Find helpful information about the game below. If you need to ask us a question use the "Contact us" link in the game's menu.
Mahjong: the Secret Garden has two gameplay modes: the garden mode and the island mode.
Garden Mode - Here you can develop your garden and decorate it with items from the store which can be bought with Silver and Gold, as well as purchasing new gardens!
Island Mode - This is where you earn your Silver! On every island there will usually be 10 or 15 red markers, and each of these is a mahjong game. Once you have completed a game, you can move on to the next red marker. Along the way you will encounter barriers that require a certain number of stars in order for you to unlock them to continue on your journey. As well as this, at the end of each island you will come across a boat - here you have 3 options. You can wait the specified amount of time until your boat is ready to set sail to the next island, or you can travel straight away using either 10 Gold or the stated amount of energy.
Each mahjong game consists of a shaped game board made up of tiles, each bearing a symbol.
The aim of the game is to clear the board by matching off pairs of tiles with the same symbol. You cannot select a tile which is blocked on both sides by other tiles; this tile is unavailable. A tile will also be unavailable if there is another tile on top of it.
Clear the board faster for more stars.
You can use the zoom options button at the bottom of the mahjong board to change your zoom settings. You can have zoom either turned off, turned on using the mouse, or turned on to auto - with auto, the board will automatically zoom in and centre as you remove tiles from the edges.
You can change this setting at any time, and it will be saved for future games too.
Yes! In garden mode, when editing your garden, you can use the following keyboard shortcuts
Do nothing/move around your garden – space
Move items - M
Flip items - F
Look up items (in the store) - P
Store items - S
Sell items - Delete
You can check the keyboard shortcuts at any time by hovering over the relevant button when in edit mode.
There are a number of different boosts available for the mahjong part of the game. 4 of these can be purchased before you start a mahjong game and there are 2 more that are available whilst playing.
Pre-game boosts:
Show Free Tiles: This boost will highlight all all available tiles making it easier to see moves.
Show Hints: This boost will highlight matching pairs every few seconds.
Free Shuffles: If you run out of moves, the game board will shuffle automatically. This boost will allow as many of these re-shuffles as you need in a game without causing you a time penalty.
Slow Timer: When selected, this boost will make the timer decrease more slowly than usual.
In-game boosts:
Whilst in the game there is the option to remove a pair for a set amount of Silver, perfect for when you just can’t see a match anywhere. The second in-game boost is the option to automatically 3-star the game; once you press this you will automatically gain 3 stars for the game.
Each time you play a mahjong game you’ll get a star score. You can get up to three stars per board, and if you don’t get three stars the first time you can replay the game to try and earn more stars! Only new stars will be added to your total. You can check your star total in the top left of the game. On the map list, you can see the star totals for each island and how many of those you have collected. You can also use the 'Hide completed' option in the bottom right of the map list to hide islands where you already have all the stars.
If you click your own star total, this will bring up a rankings table showing your friends star totals along with your own.
You receive energy every time you purchase an item for your garden as well as on the Daily Spin. The amount of energy you will receive for each item is stated when you hover over the item in the store. Energy is used for travelling on the boat to new islands early, rather than waiting the amount of time specified.
Please note that you will not receive energy for placing gifts, items you have won or items from your storage in your garden.
The barriers found on most islands require a certain number of stars to pass through them - the number can be seen underneath the barrier. This refers to all your stars earned so far in the game, not just the current island. You can compare this with your current star total at the top of the game. If you need more stars to open a barrier you can get these by replaying previous mahjong games, on any island, which don’t already have 3 stars.
If you reach the end of an island and there is no boat to travel to the next one then congratulations! This means that you have reached the end of the islands that are currently available in the game, but don't worry, this doesn’t mean that the game is over! We are constantly working on new islands and they are added to the game periodically. When new islands are released a message is sent out in the game to all those on the final island and there is also a post about it on our Facebook page.
Whilst waiting for new islands to be released, why not work on your garden or go back to some previous games and see if you can get some more stars and earn yourself some more Silver?
To enter edit mode click the ‘Edit garden’ button.
The store will appear at the bottom of the game - here you can enter different categories and browse the items available to buy, as well as sorting them by category using the drop down box.
You can also click the expand button to see more items at once and search for items by name. This will show all currently available items with your search term in their name. It will also show any items from your storage, which will have a brown box on them with a number to show that they are in your storage.
Click an item to purchase it - when you click it you will see a preview which you can hold over your garden to see what the item will look like and check where it can be placed (red highlight means the item cannot be placed there). When you are ready, click where you would like to place the item - you will not be charged until this point. When you’ve finished with one item, select a different one or click one of the buttons on the right, or the green 'Close' button if you're finished editing your garden.
The buttons on the right allow you to move, flip, look-up, store or sell an item - click the button first, then click on the item.
Some items have multiple color options - these have a rainbow pinwheel on them. The colou options will pop up for you to choose from when you click the item in the store or your storage. Once you've bought an item, you can always change the color option later by storing the item and then placing it again.
When you store an item it will go to your storage - you can access this using the brown box on the left, or the far right of the categories when you have the store open. A brown box icon will show how many of each item you have in storage. Click an item in your storage to pick it up then click again where you would like to place it in your garden. If there are multiple color options for the item, you can choose which color to place, and this can be changed each time you move the item out of storage. You can also sell items directly from your storage by clicking the ‘Sell’ button on the item.
When looking at items in the store, in their various categories, any items which you have in storage will be indicated by a brown box icon. If you place these down, the stored items will be placed first before purchasing more. If you only want to place the ones you have in storage and not buy new ones, make sure to do this from the storage category or check the 'Storage Only' button first - this will only show stored items, and only allow you to place those.
There’s no need to flip these pieces - they will automatically rotate and form corners when you place them next to pieces of the same type of hedge or fence.
▶When you place any Fences or Paths and Ground in your garden, you can click once to place one, or drag out a line (for fences) or a rectangle (for floors) to place lots at once. You can do this with buying new items from the store, or placing existing ones from your storage. If you want to only place stored items, make sure to do this from the storage category or check 'Storage Only' first - otherwise once you use up your stored items, you'll start to purchase new ones.
When placing the items, simply click and hold with your mouse and drag out a line or rectangle in your garden. The total cost for any new fence or floor you're buying will be shown next to your cursor. If you decide you don't want to place that many, keep your mouse held down and drag back to a smaller section - the items will only be bought when you let go! You can also right-click on your mouse, while keeping left click held down, to cancel placing the items completely.
After clicking the store or sell buttons on the right, you can also drag out a rectangle or line on floor or fence items to store or sell lots at once. If selling, the Silver or Gold you'll earn will also be shown next to your cursor, and you can also drag to a smaller section, or right-click while still holding left click to cancel.
Yes, just click on the Garden Options button on the left hand side of your garden, and then click the box with your garden’s name in. Then use your keyboard to change the name, and just click ‘Close’ when you’re done.
▶To move between your different gardens, use the drop down box in the top right of the garden.
Yes! When you are in your garden, click on the Garden options button on the left hand side. At the bottom of this screen is a red button that says Clear Garden. You need to click on this and then confirm that you would like to remove all items from the current garden. Once you have done this, all items from that garden will be moved into your storage.
▶There are a few different reasons why you might not get any Silver when you sell an item from your garden. If you received an item as a gift, you will not earn any Silver when you sell it; this is the same for items you win in a Crate or a Treasure Chest, or on the daily spin.
▶We have competitions regularly in the game. To see if one is currently open click the rosette on the left of your garden. Here you can find out the theme for the competition as well as browse through some entries from your fellow players and enter yourself. The winners of the competition are chosen by our team, and will be announced shortly after the competition ends. There may be multiple winners and runners up for some competitions!
We'll choose the winner based on the overall look of their garden as well as creativity and how well they've matched the theme. When you enter, you can attach up to four images of your garden; our team and other players will be able to view the whole garden as well. You can also type a couple of sentences about your garden if you wish - you might like to explain how it matches the theme!
You can also view the winners of the competition using the rosette button, once the competition has finished. You can do this up until the next competition starts.
You and your Facebook friends can visit each others gardens and send each other gifts when you both play the game. Your Facebook friends should appear automatically if they also play the game - there's no need to add or invite them within the game itself.
▶When your friends visit your garden they can view your other gardens by using the drop down in the top right of the game. If you want to hide a specific garden from your friends, you can do this in the Garden Options menu while in that garden, by unchecking ‘Visible to friends?’
Your friends will see the last garden you had open when they first visit your gardens, unless it is hidden from friends, in which case they will see the first visible garden on your list.
If you'd like to compare stars with your friends for some friendly competition, you can do this by clicking your own star total. This will bring up a rankings table showing your friends' totals along with your own.
Every other day when you log in, a box will appear that gives you the opportunity to send gifts to your friends! For those of you that have a long friend list, there is also the helpful option of being able to select all friends in the list and send gifts to all of them with just a couple of clicks!
When you open the game you may also find yellow gift boxes of Silver in some of your friends' gardens. These gifts are automatically placed in the gardens of up to 5 friends who have played the game recently each day. You don’t need to do anything to leave them for your friends, just play regularly! When your friend's garden has a gift in it, you'll see the gift icon on their picture in your friends bar to let you know.
You can leave messages in the gardens of your friends, as well as on competition entries or gardens of the week. To leave a message just visit someone's garden and click the blue Leave Message button in the bottom right, then tap where in the garden you want to leave it and type your message. The other player will see the message in this spot in their garden, next time they log on.
If others have left you messages, the blue hide messages button in the corner of your garden will stop the messages being visible; this is a good one to use if you just want them out of your way to look at your garden.
The 'Hide Message' button that shows up on each chat window will get rid of the message permanently, for you. Your friend will still be able to see it and reply if they want. If you've sent a reply and then hidden the chat window, then your friend might reply back again, and at this point the chat window (still showing all the previous messages) will pop up again in your garden.
Changes you make should save automatically after a few seconds, however, we recommend always using the save button to ensure this happens every time. When you are making changes you will see that the button will turn from a green checkmark to an exclamation mark. This means that you currently have unsaved changes. Once you have finished any editing that you are doing, either wait for this to change to a green checkmark automatically or you can click on the exclamation mark to manually save the game - but always wait until you see the green checkmark before leaving edit mode!
▶There are several suggestions/troubleshooting options you can try when your game is not loading. Please try the following steps:
1. We recommend that you, first of all, try playing in another browser (E.g if you are using Microsoft Edge for example, then try Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or Opera and vice versa.)
2. Now please visit this link for help in clarifying whether your browser is all up to date. If the browser is not up to date then simply click on the Update button to install the latest version.
3. We also recommend closing all extra tabs and other programs whilst you play as these can often negatively impact the browser performance.
4. Also make sure that you clear the browser cache regularly.
Follow the links below for instructions on how to clear your cache:
In Google Chrome
In Firefox
In other browsers
Still not working? Facebook or Mahjong: the Secret Garden might be having server problems, so wait for a while and try again. If all else fails, let us know and we will try and help you further.
You can turn the sound effects and music off using the buttons in the top right of the game.
You can play the game in your browser on Facebook. Unfortunately the game is not currently available for iPhone, iPad or Android devices.
▶We keep our players up to date with news, game updates and offers on our Mahjong: the Secret Garden Facebook page which you can find here . Make sure you Like and Follow the page there to be the first to see our updates.
▶You can find out your player ID by clicking the 'What's my Player ID?' link under the game. We recommend you make a note of this somewhere safe as this can help if you ever have any trouble with or questions about the game.
▶We normally have two sales a week where you can pick up items for your garden with a discount. Our sales normally last for two days. When a sale is running, you can click the red 'Sale' icon in the top right of the game to see which items are on sale, and click them on this list to purchase them. Items on sale will also have a red marker in the store showing the discount percentage - the price shown in store during a sale is the sale price with the discount already applied.
We also have occasional sales on Gold in the game, where you can purchase Gold via an in-app purchase and get more Gold for your money! You will see a pop-up when you open the game if there is a Gold sale running, and we sometimes feature a 'month of sales' where Gold will be one sale once a week for the whole month!
Game Club allows you to claim free Gold in Mahjong: the Secret Garden in return for trying out some of our other games!
To take part, go to the Game Club icon underneath Mahjong: the Secret Garden. You’ll see three options:
Play & Earn shows you the games you can play to earn Gold in Mahjong: the Secret Garden, as well as the tasks you need to do to get your Gold. There are also instructions for how to claim and links to the other games.
Get Code lets you get a 4 letter code once you’ve completed a task. You should click this button in the other game you’ve played to get Mahjong: the Secret Garden Gold. You can also tap it in Mahjong: the Secret Garden to get codes for rewards in other games.
Redeem Code lets you enter your 4 letter code from another game to get your Mahjong: the Secret Garden Gold!
We have twelve special Loyalty Cards currently available in the game. Every time you buy a certain amount of Gold (noted on the card in US$) you will receive a stamp on your card, which you can view by clicking 'Loyalty Card' below the game.
Once you collect five new stamps you will receive an exclusive free gift which cannot normally be purchased in the store - this free gift will go into your storage, and will also be added to a special 'Loyalty Card Items' section of the store for you to buy again in the future!
The game is only available in English, however, most of the game is picture based which allows players from all over the world to access and enjoy it; we have lots of players who speak different languages and still enjoy the game a lot!
If you have any questions, please do let us know and we’ll do our best to help!
Silver can be used to buy garden items from the store as well as expanding your garden and purchasing new gardens, and it can also be used to purchase boosts. You will receive Silver as a reward at the end of each mahjong game that you play, even when you replay them! Silver can also be won in the Daily Spin. Gold can also be converted into Silver.
Gold is a premium currency that can be used to buy special garden items, travel early to the next island, unlock barriers early and auto 3-star a game; it can also be converted into Silver. Gold can be received by winning a garden competition or completing a Game Club offer.
Gold can also be purchased in the game, all you need to do is press the '+' button next to your Gold total at the top of the game. Purchasing Gold is completely safe, each purchase is processed securely by Facebook. We do not have access to any of your payment details.
Mahjong: the Secret Garden costs money to make and keep running. We have to pay developers and rent servers - basically we need players to support us so we can keep the game running for everyone.
We know some players can’t or choose not to purchase Gold - it’s possible to play the game without buying anything, you just won't be able to progress as quickly or get certain items. We’re really thankful to the players who choose to support the game by purchasing Gold!
This is not currently an option in the game.
▶Facebook does not share their exchange rate, or what currency a player uses, with us. The prices for Gold in Mahjong: the Secret Garden are set in US$. If you're using a different currency we use a current exchange rate and your country to give a guide for what the Gold might cost, so this might vary very slightly from the actual cost. Don't worry though - you'll always have the chance to see the actual cost, in your selected currency, in Facebook's purchase window before you decide whether to make the purchase.
You can get in touch with us by clicking here.
▶If you can’t find the answer to your question here in the FAQs and still need help, get in touch. You can send us a message using the ‘Contact’ button underneath the game.
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