Mahjong Solitaire All layouts Dragon Mahjong
Dragon Mahjong
Dragon Mahjong lays the 144 tiles out long and low, sixteen tiles across, with a tall ridge running down the middle. It looks easy at first. It isn’t, because the tiles you need are usually under that ridge.
This is the layout to try once you can clear the Turtle fairly often. Only about 24 tiles are free when you start, one of the lowest counts on the site.
How the layout is built
- The body: 96 tiles in seven rows. The middle three rows are the full sixteen tiles wide.
- The slab: 36 tiles, twelve by three, over the middle of the body.
- The ridge: 8 tiles in one row along the centre.
- The top: 4 tiles, the first you can take.
How to play it well
The width is the trap. The long rows make the end tiles look like free moves forever, and it is tempting to keep matching them. Do that and you use up your pairs on tiles that weren’t blocking anything, and the ridge never moves.
- Clear the ridge early. The top four and the ridge row should be gone within your first dozen moves.
- Count before you take an end tile. If two copies of a tile are under the slab, don’t match the two you can see with each other.
- Eat into the slab from both ends. Its left and right edges are free, and working both sides opens the body faster.
- Keep a shuffle for late. Dragon games tend to jam near the end, and a shuffle does much more with 20 tiles left than with 100.
Dragon or Turtle?
The Turtle is taller but compact, so taking a top tile frees several below it. The Dragon is lower but wider, so each pair frees less and the board opens slowly. Most people find the Dragon harder. For the toughest board here, try Fortress.
Dragon layout at a glance
- Difficulty
- Hard
- Tiles
- 144 (72 pairs)
- Layers
- 4
- Board size
- 16 tiles wide, 7 rows deep
- Free at the start
- 24 tiles
- Cleared in our tests
- About 25%
The Dragon layout stacks its 144 tiles in four layers: 96 on the table, 36 on layer 2, 8 on layer 3, 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 Dragon 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. 
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. 
Owl MahjongHard Big stacked eyes, ear tufts and two little feet. See all 24 layouts, sorted by difficulty
Questions people ask
Is Dragon Mahjong harder than the Turtle?
Most players find it harder. It has one layer fewer but it is much wider, so each pair you take frees fewer tiles. Only about 24 tiles are free at the start, one of the lowest counts of any layout here.
How many tiles are in Dragon Mahjong?
144 in four layers: 96 in the body, 36 in a raised slab, 8 along the ridge and 4 on the top.
What is a good first move?
Take the four top tiles and the ridge first. They cover the slab, and the slab covers the middle of the body, which is where the game is decided.
Do I need to download anything?
No. It runs in your browser for free with no download or account.