Pineapple Mahjong Solitaire

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About the Pineapple Layout

The Pineapple board stands tall on the screen, a tapered teardrop body crowned with a spray of pointed fronds. The lower two-thirds form the fruit itself, a rounded oval that swells outward at the middle and narrows toward the base, packed with tiles in the cross-hatched pattern that gives a real pineapple its diamond skin. Above it, the leafy crown fans out in several thin spikes of stacked tiles, the longest spear reaching up the center while shorter blades splay to either side. It is an unmistakable silhouette, and one of the more vertical layouts you will meet.

At three out of five, the Pineapple sits squarely in the comfortable middle. The fat body gives you plenty of breathing room and open edges to work with, so the opening rarely feels cramped. The challenge lives up in the crown, where the narrow leaf-spikes stack tiles tightly and a careless early pace can leave you with frozen fronds and matching tiles stranded at the very top. Played with a little patience it is a satisfying, unhurried board that rewards you for thinking a few moves ahead.

Difficulty: Hard (3/5) | Tiles: 108

How to Clear the Pineapple Layout

Begin in the body, not the crown. The oval fruit has long free edges down both the left and right curves, and the tiles there are immediately selectable. Sweep these flanks first to thin the bulk of the board, which keeps your match options wide and avoids the trap of having lots of tiles but nothing legal to pair.

Treat each leaf-spike as its own little stack that can only be eaten from the tip downward. The center frond is usually the tallest, so do not let it become the last thing standing. Whenever a leaf tile becomes free and you can pair it, take it, even if you would rather clear elsewhere, because a buried frond tile is far harder to reach later than a body tile.

The crux is the transition from body to crown. Aim to keep the body slightly ahead of the leaves so that as the fruit empties, the base of each frond opens up from below as well as the tip from above. If you clear the body completely while the crown is still full, the spikes can only be unzipped from their tips, which is slow and unforgiving.

For the endgame, the last tiles tend to cluster where the crown meets the body, the busiest seam on the board. Keep one matched pair in reserve here as a safety valve rather than spending every free match the instant it appears. If you do stall, the Shuffle button re-deals the remaining tiles into a solvable arrangement, and flowers and seasons are wildcards within their groups, so a stuck flower will pair with any other flower.

The Story Behind the Pineapple Layout

The pineapple has long been a symbol of welcome and hospitality, a meaning that traces back to colonial-era hosts who displayed the rare, expensive fruit to honor their guests. Botanically it is not a single fruit at all but a fusion of dozens of separate flowers, each spiral of diamonds on its skin marking where an individual blossom merged into the whole, which is a rather fitting origin for a tile puzzle built from many small pieces locking together.

That diamond lattice is exactly what makes the pineapple such a natural Mahjong shape. The cross-hatched skin translates cleanly into rows of staggered tiles, and the bristling crown gives the board a playful vertical flourish that most layouts lack. It reads instantly as a pineapple even at a glance, which is part of the fun.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I clear the leafy crown or the fruit body first?

Start with the fruit body. Its curved sides offer the most free tiles right away and clearing them keeps your options open. Work the crown in parallel, taking leaf tiles whenever they come free, but let the body lead so the fronds open from the bottom as well as the top.

Why do I keep getting stuck with tiles trapped in the leaves?

The leaf-spikes can only be removed from the tip down until the body beneath them clears. If you race ahead in the body and ignore the crown, or vice versa, you strand tiles. Balance the two and prioritize any leaf tile you can legally match.

Is the Pineapple a hard board?

It is rated three out of five, a true middle difficulty. The roomy body makes the opening easy, but the tight, stacked crown raises the challenge in the second half, so the board feels harder the longer you play it.

What happens if no moves are left?

Press Shuffle. It re-deals the remaining tiles into a new arrangement that is guaranteed solvable, so you will never reach a true dead end. Remember that any flower matches any flower and any season matches any season.

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