Scorpion Solitaire

Overview

Scorpion sits between two games and borrows the best of each. From Yukon it takes the freedom to pick up a face-up card with everything piled on top of it, ordered or not. From Spider it takes same-suit building and the goal of assembling complete King-to-Ace runs that clear themselves.

49 of the 52 cards start on the table, in seven columns of seven. Only 12 are face down — the top three cards of the first four columns — so 37 are visible from the first move. Just three cards are held back in the stock.

That means the puzzle is not discovery. You can see almost everything. The difficulty is that what you can see is a tangle, and untangling it without burying the card you need next is genuinely hard.

Goal

Build four complete same-suit runs, each from King down to Ace. When a run is completed at the foot of a column it is removed automatically. Clear all four and you win.

There are no foundations here. The runs are assembled in the tableau itself, which is why space is so tight — the thing you are building occupies the board you are building it on.

Building the tableau

Cards build downward in the same suit. The 8 of Hearts goes on the 9 of Hearts, never on the 9 of Clubs.

That is far tighter than the alternating colours of Klondike and Yukon, and it is the constraint that shapes every decision: you are always looking for the same-suit link while keeping everything else reachable.

Moving groups — the rule that defines the game

Any face-up card may be moved together with every card on top of it, regardless of order.

Say a column holds 9♥, then 8♥, then K♣, then 4♦. Grab the 9♥ and all four travel as one, even though they are nonsense as a sequence.

But the destination still obeys the rule: the card you grabbed must land on a card one rank higher of the same suit. So the 9♥ needs a 10♥, and it brings its passengers with it.

The group need not be ordered; the placement must be legal. That one asymmetry is what lets you dismantle a tangle rather than being trapped by it — and it is exactly what Spider does not allow, where only a clean same-suit run can move.

Empty columns and Kings

Only a King, or a group led by one, can fill an empty column.

An empty column is the largest piece of workspace in the game: park a King-led group there, dig out what was underneath, rebuild. But it is worth nothing without an accessible King, so avoid burying all four under complicated groups. Keeping one King reachable is often what keeps a deal alive.

The three-card stock

There are only three cards in the stock, dealt once, face up, one to each of the first three columns.

They are not a reserve to spend when convenient. Once dealt they become part of the tableau and immediately cover whatever was on top of those three columns.

So look at columns one, two and three before you tap. If a same-suit link is sitting exposed there, three cards land on top of it. If you are genuinely stuck, they may be the only thing that breaks the position. With a stock this small, timing is the entire decision — there is no quantity to fall back on.

Strategy and tips

• Turn the twelve. Only 12 cards are hidden. Each one you expose is a meaningful fraction of the unknown.
• Move messy groups deliberately. The unordered group move is your best tool — use it to relocate junk sitting on a card you need.
• Keep a King reachable. An empty column with no King to fill it is wasted.
• Check the first three columns before dealing. That is where the stock lands, and it cannot be undealt.
• Think in whole suits. A completed run clears and gives back space, which compounds — the first run is the hardest.
• Accept an ugly board. You often have to make a move that looks worse in order to reach a clean sequence two moves later.

Controls and features

• Drag a card or group onto a valid destination, or tap when there is one clear move.
• Tap the stock to deal its three cards onto the first three columns.
• Use Undo to explore a line, or New Game for a fresh deal.

Where Scorpion sits

Three games here share the unordered group move, and comparing them is the quickest way to understand all three.

Yukon has the same freedom of movement but builds in alternating colours onto Ace-up foundations, with no stock at all. It is the most forgiving of the three.

Russian Solitaire is Yukon with same-suit building — so it shares Scorpion’s tightest constraint, but still uses foundations and has no stock whatsoever. It is widely considered the hardest solitaire here.

Spider shares the King-to-Ace runs and the automatic clearing, but goes the other way on movement: build across suits freely, and only a clean same-suit run may travel. Scorpion inverts that — strict placement, loose movement.