Play Scorpion solitaire
One deck, seven columns, and a goal of four complete suits running King down to Ace. You can lift any face-up card that has the next higher card of its suit waiting at the end of another column, and everything on top of it comes along.
Deal 0 moves 0:00
Challenge a friend to this exact deal. Win it first and the link carries your moves and time.
How to play on this page
- Select, then drop: tap a face-up card. It lights up with every card on top of it, and the one column it can go to gets a dashed outline (in Scorpion there is never more than one, plus an empty column for a King). Tap that column. Tapping the selected card a second time makes the move straight away.
- The reserve: the face-down pile at top left holds three cards. Tap it to deal them onto the ends of columns one, two and three. You get this once.
- Finished suits leave the table on their own and stack at top right. Four of them win the deal.
- Hint looks several moves ahead for one that turns up a hidden card, builds a run or clears a column. If it reports nothing, the deal is very likely lost from here.
- Keyboard: arrow keys move between cards, Enter picks up and drops, Escape lets go, Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y undo and redo.
The rules this game follows
- All 52 cards go out in seven columns of seven. In columns one to four, the three cards nearest the table are face down; everything else is face up. Three cards stay back as the reserve.
- A face-up card may move onto the end of a column if that end card is the same suit and one rank higher. The cards on top of it move as well, in order or not.
- Nothing goes on an Ace. Only a King, with its pile, goes into an empty column. A hidden card turns up as soon as it is uncovered.
- There are no foundations and no redeal: win by building all four suits from King to Ace.
The full rules, a layout sketch and five strategy tips are on our Scorpion rules page.
Where Scorpion deals are won and lost
Only 15 cards are out of sight at the start: 12 under the first four columns and 3 in the reserve. So most deals are decided by the order you move things, not by luck later on. The usual loss is a King that lands on top of a column whose hidden cards you still need, because a King can only ever leave for an empty column. Before moving a long block, look for a King in it and ask where that King will go next.
Undo is unlimited here, which turns a lost position into a lesson: step back to the move that buried a card and try the other branch. Replay this deal gives you the same 52 cards from the start, and Share this deal lets a friend try the same layout.
Scorpion questions
Where are the foundations?
Scorpion has none. You build each suit from King down to Ace inside a column. When a column ends in a complete King-to-Ace run of one suit, this game lifts it off to the finished pile at top right, the way most apps do; with real cards you may leave it where it is.
When should I deal the three reserve cards?
Whenever you choose, but only once. They land on the ends of the first three columns and can cover cards you were about to use, so most players hold them until those column ends are finished runs or cards they will not need soon.
Can I move a card from the middle of a column?
Yes, if it is face up and the card you put it on is the next higher card of the same suit. Every card on top of it moves too, whatever they are.
Why can I not put a Queen in an empty column?
Only a King, with whatever is on it, may move into an empty column. That is the rule on our Scorpion rules page and in the sources it cites.