Porchlight › How to play › Mahjong Solitaire
How to play Mahjong Solitaire
A matching puzzle played with mahjong tiles. They are stacked in a shape several layers deep, and you take them off two at a time.
The aim
Take every tile off the table.
Setting up
A full set of 144 tiles is stacked face up in one of two shapes:
| Shape | Size | Layers |
|---|---|---|
| Turtle | 15 across, 8 down | 5 |
| Beijing | 9 across, 12 down | 4 |
The Turtle is the shape most people know the game by. Beijing stands tall where the Turtle lies wide, so it suits a phone held upright.
Every deal can be cleared. The tiles are dealt in an order that leaves at least one way to take them all. It is still possible to take the wrong pair and get stuck, which is what Undo is for.
The tiles
There are four of each of these 34 tiles:
| Tiles | What they are |
|---|---|
| Dots | 1 to 9, shown as that many circles |
| Bamboo | 1 to 9, shown as that many sticks. The 1 is a bird |
| Characters | 1 to 9, each a Chinese numeral written above the same character |
| Winds | East, South, West and North, each one large character |
| Dragons | Red, green and white. The white dragon is an empty frame |
There is also one of each of four flowers and four seasons.
Playing
- A tile is open when nothing lies on any part of it and its left side or its right side is clear. A tile above or below it on the table doesn't matter.
- Pick two open tiles that match and both come off. Two tiles match when they show the same picture.
- Any flower matches any other flower, and any season matches any other season, even though each one looks different.
- Undo puts the last pair back. You can undo as many moves as you like, back to the start.
- Hint lights up a pair you can take. You get three hints a game. While the game can still be cleared, a hint points along a way that clears it.
With four of each tile, there is often a choice of which two to take. Taking the two that free the most tiles is usually right, and taking two of three open tiles is a guess about where the fourth one is.
Winning
You win when no tiles are left.
If no two open tiles match, the game says so. Undo to try another way, or give up. Giving up counts as unsolved.
Today's deal and the clock
New game deals a free game, open to everyone. Today's deal gives every player the same tiles in the same places, and changes at midnight UTC. It's for members only, and you get one attempt per shape, which counts from the moment it's dealt. Only a game cut short on our side can be dealt again.
The clock runs from the deal to your last pair and can't be paused. Making no move for 15 minutes, or leaving or losing your connection for about a minute, ends the game as unsolved. Today's best ranks the day's winners by time, then by fewest moves; a move you undo still counts as a move. Members also see their own record: games played and solved, best time, and their daily run (the number of days in a row they've solved the daily deal).
On Porchlight
- Click or tap an open tile, then its match. Click the first tile again to put it down. A tile that can't be taken shakes and the game says why.
- Keyboard: Tab moves between open tiles and Enter or Space picks one. U undoes, H asks for a hint, and Escape puts a picked tile down.
- Marks adds a small number to each character tile and a letter (E, S, W, N) to each wind, for anyone who doesn't read the characters.
- Show open tiles dims every tile that can't be taken yet.
- Tiles changes how the tiles look. The Modern sets are free for everyone, and the sets marked with a star are for Premium members. Your choice is saved to your account and is also on the Customize page.