Mahjong Solitaire · How to Play

How to Play Mahjong Solitaire: The Rules in Five Minutes

Mahjong solitaire is a matching game you play on your own. The tiles are stacked into a little mountain, layer on layer. Your job is to find two tiles that match and that you can actually "reach," take them off in pairs, and keep going until the whole mountain is gone. You don't need to know how to play mahjong. If you can tell the pictures apart, you can play.

Want to try as you read? Open free mahjong solitaire in another tab and start with Little Garden, the easiest layout. You'll get it in five minutes.

Meet the tiles: what matches what

A mahjong set has 144 tiles. There are three suits, Characters, Dots and Bamboo, numbered 1 to 9 (four of each). Then the winds, East, South, West and North, and the dragons, Red, Green and White (also four of each). On top of that come 4 flower tiles and 4 season tiles.

Most tiles only pair with an identical tile. only matches , not . (East) only matches another East.

What counts as a "free" tile

This is the only rule you need to remember. A tile is free when both of these are true:

1. Nothing is sitting on top of it. If a tile on the layer above covers even a corner of it, it's still blocked.
2. Its left side or its right side is open. Picture sliding the tile out sideways. If tiles on the same layer pin it in on both sides, it won't budge.

Tiles above or below it on the board (front and back) don't matter. Only left and right count. When a game starts, the classic Turtle layout has 144 tiles, and only 35 of them are free. Most sit at the ends of rows or on the top layers.

When you play mahjong solitaire online with us, blocked tiles are dimmed and free tiles stay bright, so you can see them at a glance. (Don't like it? Turn it off in Settings.)

Matching: tap two identical tiles

Found two matching tiles that are both free? Tap one (it lights up with a purple frame), then tap the other, and both leave the board. Tapped the wrong one? No problem. Just tap a different tile to change your pick.

Every pair you remove can free up tiles that were under it or squeezed beside it. So after each pair, take a fresh look at the board.

Flowers and seasons: any two from the same group

There's only one of each flower (plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum) and one of each season (spring, summer, autumn, winter), so the rule is looser here: any two flowers match, and any two seasons match. A flower can't match a season, though.

Stuck? Hint, undo, shuffle

Sometimes none of the free tiles match. Don't panic. You have three tools:

• Hint: shows you a pair you can take, and it prefers a pair that still leaves the board solvable.
• Undo: steps back one move, as many times as you like. Often you just picked the wrong pair a few moves ago.
• Shuffle: rearranges the tiles that are left (the spots stay, the tiles swap around). Our shuffle works backwards from a solution too, so the board is always solvable afterwards.

Clear the board to win, plus a daily puzzle

Take the last pair and the mountain is gone. You win, and you'll see how long it took. Want to race your friends? Try the daily mahjong solitaire puzzle. There's a new one every day at midnight UTC, and everyone in the world plays the same board. When you finish, tap "Share result" and it copies a bit of text like this, ready to paste into your group chat:

It only shows your time and progress, never the board, so friends who haven't played yet won't get spoiled.

Five tips for beginners

1. Take from the top first: top tiles cover the most tiles, so removing them opens up the most new options.
2. Break up long rows first: the longer the row, the later you reach the middle. Work in from both ends.
3. All four free? Take both pairs: if all four tiles of a kind are free, taking both pairs is the safest move there is.
4. Three free? Stop and think: take two and the third has to wait for the fourth to show up. Check which two are covering more tiles first.
5. No rush to match: just because you can match doesn't mean you should right now. Find the tile that's blocking others, then decide.

For more advanced ideas, see mahjong solitaire strategy. To see what each board looks like, check out the layouts.

FAQ

Do I need to know how to play mahjong?

Nope. Mahjong solitaire only uses the pictures on the tiles. No winning hands, no scoring. If you can tell whether two tiles are the same, you can play. Want to learn real four-player mahjong? Start from scratch at the Mahjong Academy.

Why doesn't anything happen when I tap some tiles?

That tile is still blocked: something is on top of it, or there are tiles on both its left and right. Clear the tiles covering or squeezing it, and it will light up.

Can every game be solved?

Yes, every one. We deal each board by working backwards from a real solution, so there's always at least one order that clears it all. You can still trap yourself by matching the wrong pairs, though. When that happens, use undo or shuffle.

Can a flower match a season?

No. Flowers (plum, orchid, bamboo, chrysanthemum) only match flowers, and seasons (spring, summer, autumn, winter) only match seasons. Within a group, any two go together.

What happens if I use a hint or shuffle?

You don't lose points. It just gets noted in your result (the share text shows how many you used). Want a challenge? Try a game without using any.

What's the smoothest way to play on a phone?

If you hold your phone upright, try the Tower layout. The tiles come out bigger. The board scales itself to fit, so there's no need to pinch-zoom.

Ready? Head back and play mahjong solitaire, or just hit Play now.

Read next

StrategyWhere to start and how to pick when three tiles are free: 8 tips to get stuck less.LayoutsFour boards, their shapes, sizes and difficulty. Pick the one that fits you.