How to Play Mahjong Blitz: 76 Tiles, 60 Seconds, 24 Free at the Start

The clock starts at 60 and runs down, and the board never empties: every cleared pair pulls in fresh tiles. Seventy-six tiles sit on three layers, and only 24 take a click on the opening move.

Sixty seconds, counted backwards

Blitz is the one mode here where clearing the board is not the goal. The clock opens at 60 and runs down, and the score counts pairs. When time runs out the game ends with the table still full.

The question changes every second: take the pair your eye finds first, not the one that opens the most tiles.

Seventy-six tiles on three layers

This is the shallowest board on the site: three layers, against five in Tower and four in Solitaire.

• Base: 8 × 5 = 40 tiles.
• Second layer: 6 × 4 = 24.
• Third: 4 × 3 = 12.

That makes 76 tiles and 38 pairs. Rows rise 57 pixels against a tile 98 pixels tall, so each row shows only its top strip. The second layer also sits half a row lower than the base, which changes the coverage math.

Twenty-four tiles take a click at the start

A tile is free when nothing rests on top of it and at least one side has no neighbor on the same layer. The opening count:

• Base: 10 tiles, the five in the left column and the five in the right.
• Second layer: 8, four per side.
• Third: 6, three per side.

So 24 are playable and 52 are stuck. Columns 0 and 7 of the base are never covered, because the second layer starts at column 1 and ends at column 6. The 30 tiles in the middle of the base each carry a tile above them.

Every upper tile covers two below it

The second layer sits half a row below the base, so a tile at row 0.5 rests over rows 0 and 1 at once. The code counts coverage whenever the row difference is under 0.9.

That is why the 12 tiles on the third layer cover 16 of the second, and the 24 on the second cover 30 of the 40 on the base. Clearing an upper tile can open two at once, or only one when the side neighbor stays pinned.

Thirty-eight pairs on thirty-four faces

The split does not divide evenly. The code walks the 34 faces and wraps around until the 38 pairs are filled: four faces get four tiles, the other thirty get two.

• Four copies: East, South, West and North winds.
• Two copies: the three dragons, the nine characters, the nine bamboos and the nine circles.

In tile counts: 16 winds, 6 dragons, 18 characters, 18 bamboos and 18 circles. Honors are 22 of 76, or 29% of the board, against 21% in a 136-tile set. Hunting a Green Dragon means hunting a face that exists twice. Hunting a wind means four copies are out there, which is why winds tend to leave early.

The refill fires after a match, not on demand

When fewer than ten tiles remain, or when no free pair exists, new tiles arrive. The trigger runs at the moment a pair is cleared.

That explains the rhythm, and hides the mode's one blind spot. On a board where the free tiles form no pair, there is no click and no clear, so the refill never runs. Blitz has no shuffle button, which leaves New Game as the way out.

New tiles are drawn at random from the 34 faces, ignoring the opening deck. After a few waves, a single face can pass four copies on the table.

Ten points a pair, no combo, no time bonus

Every pair is worth 10 points. There is no streak multiplier like Chain, and no extra second like Timed, where a pair adds 2 seconds and a miss takes 1 away.

A hundred points is ten pairs, one every six seconds. Two hundred asks for twenty pairs inside the minute, three seconds each. The 38 starting pairs would not fit in the clock even in theory, so every record is a fraction of the table.

The record lives in your browser, so switching devices resets the number.

A miss costs seconds, not points

A correct pair clears after 0.2 seconds. A wrong pair shakes for 0.25 seconds and nothing else: the score holds and the clock takes no penalty.

In the last ten seconds that shifts the strategy. Guessing by eye beats double-checking, because a wrong try costs a quarter second and a second look costs two or three.

Clicking a stuck tile does nothing: the pointer is off on it.

The hint is free and lights two tiles

The hint button glows a playable pair for 1.2 seconds and charges neither points nor seconds. The same help costs 3 seconds in Timed mode. Here it is free.

When no pair exists, the hint says so instead of pointing. That leaves a choice between waiting and restarting, and since the refill depends on a match, waiting rarely pays off.

The last ten seconds turn red

The timer starts when the page loads, not on your first click. Reading the intro before you play already costs seconds.

With ten left, the number turns red and starts to pulse. That is the only warning: no overtime, no time bonus, no second chance.

Blitz, Timed or Memory

Timed runs 300 fixed seconds across 112 tiles, with a time budget: a pair returns 2 seconds, a miss takes 1, and the closing bonus is capped at 300.

Memory is the opposite: 36 face-down tiles, 18 pairs, no time limit. Blitz sits in the middle, everything visible and speed charged by the second.

Your first game, three calls

Open Mahjong Blitz and start on the ten tiles in the outer base columns, which stay free on a full board. Take winds first when they show up as a pair, since they are the only faces with four copies and the fastest to read. Leave dragons and middle characters for the moment the upper layers are gone.

The exception is a board where the two free winds sit on different layers, far apart. Do not cross the screen for them: a neighboring pair of circles costs half the time.