Taurus Mahjong Solitaire
About the Taurus Layout
Taurus expands the Zodiac theme to a meatier 70 tiles, drawing the bull as a wide pair of horns sweeping up and outward above a full circular face. The face reads as a ring of tiles enclosing a denser core, while the horns flare to the upper left and upper right like a longhorn's spread. It is a bold, broad-shouldered figure that fills the screen horizontally, and the rounded head gives it more layered stacking than the lighter Aries board that shares its sign family.
Rated 2 out of 5, Taurus is comfortably approachable but asks for a little more patience than the smallest layouts simply because of its size and its circular center. The horns clear with ease, but the round face hides a few tiles behind its rim, so the difficulty character is steady and methodical rather than tricky. It rewards a calm, sweeping style of play, fitting for a sign famous for its unhurried, immovable temperament.
Difficulty: Medium (2/5) | Tiles: 70
How to Clear the Taurus Layout
Sweep the horns first. The two upswept horns are largely single-layer and exposed along their outer edges, so they offer the easiest early matches and quickly thin the top of the board. Clearing them also unblocks the upper arc of the face where the horns attach.
Work the circular face from its outer rim inward. The ring of tiles forming the bull's head is the structural part of this layout, and the rim tiles free up the core. Peel the circle evenly all the way around rather than punching through one side, because an even rim keeps the most matching options available as you go.
The crux is the center of the face. The innermost tiles of the round head are the last to open, often stacked a layer above the ring, so plan to leave them for the endgame and avoid burning their matching partners early on the easy horn tiles. Keep at least one partner in reserve for anything you can see sitting in that core.
Because the horns and the face are loosely separate regions, it is easy to clear all the simple horn tiles and then realize the center needs a partner you already spent. If that happens, Shuffle re-deals the remaining tiles into a fresh solvable arrangement, so a stranded core can always be reset.
The Story Behind the Taurus Layout
Taurus is the celestial bull, one of the oldest recognized constellations, and its glyph is a circle topped by a pair of upward-curving horns, exactly the figure this board recreates. Ancient cultures from Mesopotamia to Greece saw a bull charging through the spring sky, and the cluster of the Pleiades and the bright red star Aldebaran sit within the real constellation as the creature's shoulder and glaring eye. The wide horns above a round face are the bull reduced to its most essential, powerful silhouette.
The bull has long symbolized strength, fertility and stubborn endurance, and the heaviness of this layout, broad and grounded with a solid round head, captures that immovable quality. Where Aries races forward, Taurus plants its feet, and the denser circular core you slowly excavate gives the board a satisfying sense of weight that matches the sign's earthbound reputation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the easiest way to start the Taurus board?
Begin with the two horns sweeping up from the head. They are mostly single-layer and open along their outer edges, so they give you fast early matches and clear the top of the figure before you tackle the rounder face.
Why is the center of the bull's face the hardest part?
The face is a ring of tiles around a raised core, so the innermost tiles are blocked by the rim and sometimes by a layer above. They tend to be the final tiles standing, which is why it helps to save their matching partners rather than spending them on the easy horns.
Is Taurus harder than Aries?
Slightly, though both are rated 2 out of 5. Taurus has more tiles and a layered circular head, so it takes a bit longer and asks for more careful rim-clearing, but it remains a relaxed, beginner-friendly layout.
Can I always finish Taurus, or can it become unsolvable?
Every Taurus deal is generated by working backward from a solved board, so a full clearance always exists. If your specific path strands a tile in the core, the Shuffle button re-deals the remaining tiles into another solvable layout.
See more Zodiac Mahjong boards, or browse all layouts.
