Mahjong Solitaire › All layouts › Cloud Mahjong

Cloud Mahjong

Cloud Mahjong is a puffy cloud: rounded on top, flat underneath. The middle of the cloud is three tiles deep, and the rows across it are up to twelve tiles long.

It is one of the harder layouts here. Only 20 tiles are free when you start, and the deep rows in the middle release their tiles slowly.

How to play

The rules are the same on every layout. Click two free tiles with the same face to remove them. A tile is free when nothing sits on top of it and its left or right side is open. Any flower matches any flower, and any season matches any season. Clear all 72 pairs to win. The how to play guide has pictures.

How the Cloud layout is built

The top of the cloud is narrow and stacked three high. It widens row by row to a full-width base two tiles high.

Tips for Cloud Mahjong

• Clear the top of the cloud first. It is narrow, so its rows open quickly, and it covers the rows below.
• Count copies before matching in the wide middle rows. Two copies buried in the same row are the usual way this board is lost.
• Save a shuffle for the end. The last few rows of the cloud are where games tend to jam.

Cloud layout at a glance

Difficulty

Hard

Tiles

144 (72 pairs)

Layers

3

Board size

12 tiles wide, 6 rows deep

Free at the start

20 tiles

Cleared in our tests

About 30%

The Cloud layout stacks its 144 tiles in three layers: 58 on the table, 58 on layer 2, 28 on top.

How we rate difficulty. We had the computer play 200 games on each layout, picking moves the same way our Hint button does. On Cloud it cleared the board without a shuffle in about 30% of games. That is harder than the classic Turtle, which comes in at about 50%. People who plan ahead do better than that, but the order of the layouts stays much the same. The full list is on the all layouts page.

More hard layouts and favourites

Every layout uses the same 144 tiles and the same rules. The shape is what changes, and the shape decides how hard the game is.

Turtle MahjongClassic The classic 144-tile board. Five layers, a long tail at each end. Dragon MahjongHard Long and low with a tall ridge down the middle. Fortress MahjongHard Five walls, one inside the next. The hardest board here. Arrow MahjongHard A long shaft and a raised head pointing right. Cat MahjongHard A cat face with pointed ears, raised eyes and a nose. Owl MahjongHard Big stacked eyes, ear tufts and two little feet.

See all 24 layouts, sorted by difficulty

Questions people ask

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