Tips minhwatu

General tips

- Try to capture high value cards, prioritizing the 20-point Bright cards, followed by the 10-point Animal cards. Chaff cards are completely worthless, except when using them to capture non-Chaff cards. (See the Chaffs section below)

- Yaku give you points from every player, so they become more valuable with more players, but they also become harder to get. In two-player games, yaku are not very valuable, so it is better to prioritize capturing valuable cards over completing yaku with two players. But of course, still get them if you have the opportunity.
➥ In two-player games, since all cards are divided among the players by the end of the round, every card that isn't captured by you will be captured by your opponent. So it can be a good idea to try to capture at least one card of every yaku, because if you don't get any cards of a yaku, your opponent will have all of them and get the points.

- Because all cards are divided among the players by the end of the round, this means that you can keep a valuable card in your hand until the end of the game, and likely be able to capture it. If you are last in the turn order (i.e. if all players have fewer cards in their hands than you when it's your turn), you are guaranteed to make a match with the last card in your hand.
➥ If two cards of the same month are already captured, this makes it likely that you can capture the remaining card by the end of the game, especially with low amounts of players or if you are near the end of the turn order. It is guaranteed if you have the last turn, and you keep the card in your hand until then.

Chaffs

Once captured, Chaff cards are completely worthless in this game.

This means that it is usually not a great idea to match two Chaff cards. All cards are divided among the players by the end of the round, so if you match two Chaffs, someone is guaranteed to capture the two remaining (more valuable) cards of the same month, and it is more likely to be one of your opponents who gets them, even in two-player games.

It also means that Chaff cards are safe to discard if all non-Chaff cards of the same month are already captured.