Scorpion solitaire rules
Scorpion is what you get if you cross Spider with Yukon and squeeze it into one deck. You build King-to-Ace runs in one suit right on the table, and you may lift any face-up card along with everything covering it. Twelve cards start hidden and three more wait in a reserve, and when to drop that reserve is the decision most games turn on.
Scorpion in 30 seconds
- Deal seven columns of seven. In the first four columns the bottom three cards are face down; everything else is face up. Three cards are left over as a face-down reserve.
- Goal: four columns, each a complete run from King down to Ace in one suit. There are no foundation piles.
- Move any face-up card onto the end of a column if it is the next lower card in the same suit (the 6 of clubs on the 7 of clubs). All the cards covering it move with it.
- Only a King (with its cards) may move into an empty column.
- Once, when you choose, deal the three reserve cards face up onto the ends of the first three columns.
How the moves work
Look for a card at the end of a column, say the 10 of hearts. The only card that can join it is the 9 of hearts, and the 9 can come from anywhere it is face up, even the middle of a column. Lift the 9 together with every card on top of it and put the whole block on the 10. The cards that rode along do not need to be in order.
Nothing can be placed on an Ace, since there is no lower card. When a face-down card is uncovered, turn it up. When a column empties, only a King may move in, again bringing whatever is on top of it.
When you have no useful move left, deal the reserve: one card face up on the end of each of the first three columns. You get this once. Then play on until you finish four suits or run out of moves.
There are no foundations to build. A finished King-to-Ace suit can stay where it is; some players and most apps lift it off the table to make the layout easier to read. Either way it counts.
How winnable is Scorpion?
We did not find a solver study of Scorpion that we trust enough to quote, so we are not giving a percentage. What we can say from the rules: unlike Klondike, Scorpion has no stock to wait on. Apart from the 12 hidden cards and the 3 in the reserve, every card is in view from the first move, so a lost deal usually traces back to a block you moved that buried something you needed.
Strategy
- Dig out the hidden twelve. The face-down cards sit at the bottom of the first four columns. Moves that uncover them come first; you cannot plan around cards you have never seen.
- Find a home for every King. A King in the middle of a column blocks the cards under it, and it can only move to an empty column. Work on clearing a column early with that King in mind.
- Do not bury low cards. A block with an Ace or 2 in it lands on top of another column and can strand that card behind a long run. If a move buries an Ace, look for another.
- Time the reserve. The three reserve cards land on columns one to three and can cover cards you were about to free. Deal them when those column ends are either finished runs or cards you do not need for a while.
- Grow one run at a time. A half-built King-to-8 in spades is safe; four half-built runs block each other. Finish the suit whose missing cards are easiest to reach.
Play Scorpion online or at home
Play at home: one deck and enough room for seven columns that can grow past a dozen cards. Overlap cards tightly but keep each one readable, since any face-up card can be lifted.