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MAHJONG SOLITAIRE RULES

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Basics
MahJong Solitaire is played with tiles that are similar in function to playing cards. The object is to clear the playing area of tiles by matching pairs. You may only remove a pair of tiles if they both satisfy the following criteria:

There are no pieces directly to the left or right of the tile you wish to remove.

There are no pieces directly above any part of it.

A player can only remove the tiles one pair at a time. There are a total of 72 pairs in a game of MahJong Solitaire. Like cards, the tiles have standard suits. These suits are Characters, Bamboos, Circles, Dragons, Winds, Seasons, and Flowers. The table below shows all the tiles and the amount of each.

Characters
(4 of each) Bamboos
(4 of each) Circles
(4 of each)

Dragons
Red, Green, White
(4 of each) Winds
East, South, West, North
(4 of each)

Seasons
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter
(1 of each) Flowers
Plum, Orchid, Chrysanthemum, Bamboo
(1 of each)

When matching pairs, Seasons and Flowers are the only suits you do not need to match exactly. Any Season or Flower combination counts as a pair because there is only one of each tile.

Each time you start a game, you are granted three shuffles. When no pairs are left, you may use a shuffle. When you have no more pairs and no more shuffles, the game is over. If you clear the board, you move to the next round, which will have a different layout.

Scoring
Scoring in MahJong Solitaire is easy. Each time you remove a pair, you are awarded points. Scoring is based off of the suits. Each time you clear a pair, the score is determined by the suit value multiplied by the total number of pairs left.

The table below shows the suit value.

Suit Multiplier

Character 1

Circle 2

Bamboo 3

Wind 4

Dragon 5

Flower 6

Season 7

For example, if you started a new game there would be 72 pairs total on the board. If you were to clear a pair of Season tiles, you would score a total of 504 points (7x72). If you cleared a pair of Character tiles, you would be awarded 72 points (1x72). The next pair you removed would be the suit value multiplied by 71, and so on.