Empress Mahjong: Jade Palace

Ninety handcrafted levels carry Empress Mahjong: Jade Palace, arranged as a progress through the palace in the company of the Empress rather than as one board repeated with new tiles. Matching free tiles clears the layered boards a course at a time. The full shelf is the Solitaire section.

The safety net is unusual. When no matches remain, Fantasy Realm shuffles the leftover tiles automatically instead of declaring the level dead, and a hint is there for the commoner problem of a pair that exists but does not look free. Between the two, you rarely lose a level outright. What you lose is time. A second stacked layout here is the Xmas 2020 Deluxe pile.

Time is the actual scoreboard, since each level keeps a best time and can be replayed to beat it. The early palace floors, where the stacks are shallow and the routes obvious, are where most of that improvement is available. The game is drawn at 1280 by 720, the widest frame in this section of the catalogue, which leaves the outer stacks legible without crowding. Only tiles with an open side move in Magic and Wizards too.

1. Enter the palace and take identical free tiles off the layered board in pairs.
2. Peel the upper courses first so the tiles beneath them become free.
3. Ask for a hint when a pair is hiding rather than genuinely absent.
4. Let the automatic shuffle reopen the board if the matches truly run out.
5. Finish the level, then replay it to set a faster best time.

• Race the early floors — the shallow layouts near the start of the ninety are where a best time is easiest to shave.
• Do not wait for the shuffle — it only triggers when nothing is left to match, and by then the clock has run on.
• Hint sparingly — finding the hidden free tile yourself is faster than reading the prompt once you know the palace layouts.
• Use the wide frame — at 1280 by 720 the whole layered board is on screen, so scan the far edges before the crowded centre.