Mahjong Connect Tips: Clear More Boards, Measured
How to clear more Mahjong Connect boards: work from the middle out, take pairs that free others, leave the edges for later, and when to Shuffle.
Sunroom Games · Updated
In Mahjong Connect the hard part isn't spotting a pair: a Hard board starts with about a dozen to choose from. It's choosing which pair to take, because some choices close off lines that other tiles will need later. We measured which habits clear the most boards by letting simple strategies play thousands of our boards, every one of which can be cleared.
If you'd like the rules first, see how to play Mahjong Connect.
What our test boards showed
Each strategy played the same boards, without Undo or Shuffle, until it cleared the board or no pair could be joined. Out of every 100 boards, it cleared:
| How the pairs were chosen | Medium boards | Hard boards |
|---|---|---|
| The pair that opens the most new moves | 92 | 80 |
| Pairs in the middle of the board first | 90 | 61 |
| Any pair, at random | 82 | 57 |
| Pairs on the edges first | 70 | 49 |
We played 600 Medium and 1,200 Hard boards for each row (200 of each for the first row, which takes longer to work out). On Easy, picking pairs at random cleared 92 boards in 100, and taking edge pairs first 87. Our game's Hint button, which searches ahead, cleared every board at every level.
A few more facts from the same games. At the start of a Hard board there were 11 or 12 pairs to choose from, and about 10 on Medium. When a player picking at random got stuck on Hard, about 35 of the 64 pairs were still on the board: dead ends come early, not in the last few moves.
1. Work from the middle outward
The single simplest habit that helped was taking pairs near the middle of the board before pairs near the edges: 61 Hard boards cleared in 100 against 57 for random choices, and 90 Medium boards against 82.
The reason is the empty space round the outside of the board. Two matching tiles on the same edge can always be joined round the outside, however crowded the board is, so an edge pair will still be there later. Tiles in the middle need a clear line through the board, and those lines are easiest to find while you're still opening the board up.
2. Take pairs that free other pairs
The strongest habit we found was choosing the pair that leaves you the most moves afterwards: 80 Hard boards in 100. You don't need to count every move to use it. Before you take a pair, look at what the two tiles are standing in front of. A pair whose removal lets other matching tiles see each other is worth more than one that frees nothing.
3. Don't clear the edges first
It's tempting to take the easy pairs round the outside first, because they're the easiest to see. That was the worst habit we tested: only 49 Hard boards cleared in 100 and 70 Medium. Taking the edge pairs early uses up the pairs that would have stayed easy, and leaves the crowded middle for last.
4. What made no real difference
Several habits that sound sensible didn't change the results. On 300 Hard boards each, all of these cleared between 52 and 55 boards in 100, the same as picking at random (54 on those boards):
- taking the last two tiles of a kind before a kind with all four left, or the other way round;
- when three or four of a kind are in play, making sure the other two can still be joined;
- taking pairs joined by short lines first, or by long lines first.
5. Use Undo, and Shuffle when you're stuck
Getting stuck isn't the end. Undo takes back as many moves as you like, and Shuffle rearranges the tiles that are left, in the same squares, into an order that can still be cleared. One Shuffle is usually all it takes: a player picking pairs at random on Hard needed no Shuffle on 49 boards in 100, one on 46 and two on 5. On Medium, 80 boards in 100 needed none and the rest needed one.
6. Ask for a hint
The Hint button lights up a pair and draws the line that joins them with dots. It searches ahead to choose a pair that keeps the board clearable, and it tells you honestly if the board can no longer be cleared from where you are, so you know when to Undo or Shuffle.
How often should you clear the board?
On Easy, almost every time, even picking pairs at random. On Hard, it's closer to a coin toss unless you think about your choices: working from the middle and freeing other pairs as you go can take you from about half the boards to most of them. And since every board we deal can be cleared, a stuck board always has an answer.
If you also like the stacked version of the game, see our Mahjong solitaire tips.