Mahjong Zen Garden is a tile-matching game with a Zen garden theme. It features three modes (Classic, Meditation and Solitaire) with vibrant, animated backdrops. The playfield displays Chinese Mahjong tiles with bamboo, characters, dragons, elements, flowers and stones in a pattern. The player must match these tiles in pairs to remove all the pieces. In some areas of the game, they also attempt to collect coins and earn a high score.
The game starts with the player deciding whether to login to save their progress or skip to play as a guest. They then select a mode. The Classic mode offers timed play across levels. Each animated environment features seven levels. When the player clears one, they receive a score and up to three stars. With Meditation, they also clear away tiles across environments and levels. That said, they don't need to worry about a score or star collection. With Solitaire, they remove a layered pattern of tiles without playing levels.
The field typically displays the tiles in a central position with booster hint buttons on the right side. Along the top, the player can track, when applicable, the number of available pairs per turn, the time, their score and the number of total tiles. They can review their coins at the upper-right corner.
Whenever the player completes a match, the game displays the last tile at the lower-right corner. They can match pairs that feature identical images or mixed image tiles from the elements and flowers groups. They can only pair uncovered tiles that aren't between other tiles.
Mahjong Zen Garden provides four hint boosters. The player can reveal a pair, add extra time to the timer, undo their last move, or shuffle the remaining tiles when they run out of moves. They use coins or ad views to gain extra access to these tools after they run out of the free initial ones.
