Mahjong Solitaire › All layouts

All 24 Mahjong layouts

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. Here they all are, sorted from easiest to hardest.

Want a surprise? Daily Mahjong picks a different layout every day.

Turtle (classic)

The Turtle is the layout most people know from Mahjong Titans and Shanghai, and the one on our home page. It plays as a medium layout.

Turtle MahjongClassic The classic 144-tile board. Five layers, a long tail at each end. 5 layers · 35 free at start · 50% cleared

Collections

• Christmas Mahjong: six festive layouts, a tree, snowman, bell, stocking, wreath and present. They are extra to the 24 below.
• Mahjong Titans layouts: Turtle, Dragon, Cat, Fortress, Crab and Spider, the six layout names from the old Windows game.
• Animal Mahjong: the seven layouts shaped like animals, from the easy Butterfly to the hard Owl.

Easy layouts

Short rows and lots of free tiles. Good for learning, or for a calm ten minutes. More about easy Mahjong

Butterfly MahjongEasy Two open wings and a slim body. The gentlest board to learn on. 3 layers · 68 free at start · 85% cleared Garden MahjongEasy Four small courtyards that never block each other. Quick and calm. 3 layers · 64 free at start · 75% cleared Spider MahjongEasy A tall body with eight thin legs spread wide. 5 layers · 50 free at start · 70% cleared Arena MahjongEasy An oval ring of seating around an empty floor. 3 layers · 40 free at start · 65% cleared Tower MahjongEasy Narrow and tall, five tiles high at the top. 5 layers · 38 free at start · 60% cleared

Medium layouts

The classic Turtle, above, is one of these. You will need to think about which pair to take, but most games can be cleared.

Castle MahjongMedium Outer walls, corner towers and a keep in the middle. 4 layers · 44 free at start · 50% cleared Crab MahjongMedium A domed shell with claws reaching out at each corner. 4 layers · 34 free at start · 50% cleared Hourglass MahjongMedium Two wide halves joined by a narrow waist. 3 layers · 20 free at start · 50% cleared Pyramid MahjongMedium Four tiers stacked into a solid block. Peel it from the edges. 4 layers · 38 free at start · 45% cleared Star MahjongMedium Five points around a raised centre. 4 layers · 32 free at start · 45% cleared Well MahjongMedium Two square rings, one inside the other, three deep. 3 layers · 24 free at start · 45% cleared Bridge MahjongMedium A long double-deck span between four towers. 3 layers · 22 free at start · 35% cleared Fish MahjongMedium A rounded body with a raised middle and a split tail. 4 layers · 40 free at start · 35% cleared Heart MahjongMedium Two raised lobes narrowing to a single point. 3 layers · 26 free at start · 35% cleared Ziggurat MahjongMedium Five stepped terraces rising to a flat top. 5 layers · 30 free at start · 35% cleared

Hard layouts

Long rows, deep stacks and few free tiles at the start. Expect to use a shuffle. More about hard Mahjong

Cloud MahjongHard A soft-looking puff with a deceptively stubborn middle. 3 layers · 20 free at start · 30% cleared Owl MahjongHard Big stacked eyes, ear tufts and two little feet. 4 layers · 48 free at start · 30% cleared Temple MahjongHard A stepped hall with two tall pillars on top. 4 layers · 24 free at start · 30% cleared Arrow MahjongHard A long shaft and a raised head pointing right. 4 layers · 26 free at start · 25% cleared Cat MahjongHard A cat face with pointed ears, raised eyes and a nose. 3 layers · 22 free at start · 25% cleared Dragon MahjongHard Long and low with a tall ridge down the middle. 4 layers · 24 free at start · 25% cleared Stairs MahjongHard A staircase that climbs from one tile to five. 5 layers · 19 free at start · 25% cleared Fortress MahjongHard Five walls, one inside the next. The hardest board here. 5 layers · 30 free at start · 20% cleared

All layouts in one table

How we rate difficulty

We dealt 40 boards on every layout and had the computer play each one five times, 200 games per layout. It picked moves the same way our Hint button does: of all the pairs it could take, it chose the one that freed the most tiles. Then we counted how often it cleared the board without a shuffle.

A careful person who plans ahead will win more often than that. But the order of the layouts stays much the same, and it tells you something useful: long rows matter more than height. Tower is five layers high and still easy, because its rows are short. Bridge is only three layers high and plays harder than the Turtle, because its rows run sixteen tiles across.

Every deal on every layout can be cleared. We check that when the board is dealt. Difficulty is about how easy it is to go wrong, not whether a solution exists.

Questions people ask