Hwatu melds and scoring
Pick cards from your hand and play them, and you score whatever meld that group completes. No money changes hands, it is purely a scoring puzzle, so all you need to know is what to collect.
How one run flows
You draw an eight-card hand from the 48-card deck and can play cards up to three times in a stage. Your hand refills to eight after each play, and clearing that stage's score goal within three plays moves you up a stage.
The goal starts at 12 points and rises 1.35x per stage: 12, 16, 22, 30, 40, 54, 73, 98. If you use all three plays without reaching the goal, the run ends there. It also ends once the 48-card deck runs out and your hand is empty.
Gwang scoring depends on the count
There are five Gwang (bright) cards: months 1, 3, 8, 11, and 12. All five is Ogwang for 15 points, four is Sagwang for 4 points, and three is Samgwang for 3 points.
The month 12 Gwang, though, is a Rain Gwang, ranked lower than the others. If a set of three includes the Rain Gwang, it is Bi-samgwang instead of Samgwang, worth only 2 points. If three Gwang land in your hand, check which three they are first.
Godori and the color melds
Godori is three bird-marked Yeol cards, from months 2, 4, and 8, worth 5 points. It is the second-biggest meld after Gwang, and a good way to clear an early goal in one move.
The color melds match Tti cards by color for 3 points each: Hongdan needs months 1, 2, and 3, Chodan needs months 4, 5, and 7, and Cheongdan needs months 6, 9, and 10. The month 12 Tti is a Rain Tti and does not belong to any color meld.
Card points and counts
Every card you play scores on its own: Gwang 4, Yeol 2, Tti and Pi 1 each, and the month 12 Double Pi counts as two Pi. These are this game's own values, not the point values of traditional Hwatu.
Counts score too. Tti and Yeol each start scoring at three cards for 1 point, adding 1 more for each extra card. Pi starts scoring at six cards for 1 point.
The month 12 Double Pi counts as two cards toward that Pi total. These scores also stack: playing three Gwang and five Tti in one move scores both melds together.
Charms multiply on three axes
Clearing a stage grants one charm. Each charm sits on one axis: card kind, meld, or month. It multiplies only when your play matches that axis. The Gwang Charm fires when you play a Gwang, the Dan Charm when you complete a color meld, the Spring Charm when your play holds a month 1 to 3 card.
Hit all three axes at once and it is a Triple: 2x more on top. The multiplier stops at 48x, and the screen says so on the plays that hit the cap.
Charms arrive in order: kind, meld, month, then all. Clear three stages and you hold one of each, so from there you pick which axis to line up.
One deck per day
The deck opens in the same order for everyone on the same day. You cannot reshuffle it, but you can compare how far you got against anyone else who played the same deck.