A Jokerless hand in Mahjong Island is a win with no Jokers in your hand. It earns the Jokerless Mult Hand, worth ×2 Mult. That doubles your Mult, which can double your score.
A Joker is a wild tile. It can stand in for a tile in a Set, three matching tiles, or in a bigger Group. It can never fill a Single or a Pair, two matching tiles.
How does a win earn Jokerless?
You earn Jokerless when your winning 14 tiles match a line on the Island Card using only real tiles. Every Mahjong Island game deals 8 Jokers. Holding one during play is fine, as long as none is in your finished hand.
Every winning hand scores Chips × Mult. Mult starts at 2. Each +Mult Hand adds to it first, then each ×Mult Hand multiplies it.
Here is one example. You win on a tile you drew yourself, so Self-Drawn Win adds +2 Mult. Your Mult goes from 2 to 4. Then Jokerless doubles it with ×2 Mult, so your Mult becomes 8.
There is a trade-off to weigh. Each Joker kind adds its own Mult, such as a Palm Joker at +2 Mult or a Shell Joker at +3 Mult. A Jokerless win gives those up for the ×2.
One tip for building toward Jokerless
Look for lines with many Singles and Pairs. A Joker can never fill a Single or a Pair, so those parts of a hand are Jokerless already. The fewer Sets and bigger Groups a line needs, the less you will miss a Joker.
Go for it when your rack already fits a line with real tiles. If you still need a Joker to finish, take the faster win. The Lesson: Jokers and Jokerless walks through this choice.
To see how every Mult Hand fits together, read how Mahjong Island scoring works. For the other side of the choice, see Mahjong Island Joker strategy.