How many tiles are in the butterfly layout?

144, split into two mirrored wings of 72. It uses the complete mahjong set exactly like every other layout here.

Is the butterfly good for beginners?

It is the best starting point on the site. Both inner edges are open from the first move, so the free-tile rule is easy to see in action and a careless match is much less likely to strand you.

Can you match a tile in one wing with a tile in the other?

Yes. The wings are two halves of one board, not two separate games, and cross-wing matches are usually the right ones — they keep both sides opening at the same rate.

Mahjong Solitaire — Butterfly

The butterfly splits the 144 tiles into two mirrored wings of 72 with a clear gap down the middle. Every tile on the inner edge of each wing is free from the start, which makes this by some distance the most open layout on the site and the best one to learn the free-tile rule on.

Time

0:00

Tiles left

144

Matches

Shuffles

Your statistics

Played: 0
Won: 0
Win rate: 0%
Streak: 0
Best streak: 0
Best time: —

Tiles: 144, 72 per wing
Layers: 3 per wing
Shape: (56 + 12 + 4) × 2
Solvable: Every deal, by construction

What makes the butterfly easier?

Two free edges instead of one. The gap in the middle means each wing has an unobstructed inner side as well as an unobstructed outer side, so at any moment you have roughly twice as many free tiles as a solid rectangle of the same size would give you. More free tiles means more available matches, and more available matches means less chance of walking into a dead end.

Does that make it boring?

Less than you would expect, because the wings are not independent. A tile in the left wing matches a tile in the right one just as happily, and the choice of which copy of a face to take is where the game still lives — take both from the same wing and you have opened that wing at the cost of leaving the other one solid. Playing the two wings at roughly equal depth is the whole strategy.

How is a mahjong tile matched?

The 144-tile set, and what matches what
Group	Count	Matches
Dots, bamboo, characters	108 (4 of each 1–9)	The identical tile
Winds — east, south, west, north	16	The identical wind
Dragons — red, green, white	12	The identical dragon
Flowers	4	Any other flower
Seasons	4	Any other season

The flowers and seasons are the only tiles that are not exact pairs, and they are the reason a board can have an odd-looking match. There are four of each, so they form two pairs within their own group in whatever combination becomes available.

Butterfly mahjong questions people ask

How many tiles are in the butterfly layout?: 144, split into two mirrored wings of 72. It uses the complete mahjong set exactly like every other layout here.
Is the butterfly good for beginners?: It is the best starting point on the site. Both inner edges are open from the first move, so the free-tile rule is easy to see in action and a careless match is much less likely to strand you.
Can you match a tile in one wing with a tile in the other?: Yes. The wings are two halves of one board, not two separate games, and cross-wing matches are usually the right ones — they keep both sides opening at the same rate.

The full rules

Every layout shares one rule set. The complete version, including exactly what makes a tile free and why flowers and seasons are the odd ones out, is on how to play mahjong solitaire.