Which Mahjong layout should you play?
Every layout on this site uses the same 144 tiles and the same rules. What changes is the shape, and the shape decides how hard the game is. We now have 24 layouts, so here is how to pick one.
What makes a layout hard
You can only take a tile if its left or right side is open. That means long rows are the real difficulty, more than height. A tile in the middle of a sixteen-tile row stays stuck until you clear in from the ends. A tile in a short row comes free almost straight away.
To check this, we had the computer play 200 games on every layout, 4,800 in all, picking moves the way our Hint button does. Then we counted how often it cleared the board without a shuffle. The results surprised us in places. Tower is five layers high and still one of the easiest boards, because its rows are short. Bridge is only three layers high and plays harder than the Turtle, because its deck runs sixteen tiles across.
The six best known layouts, easiest first
| Layout | Layers | Free at the start | Cleared in tests | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Butterfly | 3 | 68 | about 85% | Learning the game |
| Garden | 3 | 64 | about 75% | A calm five-minute game |
| Turtle | 5 | 35 | about 50% | The classic, balanced and familiar |
| Pyramid | 4 | 38 | about 45% | A tidy, logical board |
| Dragon | 4 | 24 | about 25% | A slow game where every pair counts |
| Fortress | 5 | 30 | about 20% | The hardest board here |
The other 18 are on the all layouts page, sorted the same way.
If you are new
Start on Butterfly or Garden. Their rows are short, so you can learn which tiles are free without getting stuck. The easy Mahjong page has three more boards at the same level: Spider, Arena and Tower.
If you know the Turtle
Try Pyramid, Castle or Crab. They play at about the same level as the Turtle but each has its own rhythm. Pyramid teaches you to count copies of a tile before you match them.
If you want a challenge
Go to hard Mahjong. Fortress is the toughest, with five levels and long rows that pin their own middle tiles. Stairs, Arrow and Dragon are close behind. Clearing any of them without a shuffle is a good day.
Can’t decide? Daily Mahjong picks a different layout every day, and everyone gets the same board.