Dora

Dora are bonus tiles in Japanese Riichi that add value to a winning hand without being yaku themselves. Each dora tile held in your final hand adds 1 han to the total, so a hand with three dora gains 3 han on top of whatever yaku it already has. The crucial caveat is that dora cannot make a hand legal on their own; a winning hand still needs at least one genuine yaku, and a hand of pure dora with no yaku is not a valid win.

Dora are determined by an indicator tile flipped face-up on the wall (the dead wall). The dora is the tile one rank above the indicator: if the indicator is 4p, then 5p tiles are dora; if the indicator is 7s, then 8s is dora. Suits wrap around, so a 9-rank indicator points to the 1 of that suit. For honor tiles, winds cycle East to South to West to North and back, while dragons cycle White to Green to Red and back to White.

Because any matching tile counts, dora reward holding the right tiles regardless of where they sit in the hand, and a single kan reveals an additional dora indicator, raising the stakes. Players often weigh keeping a dora tile against discarding it for a smoother wait, since each dora can be the han that tips a hand into mangan or higher.

Related forms include akadora (red fives, each worth 1 han) and ura dora (extra indicators revealed only on a riichi win). Dora are exclusive to Riichi and Japanese-derived rules; MCR, Hong Kong, and Taiwanese scoring have no equivalent bonus-tile mechanic. For example, with a dora indicator showing 2m, every 3m in your completed hand adds 1 han, so a triplet of 3m alone would contribute 3 dora han.