How to Play Mahjong Safari

The Basics

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In Mahjong Safari, your goal is to clear the puzzle by matching identical tiles. Matching tiles must be connected by a line that has up to two turns.

You match tiles by clicking on one, and then clicking on the other. You’ll see the connecting line appear automatically in the empty spaces of the puzzle. The line can only go on empty spaces.

There are a few tiles in the puzzle that are special. There are four Star tiles in each puzzle. Match those to earn one of each powerup. The three powerups are Shuffle (which lets you mix up all the tiles when you get stuck), Long Line (which lets you match two tiles with more than two turns), and Hint (which gives you a hint about an available match.)

The other special tiles in each puzzle are the only tiles that don’t have identical matches. You can put together two tiles into one larger animal. Those tiles can be seen by their special background. When you match those tiles, you earn a mini-animal on the left side of the screen, and when you collect ten, you win a spin.

Remember, the goal is to match tiles, and they must be connected by a line that has two or fewer turns.

Gameplay

Your goal is to match tiles with a connecting line that has two or fewer turns. The farther apart the tiles, the higher your score. For the highest possible score, create combos by matching tiles quickly one after another. There are two special types of tiles that are important:

• Stars - When you match these tiles, you earn one of each powerup.
• Mini-Animals - These are the only tiles that don’t have identical matches. Match the two halves of the same animal to earn a mini-animal on the left side of the screen. Collect ten and you win a spin.

There are three different types of powerups that you can earn and use:

• Shuffle - lets you mix up all the tiles when you get stuck
• Long Line - lets you match two tiles with more than two turns
• Hint - gives you a hint about an available match.

In the lower left part of the screen, you will notice two numbers: Tiles and Available Matches. These are useful to notice throughout the game so you can track your progress and know how many matches are available.

If you collect ten mini-animals on the left side, you will complete your safari, win a spin, and give a gift to someone else in the game room with you!

Read the Tips page for more details.

Scoring

There are lots of ways to earn tokens in Mahjong Safari! Here is the complete list

• The higher your Score, the more tokens you earn. For every 100 points, you earn 1 token. Get a high score by matching tiles that are long distances away, and by making long Combos.
• At the end of each successful game, you get a game complete bonus. Harder difficulties award more tokens since they take longer to complete.
• If you complete a game and still have some powerups left over, you’ll earn 10 bonus tokens per powerup.
• At the end of a successful game that you completed quickly, you earn a Time Bonus.
• During the game, if you make an animal-specific combo, you’ll earn an extra 30 tokens per animal combo. For instance, match two pandas, then quickly match two pandas again, and you’ll earn a Panda combo.
• If you complete a safari by collecting 10-mini animals, you’ll get a bonus of 100 tokens (and Pogo will give 100 tokens to someone else in the room.) You will also win a spin, which may award some tokens.
• If you’re playing in a room with other people, when they complete a safari, you will once and a while get a bonus gift of 100 tokens for their efforts!

Tips

• The Available Matches display in the lower left can help you know when to Shuffle and when to keep looking.
• Matching a pair of animals and quickly matching another pair of the same animals can earn you big points at the end of the game.
• If you play in a room with lots of other people, you’ll have more chances to receive a gift from other players. In most cases, only active players receive gifts, so staying in a room without playing won’t earn you tokens.
• You can customize the tiles that you see in the puzzle. Click on the tile box in the upper left. There are also interesting animal facts included! Mahjong Safari includes two completely unique tilesets. Switch between them by pressing the yellow and blue buttons your tile box.
• For Club Pogo players, as you increase in Rank, you’ll earn new animal tiles that will be automatically added to your tile box in the upper left.
• Harder difficulty levels are harder, but they also allow you to earn more tokens and get a higher score.
• For the highest score, try making lots of animal combos and finishing fast enough to earn the Time Bonus.
• Use the Long Line powerup to make long matches, increasing your score, and helping to avoid or delay the need to use a Shuffle.
• Even if you don’t win a particular game, you can still make spin progress by matching some of the mini-animals.
• If you click on the Long Line powerup to use it, and then decide that you don’t need it, you can click on the same button again to turn it off for that move.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why can’t I match these two tiles?
A: Assuming they have matching images, you probably can’t match them because the connecting line has too many turns. For normal matches, the connecting line must have two or fewer turns, which is different than some other Mahjong games. You can use the Long Line powerup to help make certain matches, or clear out other tiles first.

Q: Why do these tiles that look different still match?
A: There are a few tiles in each puzzle that are two halves of the same animal. Match those tiles to earn spin progress and collect mini-animals on the left side of the screen.

Q: When does the game end?
A: The game ends when there are no more matches available (and you have no powerups remaining), or when all the tiles are cleared. Also, if you take a really long time to play the game, it will eventually timeout.

Skill Levels

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Changing the Skill Level changes the difficulty of the game, the complexity of the puzzles, and the number of mini-animals available each puzzle. Harder puzzles generally have more tiles and take longer to complete.

Note that you can make spin progress on any level of difficulty, and you can switch difficulties while retaining your spin progress.

Ranks

Mahjong Safari has 50 ranks that you can earn as you progress through the game. For Club Pogo players, your rank is shown on a special Rank tile that appears in each puzzle. Also, at each rank, you earn a new tile for your collection. Click on the tile box in the upper left to see your collection, and customize the tiles you use. At the end of each game, the Game Summary screen will display how many more spins you need to reach the next rank.

Whenever you collect 10 mini-animals on the left side of the screen, you will earn a spin and make progress towards your next rank. Higher difficulty levels contain more mini-animals because they’re harder and they take longer:

• Easy: 2 mini-animals per game
• Normal: 3 mini-animals per game
• Hard: 4 mini-animals per game

There are 5 rank badges you can win in Mahjong Safari. The badges are given out when you achieve ranks 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50. There are also two secret badges, which we won’t write about here, because then they wouldn’t be secret!

Note: To make rank progress, you do not need to win the game. You simply need to collect 10 mini-animals, which will earn you a spin.