Scorpion Solitaire

How to play Scorpion solitaire

Forty-nine cards are dealt into seven columns of seven; in the first four columns the bottom three cards are face down. The last three cards wait in a reserve — one tap deals them onto the first three columns, once per game, whenever you choose. Moves are radical compared to most solitaires: take any face-up card together with every card above it — the pile does not need to be in order — and drop the group on a card exactly one rank higher in the same suit. Lifting a group off a face-down card flips that card up. Only a King may move to an empty column. You win when all four suits stand as complete King-to-Ace columns, built where they lie.

The reserve and empty columns

Scorpion gives you exactly two scarce resources. The reserve is three face-down cards dealt onto columns one to three at the moment you choose — hold it while you still have moves, because those three cards can unblock a dead board, and once dealt there is nothing left in hand. Empty columns are rarer still: only a King (with whatever sits on it) may occupy one, so an empty column is effectively a King relocation service — use it to dig a King off the cards it is smothering, not as a parking space you cannot refill. Emptying a column that you cannot legally refill is one of the game’s classic self-inflicted wounds.

How hard is Scorpion, really?

Hard — and we would rather show you the measurement than a slogan. We pointed our bounded search solver at 1,000 random deals: it proved wins on 12.8% within its budget, with another 22% unresolved when the search ran out — so the true winnable rate sits somewhere above 13%, and a patient human with undo outperforms the bound. Deals here are dealt at random; there is no curated pool, because the face-down cards mean an honest game cannot promise you a winnable one. When no legal move remains the deadlock notice says so plainly — in Scorpion that is a common ending, not a rare one, and losing to the deal is part of the game’s reputation.

Scorpion vs Spider solitaire

The two games share a skin — columns, same-suit sequences, face-down cards — and almost nothing else. Spider moves only ordered runs, completed sequences leave the board, and two full decks give every rank eight homes. Scorpion moves unordered groups, nothing ever leaves the board, and a single deck means each card has exactly one legal destination — the one card a rank above it in its suit. That single-destination rule is the whole character of the game: every buried card is a specific, findable problem, and Spider instincts about “any run will do” simply do not transfer.

Scorpion strategy tips

The habits that convert unwinnable-looking boards:

1. Flip face-down cards before anything else — the twelve hidden cards in columns one to four decide the game, and every flip is pure information.
2. Before moving a group, find the card one rank above its bottom card in the same suit; if that card is buried under the group itself, the move manufactures a block.
3. Keep the reserve until your legal moves genuinely run dry — dealt too early it buries three live columns; dealt at the right moment it restarts a dead board.
4. Treat an empty column as a King-sized door: know which King goes through it before you open it.
5. Build long same-suit tails even when they cannot complete yet — a K-to-5 tail is eight cards that never need to move again.

Scorpion solitaire FAQ