How to play

Welcome

A mahjong journey through ancient Egypt.

Fancy a game of mahjong on the way up the Nile? The amulets lie in a stack shaped like a pyramid, a temple or a cat. Take them off two alike at a time, until the table is clear.

Four ways to play

• A journey. Set out from Alexandria and sail up the river to Abu Simbel, through the three seasons of the Egyptian year. Choose your way on the map: stacks to clear, markets, shrines, tombs and whatever the river brings. The stacks grow harder as you climb. Stuck with no shuffle left, a stack costs a life; lose them all and the journey ends. Every journey is new and a lost one is only the start of the next.
• Go on with the journey. A journey under way waits for you at home. Close the game whenever you like: it picks up where you left off.
• Free play. One stack at a time, with no map and nothing to lose. Three stacks to begin with; every stack you clear on a journey joins them.
• Daily challenges. Three stacks a day, the same for everyone. The stack of the day: no shuffle, only hints. The tomb of the day: hard, with an omen and special amulets. The oasis of the day: small and gentle. Stuck? Try again as often as you like: the stamp remembers which try it took.

How hard a journey is

• RRelaxed. The gentlest way up the Nile, with help at every turn.
• NNormal. Some care is needed, and a little help is there.
• HHard. Little help: plan your pairs.
• PPharaoh. Almost no help and more kinds, for the bold.

Everything else is in the menu, at the right of the bar: the map or the stacks, Customise for the look of the game, Settings and this book.

Taking pairs

Two alike, both free: that is the whole rule.

Tap an amulet, then its twin. Off they go.

An amulet is free when nothing lies on top of it and nothing touches it on its left or on its right. Free amulets are bright; the rest sit a little in shadow.

Tap two that don't match and the second is chosen instead. No harm done.

Choosing well

Every stack can be cleared, but not in every order. Take the wrong pair and you can leave yourself stuck: a little thought goes a long way.

• Take the tall piles down. The highest amulets cover the most. Free them early.
• Open long rows from the ends. A row only opens from its ends, one amulet at a time.
• Three alike free? Take the two that free the most and save the third for its twin.
• Mind the buried twin. An amulet lying on its own twin can only go with the other two of its kind.

When you're stuck

Every stack has a way through and a little help when you lose it.

A shuffle gathers the amulets left and deals them again in the same places, always in an order that can be cleared. Free play gives you two for each deal.

On a journey shuffles are precious: each one used is gone. Stuck with none left, the stack is lost and costs a life. An oasis, the river or a relic may give one back.

Stuck with only 2 amulets left, they are dealt again for nothing. And once a journey, with no shuffle left, you can ask the Gods to deal the stack again.

A lost stack keeps the deben it paid and shows you where it slipped away: the pair after which there was no way left.

The bar

• The jar fills as the stack empties.
• A new deal, in free play.
• The satchel, on a journey: boons to use and relics carried.
• Shuffle. A dot for each shuffle left.
• Undo. Puts the last pair back, a dot for each left: three a stack on Relaxed and in free play.
• A hint shows a free pair. On a journey it costs 4 deben.
• The menu.

The journey

From Alexandria to Abu Simbel, through the flood, the sowing and the harvest.

A new map is drawn for every journey. From each place, paths lead to one or two places in the row above: the way is yours to choose. Each row brings more kinds of amulet and, further up, special ones.

• A stack. Clear it to go on.
• A market. Boons and relics for deben.
• A shrine. Choose one boon of three, free.
• A tomb. A hard stack with an omen. A relic if you clear it.
• An oasis. A shuffle back and a small stack by the water, if you like.
• On the river. Something happens.
• The great stack. The last and largest.

Clear a season's great stack to sail on into the next. Clear the last one and the journey is won.

Deben, boons and relics

Copper rings, the money of the Nile. Spend them wisely.

• 1 for each gold amulet
• 3 for each stack cleared
• 2 more for a stack cleared without a shuffle
• 1 for every 12 pairs in a row, with no wrong pair between

Spend deben at a market or on a hint. A boon is used once, from the satchel in the bar; you can carry three. A relic stays with you for the whole journey and works on its own.

Win the journey and the deben left become its score: your best on each level is kept in the museum. The relics you carried come home too.

Each thing you buy makes the next one cost more and every market has one bargain. Rare and wondrous boons and relics turn up higher on the map and less often: their cards say which they are.

Boons

• Eye of Horus. Shows a pair.
• Breath of Shu. Deals what is left again.
• Feather of Maat. Puts back the last pair.
• Sight of Thoth. Lifts every veil for five pairs.
• Chisel of Ptah. Takes a free amulet and one of its kind from anywhere.
• Ankh. One free amulet matches any other.
• Fury of Sekhmet. Takes every free pair of one kind.
• Hand of Bes. Swaps a free amulet with any other.

Relics

• Heart scarab. Stuck? Once a stack, a free shuffle.
• Djed pillar. A deben for every pair from the top layer.
• Wedjat eye. The first hint of every stack is free.
• Blue lotus. Two lotus pairs in a row give back a shuffle.
• Broad collar. One more deben for every pair.
• Shen ring. Every tenth pair brings a boon.
• Sistrum of Hathor. A wrong pair doesn’t break a run of pairs, once.
• Four canopic jars. Take all four Sons of Horus in a stack for a relic.
• Was sceptre. A tomb starts with a shuffle more.
• Knot of Isis. Rubble crumbles two pairs sooner.
• Nefer. A gold pair brings twice its deben.
• Ka arms. Every third stack cleared gives back a shuffle.
• Headrest. An oasis gives two shuffles back, not one.
• Shabti. Once a journey, stuck with nothing left, the shabti takes one pair away for you.
• Frog of Heqet. A veiled amulet shows itself when one beside it is taken.
• Papyrus sceptre. The river's gifts of deben come twice.
• Scroll of accounts. Markets are a fifth cheaper.
• Vulture of Nekhbet. A gold pair opens every seal it lies beside.
• Crook of the shepherd. A turquoise pair is twice as likely.
• Akhet, the horizon. The great stack starts with two shuffles more.

Special amulets and omens

Further up the river, some amulets are not what they seem.

• Gold amulets. Worth more deben.
• Turquoise amulets. Take the pair for a turquoise, kept at home for new looks.
• Veiled amulets. Only their backs show until they are free.
• Sealed amulets. Free once you take a pair of the kind on the seal.
• Rubble. Every pair cracks it a little. At the last, one dot for each pair it has left.
• The Four Sons of Horus. Any two of the four jars make a pair.
• Covered amulets. Free once the tiles on both its sides are gone.

Omens

A tomb and each great stack carry an omen, which makes them harder.

• A crowded market. Two more kinds of amulet.
• The veil. The bottom layer is veiled.
• Night falls. Covered amulets lie in darkness.
• No guide. Free amulets aren’t marked.
• Apep’s coil. A ring of sealed amulets round the middle.
• Silence. No hints in this stack.

What comes home

Win a journey and some of it comes home with you.

• Relics. The relics of every journey you win are kept at home, and each opens a new look for good.
• Stacks. A stack you clear on a journey can be played in free play from then on.
• Your score. The deben left when a journey is won are its score. Your best on each level is kept.
• Turquoise. Rare: from a turquoise pair, a journey won, the stack of the day and deeds. It buys new looks in Customise.
• The museum. Your relics, the stacks found, the days cleared and the deeds done, all on show from the home screen.