Player Support

How to play

Please watch the video below to learn more about Arkadium's Mahjongg Solitaire gameplay. 

General information. Mahjongg Solitaire is a solitaire matching game that uses a set of Mahjong tiles. The 144 tiles are arranged in special layouts with their faces upward. Players can only match pairs of tiles where each tile has at least one side (left or right) free and no other tiles placed on top. Matching tile pairs can be removed by clicking on each tile in the pair.  

Goal. The goal of the game is to clear the layout by pairing up all the tiles. Solving a Mahjong Solitaire board puzzle is all about avoiding a situation where there are no matches left. There is always at least one valid solution for the board. 

 
A player can only remove the tiles one pair at a time. There are a total of 72 pairs in a game of Mahjongg Solitaire. Like cards, the tiles have standard suits. These suits are Wans, Circles, Bamboos, Winds, Dragons, Flowers, and Seasons.  

You can also find this image of them in the game menu: 

Matching of tiles. Exposed pairs of identical tiles are removed from the layout one at a time, gradually exposing lower layers to play.   

NOTE: Seasons and Flowers are the only suits you do not need to match exactly. Any Season or Flower combination counts as a pair because there is only one of each tile

Starting the game. When the game first loads, you'll see the main menu. You can click on New Game to start a brand new game, and on Continue to continue a game in progress. Your icon will be on the bottom right to signify your account being signed in, and the settings menu.

Selecting Layout. Mahjong Solitaire now has different shapes available to start your game. After clicking new game, start with the easier Standard or try a harder challenge with Fortress, Two Hills, Waves, Stairs and  Ziggurat.  

You can see your number of victories in each format by the trophy icon in the top left. To exit, click on the X on the top right.

When starting the game, the current pairs you can match on the board are visible on the top left, as well as the game's timer.

If you no longer have matches available, you'll lose the match. However, you can reshuffle by using 50 Gems or watching an ad and continue the game.

Tips

1. Check That Both Tiles Are Truly Free
A tile must have no tile covering it and at least one open side. Before committing to a match, make sure both tiles meet these conditions and look ahead at what each removal will expose.

2. Open the Board, Not Just Any Pair
The best match is usually the one that reveals the most new possibilities. Prioritize pairs that remove top tiles, open the outer edges, or uncover several blocked tiles. If a harmless pair changes nothing, consider saving it for later.

NOTE: if you have a pair that does not open any way to other tiles, leave it until you need it

As you can see in the example below, removing the top tile opened 5 more matches. That is extremely useful! This made it so you have five extra tiles to use for other matches.

3. Think Several Moves Ahead
When multiple copies of the same tile are available, don't automatically take the first pair you see. Consider all four copies, which tiles they are blocking, and whether your choice could leave the remaining copies trapped.

4. Use The Available Options
Options to play Mahjong Solitaire are available to you in the newest version of the game. These include three new buttons on the game screen.

These three buttons include a Look button, an Undo button and a Hint button.

Look will show the entire board in a darkened way, with only the selectable tiles highlighted. This will make it easier to show all the direct pairs. Be careful playing like this, as strategizing for future pairings will be harder!

Undo will undo your last move, making it so that you can replay a mistaken match if you feel like it.

Hint will give you a hint of the next pairing you can choose. It's not intended to be the best possible move, simply one of the available moves.

Make sure to use these options to keep your match going.

NOTE: This is only accessible in the Mahjong Solitaire version of the game. The Mahjong Solitaire version of the game only has the Hint button.

5. Keep Your Options Alive
Watch the number of available matches and favor moves that create new pairs rather than reducing your choices. If several safe matches exist, keep the board flexible instead of clearing tiles simply because they are available.

6. Use Special Tiles and Scoring Opportunities Wisely
Flowers match with any other Flower, and Seasons match with any other Season, making them useful for opening difficult areas. When moves are strategically equal, higher-value tiles or a same-suit Chain Multiplier can improve your score—but never sacrifice board access just for points.

7. Balance Speed With Strategy
You need to beat the timer, but rushing can create an unsolvable position. Use Hint when necessary as a way to find a legal move, not automatically the best move. With practice, you'll recognize free tiles, matching families, and strong board-opening moves much faster.

Settings

By pressing the gear icon on the top right, you can use different settings in the Mahjong version of the game. The Mahjong Solitaire version of the game will have a different menu.

The Sound Icon allows you to turn on and off the sound in the game.

The Arena Icon allows you to know more about the creators of the game.

The Door Icon allows you to exit the game and post your score.

Disable the falling petals. You can disable or enable the game's falling petals effect in the menu. Should the falling petals not be to your liking, or should they be too distracting, we now offer an option in the menu to turn them on or off. Simply select click on the petals icon on the top right of the menu, as pictured here.

NOTE: This is only accessible in the Mahjong version of the game. Scroll further down to check how to access settings in the Mahjong Solitaire version of the game.

Mahjongg Solitaire Settings: When clicking on the hamburger menu on the top left, you can access the settings. Settings will allow you to mute sound and music, and to turn the petals on and off.

NOTE: This is only accessible in the Mahjong Solitaire version of the game. Scroll further up to check how to access settings in the Mahjong version of the game.

All these tips may look intimidating the first time you play Mahjong solitaire, but don’t worry! This game is easy to learn but challenging to master. You will learn everything eventually, leading to fewer unsolvable situations after each successful game. 

This occurs when you click on something outside of the range of the game, or when another window, application or program is selected instead of the game. Selecting an outside window or application will pause the game. Because the game is paused, it would be unfair to show the tiles, as this would give an advantage to players to pick the correct tiles by pausing the game, bypassing the timer rules. So for this reason, pausing the game by selecting a separate window, program or application, will also show the tiles as blank.

If you're having issues with the tiles appearing as blank dispite not having any program on top, please check on whether any of your programs or extensions may be causing this. If you're unable to find anything, be sure to contact support for help.

Scoring 

At the end of a match, the final screen will appear, showing you your base score, completion statistic and your final score.

Here is how your final score is calculated:

NOTE: using the hint button doesn't affect the score