How to play
Scorpion looks like Spider at first glance, but it plays very differently. Everything except a few cards is dealt to the table at the start, and you can pick up a face-up card from anywhere in a column, not just from a tidy sequence.
The deal
Seven columns of seven cards take 49 of the 52 cards. In the four columns on the left, the three bottom cards lie face down; every other card on the table is face up. The last three cards stay in the stock in the top corner, and the four foundation spaces sit beside it.
Moving cards
A card can be placed only on the next higher card of the same suit: the 5 of clubs goes on the 6 of clubs and nowhere else.
What makes Scorpion special is what you can carry. You may grab any face-up card in a column, and every card lying on top of it comes along, in whatever order they happen to be. Only the card you grabbed has to fit its new home. So if the 9 of hearts is buried halfway down a column under a jumble of five other cards, you can still move it (and the jumble) onto the 10 of hearts in one go.
When a face-down card is uncovered, it turns over.
Empty columns and the stock
An empty column accepts only a king, again with any cards that sit on top of it. Nothing else can start a column.
The stock is used once. Tapping it puts its three cards face up on the first three columns, one each. After that, the stock is gone.
Winning
You never move cards to the foundations by hand. As soon as a column holds a complete run from king down to ace in one suit, face up and in order at the end of the column, the run leaves the table by itself. Clear all four suits and you win.
Controls
Tap a face-up card and it moves to the best place it can go; drag it if you want a specific column. Hint marks a useful move, Undo walks back moves and the stock deal, and New game starts a fresh shuffle. Moves and time appear in the top bar, and the game tells you when no moves remain.
Strategy
- Dig out the hidden twelve. The face-down cards in the four left columns are the main danger. Each one you turn over gives you information and options; plan moves that drain those columns first.
- Kings belong at the bottom. A king is the base of a finished run. If a king sits low in a column with useless cards under it, you’ll need an empty column to move it. A king already at the bottom is in its final place.
- Watch for same-suit locks. If the 4 of spades lies somewhere below the 7 of spades in the same column, the run can’t be completed until you separate them. Spot these early and move the upper card away.
- Use the long-move freely. Moving a big stack because one card fits is normal in Scorpion, and it is often the only way to reach a card deep in a column. The cards that come along don’t have to be in order.
- Time the stock. Its three cards land on the first three columns, which may cover cards you need. Deal it early, while those columns are short, or at a moment when they are already finished or nearly empty. Don’t leave it for the very end if it can still help.
- Empty columns are king slots. Since only kings fill them, an empty column is only useful if you have a king worth moving. Don’t empty a column just for the sake of it.
Compared with other solitaires
Spider also builds down in suit, but it uses two decks and lets you move only ordered runs. Yukon shares the “move any face-up card with its pile” rule, but builds in alternating colors onto separate foundations. Scorpion combines the strictest building rule with the loosest moving rule, which is why its deals can open up or lock solid very fast.
