How to play Klondike

Klondike is the solitaire most people simply call "Solitaire": the patience game with seven columns of cards, a stock to draw from and four foundations to fill. You play alone against the deal. The aim is to move all 52 cards onto the foundations, one pile per suit, from the Ace up to the King.

Klondike rewards planning more than it first appears: the order in which you free hidden cards and which column you empty first decide whether a deal comes out. Not every deal can be won, but a careful player wins far more of them.

How to play on skill.games

When you open the game, the settings popup appears. Choose a level - Easy (draw 1), Normal (draw 1) or Hard (draw 3) - check your record at that level and press PLAY. The cards are dealt out onto the table and the game begins.

• Moving a card: tap it and it goes to the best place it can: a foundation if that is safe, otherwise onto a column where it fits. Tap the same card twice quickly to send it straight to its foundation.
• Dragging: drag a card or a face-up run and drop it where you want it. A move that isn't allowed is refused: the cards shake and slide back.
• The stock: tap the face-down stock in the corner to draw. When it is empty, tap its place to turn the waste back over and go through it again.
• Undo: the UNDO button in the top-right corner takes back your last move. You can undo as many times as you like, all the way back to the deal.
• The score line at the top shows your moves, the time and your score.

When every column card is face up and the stock is used up, the game sends the remaining cards up to the foundations for you. The cards cascade off the table, and the results screen shows your moves, time and final score, with your statistics for that level: wins, losses, win rate and streaks.

The menu button in the top-left corner pauses the game, starts a new deal or turns the sound off. The deal is saved after every move, so you can close the page and press CONTINUE next time - even your undo history comes back. A deal you abandon by starting a new one counts as a loss at its level.

Rules

The layout. Seven columns are dealt: one card in the first, two in the second, and so on up to seven. Only the last card of each column is face up. The remaining 24 cards form the stock, and four empty foundations wait above or beside the columns.

Building on the columns. A card can be placed on a column's top card if it is one rank lower and the opposite colour: a red 9 on a black 10, a black 4 on a red 5. You can move a single card or a whole run of face-up cards that is already built down in alternating colours.

Empty columns. Only a King, or a run headed by a King, can be moved into an empty column.

Turning cards over. Whenever a face-down card is left uncovered at the bottom of a column, it turns face up automatically.

The foundations. Each foundation is built up in one suit, starting with the Ace: A, 2, 3 and so on to the King. Cards go up one at a time. The top card of a foundation can be moved back down onto a column if you need it there.

The stock and the waste. Tapping the stock turns cards face up onto the waste pile beside it: one card at a time on Easy and Normal, three at a time on Hard. Only the top card of the waste can be played. When the stock runs out, the waste is turned back over to become the stock again, in the same order. There is no limit on how many times you can go through the stock.

Scoring. Each card you send to a foundation scores 10 points. Every 30 seconds of play costs 30 points, although your score never drops below zero. When you win, a time bonus of 600,000 divided by the seconds you took is added, so a fast win scores much higher. Undoing a move takes its points back, and an undo counts as a move.

Winning. You win when all four foundations hold their thirteen cards.

Strategy tips

• Uncover the hidden cards first. Prefer moves that turn over a face-down card, and above all work on the longest columns: they hold the most hidden cards.
• Don't rush to the foundations. Aces and Twos can always go up. Higher cards can be useful as places to build on, so keep a 5 on the table if a 4 of the other colour may still need it.
• Think before you empty a column. An empty column only takes a King. Clear one when you have a King ready to move in, ideally one that frees face-down cards behind it.
• Use the stock as a resource. On Hard, you see only every third card in a pass. Playing a card off the waste shifts which cards come up next time through, so a single play can open a new set of cards.

Difficulty levels

• Easy (draw 1): you draw one card at a time, and every deal is one our computer player has already solved, so each Easy game can be won. If you get stuck, the way out is there: undo and look for it. A good level for learning the game, or for a relaxed round.
• Normal (draw 1): one card at a time from a fully random deal. The standard game.
• Hard (draw 3): a random deal and three cards turned at a time, so only every third card of the stock is in reach on each pass. You need to plan your plays from the waste to bring the cards you want to the top.