Mahjong Solitaire

How to play Mahjong Solitaire

Apart from the tiles, this has nothing to do with the four-player table game. You get 144 tiles arranged in stacks, and you remove them all by clearing matching pairs. Tap one tile, tap its twin, and the pair lifts off. Clear the last pair and you win.

The only real rule is which tiles you are allowed to pick. A tile is free when two things are true: nothing is sitting on top of it, and at least one of its short sides, left or right, has no neighbour touching it. A tile in the middle of a row, hemmed in on both sides, stays locked until one neighbour goes. A tile buried under another tile stays locked no matter what is beside it. "Dim blocked tiles" darkens the locked ones so the board reads at a glance.

The 144 tiles

Flowers and seasons are the forgiving ones: a plum blossom pairs with an orchid, spring with winter. Every other face needs its exact twin, and with four copies in play, choosing which two to clear is where the thinking happens.

Strategy that wins boards

1. Dig where the stacks are tallest. The single tile on top of the Turtle covers four tiles on the layer below, and those cover more beneath. Every pair you take from a tall stack frees several tiles at once, while pairs taken from the edge of the bottom layer free almost nothing.
2. Count the copies before you clear. When three or four of the same face are free, do not grab a pair at random. Take the two whose removal uncovers something, and leave behind the free tile that is sitting harmlessly on an edge. It can wait for a buried twin. Clearing the wrong two can strand the last copy with nothing to match until a shuffle.
3. Open long rows from both ends. A row of twelve unlocks from its ends inward. Pull tiles from one side only and the far side stays pinned for the whole game.
4. Keep a spare move. Flowers and seasons are the easiest pairs on the board. If you are not sure what to do next, spending them early wastes a safety valve; save them for when the useful moves run out.

The six layouts

• Turtle (144 tiles): the classic five-layer shell and the full set.
• Pyramid (116): terraces stepping up to a summit. The whole outer ring starts free, so it is the best place to learn the rule.
• Fortress (132): walls, corner towers and a keep around a flat courtyard.
• Bridge (128): two heavy piers joined by a raised deck, a narrow bottleneck to open in the right order.
• Cat (124): pointed ears and two eye gaps. The ears are easy; the cheeks hold the traps.
• Spider (108): a stacked body with legs that are fiddly rows of four.

Hint, shuffle and undo

Hint lights up a free pair, and it prefers one that still leaves the board winnable. Shuffle re-deals only the tiles left on the table, and it uses the same backwards-building method as a new game, so the result is always winnable. Undo has no limit, and it also reverses a shuffle. Hints and shuffles lower your score and cost the Perfect bonus; undo is free.

Daily board and coins

The Daily chip gives everyone the same layout and tiles for the local date, so you can compare notes with a friend. Finishing it pays a once-a-day bonus. Clearing any board earns play coins, scaled by how many tiles the layout has, plus extra for a clean no-hint no-shuffle win and for beating your own best time on a layout.

Frequently asked questions