(ドラ) are bonus tiles. Each copy in your winning hand adds 1 . A tile turned face up in the , the dora indicator, tells you which tile it is. Dora is not a yaku, so it counts only once your hand has one.
| Indicator | Dora |
|---|---|
 |  |
 |  |
 East |  South |
| South |  West |
| West |  North |
| North | East |
 White |  Green |
| Green |  Red |
| Red | White |
What is dora in mahjong?
Dora are han you get for holding certain tiles, added to the han from your yaku. Open hand or closed, or tsumo, every dora tile in the finished hand is 1 more han.
There are four kinds:
- Dora: the tile the indicator points at. Everyone sees it from the first draw.
- Ura dora (): the tile under each indicator works as a second indicator. Only a player who won after counts the dora it points at.
- Red fives (, akadora): a 5 painted red. It's a dora by itself, whatever the indicator shows.
- (槓ドラ): each turns over one more indicator.
Dora count per tile, not per kind. A pair of the dora is 2 han. A triplet is 3. A red five that is also the dora is worth 2: one for the paint, one for the indicator.
How to read the dora indicator
At the start of each hand, one tile of the dead wall goes face up. That's the dora indicator (ドラ表示牌). The dora is the next tile after it:
- Number tiles: the next number in the same suit. A indicator makes the dora. A 9 wraps around to the 1 of its suit.
- Winds: East, South, West, North, then back to East.
- Dragons: white, green, red, then back to white.
The indicator itself isn't dora. It does take one copy of that tile out of play, so at most three are left to draw.
Dora is not a yaku
You need at least one yaku to win. Dora add han only after that. A hand full of dora and no yaku is still a hand with no yaku.
This is the trap. The indicator is 
, so 
is the dora. You call on 5p and wait on 
or 
.
Plus the pon:
That pon is three dora. The 1m rules out , and nothing else in the hand is a yaku. Three dora can't stand in for one.
Swap the for and every tile is 2 through 8. Open tanyao is the yaku, and a ron on 4s or 7s is 1 han plus 3 dora: 4 han 30 fu, 7,700, or 11,600 for a dealer. Mahjong Soul and EMA 2016 allow open tanyao. Tenhou's ranked tables come with it on or off, so check the table before you lean on it.
Ura dora: only after riichi
The tiles under the indicators are ura dora indicators. When a player who declared riichi wins, they turn over the tile under the dora indicator and the tile under each kan dora indicator. Read each one like a normal indicator. Every match in the winning hand is 1 more han.
Only the riichi winner counts ura dora. Win without riichi, even with a , and the ura dora indicators stay face down.
You can't see ura dora until the hand is over. A riichi hand can jump a limit when they land: in the example below, a pair of ura dora turns 3,900 into a .
Red fives (akadora)
A red five counts as 1 han on its own, open or closed. If the indicator is a 4 of the same suit, that red five is the dora too, so it's worth 2.
How many you play with depends on the rules.
| Ruleset | Red fives |
|---|---|
| red-five tables, four players | 3: one each in man, pin, and sou |
| Tenhou red-five tables, three players | 2: one each in pin and sou |
| Mahjong Soul ranked, four players | 3 |
| Mahjong Soul ranked, three players | 2 |
| EMA 2016 | None |
Tenhou also runs tables without red fives. EMA dropped them in its 2016 rules.
Kan dora: one more indicator per kan
Every kan turns one more indicator face up, next to the first. Kan dora count for every player at the table, not only the one who called the kan. Each kan adds one, up to five indicators in all.
When the new indicator turns over depends on the kan and the ruleset.
| Kan | Tenhou ranked | Mahjong Soul ranked | EMA 2016 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Closed kan () | Right away | Right away | Right away |
| (daiminkan) | After the discard | After the discard | Right away |
| (shouminkan) | After the discard | After the discard | Right away |
"Right away" means as soon as the kan is called. On Tenhou and Mahjong Soul ranked tables, an open or added kan turns its indicator over once the caller discards, or at a second kan if the caller makes one before discarding. Tenhou's parlor (雀荘戦) tables turn every kan dora indicator over right away. EMA 2016 turns the indicator over before the on every kan.
A riichi winner also turns over the tile under each kan dora indicator. The tile it points at is kan ura dora, and all three rulesets use it.
How dora changes your score
Each han doubles a hand's base points, so each dora roughly doubles the payment until the hand reaches mangan.
You declare riichi with this hand. It waits on 
or .
Riichi and are 2 han, and a closed ron with pinfu is 30 fu. The indicator is , so is the dora.
- Ron on 8m: no dora. 2 han 30 fu, 2,000.
- Ron on 5m: the winning tile is the dora. 3 han 30 fu, 3,900.
- Ron on 5m, and the ura indicator is : your 88s pair is two ura dora. 5 han, mangan, 8,000.
- Same, with one of your 5p red: 6 han, , 12,000.
| Dora | Han | ron | Dealer ron |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 2 | 2,000 | 2,900 |
| 1 | 3 | 3,900 | 5,800 |
| 2 | 4 | 7,700 | 11,600 |
| 3 | 5 | 8,000 | 12,000 |
| 4 | 6 | 12,000 | 18,000 |
4 han 30 fu is 7,700 on Tenhou's ranked tables and under EMA 2016. A table that plays kiriage mangan rounds it up to 8,000. Open 4 han 30 fu in the score calculator and tick Kiriage mangan to see both.
Dora in three-player mahjong
On Tenhou and Mahjong Soul, three-player games drop 2m through 8m, so a indicator makes 
the dora, and a indicator makes the dora. Each North you set aside as nukidora (抜きドラ) is a dora too.
Holding the dora against a riichi
A riichi waits on the dora more often than on a plain tile. In Tenhou Houou logs from 2016 to 2020, analysis by chienshyong, 11.5% of riichi hands wait on the dora when it's a 5. A 5 that isn't dora is in 8.0% of riichi waits. Throw a dora 5 right after a riichi and you're about 1.4 times as likely to deal in.
The deal-in danger tool gives that number for every tile, against riichi and against open hands.
Count dora in the score calculator
Dora go in as han. Add them to your yaku and the score calculator gives the payment. The printable cheat sheet puts the same tables on two pages, and the yaku list shows every yaku your dora can sit on.
The glossary has a short card for each: dora, ura dora, red fives, and kan dora.
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