Mahjong Solitaire

How to play Mahjong Solitaire

Clear the board by matching pairs of identical tiles. Tap one free tile, then its twin, and both disappear. Every game here is set up so it can be cleared.

Which tiles can you pick?

A tile is free when nothing sits on top of it and it can slide out to the left or the right.
Blocked tiles are shaded slightly darker, so the free ones are easy to spot. You can turn this off in Settings.
Every tile shows a plain label in its top corner, so you never need to read the Chinese characters.

The tiles

Tiles	Corner label	What they look like
Dots	1–9	Circles — the number of circles is the tile's number.
Bamboo	1–9	Green sticks — count the sticks.
Characters	1–9	A Chinese numeral above the red character 萬.
Winds	E, S, W, N	East, South, West and North.
Dragons	—	Red 中, green 發, and the white dragon (a blue frame).
Flowers	✿	Four different flowers. Any flower matches any other flower.
Seasons	Spr, Sum, Aut, Win	Four seasons. Any season matches any other season.

Tips

Work on the tallest stacks first — they hide the most tiles.
Open up the long rows from their ends.
When three or four copies of a tile are free, think about which pair to take: the wrong one can leave a twin trapped.

Questions

Can every game be cleared?

Yes. Each deal is built so there is always a way to clear it. If you get stuck, Undo a few moves or tap Shuffle — the tiles that are left are rearranged so the board can still be cleared.

Why is the board a different shape on my phone?

On a phone held upright, the classic 144-tile Turtle would make every tile tiny. The 78-tile Tower keeps tiles large enough to read and tap. You can choose the shape yourself in Settings.

Is this the same as Mahjong played with four people?

No. Mahjong solitaire uses the same tiles as the classic table game, but it's a one-player matching puzzle — no hands, no scoring, no opponents.