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Watch trailer on Steam ↗17 Steps
SmilingMiles · Published by SmilingMiles
Positive — 100% positive (14 reviews) · 43 achievements
Last updated 28 Sept 2026
17 Steps is a fast-paced mahjong strategy duel inspired by the Japanese variant “Seventeen Steps.” Read your opponent, hide your waits, and survive a tense mind game!
£3.59
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Price history
Indie, Simulation, Strategy, Early Access, Casual · 2026 · More under £5 games
About this game
17 Steps is a fast-paced, highly strategic mahjong duel inspired by the classic Japanese mahjong variant “Juu Nana Ho” — Seventeen Steps.
There is no slow hand-building here.
From the very beginning, both players are already one step away from victory.
The real battle begins after the hands are locked.
A Duel Decided in 17 Moves
At the start of each round, both players receive 34 tiles.
From these, you choose 13 tiles to form a ready hand. The remaining 21 tiles become your discard candidates for the duel.
Your initial choice shapes the entire round.
Do you aim for a higher-value hand?
Do you choose a hidden wait that is harder to read?
Or do you leave yourself safer options for defense?
Once both players confirm their hands, the 17-step duel begins.
No Tsumo. Ron Only.
During the duel, there is no drawing and no self-draw win.
Players take turns discarding one tile from their candidate discard pool.
There is only one way to win:
Make your opponent discard the tile you are waiting for.
If you discard your opponent’s winning tile, they win.
If your opponent discards your winning tile, you win.
If no one wins within 17 moves, the round ends in a draw.
Pure Defensive Mind Games
No chi.
No pon.
No kan.
No tsumo.
Only the sharpest parts of mahjong remain:
Reading, hiding, baiting, and surviving.
Every discard is a risk.
Every safe-looking tile might be a trap.
You must read your opponent’s possible waits while hiding your own.
In 17 Steps, victory is not about drawing the perfect tile.
It is about making your opponent make the wrong move.
Han Requirement and Comebacks
To win the round, your hand must reach 4 han or more after scoring.
If your hand is below 4 han, even a successful ron will result in a draw.
However, after a winning hand, an ura-dora indicator is revealed. If your winning hand contains the matching tile, each copy adds 1 extra han.
This means even a hand that starts below the requirement may still turn the game around at the final moment.
Classic Japanese Mahjong Yaku
The game includes a variety of classic Japanese mahjong yaku, such as:
Riichi, Menzen Tsumo-related scoring elements adapted for this rule set, Pinfu, Tanyao, Chiitoitsu, Yakuhai, Honitsu, Chinitsu,
as well as yakuman hands such as Kokushi Musou, Suu Ankou, and Daisangen.
Dora, red dora, and ura-dora are also included, bringing explosive comeback potential to each short match.
Game Modes
Practice against AI opponents and sharpen your reading, defense, and discard judgment.
Or invite a Steam friend and jump straight into a quick duel.
Whether you want a short match or repeated strategic practice, 17 Steps is designed for fast, intense play.
Language Support
Simplified Chinese / Traditional Chinese / English / Japanese / Korean / Spanish / Russian
Inspiration
17 Steps pays tribute to the iconic “Seventeen Steps” mahjong duel from Tobaku Datenroku Kaiji.
Under extreme pressure and limited turns, every discard matters.
One wrong tile can decide everything.
Who Is This For?
For players who want a tense mahjong duel in just a few minutes.
For mahjong fans who enjoy reading, defense, and psychological pressure.
For friends looking for a different kind of mahjong experience.
Take your seat.
Make your seventeenth step.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 (64-bit)
- Processor: Intel Core i3-4000 / AMD FX-4100 or equivalent
- Memory: 2048 MB RAM
- Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000 or equivalent with OpenGL 3.3 support
- DirectX: Version 11
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 500 MB available space
- Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card
- Additional Notes: Internet connection required for online multiplayer mode via Steam.
Recommended
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 / Windows 11 (64-bit)
- Processor: Intel Core i5-6000 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200 or equivalent
- Memory: 4096 MB RAM
- Graphics: Intel Iris Xe / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 / AMD Radeon RX 550 or equivalent
- DirectX: Version 11
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Sound Card: DirectX compatible sound card
- Additional Notes: Internet connection recommended for online multiplayer mode and Steam integration features.
Supported Languages
Latest news
Patch NotesOfficial
v1.1.1.2 Patch
Added · Single-player runs now autosave — once at the start of every hand and once at the loot screen. After a crash, pick up where you left off with "Continue run" on the single-player page. · If the game didn't exit normally, a report dialog appears on the next launch: send the error code and log to the developer in one click, or just copy the code. · New "Game speed" setting: 1× / 1.25× / 1.5× / 2×. · The game now asks for your language on first launch, and auto-detection follows the language you set for this game in Steam. · The Archive is now its own scene: every relic is displayed on a full wooden cabinet in 3D. · The moment a hand is won, the tiles and relics on the table jump.Changed · The opponent no longer smokes in reaction to your discards — he keeps his own rhythm. · Tile selection: removed the first-turn note that took a whole line; the wait breakdown is now shown even with three waits. · The opponent's profile card is back during tile selection, after a 0.2s hover. · Coins now fall from higher up. · The multiplayer lobby is brighter with a repositioned camera; lighting and materials reworked in the main menu and Archive.Fixed · Fixed a black veil covering the right side of the screen (main menu, both lobbies, Archive). · Fixed the blown-out tile walls on the main menu. · Fixed the run map locking up when closed with Esc. · Elite rewards no longer offer the same relic twice across the two picks. · Against the "No Dora" elite, the dora machine no longer shows the previous hand's ura dora — it now shows a red X. · The "ざわ…" effect no longer flickers faster at higher game speeds.Read full article on Community Announcements (Miles)Patch NotesOfficial
v1.1.1.1 Bug fixed
\・The cylinder is now genuinely re-spun before every pull. Your odds depend on two things: live rounds in it, and total chambers — an empty click no longer makes the next one deadlier.・Relics that shrink your cylinder (Recast / Hammered Down / Patina / Bladeturn) are now purely offensive.・Fast Spin reworked: when your gun comes up empty, another live round seats itself.\・Fixed a bug that wiped your meta-upgrade levels on every launch. Gold was unaffected, but levels already lost can't be recovered.・"Most-used yaku" and "Favourite relic" were wiped the same way; they accumulate properly now. Dora no longer counts as a yaku.\ (no effects changed)Sawed Off→Hammered Down, Chain→Chain Light, Rebore→Recast, Spare Round→Pull Tab, Callus→Patina.\・Lighter and Soda Can can be used during tile selection; when one can't be used, it says why.・Fixed misclicks with six or more relics.・The first table is always the Greenhorn.・Victory-screen stats no longer overlap the relic row; the lighter is no longer a white slab.\・Ammo strips labelled "His gun" / "Your gun".・The han preview flags it: when he leads, a first-step ron scores no riichi.・Pause-menu relics show their effect the instant you hover.・Blood redrawn: a dark spray instead of bright red circles.・Loot cards no longer dye the relic a solid colour.Seventeen steps to settle it. This time, an empty click really is a breath you get to take.Read full article on Community Announcements (Miles)Patch NotesOfficial
v1.1.1 Hotfix
This update fixes several scoring bugs and makes a few screens actually explain themselves instead of just showing a result.Scoring fixesUra dora now actually counts. It was only being applied on the below-mangan rescue path — on a normal mangan-or-better win the slot machine spun but the han was never added. Han, score level and the number of rounds loaded all change accordingly.A triplet completed by ron no longer counts as concealed. Two concealed triplets on a shanpon wait now correctly score as two, not three.Fixed the "First Online Win" achievement firing in single-player.UIFixed the ammo strip not matching its counter. Spent chambers used to vanish from the strip entirely while the counter's denominator stayed at the full chamber count — so after any shot the two disagreed (a strip of 9 next to "5/12"). Every chamber now keeps its slot: brass for live rounds, a grey casing for empty chambers still in play, and a dim marker for chambers already struck — which also shows how far through the cylinder you are.The tile-selection screen now shows a han breakdown instead of only a total — every yaku with its han, including any the boss's "Expel" stripped, so you can see exactly where the missing han went.Below-mangan draws now get a full settlement screen. Previously this was one line of status text that flashed past. It now shows the hand, the per-yaku han, the "even with ura it's only N han" conclusion, and how many rounds go into each gun.Fast-forward on the settlement screen no longer skips it. The first click brings everything up at once; a second click continues when you're done reading.Hovering the opponent and clicking the step display no longer fire while you're picking your 13 tiles.Single-player runA full relic inventory no longer means an empty reward. Beating an elite at max relics used to show nothing at all. You now get the usual choice — take one and pick which relic it replaces, go back, or skip the whole thing. (The cap itself is unchanged.)Visuals...Read full article on Community Announcements (Miles)Patch NotesOfficial
Major Update Version 1.1.0
17 Steps 1.1.0 — The Whole Game Moves Into Dark Room This update rebuilds the entire game from 2D into 3D, first person. You no longer play across a diagram of a table. You sit at the table. Someone sits opposite you. Between you: one hanging lamp, two machines, and two loaded revolvers. Life or death within seventeen steps — not a word of the rules has changed. What changed is where you're standing when it happens. Dark Room Full 3D, first person. The table, the chairs, the lamp, the shrine and the clock on the back wall, the iron door, the coat rack, the ashtray — every object in that room is built, not painted on. There is a man across from you. He turns his head to look at you, looks down at his tiles, lights a cigarette, reaches for the wall. And when the round finds him, he goes off the chair and onto the floor. Two machines on the table. On the left, the dora machine spins the dora in the open at the start of the hand, and the ura-dora after an exhaustive draw. On the right, the step display: exactly where you are in the seventeen. This game is being broadcast. Two cameras in the corners, a stack of monitors still crawling with static, a recorder running. Nobody is coming to help you. Someone is watching. One light, overhead. The rest of the room stays dark. Single Player: One Life Through (Beta) Single player is no longer a sealed box that ends when the match does. It's a road you have to walk out of alive. One run = five tables: three minions → one elite → the final boss. Each table is a complete game of 17 Steps with the cylinder wiped clean. Lose once and the run is over.The roster: 7 minions, 4 elites, 3 bosses, drawn fresh each run. The boss is announced before you sit down — so all five tables, you're choosing with him in mind. 27 relics across eight axes (Oaths / Growth / Cylinder / Turn Order / Intel / Thresholds / Pacts / Consumables). One offer per table cleared, three slots on you — consumables take a slot too. They sit on the rail as real objects...Read full article on Community Announcements (Miles)Patch NotesOfficial
BLOOD BATTLE !!! v 1.0.3 (06/19/2026) Patch Notes
New Mode: Blood WarThe brand-new Blood War mode is now available. In this mode, victory is no longer decided by points alone, but by your HP. Every winning hand becomes an attack, and the higher the han value, the greater the damage. Defeat your opponent and survive until the end.This update includes:5 New Playable Characters Each character comes with unique skills, waiting to be unlocked, mastered, and explored.New Main Menu and In-Game UI The interface has been redesigned for Blood War mode to provide a more complete experience.New Character Artwork and Voice Announcements Each character now features new visual artwork and voice feedback, adding more personality and immersion to every match.New Character Card Backgrounds More character card backgrounds can now be unlocked and collected as you progress through the game.New Achievements Steam achievements have now been added to the game. Achievements will unlock as you progress, bringing clearer feedback and additional goals to pursue.Improved AI Algorithm The AI can now use character skills and make smarter decisions during matches.New Raise Mechanic A new raise mechanic has been added, bringing stronger risk-and-reward tension to each match and making every duel feel more like a high-stakes gamble.Future UpdatesIn future versions, you can expect:More new characters;More complete character voice announcements, with support for additional languages such as Japanese and English;AI behavior that better fits each character’s identity, making them feel like more experienced opponents;Improvements to the multiplayer experience, including the multiplayer lobby;New multiplayer interaction features, such as emotes and quick chat messages.It has now been a month since the release of 17 Steps. We are extremely grateful to all the players who have purchased and played the game. Your participation is our greatest motivation for continuing to update this game.The character system represents a bold new venture for us. We hope to ...Read full article on Community Announcements (Miles)
