Moames

Lotus Mahjong

About Lotus Mahjong

Lotus Mahjong is a free mahjong solitaire game. Remove the stacked tiles in matching pairs until the board is empty. A tile can only be taken when nothing lies on top of it and its left or right side is open. Twelve layouts grow from 20 tiles to a full 144.

How to play

  1. Tap two matching tiles to remove them.
  2. A tile is free when no tile lies on top of it and its left or right side is open. Blocked tiles look darker.
  3. Any flower matches any other flower, and any season leaf matches any other season leaf.
  4. Clear every tile to finish the level. Hint shows a pair, and Shuffle redeals the tiles that are left.

The tiles

There are three suits numbered 1 to 9: dots, sticks and stars. There are also four wind tiles marked E, S, W and N, and three dragons drawn as a red circle, a green diamond and a blue square. Most tiles match only an identical tile. The flowers and the season leaves come in four colours, and any two tiles from the same group make a pair.

Layouts

Level 1 is a single layer of 20 tiles, and each level adds tiles or layers. Levels 3 to 6 have two layers, levels 7 to 10 have three and the last two have four, with level 12 using all 144 tiles. Upper layers sit half a tile in from the edges, so each upper tile covers parts of four tiles below it.

Every deal can be cleared

Each board is built by removing free pairs from the full layout one at a time, then giving each pair its tiles. That removal order is a solution, so every level can be cleared from the start. You can still block yourself by taking the wrong pair, which is where planning comes in.

Free the stacks first

When you have a choice, take pairs that uncover tiles on top of tall stacks, or that open the end of a long row. Tiles in the middle of a row only become free once one of the ends is gone. If all four tiles of a kind are free, take both pairs. If only three of a kind are free, think about which pair leaves the fourth tile easiest to reach later.

Hints, shuffles and undo

Hint outlines one free pair in blue. If no matches are left, Shuffle deals the remaining tiles again over the same places, and the new deal is always solvable. Your result counts the shuffles you used. Undo takes back a pair or a shuffle, and Reset restarts the level with its original deal.

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