Mahjong: Eight Stacks
How to play Mahjong Eight Stacks
Mahjong solitaire is a tile-matching puzzle for one player in which you clear a stacked layout of mahjong tiles by removing free tiles in matching pairs.
Eight square towers four tiles high, each capped with one, with a loose tile above and below every column.
144 tiles, 5 layers
About Mahjong Eight Stacks
Eight Stacks has 144 tiles in five layers, yet only 16 are free at the start, fewer than half the Turtle's 35: the eight caps and the eight loose tiles. Each tower is four columns of four tiles standing squarely, so a floor tile waits under three tiles and the cap before you can take it.
A cap lies across all four columns of its tower, so taking it frees four tiles at once, and from then on each tile is free as soon as the one directly on it has gone, because the towers never touch. The loose tiles block nothing and nothing blocks them, so prefer matches that take a cap, and keep the loose tiles as partners for later.
Of its 144 tiles, 128 sit under something at the start. Lifting every free tile at the same time, step after step, Eight Stacks would be empty after five waves: first the 8 caps and 8 loose tiles, then 32 a wave as every tower drops a level. In real play the matches decide the order, and a face buried at the foot of one tower may need its partner from the foot of another, so work all eight towers down rather than finishing one.
The goal of Mahjong
Mahjong solitaire is a tile-matching puzzle for one player, not the four-player game. Clear the board by removing its tiles in matching pairs; you win when no tile is left.
How to set up Mahjong
A full set has 144 tiles: bamboo, characters and dots from 1 to 9, four winds and three dragons, four of each, plus four flowers and four seasons. Some layouts use fewer tiles. A new board is dealt at random and may be impossible to clear, unless you turn on Winnable under New game. Even a winnable board can be lost by matching the wrong pairs.
Mahjong rules
Select two free tiles that match and both leave the board. Tiles match when they show the same face, but any flower matches any flower and any season matches any season.
A tile is free when nothing lies on top of it, even partly, and its left or right side is not touching another tile on the same layer. Only the left and right sides count. You can have free tiles highlighted in the settings.
Hint shows a pair to take, chosen to keep the board winnable when a winning line can be found. Undo takes back a match, and Restart deals the same board again. There is no reshuffle: if tiles remain but no free pair matches, you are stuck and can undo, restart or start a new game.
The full Mahjong guide, with strategy tips and common questions