Strategy & Scoring Guide

Understanding Scoring

In A2Z Mahjong, your score is calculated based on time, moves, and tool usage. The faster you clear the board with fewer tools, the higher your score.

• Base score: increases with each pair removed
• Time bonus: faster completion = higher bonus
• Hint penalty: each hint use deducts from your score multiplier
• Shuffle penalty: shuffles are tracked and reduce your final score
• Undo: no score penalty — undo freely

To maximize your score: avoid hints and shuffles, clear the board quickly, and use undo instead of hint when possible.

Reading the Board — Before Your First Move

The 15 seconds before you make your first move may be the most valuable of the entire game. Spend them scanning:

1. How many layers are in the deepest stack? That's your primary bottleneck.
2. Are there tiles that only have one matching partner accessible? Remove those first — they'll only get harder.
3. Which tiles are completely buried with no free copy visible? Note them — they're not threats yet.
4. Which suits/honors are most represented in the top layer? Clearing them opens the most options.

The Two-Pair Rule

When you can see both copies of a pair and both are free, don't immediately remove them — unless removing them opens a tile you need. The Two-Pair Rule says: visible pairs are safe; pairs where one is buried are urgent.

Applied: if you see two free 7-Bamboo tiles but removing them does nothing useful, leave them. If one 7-Bamboo is free and the other is under three tiles, work to unblock the second one first.

Tile Priority Framework

When you have multiple valid moves, prioritize in this order:

1. Tiles blocking deep stacks: clear these first to open the most options
2. Honor tiles with limited copies visible: Winds and Dragons come in 4 copies — if two are gone and one is buried, the remaining free one is urgent
3. Flower and Season tiles: remove these early — their flexible matching rules make them easy to pair once you find the partner
4. Edge tiles: always available, never urgent unless they're blocking interior stacks
5. Matched pairs in open space: remove last — they're never going anywhere

Layout-Specific Strategy

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Clicking the first pair you see: the most common beginner error. Always scan before removing.
• Ignoring upper layers: clearing only the base while the top stacks grow inaccessible is a losing pattern.
• Removing "safe" pairs when urgent pairs exist: if a pair is always going to be available, leave it. Focus on the pairs under threat.
• Overusing shuffle: shuffles are powerful but expensive in score terms. Try undo chains first.
• Not using undo enough: unlike many games, undo has no cost in A2Z Mahjong. Use it freely to correct mistakes.

Building Speed

Expert players don't think tile-by-tile — they recognize patterns. After 50+ games, you'll start to see "this stack needs these 4 moves to clear" as a single unit rather than 4 separate decisions. This pattern recognition is what separates fast clearers from slow ones.

To build it faster: play the same layout repeatedly until it feels automatic, then switch layouts to transfer the skill.