Mahjong Solitaire › All layouts › Stairs Mahjong

Stairs Mahjong

Stairs Mahjong is a staircase. The board climbs from a single layer at the top to five layers along the bottom, in steps four tiles wide.

It is one of the hardest layouts here. Only 19 tiles are free when you start, the fewest of any board on the site, and the bottom rows are sixteen tiles long.

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 Stairs layout is built

Each step is four tiles wide and one tile higher than the step beside it. The tallest steps are at the bottom left.

Tips for Stairs Mahjong

• Start at the top of the tallest steps. They are five high and block everything beneath them.
• The short top rows clear quickly. Use them early to make room for partners.
• Keep a shuffle for late in the game. The long bottom rows are where this board usually jams.

Stairs layout at a glance

Difficulty

Hard

Tiles

144 (72 pairs)

Layers

5

Board size

16 tiles wide, 5 rows deep

Free at the start

19 tiles

Cleared in our tests

About 25%

The Stairs layout stacks its 144 tiles in five layers: 64 on the table, 40 on layer 2, 24 on layer 3, 12 on layer 4, 4 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 Stairs it cleared the board without a shuffle in about 25% 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. Cloud MahjongHard A soft-looking puff with a deceptively stubborn middle.

See all 24 layouts, sorted by difficulty

Questions people ask

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