Klondike Solitaire

About Klondike Solitaire

Klondike Solitaire, also known as Solitaire or Patience, is the world’s best-known and most popular Solitaire game! Simple to learn and soothing to play, it is the perfect card game for relaxing after a long day.

To win the game, you must build up four stacks of cards, starting with Ace and working up to King, in each of the four suits. Each new hand is dealt at random and presents a new challenge!

Choose between the standard three card draw, or one card. Three card draw games are more difficult as two thirds of your cards are blocked from play until those above them have been used.

Quickfire Rules

Klondike Solitaire is completed by moving all 52 cards from the playing area into the four foundation spaces at the top of the screen, in order from Ace (low) to King (high). One foundation is available for each suit. To do this, players must make piles of cards in consecutive order and alternating red and black, to reveal other cards hidden below.

These cards can be moved from other piles, or from the stock. Once a face down card is revealed in a pile it is then turned face up and can consequently be moved into other piles, or the foundation. Empty piles can be filled with a King. When no face up cards in the piles can be moved, players may turn over cards from the stock, either in groups of three or one at a time (see Settings). Face up stock cards can be moved into piles, or directly into the foundations. When all the stock cards have been turned over, they can be recycled – turned face down again and redrawn.

Be aware, completing the game is not always possible!

Klondike Solitaire app screenshot 1Klondike Solitaire app screenshot 2Klondike Solitaire app screenshot 3Klondike Solitaire app screenshot 4

Available on App and Play Stores

Klondike Solitaire Terms

Foundations: The four spaces at the top of the screen, where cards are migrated in order from Ace to King to complete each suit, and then the game.

Piles: Seven piles of cards are made in the playing area. Only the top card of each pile is face up to start.

Stock: Cards not yet included in piles, at the top of the screen. Turned over throughout the game.

Talon: Cards turned over from the Stock, either in groups of three or singly. The top card may be added to a pile or directly to the foundations.

How To Play

Deal

Klondike is a variant of solitaire played using one standard deck of 52 cards. After shuffling, seven piles of cards are laid down, the first containing one card, the second containing two, and so on, up to the seventh containing seven cards. The top card of each pile begins face up and the others face down. The remaining cards form the stock and are placed face down at the top of the screen. The four foundations are areas at the top into which cards are moved during play.

Play

The game is completed by moving all cards to the foundations. There is a separate foundation for each suit, and cards must be moved there in the following order: Ace (low), 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, Jack, Queen, King (high). To achieve this, face up cards are placed in consecutive ordered piles of alternating colours with higher cards above lower cards. For example, a pile could comprise the Queen of Hearts, Jack of Spades, ten of Hearts, nine of Clubs, eight of Diamonds and so on.

The stock cards are turned face up, either one by one or in groups of three depending on the settings, to form the talon. The top card from the talon can be moved to a pile or straight to a foundation. Face up cards in a pile can be moved, either on their own or with other cards in the same pile, to another pile when consecutive ordered alternating colours are preserved. Empty piles can be filled with a King or a pile of cards topped by a King. When a pile is moved to reveal a face down card, it is turned face up. Cards are moved around in this way to release cards to the foundations, from either the talon or the piles. Cards can also be moved back out of a foundation to a pile, which may allow otherwise blocked cards to be released. When all of the stock cards have been turned over, they can be recycled (turned face down again and redrawn).

Be aware, as the deal is random, completing the game is not always possible.

Scoring

During a game, points are attributed as follows:

  • Card moving from talon to pile: 5
  • Turning over a pile card: 5
  • Card moving from either talon or pile to foundation: 10
  • Card moving from foundation to pile: -15
  • Undoing a move: -20
  • Requesting a hint: -20
  • Recycling the deck (one card draw mode only): -100

The score will never drop below zero.

On completion of the game, a time bonus of 70,000 divided by the number of seconds elapsed is awarded and added to the during game points to give a total.

Settings

Choose from the following settings (defaults shown in italics):

Sound: On, off.

Speed: Normal, fast.

Orientation: Portrait, landscape left, landscape right or landscape free.

Single click play: On, off.

Cards per draw: One, three

One click move: on (a card can be moved by single clicking/tapping it), off (a double click/tap or drag is required to move a card)

Auto complete (automatically move cards to the foundation piles): Always, when all cards visible or off.

Deck position: left or right

Deck: Choose from 18 different deck designs for coppercod, 16 for modern.

Mobile Cards: Off or on. Only available on phones.

Theme: Green, merlot, dark red, light blue, black, purple, teal, pink, orange or blue

Interface

Home screen:

From the home screen you can access the following options:

  • Start new game
  • Continue game: if there is a game in progress it can be continued
  • Settings (cog icon, bottom left). Once open you can close it by tapping close or tapping > at the top right.
  • Information (question mark icon, bottom right). Once open you can close it by tapping close or tapping > at the top right.
  • Stats (trophy icon, top left)
  • Sound: Tap the speaker icon at the top right of the home screen to toggle between sound on and off