Mahjong Solitaire

Overview

Mahjong Solitaire (also called Mahjong Tiles or Shanghai Solitaire) is a single-player tile-matching puzzle game. The goal is to clear all 144 tiles from the board by matching pairs of identical free tiles. Unlike the traditional Chinese 4-player game, Mahjong Solitaire is a relaxing puzzle game that tests your observation and strategy skills.

The Tiles

The game uses 144 tiles from a standard Mahjong set: 9 Dots (circles), 9 Bamboo (sticks), and 9 Characters (Chinese numerals) — each appearing 4 times for 108 suited tiles. Additionally, there are 4 Winds (North, South, East, West, each appearing 4 times = 16), 3 Dragons (Red, Green, White, each 4 times = 12), 4 unique Flowers, and 4 unique Seasons, totaling 144 tiles.

Free Tiles & Matching

A tile is "free" if it meets two conditions: (1) no other tile is stacked on top of it, and (2) at least one of its sides (left or right) is open. Only free tiles can be selected. To make a match, click two free tiles with the same face — they will be removed from the board. Special rule: any Flower matches any other Flower, and any Season matches any other Season.

Strategy Tips

• Focus on tiles from the highest layers first — removing them exposes more tiles below.
• Before matching, check if removing a pair will free up other useful tiles underneath.
• Keep an eye on tiles blocked on both sides. Freeing one side makes them playable.
• Use the Hint button when stuck, but try to develop your own pattern recognition first.
• The Shuffle feature rearranges remaining tile faces while keeping positions intact — useful when no matches are available.
• Different layouts offer different difficulty levels. Start with Pyramid (easy) and work up to Fortress (hard).

Layouts

Choose from four different tile layouts: Turtle (the classic layout with a 5-layer pyramid shape), Pyramid (a simple stepped pyramid — easiest), Cross (a plus/cross pattern with challenging accessibility), and Fortress (a rectangular fortress with deeply stacked layers — hardest). Each layout has 144 tiles but arranges them differently, affecting strategy and difficulty.