Mahjong Solitaire

What you are looking at

Pull up a chair. The mountain in front of you is the classic turtle, built from 144 tiles in five layers. The wide base holds 87 tiles, then come a 6 by 6 block of 36, a 4 by 4 block of 16, a little 2 by 2 square of 4, and one crown tile perched right on top.

Our tiles wear pictures rather than the traditional Chinese characters, bamboos and circles: lanterns, pandas, cherry blossom, Mount Fuji, a red dragon and friends. There are 36 different pictures and exactly four of each. So there are no flower or season groups that match loosely: a tile only ever pairs with its identical twin.

Your first minute, walked through

At the deal, 33 of the 144 tiles are free: the crown, the left cap, the outermost right cap, the open ends of the base rows, the left and right edges of the 6 by 6 block, and the outer columns of the 4 by 4 block. Locked tiles are dimmed, and tapping one just makes it shake, so you can never make an illegal move by accident.

Here is a good opening habit. Find the crown tile’s twin among the free tiles and clear that pair first. The crown is the only thing sitting on the 2 by 2 square, so one match frees all four of those tiles at once. That is four new options for the price of one move, and nothing else on the board gives you that kind of return so early.

Next, look at the three caps trailing off the middle row: one on the left, two on the right. Clearing the outer right cap frees the inner one, and clearing the inner one opens the right ends of the two middle base rows. The single left cap is blocking the left ends of those same two rows. Until those caps go, the long middle rows stay sealed at both ends.

The timer only starts on your first tap, so look around first. Planning before that tap is free.

Mistakes that quietly lose games

None of these are about speed; all of them are about order.

• Taking the first pair you see. With 33 free tiles there are often several pairs available, and the one you spot first is rarely the one that opens the most.
• Burying a twin under its own partner. If two matching tiles are stacked one on top of the other, and the other two copies are already gone, that last pair can never be cleared. Keep at least one spare copy alive until the stacked pair is sorted out.
• Leaning on the hint button as a strategy. The hint simply flashes the first legal pair it finds. It does not look ahead.
• Chewing one side of the turtle while the other side stays sealed. An even dig keeps more tiles free and more choices open.
• Shuffling the moment things get tight. A shuffle is precious; use it only when there truly is no pair left.

Thinking a few moves ahead

Count the copies. When you see two free lanterns and you know the other two lanterns are already cleared, matching them is pure profit. When the other two are still hidden somewhere, ask where. If one of them sits directly beneath a free lantern, matching that top lantern now with its free twin is exactly what keeps the hidden one reachable later.

If all four copies of a picture are free and not blocking anything you need, there is no rush to clear them. Keep them as a safety net for the moment the board runs dry.

Peel the layers in the middle before the edges of the base. Every tile on the 6 by 6 block is sitting on a base tile, so each one you lift starts uncovering the heart of the turtle. Base tiles out at the far ends of the short rows cover nothing and can wait.

Late on, scan layer by layer. The pair you are missing is often one level up, tucked in a corner of the old 6 by 6 block.

Hints, shuffles and the stuck screen

Each game gives you 3 hints and 2 shuffles, shown as counters in the top bar. A hint makes a matching free pair flash. A shuffle keeps every remaining tile exactly where it is but scatters the pictures among those spots, then checks that at least one free pair exists afterwards.

You never have to hunt for a dead end yourself. The moment no free pair remains, the game tells you how many tiles are left and offers a shuffle or a new game. If you are stuck with no shuffles left, that board is over. There is no undo in this version, so think before each tap rather than after.

A fresh deal is random, so not every turtle can be cleared with perfect play. If a new deal happens to start with no pair at all, the game quietly reshuffles it for free before you begin, and it does not cost you one of your shuffles.

Beating your best time

A cleared board shows your time next to your best, and your best time is remembered on your device. On the leaderboard side, a win is worth 10,000 points minus 10 for every second on the clock, so a seven-minute clear (420 seconds) scores 5,800. If the board beats you, the score recorded is simply the number of tiles you cleared out of 144.

Speed comes from fewer pauses, not faster fingers. Plan your next two pairs while the current one clears, and save hints for genuine blank moments.

A little history

Mahjong itself is a four-player game from China, played with tiles and rules quite unlike this one. The solitaire matching game came much later and grew up on computers: Brodie Lockard created an early version called Mah-Jongg on the PLATO system in 1981, and Activision’s Shanghai brought the turtle to home computers in 1986. The turtle you are playing today is the layout that both made famous.

Questions about Mahjong Solitaire