Pyramid Solitaire

🕹️ How to play

1. How to play Pyramid Solitaire: Remove any two uncovered cards whose values add up to 13; a king is worth 13 on its own and goes by itself. Clear all 28 cards of the pyramid to win. Aces count 1, jacks 11, queens 12 and kings 13.
2. Get started in three taps: Tap an uncovered card: it lifts and every card that makes 13 with it gets a dashed outline. Tap one of those partners and both cards fly off. When nothing on the table pairs, tap Draw to turn the next stock card onto the waste pile — the stock card and the waste card can both be paired.
3. What to do when you are stuck: When no pair is left and the stock is used up, an end card appears under the pyramid: undo one move, jump back to the last position confirmed winnable, restart the deal or start a new one. Undo and hints are unlimited and never count as moves, and "Can I win?" checks whether the current position still has a solution.

📖 Rules & variants

The layout: one 52-card deck. 28 cards are dealt face up into a pyramid of seven rows, one card on top and seven on the bottom row, each card overlapped by the two cards below it. The other 24 cards form the stock; its top card is face up and playable, and cards you draw go onto a waste pile whose top card is playable too.

Card values and pairs: Ace = 1, 2–10 at face value, Jack = 11, Queen = 12, King = 13; suits and colours do not matter. The pairs that make 13 are A+Q, 2+J, 3+10, 4+9, 5+8 and 6+7, and a king is removed on its own. Only uncovered cards can be played, and pyramid cards, the stock card and the waste card can all pair with each other — including stock with waste.

Overlapping pairs (house rule): when a card is covered by just one card and that card is itself uncovered, the two can be removed together if they add up to 13 — a queen sitting on an ace, for example. The covered card can only pair with the card covering it.

Passes through the stock: Draw turns the top stock card onto the waste pile. When the stock is empty you can start another pass: the waste turns back into the stock in its original order. The default is 3 passes; switch to 1 pass in the settings for a harder game where every card you turn is gone for good. The pass counter is always on screen, and a settings change applies from the next deal.

Winning and scoring: clearing the 28 pyramid cards wins, however many stock and waste cards are left. The game ends when no pair is left and the stock and passes are used up. There are no points: the result shows time, moves and undos. Undo is unlimited and does not count as a move, a wrong tap only explains why, and the clock starts with your first move and pauses in the background.

Game numbers and the solvable tag: every deal has a number from 1 to 20000 and the same number always deals the same cards, so you can enter a number or share a ?deal= link to race a friend on the same game. The tag comes only from our own solver: "Verified winnable", "Proven unwinnable" or "Not decided". By default you only get verified deals; in fully random mode the tag reads "May be unwinnable" and the verdict is revealed when the game ends.

Worked example (order decides the game): the pyramid holds ♠9, ♥5 and ♣8, the stock is empty with no passes left, and the waste holds ♣4, ♦5, ♦8 from bottom to top. Pairing ♥5+♣8 from the pyramid exposes ♠9 against ♦8 — 9+8 is not 13, game over. The winning order is ♥5 with the waste ♦8, ♣8 with the next waste card ♦5, then ♠9 with ♣4. When the waste card can make the pair, use it before the pyramid card.

Strategy: first remove the pair that uncovers the most cards; prefer pairing with the stock or waste over using another pyramid card; at the start, check where all four cards of each value sit — a card whose partners are all buried deep beneath it needs planning; in 1-pass mode, clear every available pair before turning the next card.

❓ FAQ