Mahjong Solitaire

How to play Mahjong Solitaire

Mahjong Solitaire is a calm, single-player matching puzzle played with the beautiful tiles of the classic game of mahjong. Dozens of tiles are stacked into a layered, three-dimensional layout, and your job is to clear them all by removing matching pairs. It is not the four-player gambling game — there are no opponents, no dice and no betting. Instead it is a quiet test of observation and planning: look across the pile, find two matching tiles that are free to move, tap them away, and repeat until the table is empty. This version deals only solvable layouts, so with careful play every board can be finished. Choose one of three layout sizes, race the timer, and earn ranked points for every layout you clear.

The goal

The goal is simple: remove every tile from the layout by matching them two at a time. Tiles disappear only in matching pairs, so a layout that starts with an even number of tiles empties out completely when you find all the pairs. Clear the whole layout and you win; the faster you finish and the fewer hints and shuffles you use, the higher your score. If you reach a position with no matching pair among the free tiles, the game is stuck — but you can shuffle the remaining tiles to keep going.

The layout

The tiles are arranged in a layered structure that rises off the table in steps, like a small pyramid or fortress. Lower tiles sit flat on the table (layer one); above them, smaller groups of tiles rest on top (layer two, three and so on), each partly covering the tiles beneath. Because higher tiles overlap lower ones, much of the layout is locked at the start, and the shape only opens up as you peel tiles away from the top and the edges. This edition ships several original layouts — a stepped tower, a diamond, a citadel and more — and the Easy, Medium and Hard settings simply choose smaller or larger layouts with fewer or more layers.

Which tiles are free

You may only remove a tile that is “free”. A tile is free when two conditions are both true, and the game highlights every free tile brightly while dimming the ones that are still blocked:

• Nothing covers it. No tile on a higher layer may sit on top of any part of the tile. A tile with even a corner of another tile resting over it is covered and cannot be taken.
• One long side is open. At least one of the tile’s left or right edges must have no neighbouring tile touching it on the same layer. A tile that is boxed in by neighbours on both its left and right sides is blocked, even if nothing sits on top of it.
• Free tiles sit on top of the pile or along its outer edges. Removing them exposes the tiles underneath and beside them, so tiles that were blocked a moment ago become free — that chain reaction is the heart of the puzzle.

Matching tiles

To clear a pair, tap one free tile to select it, then tap a second free tile that matches. Matching tiles are removed together; if the two tiles do not match, the game flashes them and simply moves your selection to the tile you just tapped. A standard mahjong set has 144 tiles made of three number suits plus honour, flower and season tiles, and the matching rules are:

• Suits and honours match only identical tiles. The three suits are Circles (筒), Bamboo (索) and Characters (萬), each numbered one to nine, plus the four Winds (East 東, South 南, West 西, North 北) and three Dragons (Red 中, Green 發, White 白). A tile matches only another tile with exactly the same face — Five of Bamboo matches only Five of Bamboo.
• Flowers match any flower. The four flower tiles (Plum 梅, Orchid 蘭, Chrysanthemum 菊, Bamboo 竹) form one group: any flower may be paired with any other flower, even though the pictures differ. This is the standard group-match rule.
• Seasons match any season. Likewise the four season tiles (Spring 春, Summer 夏, Autumn 秋, Winter 冬) form a second group and pair freely with one another. Flowers and seasons never match across groups — a flower cannot be paired with a season.

Every deal is solvable

Nothing is more frustrating than a shuffle puzzle that cannot be finished. This game never deals a dead board. Instead of scattering tiles at random and hoping, it builds each layout in reverse: starting from an empty frame it repeatedly picks two positions that are free and stamps a matching pair onto them, working backwards until the whole layout is filled. Because every pair was free at the moment it was placed, playing those same placements forwards is always a valid winning sequence. In short, a complete solution is guaranteed to exist for every deal — although, as in all Mahjong Solitaire, the order in which you remove tiles still matters, so it is possible to strand yourself. When that happens, the Shuffle button re-deals the remaining tiles into a fresh, still-solvable arrangement.

Hints and shuffles

Two helpers keep you moving. The Hint button finds a pair of matching free tiles and glows them for a couple of seconds. The Shuffle button re-arranges all the tiles that are still on the board into a new layout that is once again solvable — use it when you run out of matches, or when you simply want a different route to the finish. Both helpers cost points, so lean on them only when you need to: each Hint subtracts 500 points and each Shuffle subtracts 1,000. The timer keeps running while you think, and the tiles-left and match counters at the top show your progress.

How scoring works

Every cleared layout submits a score, and higher is better. You begin with a base budget that depends on the layout size — 5,000 for Easy, 8,000 for Medium and 12,000 for Hard. From that budget the game subtracts one point for every second on the clock, 500 for each hint and 1,000 for each shuffle, never dropping below 1. Finishing the layout then adds a clear bonus of 2,000, 5,000 or 10,000 points for Easy, Medium and Hard. In formula terms the final score is max(1, base − seconds − hints×500 − shuffles×1000) + clear bonus, capped at 99,999. Play quickly, use few helpers, and clear the largest layout you can to top the leaderboard.

Strategy tips

• Work from the top down. The highest tiles block the most tiles beneath them, so clearing the upper layers first opens up the whole layout and gives you the most choices later.
• Keep your options open. When a tile has three or four copies still on the board, try to remove the pair that frees the most new tiles, and avoid burying a tile you will need — think one or two moves ahead before you commit.
• Beware of matching tiles that cover each other. If two of the four copies of a tile are stacked so that taking the top pair traps the bottom pair, you can deadlock. Look for a safe pair elsewhere first, or leave one copy exposed.
• Clear long rows and edges early. Tiles along the open sides of the base free up quickly and let you reach into the middle of the layout, where the hardest matches usually hide.
• Save shuffles for real dead ends. Because every deal is solvable, a careful player can often finish without shuffling at all — but if the free tiles genuinely have no match, shuffle without hesitation rather than staring at a stuck board.

Frequently asked questions