Tiki Mahjong

Tiki Mahjong carves its tiles out of island idol imagery — totems, masks and the faces of old pagan gods — and pairs them off on a simplified stack. Each level brings its own set of tile designs, so the carvings change as you climb rather than repeating a single deck.

The freedom condition is the two-sided one: a tile has to have at least two free sides before it can be chosen, which means a totem hemmed in by neighbours stays where it is until one of them is taken away. Matching is by identical carving, and emptying the arrangement completes the level. The Card Solitaire board piles the tiles into a different silhouette.

No timer counts down, and music plays behind the boards, which sets the pace deliberately low. Hints and a shuffle are there for a locked arrangement, though with no clock there is rarely a reason to spend either one early. A longer explanation of the rule sits in the winning-more guide.

Full screen is the setting that makes the carvings distinguishable, because several masks share a silhouette and differ only in the pattern cut into them, which a small window flattens away. New players tend to work the fringes, whereas taking the upper layers down first frees far more of the idol stack. Another layout to unstack is the Garden Tales 2 board.

1. Study the stack of carved tiles and identify two showing the same idol.
2. Ensure that the tiles you have chosen each have at least two free sides.
3. Select them in turn to lift the pair off and expose the carvings underneath.
4. Continue until the whole arrangement is gone, then move on to the next set of designs.

• Learn the silhouettes — in Tiki Mahjong two masks can share an outline and differ only in the carved pattern.
• Lift the roof early — a covered totem is unavailable regardless of how free its sides look.
• Take the unhurried route — nothing counts down, so a complete scan of the board costs only patience.
• Keep the shuffle in reserve — it is the answer to an arrangement with no legal pair, not to a slow minute.
• Play it in full screen — the fine carving detail is exactly what a windowed board loses.