Kandora

Kandora

Kandora (カンドラ) is an additional dora indicator that is revealed when a kan (槓, a special meld of four identical tiles) is declared during play. The kandora indicator is the tile shown on the fourth tile from the end of the dead wall.

How Kandora works

In standard mahjong rules, dora indicators provide bonus han for winning hands that contain the tile immediately after the indicator in sequence. When a player declares a kan, they draw a replacement tile from the dead wall, and the live wall shrinks by one draw so the dead wall stays at 14 tiles. Simultaneously, a new dora indicator is revealed from the dead wall to account for the tile that was drawn.

The kandora system works as follows: When a kan is declared, the player draws their replacement tile from the dead wall (the rinshanpai, one of the dead wall’s replacement tiles). In response to this draw, the fourth tile from the end of the dead wall is flipped to become the new kandora indicator. This continues for each kan declared during the hand, potentially revealing multiple kandora indicators if several kans are formed.

The kandora indicator functions identically to the initial dora indicator, any tiles in a player’s hand that come next in sequence after the kandora indicator count as dora when the hand wins. If a player’s winning hand contains tiles matching the kandora indicator, those tiles each add one han to the final hand score.

It is important to note that kandora indicators are only revealed when a kan is actually declared. They do not appear at the start of the hand or through any other game action. This means that the number of dora indicators (including kandora) in any given hand depends on how many kans are declared by all players combined.

The kandora system adds an element of risk and reward to declaring kans. While a kan provides the obvious benefit of completing a meld and drawing a replacement tile, it also reveals a new dora indicator that may benefit opponents. This strategic consideration makes kan declaration more complex than it might initially appear.

Kandora at the table

Consider a hand where the initial dora indicator is the 3-pin (3筒). A player declares an ankan (a concealed kan of four 5-man tiles). When this kan is declared, the fourth tile from the end of the dead wall is flipped, revealing a 7-sou as the kandora indicator.

Later in the same hand, another player declares a daiminkan (an open kan). This triggers the revelation of another kandora indicator, the next tile in the dead wall, one position past the previous indicator, is now flipped.

If a player wins with a hand containing two 4-pins (the tile after the 3-pin indicator) and three 8-sous (the tile after the 7-sou kandora indicator), all five of these tiles count as dora and contribute bonus points to the final score.