Mahjong Remix

Controls

Mouse on a computer, touch on a phone or tablet. Some games also take the arrow keys or the letter keys, and the game will say so when it starts.

Take it with you

Scan to open Mahjong Remix on your phone.

Mahjong Remix looks like ordinary mahjong and is governed by a completely different rule.

In classic mahjong solitaire a tile is available when nothing sits on top of it. Here what matters is the route. Two matching tiles can only be joined if you can draw a line between them made of three segments or fewer, and that line cannot pass through any other tile.

The practical effect is that the board gets easier as it empties rather than harder. Early on, almost everything is blocked by everything else. Halfway through, corridors open and pairs that were impossible become trivial. Knowing that changes how you should open.

How to play Mahjong Remix

The board is a layout of tiles, all visible.
Click two tiles with the same design to connect them.
The connecting line may have at most three segments and cannot cross any other tile.
A valid pair is removed, opening routes for what remains.
Clear the whole board to finish.

Counting segments

A segment is a straight run. A line that goes right, then up, then right again is three segments and is legal. One that needs a fourth change of direction is not.

This is the rule people misjudge most. A pair sitting in plain sight is often unplayable because the only clear route bends one time too many, and it will become playable later once something between them is gone.

Opening space

Every pair you remove is a corridor for the pairs behind it. That makes the choice of which match to take much more consequential than in stacked mahjong.

Given two available matches, the one that cuts a channel through a crowded region is worth more than the one that clears two tiles at the edge.

Tips and strategy

Where to start

Work the outside first. Edge tiles have open space around them, so their routes are short and legal early.
Look for pairs that sit on the same row or column with nothing between them. Those are one segment connections and they are free.
Avoid clearing both tiles of an isolated pair in a corner. You gain two tiles and open nothing.

Reading the board

Before clicking, trace the route with your eye and count the bends. Three or fewer, or find another pair.
When four identical tiles are present, take the two whose removal opens the most space rather than the two that are easiest to join.
If the board stalls, look at what is nearest the outside rather than rescanning the middle. The centre is where routes die.

Where rounds are lost

Assuming a visible pair is playable. Visibility and reachability are different things here.
Clearing the easy edges first and leaving a dense block in the middle with no routes through it.
Forgetting that the board loosens as it empties, and giving up on a pair that would have been legal five moves later.

The stacked version is on the mahjong page, and Butterfly Kyodai uses the same connect rule with a two turn limit.