been updated.

v1.1 — 2023-09-23

Intermediate and Advanced add Mirrored Half Straight at sixty points, combining Half Straight Twice and Mirrored Sequences.

Combined patterns generally do not need separate entries. Mixed One-Suit plus All Triplets, Pure One-Suit plus Pure Straight, and All Odd plus Seven Pairs can simply add their component values. In most cases that sum is below the value suggested by the combination's count and difficulty.

Half Straight Twice and Mirrored Sequences, however, both involve four sequences and overlap frequently. Approximately one fifth of Half Straight Twice hands also qualify as Mirrored Sequences, and vice versa. Adding their values would award eighty points, too much for this frequent combination and a source of scoring imbalance. A separate sixty-point Mirrored Half Straight in the same-suit consecutive-sequence category resolves the issue.

Mirrored Sequences can also combine with Two Identical Sequences Twice and Two Shifted Sequences Twice, but those overlaps are rare enough that adding their values does not over-reward them.

Version 1.1 increases Intermediate to 55 patterns and Advanced to 79.

v1.0 — 2023-08-27

The first release of Four Seas Mahjong.