Pyramid Mahjong

Pyramid Mahjong builds its layouts into the shape its name promises and fills them with Egyptian furniture — pharaohs, hieroglyphs, scarabs. The pyramid arrangement is not decoration: a tile near the apex sits on the ones below it, so the top of the board unlocks far more than the base does. The Onet grid shares this board’s place in the catalogue.

Matching follows the standard condition — a tile is available while nothing rests on it and its sides are not both blocked — and the pyramid shape makes that condition bite, since the sloping rows keep flanks covered longer than a flat layout would. Mahjong Shanghai keeps the layered board and changes the shape.

You choose whether a clock runs. The game offers timed and untimed play, so the same Egyptian layout can be a race or a slow read, and hints and a shuffle are on hand either way. This 2020 HTML5 build works on smartphones and tablets as well as desktop, and full screen is worth using for the hieroglyph tiles, several of which differ by one small figure. Stylish Purses Mahjong sits beside this one among the layered boards.

1. Choose timed or untimed play before the pyramid is dealt.
2. Find two identical Egyptian tiles that are not covered and not blocked on both sides.
3. Remove the pair and read the tiles it exposes below.
4. Take the pyramid apart from the top until the layout is clear.

• Work from the apex down — the peak tiles of a Pyramid Mahjong layout release the most board per pair.
• Choose untimed for a new layout, then run the same arrangement against the clock once you know it.
• Watch the sloping rows, where a tile can look exposed while both its flanks are still covered.
• Keep the shuffle back for a layout with no legal pair left in it.
• Enlarge the board for the hieroglyphs, which are the fiddliest tile faces in the Egyptian set.