About Mahjong Solitaire
Mahjong solitaire is a matching puzzle built from a mahjong set, and it has almost nothing to do with the four player game of the same name. The tiles are stacked into a shape, and you remove them two at a time by finding identical pairs.
The catch is the word free. A tile can only be taken if nothing sits on top of it and at least one of its long sides, left or right, is open. That single rule turns a pile of 144 tiles into a puzzle, because every pair you take opens up some tiles and buries others.
Every layout here is dealt so that it can be solved, by building it backwards from an empty board. That does not mean every route through it works, which is where the hint, the undo and the shuffle come in.
How to play
- Click a free tile to select it. Tiles that cannot move yet are dimmed.
- Click a second tile with the same face to remove the pair.
- Flower tiles match any other flower, and season tiles match any other season.
- Use Hint if you are stuck, Undo to take a pair back, and Shuffle when nothing is left to match.
- Clear all 144 tiles to win. The timer tells you how long it took.
Controls
- Mouse or touch: tap a tile to select, tap a matching tile to clear the pair
- Tap a selected tile again to deselect it
What makes a tile free
- Nothing is stacked on top of it, even partly.
- Its left side or its right side is clear of neighbors on the same level.
- A tile with neighbors on both sides is locked, however exposed it looks.
- Tiles on the top of the pile are almost always free, which is why the middle of the turtle opens first.
Strategy that actually helps
- Clear the top and the long edges early, because those tiles block the most.
- When three or four of the same face are showing, think about which pair opens more.
- Take tiles from the longest row first, since each one frees the tile behind it.
- Leave matched pairs that are already free: they will still be there later.
- If you are only guessing, use a hint rather than burning a pair that unlocks nothing.
The tiles in a mahjong set
- Characters, bamboos and circles: three suits numbered one to nine, four copies each.
- Winds: east, south, west and north, four copies each.
- Dragons: red, green and white, four copies each.
- Flowers: four different tiles that all match one another.
- Seasons: four more that match one another, and never a flower.
Mahjong Solitaire FAQ
- Is every game winnable?
- Every board is dealt so a solution exists, because it is built backwards from an empty layout. You can still reach a dead end by making the wrong matches, which is what undo and shuffle are for.
- Why can I not select a tile?
- It is not free. Either something is resting on it, or it has tiles on both its left and right on the same level. Dimmed tiles are the ones you cannot take yet.
- How do flower and season tiles work?
- The four flowers all match each other, and the four seasons all match each other, so they do not need an identical twin the way the other tiles do.
- Is this the same as the mahjong card game?
- No. Mahjong solitaire is a single player matching puzzle that borrows the tiles. The four player game is a completely different game with draws, discards and scoring.
- How many tiles are in the turtle layout?
- 144, in 72 matching pairs, stacked across five levels. The shape is also called the dragon or the Shanghai layout.