Hats Mahjong Connect

Lof Games lays thirty flat boards of headwear and gives every match a two-turn line and a countdown to beat.

Hats Mahjong Connect lays out a flat board of headwear — caps, top hats, woolly beanies — and asks you to pair them off before the clock empties. Lof Games built this version in 2023, and the rule governing every move is a path rule rather than a stacking one: the line drawn between two matching hats is allowed at most two turns.

Thirty levels sit behind that rule, and the countdown is what gives them their shape. Clearing a board is rarely about whether a legal pair exists, because on a single flat layer every hat is visible from the first second. It is about finding pairs fast enough that the timer does not catch you with a third of the headwear still standing. Spooky Link replaces the tile art and leaves the path rule alone.

A hint and a shuffle sit beside the board for the moments when scanning stops working. The hint marks one live pair; the shuffle redeals the hats that are left, which is the only way out when the survivors have ended up so far apart that no two-turn line can reach between them.

The stage is 800 by 450, wide and shallow, so hats at opposite ends are a long way apart on a laptop. Switching to full screen is the cheapest way to keep both ends of the board readable at once. Touch input works as well, and the single-layer design costs a tablet nothing.

Controls

Mouse or touchpad on desktop, or tap the hats on a touchscreen.

How to Play

Scan the flat board for two hats sharing the same shape and colour.
Trace the join in your head — the line between them may turn twice at most.
Click one hat, then the other, and the pair lifts off the layout.
Empty the board before the countdown reaches zero and the next of the thirty levels opens.
Spend a hint, or a shuffle, when the hats still standing sit too far apart to link.

Tips & Tricks

Work the outer hats first — pairs near the rim have the open space a two-turn line needs.
Take the pair you can see — hunting for a tidier one burns seconds the countdown is already taking.
Keep the shuffle for a dead board — redealing while legal pairs remain throws away positions you had already found.
Watch the near-twins — two caps in similar colours are the usual cause of a wasted click.
Set full screen before level one — an 800 by 450 stage stretched to monitor width makes the far-side headwear legible.