Sakura Taisen 4 Mini-Game FAQ

Sakura Taisen 4 Mini-Game FAQ
Version 1.1
By
Carl Chavez ([email protected])
Jim Irwin ([email protected])
Edward Ju (gundam dubya on gamefaqs.com)

The latest version of this FAQ may be found at
http://www.gamefaqs.com

or
http://www.sakuraarchives.com

This FAQ is an English-language guide for the Sakura Taisen
Jongg mini-game (hereafter referred to as STJ) in Sakura Taisen 4
(ST4). This mini-game is named so because the game is Sakura
Taisen's spin on Mah Jongg, an ancient Chinese game played with
marked tiles, where players attempt to complete sets of triplets
first in order to win the game. This game is still popular
today, and variations of the same basic game exist in several
Asian countries including China, Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong.
This game is usually played with 4 players at a table, but over
the years more games were created using the same tiles, and the
new game rules resemble nothing like the original set of rules.

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FAQ CONTENTS

I. Game Menu
II. Rules
A. Goal
B. Computer-assisted preparation
C. Gameplay
D. Shimo!
E. Ron!
F. Richi!
G. End of the round
III. Combinations
A. Combinations
B. Individual statistics
IV. Special Powers
V. Strategy
A. General Strategy
B. Special Powers
VI. Glossary
VII. Credits
VIII. Document History

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I. GAME MENU
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The six options in STJ's game menu are:

1) PLAY AGAINST FIVE OPPONENTS 2) CHOOSE AN OPPONENT
3) RULES 4) COMBINATIONS
5) CREATE A TILESET 6) EXIT

PLAY AGAINST FIVE OPPONENTS:

This is the only available game mode until you clear it.
To clear it, beat five characters. If you are defeated by an
opponent, you do not have to start over and can just challenge
the current opponent until you win.

The first character has an 8000-point handicap, and
successive characters have lower handicaps. You have a
2000-point handicap against the final character. The tileset
used in the match depends on the character you face.

Winning those mode unlocks option #2 and option #5.

CHOOSE AN OPPONENT (Free Battle Mode):

After you have beaten the first game mode, you can start
playing this game mode. You can use the standard tilesets, or
you can create your own with option #5. To complete every
possible combination, you must create your own tilesets.

When you first select this option, you will see portraits of
the Hanagumi and Parigumi members. Click on one to play against
that character. If you win, a pink ribbon will appear on top of
the portait.

When you have beaten every character, a second menu will
appear. use the [L] and [R] triggers to change menus. The second
menu contains Teito and Paris supporting members. Beat all of
them, and you unlock a picture of Yuri, Tsubaki, Kasumi, Mell,
and Ci!

RULES:

View the rules of the game in Japanese. If you're reading
this FAQ because you can't read Japanese very well, then option
#3 might seem useless to you. :-) However, it will go through
important concepts of the game in a step-by-step manner, so it
can be very helpful nonetheless.

COMBINATIONS:

You can view all of the scoring combinations here. If a
combination contains "?" in its contents, then you have never
performed his combination. Once you have completed every possible
scoring combination, you unlock... something.

CREATE A TILESET:

With option #5, you can mix and match ST characters to make
your own tilesets. This is most useful if you're trying to
complete all of the scoring combinations, but it is also fun to
experiment with different tileset configurations because each
character has unique special powers. Please see section IV for
information on what each character's special power does.

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II. RULES
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---------------
Goal
---------------

The goal of STJ is to create a hand of nine tiles ("pai")
which contains at least one of the tiles required, as displayed
in the list of "match pai" on the right side of the screen, and
either:

- three sets of three matching pai, or
- one set of six matching pai and one set of three matching
tiles, or
- one set of nine matching pai (one of which must be the
wildcard, since there are only eight pai per tile type)

---------------
Computer-assisted preparation
---------------

First, a set of tiles is chosen. Your opponent's group
association will determine which set is used for your match. For
example, if your opponent is Sakura, you will use the Teito
tiles, but if your opponent is Erica, you will use the Paris
tiles. If you beat five opponents, you can use a custom set. Each
set of tiles contains nine tile types. Each type of tile consists
of eight tiles of the same picture, except the support group
type. The support group tile type consists of eight tiles which
have different pictures.

Teito set:
- Sakura, Sumire, Maria, Kanna, Kohran, Iris, Orihime, Reni,
Teito Support (Yoneda, Kaede, Yuri, Tsubaki, Kasumi, Kotone,
Yakihiko, Kikunojo)

Paris set:
- Erica, Glycine, Coquelicot, Lobelia, Hanabi, Mell, Ci, Kayama,
Paris Support (Grand Mere, Napoleon, Jean, Sakomizu, Evian,
Rolan, Tarebuu, Reno)

To these tiles are added eight Oogami tiles, and one wildcard
tile which has the respective group's logo. The wildcard tile can
be combined with any pair of matching tiles for a matching
triplet. In the case of the Support tiles, any two white tiles
will form a triplet with the wildcard. If no scoring combination
can be created with the white tiles and the wildcard, it will
be scored as zero points. For example, if you have
Yuri and Tsubaki with a wildcard, you will score the Kazegumi
bonus of 4000 points. However, if you have Kotone, Yoneda, and
the wildcard, you will get a triplet, but it will score 0 points.

Next, the first round begins. Up to three rounds of STJ will
be played. The match will end when either three complete rounds
are played, or one player has a negative amount of points.

Next, two tiles are drawn and placed on the right side of
the gameplay area. These are the match pai, and your hand must
contain at least one triplet containing at least of these tiles
to win. Support Group tiles never appear as match pai.

If both match pai drawn are the same tile, then there will be
only one match pai. Also, if you use certain special powers (see
section IV), then it is possible to have up to three match tiles.

Once the match pai are chosen, each player draws eight tiles
into his/her hand and they are automatically sorted by the
character portait.

---------------
Gameplay
---------------

Until now, everything had been performed automatically by
the computer. Now the real fun begins! The human player always
gets to start the round. A tile is drawn. If you were incredibly
lucky, you got a winning hand right away, but that probably won't
happen. You must now choose to discard exactly one tile in your
hand.

Once you have discarded a tile, your opponent draws a tile
and discards a tile. You and your opponent repeat this until
either one of you has a winning hand, or all tiles are drawn.

---------------
Shimo!
---------------

If the drawn tile allows your hand to fulfill all of the
criteria for a winning hand, a LIPS option will appear. Select
the only option to declare Shimo. This ends the round and you
collect your scores. If you let the LIPS timer expire, you may
continue the round. You might do this if you think you can create
a better hand or score a Ron (see below), but at least 90% of the
time, you'll want to select it.

---------------
Ron!
---------------

If your opponent discards a tile that, if you had it, would
allow you to form a winning hand, a LIPS option will appear.
Select the option to declare Ron. This ends the round and you
collect your scores. If you let the LIPS timer expire, you may
continue the round. You might do this if you think you can create
a better hand, but 99.999% of the time, you'll select it!

---------------
Richi!
---------------

If your hand is one tile away from being a winning hand,
then you can declare Richi by pressing the [B] button and
selecting a tile to discard. By declaring Richi, you may get at
least 300 extra points. However, you may no longer use any of
your characters' special powers (except the automatically
triggered ones such as Sakura/Glycine's, Sumire/Hanabi's, and
Orihime/Kayama's), and you must discard any tile you draw until
you get the one tile that would complete your hand. For those
reasons, it is not always a good idea to declare Richi.

---------------
Using special powers
---------------

If you have a triplet of tiles (excluding the Support Group
tiles and Oogami tiles), and if the tiles have an "O" on top of
the tile, then you can use the special power of the character
on those tiles by pressing the [X] button. A menu will appear
that contains portraits of eight characters. These characters
are decided from the tile types in the current set of tiles. If
a character's portrait is dimmed, then you cannot use that
character's power. Otherwise, that character's power is
available. Some characters have powers that work automatically,
and others have powers that can be used when you press the [A]
button while their portraits are selected in the menu. Go to
section IV for descriptions of each character's individual powers
and how to use them.

Once you have used a character's special power, the tiles
for that character will have an "X" instead of an "O" on top
of the tile. This means that the power can no longer be used.
If you happen to have six or more tiles of the same character,
only three tiles will be marked with an "X".

---------------
End of the round
---------------

When the round is over, a score is calculated based on all of the
possible scoring combination your hand contains. See Section III
for more details.

If neither player has a winning hand, then a player can still
score if a Richi was declared. If only one player declared Richi,
then that player gets 1000 points, and the opponent loses 1000
points. If both players declared Richi, then neither player gains
points.

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III. COMBINATIONS
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Special thanks to Jim Irwin and Edward Ju for the combination
list, and again to Jim Irwin for the point calculations.

---------------
Combinations
---------------

Here is a complete list of the combos for the game by page in the
viewing screen. Please note that any reference to "Hanagumi set"
means any of the girls from either Hanagumi, be it Paris or
Teito...and the actual name of those combos will change by girl
depending on who it is in that case.

Some of the three-part combos contain one-part and two-part
combinations, as well. If this is true for a given combination,
the final total is given in parentheses.

Page 1/22
DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Any 2 sets of the same color 1500
All 3 sets of the same color 2500
Any 2 sets of the same character 3000
Flush (All 3 sets of the same character, 9000
requires wildcard pai)

Page 2/22
DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Minigame (Oogami set + Hanagumi set) 900
Combination Attack (Oogami set + 2 same 4500 (8400)
Hanagumi sets)
Heroine Combination Attack - (2 Oogami sets 6000 (9900)
and a Hanagumi set)

Page 3/22
DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Performance: Ai Yue Ni (Sakura and Maria 1000
sets)
"For Lovers" based on the official drama
CD release, translated as "Because of
Love" by some.
Performance: Saiyuuki (Sumire and Kanna sets) 1000
Chronicles of the Journey to the West
(famous Chinese folklore/mythology)
Performance: Tsubasa (Iris and Kohran sets) 1000
Wings
Performance: Aoi Tori (Iris and Leni sets) 1000
Blue Bird

Page 4/22
DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Performance: Aa, Mujou (Maria and Kohran sets) 1000
Les Misérables
Hoshigumi (Orihime and Leni sets) 1000
Star Division
Louvre infiltrators (Erica and Lobelia sets) 1000
Orangerie infiltrators (Glycine and Coquelicot 1000
sets)

Page 5/22
DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Hottest summer of Paris (Coquelicot and Lobelia 1000
sets)
This is from one of the Sakura Wars 3
Drama Downloads, which you have on the
other disc that came with Sakura Wars 4.
Japanese of Paris (Hanabi and Kayama sets) 1000
(EJ) I wonder why they left Oogami
out... LOL
Chattes Noires Emcee Combo (Mell and Ci sets) 1000
Hanagata star VS Top Star (Sakura and Sumire 1000
sets)
Hanagata = Flower Style, or Flower Type 1000

Page 6/22
DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Geisha girls (Sakura and Kohran sets) 1000
High-handed ladies (Sumire and Orihime sets) 1000
Lovely male roles (Maria and Kanna sets) 1000
Magnificent magic show (Erica and Coquelicot 1000
sets)

Page 7/22
DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Maracas and Guitar (Erica and Kayama sets) 1000
Best friends (Glycine and Hanabi sets) 1000
Candy lovers (Erica and Ci sets) 1000
The person Mell admires (Glycine and Mell sets) 1000
(EJ) Mell admires herself? What an ego!
^_^

Page 8/22
DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Necktie Pin (Mell and Oogami sets) 1000
Famous Emcee combo? (Ci and Oogami sets) 1000
Classmates - (Kayama and Oogami sets) 1000
Double Heroines (Sakura and Erica sets) 1500

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DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Graceful Tea-Time (Sumire and Glycine sets) 1500
Pretty Kids (Iris and Coquelicot sets) 1500
Pianist (Orihime and Glycine sets) 1500
Silver Hair (Leni and Lobelia sets) 1500

Page 10/22
DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Good Cooks? (Sumire and Erica sets) 1500
(EJ) It should be Beginner/Amateur
Cooks - both Sumire and Erica are poor
cooks whose ambition/goodwill exceed
their abilities, evident on Ogami's
face when he was made to eat their
handiwork. ^_^
Japanese ladies (Sumire and Hanabi sets) 1500
Leave healing to me! (Iris and Erica sets) 1500
Members with glasses (Kohran and Lobelia sets) 1500 (3000)
(CC) The katakana looks like MEGANE to
some people, and MEKANE to others, so
it may be "Members with glasses", or
"Mechanic members".
(EJ) I think it's "mechanic" - Kohran
is the obvious one, while Lobelia's
mini-game, with all the gears, and her
hangout, could justifiably make her
mechanically inclined.

Page 11/22
DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Animal Tamers (Kanna and Coquelicot sets) 1500
Summer poetry (Leni and Hanabi sets) 1500
Imperial Theatre staff (Oogami and Kazegumi 1500 (5500)
sets)
Garden of men (Oogami and Baragumi sets) 1500 (5500)

Page 12/22
DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Performance: King Lear 3 sisters (Sakura, 2500 (4500)
Sumire and Orihime sets)
Summer vacation: Hot springs (Sakura, Maria 2500 (5300)
and Oogami sets)
Summer vacation: Mountain climbing (Kanna, 2500
Kohran and Orihime sets)
Summer vacation: Ocean swimming (Sumire, Iris 2500 (3500)
and Leni sets)

Page 13/22
DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Sante prison infiltrators (Erica, Glycine and 2500 (4500)
Coquelicot sets)
3 Maid sisters? (Erica, Coquelicot and Oogami 2500 (4300)
sets)
Uproar! Spring cleaning (Erica, Mell and Ci 2500 (4500)
sets)
This is from one of the Sakura Wars 3
Drama Downloads, which you have on the
other disc that came with Sakura Wars 4.
Let's go to the Casino! (Lobelia, Mell and Ci 2500 (3500)
sets)

Page 14/22
DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Chattes Noires sightseeing (Mell, Ci and 2500 (3500)
Kayama sets)
Chattes Noires staff (Mell, Ci and Oogami 2500 (5500)
sets)
Fukugawa mansion investigation (Sumire, Kanna 2500 (5300)
and Oogami sets)
Teigeki senior members (Sumire, Maria and 2500 (4500)
Kanna sets)

Page 15/22
DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Teigeki transfer members (Kohran, Orihime and 2500 (3500)
Leni sets)
Parikagekidan Scout group (Coquelicot, 2500 (3500)
Lobelia and Hanabi sets)
Light comes from the East (Sakura, Sumire and 2500 (3500)
Iris sets)
Parikagekidan special coaches (Maria, Kanna 2500 (4500)
and Kohran sets)

Page 16/22
DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Infiltrate Notre Dame! (Orihime, Leni and 4000 (6500)
Kayama sets)
Prestigious European families (Iris, Orihime 4000 (5500)
and Glycine sets)
3 Blond Hanagumi girls (Maria, Iris and 4000
Glycine sets)
3 Black-haired Hanagumi girls (Sakura, 4000
Orihime and Hanabi sets)

Page 17/22
DESCRIPTION POINTS
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3 Small Hanagumi girls (Iris, Leni and 4000 (6500)
Coquelicot)
3 Traditional Japanese Hanagumi girls 4000 (6500)
(Sakura, Sumire and Hanabi sets)
3 Male role Hanagumi girls (Maria, Kanna and 4000 (5000)
Leni sets)
3 Tallest Hanagumi girls (Maria, Kanna and 4000 (5000)
Lobelia sets)

Page 18/22
DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Swordmaster (Sakura, Kayama and Oogami sets) 4000 (5900)
Likes reading (Maria, Hanabi and Mell sets) 4000 (5500)
Troublemakers (Iris, Kohran and Erica sets) 4000 (6500)
Tenteko-mai (Orihime, Glycine and Hanabi) 4000 (6500)

Page 19/22
DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Kazegumi (Kasumi, Yuri and Tsubaki pai) 4000
Baragumi (Kotone, Yakihiko and Kikunojo pai) 4000
Chattes Noires (Grand Mere, Napoleon and Jean 4000
pai)
Parisians (Sakomizu, Evian and Rolan) 4000
(EJ) Glycine's head servant got
shafted... LOL

Page 20/22
DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Teigeki Supporters (Kayama, Kazegumi and 7000 (15000)
Baragumi sets)
Paris Supporters (Mell, Ci and Chattes 5000 (10000)
Noires sets)
5 girl Teigeki Protectors (Mell, Ci and 5000 (10000)
Kazegumi sets)

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DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Ron (win by taking opponent's discarded pai, x2
only after Richi)
O-dai x 1 (one set is required pai) 500
O-dai x 2 (two sets are required pai) 1000
O-dai x 3 (all sets are required pai) 2000

Page 22/22
DESCRIPTION POINTS
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Richi 300
Bonus pai x 1 (one set contains the pai 1000
of your opponent)
Bonus pai x 2 (two sets contain the pai of 1500
your opponent)
Bonus pai x 3 (three sets contain the pai 2000
of your opponent; requires wildcard pai)

---------------
Individual statistics
---------------

The following stats indicate how many 2- and 3- part combos a
particular character's set is in from page 3 onward, and how many
total points those combos result in (counting the net point
values of 3-part combos). The point value for Mell, Ci and
Kayama's combo with Oogami was counted as 100, as that is the
difference between Oogami's combo with all the other characters
listed...also that was not counted as one of their 2-part combos.

2-part 3-part total
Character combos combos points
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Sakura 4 6 34200
Sumire 6 6 34800
Maria 3 7 36800
Kanna 3 6 30300
Iris 4 6 34500
Kohran 4 4 23000
Orihime 3 7 36500
Leni 4 5 30000
Erica 7 4 28300
Glycine 5 4 26500
Coquelicot 5 4 25800
Lobelia 4 3 18500
Hanabi 4 5 31000
Mell 2 7 44600
Ci 2 6 39100
Kayama 2 4 34000

(JI) Now of course, Mell and Ci are a bit skewed because of their
very difficult 10000 point combos, as is Kayama with his almost
TOTALLY impossible 15000 point combo, but everyone else is
comparable given their point totals...which annoys me because
Lobelia got shafted something fierce :P

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IV. Special Powers
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Each Hanagumi member and Kayama have special powers that can
be used during a round of STJ.

Teito Paris
Member Member Type and Description
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Sakura Glycine auto; prevents your opponent from winning
by a Ron declaration

Sumire Hanabi auto; prevents your opponent from winning
by a Shimo declaration

Iris Erica manual; replace one tile in your hand
with another that willprobably be more
helpful

Maria Coquelicot auto; the next tile you draw will give
you a Shimo victory

Kohran Mell manual; your hand will be redrawn. The
new hand will contain at least one
triplet that contains a match pai,
and will probably contain pairs or
triplets of the other match pai

Kanna Lobelia manual; three or four random tiles in
the opponent's hand are converted to
other random tiles

Orihime Kayama manual or auto; restart the round

Reni Ci manual; a new match pai will appear that
matches one of your triplets. If your
only triplet is Reni/Ci, then the new
match pai will be Reni/Ci unless that
character's tile is already in the match
pai list.

Usage Notes:

- Sakura/Glycine's power automatically triggers when your
opponent attempts to declare Ron.

- Sumire/Hanabi's power automatically triggers when your opponent
attempts to declare Shimo.

- Orihime/Kayama's power automatically triggers if all tiles are
drawn and nobody has declared Shimo or Ron.

- Maria/Coquelicot's power automatically triggers if you declare
Richi.

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V. Strategy
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---------------
General Strategy
---------------

Remember to pay attention to the match pai. You cannot form
a winning hand without having at least one matching triplet in
your hand.

Usually, it's good practice to throw out the white Support
Group tiles first. However, remember that some high-point
combinations are possible with them. For example, if you have
Yuri and Kasumi, don't discard them out right away. You might
draw Tsubaki for the Kazegumi combination and score 4000 points!
Of course, if you see the Tsubaki tile has been discarded already,
there will be no point in holding the Yuri and Kasumi tiles hoping
to draw a Tsubaki tile.

Even though the pictures are different on each white tile,
white tiles can form triplets with ANY OTHER white tiles, even if
it will not form a scoring combination. If your opponent seems
like he/she will win soon, you may be able to form a white
triplet and form a winning hand first.

If you're having trouble drawing tiles that are match pai,
and you have at least one Kohran/Mell, then try to get her
triplet. Once you use it, you're guaranteed to have a triplet of
match pai and you just need to form two other triplets.

If you're still having trouble drawing tiles that are match
pai, and you've already discarded white tiles, then think about
which special powers you don't expect to use and discard the
related tiles next.

If your opponent declares Richi, it's usually safe to throw
out tiles similar to those which the opponent has already
discarded.

---------------
Special Powers
---------------

Whenever possible, try to get a triplet of Maria/Coquelicot.
Once you have that, you just need another triplet and a pair.
Then you can declare Richi. Sometimes, your opponent will discard
the tile you're looking for and you can declare Ron. If not, then
you get a Shimo on your next draw anyway. The only way to lose
once Maria/Coquelicot is used is if your opponent is somehow
lucky enough to draw the tile necessary for a winning hand.

Mell/Kohran's power is excellent at the beginning of a
round. You can get one, and sometimes two, triplets right away
that contain match pai. However, if you have a semi-decent hand
going, using their power may bring in a less desirable hand.

If your opponent declares Richi, you can disrupt the
opponent's hand in two ways. The first is to directly attack your
opponent's hand with Kanna/Lobelia and change three or four random
tiles in the hand, which is a good idea if you're close to winning.
The second is to use Orihime/Kayama and restart the entire round,
which is very appealing when your hand is terrible.

Kanna/Lobelia can be used for defense and scoring, as well.
If almost all of the tiles have been drawn, and your opponent
suddenly declares Richi, you can use Kanna/Lobelia to disrupt the
Richi. That way, you won't fall 2000 points behind from the end-
of-round Richi check. In fact, if you're close to Richi yourself,
you may be able to gain 2000 points!

Orihime/Kayama's power is like panic buttons. Use them if
your hand is terrible and your opponent has already declared
Richi. Orihime/Kayama's power is the best defense because you can
use it whenever necessary.

Sakura/Glycine's and Sumire/Hanabi's special powers are nice
defensively, but you shouldn't actively try to get a triplet for
them unless they're match pai.

Once a power has been performed, the tiles will be marked
with "X" instead of "O". If you draw up another tile of the
same design, you can throw out a tile that was marked with an "X"
and replace it with an unmarked tile. Although unlikely, if you
manage to draw up enough tiles of the same type, you can "renew"
the tiles and perform the super again by replacing expired tiles
with new ones you have drawn.

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VI. Glossary
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------

combination - a predetermined group of tiles that increase your
score if you have them in your hand

match pai - one of the tiles that you must possess in your hand
to win

pai - another word for tile

triplet - a triplet is formed when you create either three tiles
with the same color on the bottom. With colored tiles, they will
each have the same picture. With white tiles, they will have
different pictures.

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VII. Credits
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Jim Irwin and Edward Ju are responsible for the work on the
combination list.

Edward Ju and Carl Chavez are responsible for the special power
information.

Carl Chavez worked on the rules, the strategy, and the glossary.
He also formatted the text.

Thanks to jpstern (aka Kayama) for his Sakura Taisen translation
FAQs, without which many of us would be unable to play the games
with!

Thanks to gamefaqs.com for co-hosting this FAQ.

And, of course, thanks to Sega and Overworks for the game
series...!!!

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VIII. Document History
-----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------

30 March 2002: version 1.0.
31 March 2002: version 1.1, major rule correction about the
initial setup of tiles. Other minor changes. EJ added a new
strategy about "renewing" special powers.

This document is Copyright 2002 Carl Chavez, Jim Irwin, and
Edward Ju. This document may not be redistributed, edited, or
otherwise used for commercial, for-profit purposes without prior
written consent by the copyright holders. gamefaqs.com and
sakuraarchives.com are explicitly authorized to redistribute this
document. This document may be redistributed and used for non-
commercial purposes, but may not be edited without prior written
consent by the copyright holders.