Yukon looks like Klondike on the first glance and plays like something else entirely. There is no stock to draw from: every card is dealt into the seven columns at the start. And the move rule is far looser. You can pick up any face-up card, together with every card piled on top of it, whether those cards are in order or not. The result is a game about digging. Most of the deck is visible from the first move, and your job is to rearrange big tangled stacks until the face-down cards underneath come free.
How to play
The deal. Seven columns, left to right:
- column 1 has a single face-up card;
- columns 2 to 7 hold 1 to 6 face-down cards respectively, each topped with five face-up cards.
That puts all 52 cards on the table: 21 face down and 31 face up. Four empty foundations wait at the top.
Building in the columns. A card can be placed on a card one rank higher of the opposite colour: a black 8 on a red 9, a red queen on a black king.
Moving groups. Choose any face-up card in a column and move it, along with everything above it, to another column where that chosen card fits. The cards riding on top do not need to be in sequence. Only the bottom card of the group you lift has to follow the build rule.
Empty columns. Only a king can go into an empty column, and it brings any cards on top of it.
Foundations. Build each foundation up by suit from ace to king, one card at a time. If you need a card back from a foundation to make a column move work, you can take the top one back down.
Face-down cards. When the cards covering a face-down card are moved away, it turns face up.
Winning. All four foundations complete.
Controls. Tap a card to move it to its best spot, or drag it. Hint suggests a move, Undo reverses as many moves as you like, and Finish sends the remaining cards home when nothing can go wrong. Moves and time are shown at the top.
How Yukon differs from Klondike
| Klondike | Yukon | |
|---|---|---|
| Stock | yes, draw 1 or 3 | none |
| Cards face up at start | 7 | 31 |
| What you can move | ordered runs only | any face-up card and all cards above it |
| Empty column | king | king |
Because you see most of the deck from the start, Yukon rewards planning more than luck. A deal that looks blocked usually hides a sequence of group moves that opens it.
Strategy
Unlock the deep columns. Columns 6 and 7 hide five and six face-down cards. Those cards are the real obstacle; the face-up cards can almost always be moved somewhere. Plan your first moves around getting into the right-hand columns.
Look at the card you need, not the card on top. Because a whole group can move, the useful question is “which buried face-up card can go somewhere?” A 4 in the middle of a stack can carry six cards with it onto a 5 of the other colour.
Kings are a liability at first. A king sitting on face-down cards can’t move until a column is empty. Prioritise emptying column 1 (it only has one card), so you have a place to send the first stuck king.
Don’t fill an empty column with a king that frees nothing. If a king is already at the bottom of its column, moving it to the empty one gains you nothing. Save the space for a king that is covering hidden cards.
Hold back on the foundations sometimes. A low card sent home early may be the exact card you need to place something on. In Yukon you can pull a card back from a foundation, but it is cleaner not to need to.
Use Undo to test lines. Big group moves change the board a lot. Trying a plan and backing up costs nothing.
If you like the dig-for-cards feel, Scorpion uses the same kind of group moves but builds by suit.
If you enjoy Yukon Solitaire, try Aces and Eights or Aces and Faces next.
