# Getting started

How Mahjong Monsters works: clearing tiles makes your monsters attack.

<https://mahjongmonsters.games.pocosoft.jp/guide/en/start.html>

Mahjong Monsters is an RPG that **uses a Mahjong solitaire board as its combat system**. You match identical tiles in pairs exactly as you would in any solitaire game, but here **the element of the tile you cleared decides which monster hits the enemy**.

Every board you are dealt **can always be cleared to the end**. The only ways to get stuck are mismanaging the tray or being beaten down by the enemy.

## One run, step by step

- Pick **4 monsters** for your deck. The first one is the **leader**, and its skill is the one you will cast.
- Sortie into a stage. The stamina it costs is **the sum of your 4 monsters' costs**.
- Clear tiles in pairs. Each clear sends an attack of that tile's element at the enemy.
- The enemy fills a gauge over time and strikes when it is full. You lose when party HP hits zero.
- A stage throws **3 to 5 enemies** at you in a row. The board is **not** re-dealt between them.
- The last one is a boss. Beat them all to win. **Even if you lose or retreat, you keep the rewards from the enemies you did beat.**

## Which tile is which element

Tile faces carry no element hint on purpose, so it is quicker to learn them by suit. **Terminals (the 1 and 9 of each suit) fire their suit element and Hume at the same time**, which makes them the strongest tiles in the game.

| Effect | Tiles | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Fire Attack | Characters (man) 1-9 | 36 |
| Water Attack | Circles (pin) 1-9 | 36 |
| Wood Attack | Bamboo (sou) 1-9 | 36 |
| Hume Attack | Honour tiles (winds and dragons) plus the terminals (the 1 and 9 of each suit) | 52 |
| Heal | Flower tiles (plum, orchid, chrysanthemum, bamboo) and season tiles (spring, summer, autumn, winter) | 8 |

## Building a deck

Party HP and healing are simply the sum of the 4 monsters. Attack is tracked **per element**: the total attack of monsters whose primary element matches, plus 0.5 × the total of those whose sub-element matches.

**If no monster in your deck carries an element, clearing that tile deals no damage at all.** Spreading across all 4 elements or stacking one element to exploit a weakness is the core deck-building decision.

Stamina cost is the sum of the 4 costs, so **cheaper decks let you grind more**. Naga monsters are unusually cheap for their rarity; scorpions are unusually expensive.

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This page is generated from the app's master data, so the numbers are the ones the game actually uses.