Join pairs of identical mahjong tiles with a path of no more than three straight lines. Clear the board to move on to a larger one.
What is Mahjong Connect?
Mahjong Connect is a tile-matching puzzle in which you clear a board of mahjong tiles by removing identical pairs that can be joined by a path of no more than three straight lines. The path may only cross empty spaces, and it may run around the outside edge of the board.
It uses mahjong tiles for their pictures only; none of the rules of the four-player game apply. The tiles lie flat in a single layer, so every tile is visible. What blocks you is the other tiles standing in the way, and the challenge is finding pairs whose path is clear, quickly enough to earn a good time bonus.
How to play Mahjong Connect
Matching: tap a tile, then tap a second tile with the same face. If a path connects them, both disappear and a line briefly shows the route. Tap a selected tile again to cancel.
The path rule: the line between the two tiles is made of at most three straight segments, which means at most two turns. It can only pass through empty cells. The ring of space just outside the board counts as empty, so two tiles on the same edge can almost always be joined around the outside. Two tiles side by side are always connected.
The tiles: there are 34 different faces: Characters 1 to 9, Circles 1 to 9, Bamboo 1 to 9, the four winds and the red, green and white dragons. Each face on a board appears either two or four times.
Levels: clear every tile to finish a level. The first board is 6 by 8 tiles, and each level after it is larger: 6 by 10, 7 by 12, 8 by 12 and then 8 by 14, which is the size from level 5 on. On a phone held upright the board turns so it fits the screen.
Hints and shuffles: each level gives you 3 hints and 3 shuffles. A hint lights up one pair that can be joined. A shuffle mixes the remaining tiles into new places. If no pair can be joined, a shuffle is used automatically. With no shuffles left, the game ends.
Mahjong Connect strategy
Know when order does not matter. On the first two boards, 48 and 60 tiles, every face appears exactly twice, so each tile has only one possible partner. Removing a pair only opens space, and every board is played through once by the game before you see it. On those boards you will not get stuck because of the order of your moves, so speed is what counts.
Choose carefully with four of a kind. From the third board on, some faces appear four times. Now the choice matters: if you join the wrong two, the last two may end up walled off from each other. Before you take a pair from a group of four, check that the other two can still reach each other, or will once a nearby tile goes.
Work from the outside in. Tiles on the edge connect around the board, and clearing the outer rows opens long straight lanes into the middle. A cleared row or column is a highway: any two tiles that can reach it with one turn each can be joined through it.
Look for long lines. When you scan, follow each empty row and column and note which tiles touch it. Matching faces that touch the same empty line, or two lines that cross, are a pair.
Keep hints and shuffles in reserve. Neither one costs points, but unused ones do not carry over to the next level, and running out of shuffles ends the game. Use a hint when you have stared at the board for a while; it is cheaper in time than searching. Leave shuffles for real dead ends, and let the automatic one handle boards with no pair at all.
Watch the clock. The time bonus is 4 points per tile on the board minus the seconds you take, so the first board pays a bonus until 192 seconds and the 8 by 14 board until 448 seconds.
Mahjong Connect rules and related games
Our Mahjong Connect has no options to set: the board size grows with each level, every level has 3 hints and 3 shuffles, and the path rule is always the same three straight lines.
Other variants exist. Some versions use other pictures, some add a time limit or let tiles slide after each match, and some count flower and season tiles that match within their group. Mahjong Solitaire on Hevagames is a different game with the same tiles: there the tiles are stacked in layers, and a tile is free when nothing lies on it and one long side is open.
Where Mahjong Connect comes from
The rule of joining two tiles with a line of no more than two turns is known from Shisen-Sho, a tile game from Japan. Many versions of the idea have been made since, with mahjong tiles or with other pictures, and Mahjong Connect is one of the common names for it.
The tiles themselves come from mahjong, the Chinese game played with suits of Characters, Circles and Bamboo plus the winds and dragons.
Play Mahjong Connect on Hevagames
Our Mahjong Connect runs in the browser on phones, tablets and computers, with nothing to download. Tap or click tiles to match them. On a keyboard, the arrow keys move between tiles, Enter or Space selects, H shows a hint and S shuffles. The top bar shows the level, time, score and the hints and shuffles left.
Scoring: each pair is worth 10 points. Clearing a level adds a time bonus of 4 points per tile on that board minus the seconds you took, never below zero. If the game ends, you can retry the level, starting again from the score you had when the level began, or start over from level 1. Your best score is kept on your device, and the game in progress is saved in your browser.
The tile faces come from a public-domain set of riichi mahjong tile drawings, and the white dragon was drawn for this game. The game has no sound.
How to play
- 1Tap two identical tiles to remove them.
- 2The two tiles must be joined by a path of at most three straight lines through empty spaces. The path may run around the outside of the board.
- 3Clear every tile to finish the level. Each new level has a bigger board, up to 8 by 14 tiles.
- 4Every level gives you 3 hints and 3 shuffles. If no pair can be joined, a shuffle is used automatically; with none left, the game ends.
Controls
Tips
- Tiles on the edge are easy to join, because the path can go around the outside of the board.
- Keep shuffles for when you are stuck. Unused hints and shuffles do not carry over to the next level.
- Clearing a level quickly adds a larger time bonus.