Scorpion Solitaire

A thinking player's solitaire. Sort the whole deck into four runs, King down to Ace, each in a single suit. You can move any face-up card with the cards on top of it, so the puzzle is in choosing which pile to break up.

How to play Scorpion

1. Build four complete suits. Line up all thirteen cards of a suit in one column, from King down to Ace. A finished run leaves the table and goes to the top right. Finish all four and you win.
2. Build down in the same suit. A card can go only on the next higher card of its own suit, like the 8 of clubs on the 9 of clubs.
3. Move any face-up card, with everything on top of it. The cards on top come along even if they are out of order.
4. Fill empty columns with a King. An empty column takes only a King, together with any cards on it.
5. Deal the three reserve cards once. Three cards wait face down at the top left. Tap them when you're ready, and one card lands on each of the first three columns. You get to do this only once.

How the cards are dealt

Forty-nine cards go into seven columns of seven. In the first four columns, the top three cards start face down. Everything else starts face up. The last three cards become the reserve.

Tips that win more games

• Free the twelve face-down cards in the first four columns early. Until you see them, you're planning blind.
• Hold the reserve. Dealing it too soon can bury a card you were about to use. Tap it when you run out of useful moves or when a column you need is clear.
• Find where each King is. A King sitting on top of low cards of its own suit can block a whole run, so getting Kings into empty columns is often the key move.
• Count before you move. Because only same-suit builds are allowed, each card has exactly one place it can go. Look for cards whose spot is open right now.
• Use Undo freely. Scorpion rewards trying a line, backing up, and trying another.

Is Scorpion hard?

Yes. It is one of the tougher classic solitaires, and most random deals are lost. When we ran our solver on random deals, it could prove only about 1 in 9 of them winnable. That's why every deal on this page is one our solver has already beaten. Each game here can be won, even when it doesn't feel that way.

Scorpion and Spider

Scorpion looks a lot like Spider Solitaire, since both build long same-suit runs from King to Ace. The difference is the group move. In Spider you can move only cards that are already in order, while Scorpion lets you lift a card with whatever sits on it. If you enjoy that freedom, also try Yukon Solitaire, which uses the same move with alternating colors.