Your table-side guide
Quick references for the way we play at Shiok! Keep this page open during your first few games.
The Shiok! Tile Key
Every tile in a Singapore set, named and grouped, plus a quick guide to player and prevailing winds, flowers and seasons, and the animal bites. Print it or keep it on your phone while you learn.
Eat Soup With Noodles
The winds go East, South, West, North. Play moves counterclockwise around the table. This mnemonic helps you remember the order of the seats and winds.
Every turn is a new opportunity to build your winning hand.
Key words
- Pong
- Three of the same tile. You can claim a discard from any player to complete your set.
- Kong
- Four of the same tile. Declare it, then draw a replacement tile from the end of the wall.
- Chow
- Three in a row in one suit. You can only chow from the player on your left.
- Hu
- “I win!” Four sets and a pair: the winning hand that ends the round.
- Levels
- How a hand is scored. Each level doubles the payout.
Winning hands and levels
You need at least 2 levels to win, and a hand is capped at 5 levels.
| Hand | Level | Base payout | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken Hand | 0 | — | A complete hand with no scoring features. It needs extra levels to reach the minimum. |
| Smelly Ping-Hu | 1 | 2 | All sequences, with a flower or animal. Extras still add on top. |
| Pong-Pong-Hu | 2 | 4 | All pongs (sets of three of a kind). |
| Half Suit (Half Color) | 2 | 4 | One suit mixed with honor tiles. |
| Three Little Dragons | 3 | 8 | Two dragon pongs and a pair of the third dragon. |
| Pure Ping-Hu | 4 | 16 | All sequences with no bonus tiles. |
| Full Suit (Full Color) | 4 | 16 | Every tile from a single suit. |
| Mixed Terminals and Honors | 4 | 16 | Only 1s, 9s, winds and dragons. |
| Four Little Winds | 4 | 16 | Three wind pongs and a pair of the fourth wind. |
| Seven Twins | 4 (3) | 16 (8) | Seven pairs. 4 levels self-drawn, 3 from a discard. |
| Limit Hands | 5 | 32 | The rare, spectacular hands. |
Extra levels
Add 1 level each for your seat's flower, an animal, a dragon pong, a pong of a valued wind, and more.
Who pays?
Everyone pays the winner. The player who discarded the winning tile pays double. On a self-drawn win, everyone pays double. A false Hu pays the maximum to every player.
Every table has its own house rules. Agree on yours before you start.
Want it explained step by step?
The free starter series walks you through all of this in five short videos.