Mahjong: Spider
How to play Mahjong Spider
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.
A stacked body with four legs reaching out each side.
132 tiles, 3 layers
About Mahjong Spider
The Spider has 132 tiles in three layers. Its body is a floor block of 7 by 8, with 5 by 6 on it and 3 by 2 on top. Each leg is a floor row of five that meets the body, so four rows run 17 tiles from one foot to the other, while the body's other four rows are only 7 long.
32 tiles are free at the start, close to the Turtle's 35. The topmost leg row is open along its whole length, but the other three pass under the raised body. Each of those can be eaten from its foot to the body's edge, six tiles, before it stops, so dig the body from the top early to keep those rows moving.
Only 36 of its 132 tiles start covered, against 60 on the Turtle, so the Spider is long rather than deep. Even sweeping away every free tile at each step, it would still need nine steps to clear, one more than the Turtle, and the last four would take only the four leg rows, a tile from each end at a time, finishing at the centre of the body.
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