How to play Pyramid Solitaire

Pyramid is a solitaire of simple sums. Cards are laid out in a pyramid (or one of many other shapes), and you take them away two at a time: any two cards whose values add up to 13 can go, and a king, worth 13 on its own, goes alone. Clear every card from the layout and you win.

It sounds like arithmetic, but the real puzzle is order. Most cards can be paired with several others, the cards at the top are buried under the rows below, and a careless pair can strand the one card you needed later. Here you play it with 55 different layouts to choose from.

How to play on skill.games

When you open the game, the settings popup appears. Under LAYOUT you see a small picture of every layout: scroll the grid, tap the one you want (it gets a blue outline) and press PLAY. The layout you chose is remembered for next time.

• The layout fills the top of the screen. Cards that are still covered are shaded grey; the bright ones are free to play.
• The stock and the waste sit in a row under the layout (on a phone held sideways, beside it). The stock's top card is face up and can be played too. A small number on the stock shows how many cards are left in it. The third spot is the discard pile, where removed cards go.
• Removing a pair: tap one free card - it lifts and glows - then tap a second card that makes 13 with it. Both fly to the discard. The second card can be another free card in the layout, the top of the waste or the top of the stock.
• Kings: tap a free king and it is discarded straight away.
• Drawing: tap the stock to turn its top card onto the waste. When the stock runs out, a circular arrow appears in its place: tap it to turn the whole waste back into a stock.
• Undo: the round button at the end of the row takes back your last move. Undo is free and unlimited, all the way back to the deal.

A covered card, or a pair that doesn't make 13, shakes instead. The top line shows your score, the time and your moves. The menu button in the top-left corner pauses the game, starts a new deal or switches the sound on or off. The game is saved after every move, so if you close the page you can press CONTINUE and carry on with the same cards and the same undo history.

When you clear the layout, the cards bounce off the table and the results screen shows your score, time, moves and layout, plus your statistics: wins, losses, win rate and streaks.

Rules

Card values. An ace counts 1, number cards their number, a jack 11, a queen 12 and a king 13. So the pairs are A+Q, 2+J, 3+10, 4+9, 5+8 and 6+7, and a king is removed by itself.

The deal. A standard 52-card deck is shuffled. The cards of the chosen layout are dealt face up into their places; every other card forms the stock, which is also face up, so you can always see its top card.

Free cards. A card in the layout can be played once every card that overlaps it has been removed. In the classic pyramid that means a card is free when both cards resting on it from the row below are gone, so the bottom row starts free and the top card is the last to come loose.

Removing cards. Any two playable cards that add up to 13 may be removed together. Playable means a free card in the layout, the top card of the waste or the top card of the stock. A playable king is removed on its own. Two cards can never be paired while one of them is still covering the other.

The stock. Tapping the stock moves its top card onto the waste. When the stock is empty, the whole waste turns back over to become the stock again, in the same order as before. There is no limit on how many times you can go through the stock.

Winning. You win as soon as the layout is empty. Cards left in the stock and the waste do not matter.

No more moves. If no pair or king can ever be removed again, however often you go through the stock, the game tells you so. You can undo and try a different order, or start a new deal from the menu. A deal you leave unfinished counts as a loss in your statistics.

Scoring. Each pair or king removed scores 10 points. The clock starts with your first move, and every 30 seconds on it costs 30 points (the score never goes below zero). Undoing a move takes its points back. When you win, a time bonus of 600,000 divided by your time in seconds is added, so a quick clear scores far more than a slow one.

Strategy tips

• Think about which card you free, not just which pair you make. When a card can pair with two different cards, choose the pair that uncovers new cards in the layout.
• Work from the bottom and the edges. The top of a pyramid is buried deepest, so clear the rows that are holding it down.
• Keep track of the four of each value. If three 6s are already gone, the last 7 in the layout needs that remaining 6, so don't waste it elsewhere.
• Watch for cards that block each other. A 5 lying on top of the only 8 that could pair with it can only come off with another 8. Plan for those early.
• Go through the stock calmly. You can recycle as often as you like, so there is no hurry to pair a stock card that you might need for a better pair later.
• Undo is free - use it to explore. If a line of play gets stuck, step back a few moves and try a different pair.

Layouts

There are no difficulty levels: the layout is the variety. All 55 layouts from the original game are here, from the classic 28-card pyramid (Layout 1, the default) to walls, towers, bridges and crosses with anywhere from 15 to 40 cards. Small layouts with many free cards are gentle; big ones with long chains of overlaps need more planning. Your statistics are kept for the game as a whole, across every layout. If you are new to Pyramid, start with Layout 1 and then try the others in the grid.