Mahjong Solitaire with three layouts: the classic turtle, Pyramid and Twin Peaks. Every deal can be solved. Match two free tiles with the same face until none are left.
What is Mahjong Solitaire?
Mahjong Solitaire is a one-player tile-matching game in which you clear a stacked layout of mahjong tiles by removing free tiles in matching pairs. It uses the tiles of mahjong, the four-player game from China, but none of its rules: there are no hands to build, only pairs to find.
Each tile design appears four times, the layout is built in several layers, and a tile can only be taken when nothing holds it in place. The game is about seeing which pair to remove now and which to leave for later.
How to play Mahjong Solitaire
The tiles: a full set has 144 tiles. There are three suits, characters, circles and bamboo, each numbered 1 to 9, plus four winds (East, South, West, North) and three dragons (red, green, white). Each of these 34 designs appears four times. On top of that come four flower tiles and four season tiles.
Free tiles: a tile is free when no other tile lies on top of it, even partly, and at least one of its long sides, left or right, is open. A tile squeezed between neighbours on both sides is blocked, and so is any tile with another tile resting on it. In our game blocked tiles are shaded so you can tell them apart.
Matching: select two free tiles with the same face and both are removed. Most tiles match only an identical tile. Flowers are the exception: any flower matches any other flower, and any season matches any other season.
Winning: you win when the board is empty. If no free pair is left, the game tells you and offers to shuffle the remaining tiles. Every deal in our version is built so that it can be cleared, so a dead end always comes from the order in which pairs were taken.
Mahjong Solitaire strategy
Use the four-copy rule. When all four tiles of one design are free, remove both pairs straight away; nothing is lost. When three are free, choose carefully. If the fourth copy is hidden under one of the three, remove that covering tile as part of your pair, so the fourth becomes reachable for the one you left.
Free the tiles that block the most. Each tile you remove should open something. In the Turtle, the long middle rows are held shut by the single tile at the far left and the two tiles at the far right, and the tall stack in the centre covers many tiles underneath. Work on those early.
Shorten the longest rows. A row of twelve tiles can only be opened from its two ends. Taking tiles from long rows creates more free tiles over time, while taking from short rows that are already open gains little.
Do not match just because a match is there. Two identical tiles can lock each other: if one sits directly on top of the other, or both are in the same row with tiles between them, those two can only be freed with the help of the other two copies. Before removing a pair, check where the other two tiles of that design are.
Take down stacks early. Tiles under a stack cannot move until the stack is gone, and late in the game a tall stack is the usual reason for a dead end.
Use the tools without leaning on them. The hint button shows one available pair, which helps when you are stuck, but it does not choose the best pair. Undo lets you back out of a bad choice, and shuffle rearranges the remaining tiles into a position that can still be cleared.
Layouts: Turtle, Pyramid and Twin Peaks
Our Mahjong Solitaire has three layouts, chosen when you start a new game. The Turtle is the traditional 144-tile layout with five layers and the full tile set. The Pyramid uses 82 tiles in a compact four-level block that fits large tiles on a portrait phone. Twin Peaks uses 58 tiles: a wide, low base with two small towers. The two smaller layouts use a random selection of pairs from the full set.
Many other layouts exist, and there is also a separate family of connect games, where two identical tiles are matched if a path with no more than two turns joins them. That is a different game with its own rules.
Where Mahjong Solitaire comes from
Mahjong itself is a four-player game from China that spread widely in the early twentieth century. The solitaire matching game came much later and was born on computers: Brodie Lockard wrote the first version in 1981 for the PLATO system. The Turtle is the traditional layout and still the one most people picture when they think of the game.
Playing Mahjong Solitaire on Hevagames
Mahjong Solitaire on Hevagames runs in the browser on phones, tablets and computers, with no download. Tap or click a free tile, then its match. Tapping a blocked tile gives it a small shake. On a keyboard, H shows a hint, S shuffles, U or Backspace undoes, N opens the layout list and Esc clears your selection.
Each pair is worth 10 points. Clearing the board adds a time bonus of 5 seconds per tile in the layout minus the seconds you used, so a fast Turtle earns more. Your best time and best score are kept for each layout on your device, and an unfinished game is saved when you leave. Undo keeps up to 200 steps. The tile art is a public-domain set, with our own drawings for the white dragon, flowers and seasons, and the board scales to any screen in light or dark theme.
How to play
- 1A tile is free when nothing sits on top of it and its left or right side is open. Tiles that are not free are slightly shaded.
- 2Click two free tiles with the same face to remove them.
- 3Seasons match any season, flowers match any flower.
- 4If no pair is left, shuffle the remaining tiles or undo your last moves.
Controls
Tips
- Free tiles that sit on top of other tiles first: removing them opens more of the board.
- When four identical tiles are free, think about which pair to take before you click.
- The timer pauses while a menu is open or the game is hidden.
