Yatır Batır
Yatır Batır adds skills, “sinking” and a trophy rank to the rules of okey everyone loves. Here is everything you need to know before you sit down at the table.
Four players sit at every table. After the deal the starting player has 15 tiles and everyone else has 14.
An indicator tile is turned face up. The next number in the same colour is the okey for that hand; the okey after 13 is 1. The okey can stand in for any tile. The two false okeys are played as the hand’s okey tile itself, with its colour and number.
You arrange your hand into three kinds of groups:
You open your hand in one of two ways: with sets and runs, or with pairs. The way you choose is locked for that hand; if you open with runs you can’t lay pairs on your side, and if you open with pairs you can’t lay sets or runs.
To open, the groups you lay on your side in that move must add up to at least the table’s threshold. The first opening needs 51. After someone opens the threshold rises: the next opening must beat the previous one by at least 1 point.
An invalid meld is shown to the whole table; nothing slips by.
Once your hand is open you can add fitting tiles to the sets and runs on the table, making your hand lighter.
Adding tiles to your opponents’ groups can give them penalty points. The penalties you give become your Yatır Batır points, and your tea brews with those points.
The game’s signature move. If you have opened, you can lay one more pair on the side of an opponent who opened with pairs. That is called sinking.
The opponent receives a penalty of 20 times the pair’s value; a pair of 7s, for example, means 280 penalty points. You receive nothing. Opponents who opened with sets or runs, and players who haven’t opened yet, can’t be sunk.
You finish the hand when all your tiles are in groups and you discard your last tile. How you finish multiplies the penalties your opponents receive:
| Finish | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| Regular finish (you opened with sets and runs) | ×1 |
| Pair finish (you opened with pairs) | ×2 |
| Okey finish: you discard the okey as your last tile | ×2 · with pairs ×4 |
| Hand finish: you finish in the same move you open, without adding any tiles | ×2 · with pairs ×4 |
| Hand finish on the okey: both at once | ×4 · with pairs ×8 |
In Yatır Batır points are penalties; lower is better. The player who finishes the hand gets 100 points taken off.
The others receive the total of the tiles left in their hand: 5 times that total if they opened with sets and runs, 10 times if they opened with pairs. A player who never opened receives 500 points. The finishing multiplier makes these penalties bigger.
Most tables have 5 hands. On tables with the “Saddam” option the last hand is tougher: a player who fails to open receives 1000. At the end of the table the player with the fewest penalty points wins; on a tie, higher Yatır Batır points come first.
Your finishing place at the end of a match decides your trophies: win and you collect trophies, finish near the bottom and you may lose some. There is no betting at the tables; gold is never staked and never lost in a match.
Trophies carry you up arena by arena. You start at the Onlooker’s Stool and climb through the Indicator Lighthouse, Uncle Satır’s Coffeehouse, the Rack Workshop and Batır’s Boat to the Okey Throne at the top of ten arenas. A ceremony is waiting whenever you reach a new arena.
Rewards on the trophy road unlock with your best trophy count; you collect each one once, and what you have collected stays yours even if your trophies drop. The Okey Throne ranks the players with the most trophies every season.
You buy skills with gold, and stops on the trophy road give you skills too. You can use each skill at most once on each of your turns.
Feel part of a tile before deciding to draw it.
See the tiles discarded by players.
A chosen opponent can’t see how many tiles are left in the deck for a while.
Topple your opponents’ racks when you finish with your last tile.
Tea brews with the Yatır Batır points you collect at the table, and higher arenas multiply what you earn. You spend it on tasks in Areas.
The first area is the Lighthouse: raise the banners, put up the lamps and bring the harbour to life task by task. Chests are waiting as you complete them.
Add friends with their 8-character code (Social screen, Add tab) and invite them to your table. Chat at the table with messages, quick messages and stickers, and talk to everyone at voice tables.
Chat is moderated. If someone bothers you, “Report” and “Block” are always at hand.
If your connection drops for more than 60 seconds a bot plays in your place so the table isn’t left unfinished. When you’re back you can rejoin the match.
