Pirate Jong

Buried treasure is the framing device: Pirate Jong sends you through more than a hundred layouts on the promise of finding it, and TapLabGames keeps the rules plain enough that the search, rather than the instructions, supplies the difficulty.

Tiles carry pirate iconography, flags and cutlasses and chests and compasses, and they are cleared in identical pairs. A tile has to be uncovered with an open side before it can go, so on the taller arrangements the top of the pile is where every useful move begins. Halloween Mahjong builds the layers into another arrangement.

The time limit is strict, and that is the defining pressure. With a hundred-plus layouts, most of them readable, what separates a finished level from a failed one is how quickly you find the third and fourth pair rather than whether you can find them at all. A hint is available when the search stalls. A neighbour from the same shelf is the Onet board.

The build runs at 1280 by 960 under mouse control, and full screen is the natural fit for that resolution, since a window smaller than the native size squeezes the detailed pirate artwork into something much harder to sort. Only tiles with an open side move in the Sugar board too.

1. Pick out two identical pirate tiles that are uncovered and open on one side.
2. Click them to clear the pair and expose the tiles below.
3. Take the highest pieces early, since they lock the largest part of a layout.
4. Empty the board before the strict time limit runs out, using a hint if the search stalls.

• Move fast on the obvious pairs — Pirate Jong is strict with the clock, and easy matches are the time bank for the hard ones.
• Sort by shape — flags, blades and chests read at a glance, the finer emblems do not.
• Do not hoard hints — with a hundred layouts ahead, a hint that saves fifteen seconds is a good trade.
• Clear the peak, then the flanks — the outer tiles remain available, the covered ones do not.
• Use full screen — the game is drawn at 1280 by 960 and looks cramped in anything smaller.