Scorpion Solitaire rules and how to play

Want to try it as you read? Deal a game of Scorpion in another tab and follow along.

Scorpion Solitaire rules, step by step

These rules follow Pretty Good Solitaire’s Scorpion page (Goodsol) and Wikipedia’s Scorpion article. The two agree on everything below except one detail of the reserve, noted in rule 3.

1. Use one deck. Scorpion uses a single standard deck of 52 cards (Goodsol; Wikipedia).
2. Deal seven columns of seven cards. That’s 49 cards on the table. In the first four columns, the bottom 3 cards are face down and the top 4 are face up. The last three columns are face up all the way down (Goodsol; Wikipedia).
3. Set the last 3 cards aside as the reserve. Later, you deal them one each onto the first three columns. You can only do this once. Goodsol says “this can be done only once.” Wikipedia describes the reserve as dealt “when no more moves are possible.” Goodsol’s version deals the reserve when you click it, and this site works the same way: you choose when.
4. Build down in suit. A card can go only on the next-higher card of the same suit. The 9 of clubs goes on the 10 of clubs and on nothing else (Goodsol; Wikipedia).
5. Move any face-up card, with everything on top of it. You can pick up a face-up card from anywhere in a column. Every card sitting on top of it comes along, whether those cards are in order or not. Goodsol says it works “like Yukon” (Wikipedia gives the same rule).
6. Turn over face-down cards as you uncover them. When the last face-up card above a face-down card moves away, the face-down card turns face up and becomes playable.
7. Fill empty columns with Kings only. An empty column can take a King, or a group of cards with a King at the bottom. Nothing else (Goodsol; Wikipedia).
8. Nothing goes on an Ace. An Ace is the end of a run, so no card can be placed on it (Wikipedia).
9. Win with four full columns. The goal is four columns, each holding one suit in order from King down to Ace. There are no foundation piles. You sort the whole deck inside the tableau, the columns on the table (Goodsol; Wikipedia).

That’s the whole rule set. It’s short, but the build rule in step 4 is strict, and most of the game’s difficulty comes from it.

What the Scorpion layout looks like

Twelve cards start face down in the tableau, all in the left four columns. Add the 3 in the reserve, and you know where most of the deck is from the first move. That’s the big difference from Spider, where most cards start hidden.

How to play Scorpion: what a turn looks like

There are no turns in the usual sense. You look over the table and make any legal move you like.

Say the 6 of hearts is face up in column 2, with three unrelated cards on top of it. The 7 of hearts is the last card in column 6, with nothing on top of it. You can pick up the 6 of hearts, along with the three cards on top, and drop the whole group onto the 7 of hearts. Those three cards don’t need to match anything. They just ride along.

That single rule makes Scorpion feel very different from other solitaire games. A card buried deep in a column isn’t stuck. If you can see it and it has somewhere to go, you can move it. The catch is that the cards on top come with it, and they may land somewhere awkward.

Moves often open up other moves. After the 6 of hearts leaves column 2, the card that was under it is now the last card in that column. If it was face down, it flips over. Either way, you have a new card to work with.

When no moves are left, deal the reserve. If you’ve already used it and nothing can move, the game is over.

How Scorpion differs from Spider Solitaire

Scorpion is in the Spider family, but it plays like a cousin rather than a sibling. Here’s how the two compare:

Two of these changes pull in opposite directions. Scorpion’s group moves are far looser than Spider’s: you can carry a jumble of cards in one move. But its building rule is far tighter, because a card has exactly one place to go. In Spider, a 7 can land on any of the 8s in play.

For the full Spider rules, see the Spider Solitaire rules page.

Scorpion Solitaire strategy

Goodsol gives two tips: uncover the face-down cards as early as possible, and look at several build choices before you commit to one. Both follow from how the game works.

Go after the face-down cards first. All twelve are in the first four columns. Until they’re face up, you can’t plan the full game. Moves that clear cards off those columns are usually worth more than moves on the right side of the table.

Check where the cards on top will land. When you move a card, everything above it comes too. Before you move, look at what’s riding along. A move that buries a card you need next is often worse than no move at all.

Watch for cards stuck under their own suit. Suppose the 8 of spades sits in a column with the 7 of spades buried underneath it. You can’t move the 7 onto the 8, because picking up the 7 also picks up the 8. The 8 has to leave that column first, either onto the 9 of spades or as part of a group moved somewhere else. Spot these early, before they lock up the game.

Save empty columns for a good King. Only a King, or a King-led group, can move into an empty column. Pick the King whose move frees the most useful cards.

Hold the reserve until you need it. You get the reserve deal once. Wikipedia’s rule saves it until no moves are left, and that’s a sensible habit even where you’re allowed to deal it earlier.

Is Scorpion Solitaire hard?

Yes, it can be. Goodsol rates Scorpion “Medium” on its Easy/Medium/Hard scale, and its tips describe the game as “very much a game of skill, and it is difficult.”

Most of the difficulty comes from the build rule. Each card has one target, so one buried card can block a whole suit. The King-only rule for empty columns makes it worse, because you can’t park a stray card in a gap.

The good news is that you can see most of the deck from the start. Careful planning pays off more in Scorpion than in games where most cards start face down. For a ranking across the family, see the hardest solitaire games.

Games related to Scorpion

Several games change one or two Scorpion rules. All are free to play on this site.

• Easy Scorpion is an easier version of Scorpion. It’s a good place to start if the standard game feels too tight.
• Wasp is almost identical to Scorpion, says Wikipedia, except that an empty column can take any card or group, not only a King. That gives you more chances to win.
• Double Scorpion is a two-deck version of Scorpion, per Goodsol, which rates it “Easy.”

Wikipedia also describes Scorpion II, where only the first three columns hold face-down cards, and calls it easier. This site plays that deal as Easy Scorpion.

Scorpion has been around for a while. Goodsol traces its first reference to the 1949 book The Complete Book of Solitaire & Patience Games.