Canyon Klondike

What is Klondike solitaire?

Klondike is the classic patience game with seven columns, a deck you flip through, and four piles you build from Ace to King. If someone says “solitaire” without any other word, this is almost always the game they mean.

Canyon Klondike is our take on it. The rules are the traditional ones, with no tricks. What we added is a nicer table, a Daily Deal, a stats screen, and a pile of things to unlock as you win. It's free and runs in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer, so there's nothing to download.

How to play Klondike

The setup

One standard 52 card deck. Seven columns are dealt left to right: the first column gets one card, the second gets two, and so on up to seven cards in the last column. Only the top card of each column is face up. That uses 28 cards. The other 24 go face down into the deck in the top left corner.

Above the columns sit four empty foundation piles, one for each suit. Filling all four from Ace to King wins the game.

The moves

• Build down in alternating colors. In the columns, you can place a card on another card one rank higher of the opposite color. A red 9 can go on a black 10. A black 4 can go on a red 5.
• Move stacks together. Any run of face-up cards that's already in order can be moved as one unit, as long as the bottom card of the run fits where you're dropping it.
• Turn up hidden cards. When you move the last face-up card off a column, the face-down card underneath flips over. Getting those hidden cards into play is most of the game.
• Kings fill empty columns. Only a King, or a run with a King at the bottom, can go into an empty column.
• Build foundations up by suit. Aces start the foundations, then 2, 3 and up to King, all in the same suit. In our version you can also pull a card back down from a foundation if you need it as a landing spot, though it costs you the 10 points you got for sending it there.

Using the deck

Tap the deck to turn cards onto the waste pile beside it. The top waste card is always available to play onto a column or a foundation. When the deck runs out, tap the empty spot to flip the waste back over and go through again. We don't limit the number of passes.

Draw 1 vs Draw 3

This is the choice that changes Klondike the most, and it's the first thing you pick in Canyon Klondike.

In Draw 1, every tap of the deck turns over one card. You see every card in the deck on every pass, so nothing stays hidden for long. It's the relaxed way to play and the most likely to end in a win.

In Draw 3, each tap turns over three cards and only the top one of those three can be played. The cards under it are stuck until you play the one on top. On the next pass the deck lines up differently depending on what you took out, which is where the real thinking comes in. Draw 3 is noticeably harder, so we score it 25% higher.

If you're new or just want a calm game, start with Draw 1. Once you're winning most of your Draw 1 games, Draw 3 is where Klondike gets interesting.

Controls on phone and computer

On any screen, tap a card and we'll send it to its best spot, or drag it exactly where you want. Tap the deck to draw. When every card is face up and the deck is empty, a Finish button appears and sends everything home for you.

On a keyboard: D or Space draws, U undoes (so do Backspace and Ctrl+Z), H shows a hint, F finishes, N deals a new game and Esc pauses.

In Settings you can turn on a four-color deck (handy on a small phone screen) and switch auto-move on or off. Auto-move only sends a card home when it's safe, meaning you'll never need it as a landing spot for a lower card of the other color.

Scoring

Draw 3 multiplies everything by 1.25. Your best score goes to the leaderboard if you're signed in, and the stats screen keeps your games played, win rate, current and best win streak, best time and fewest moves for each mode.

Winnable deals and the Daily Deal

Plain random Klondike deals are sometimes impossible, no matter how well you play. That gets old fast. So by default Canyon Klondike deals from a set of shuffles we've checked can be won, a thousand for Draw 1 and a thousand for Draw 3. If you'd rather take your chances with pure random deals, tap the Winnable deals chip on the title screen to turn it off.

The Daily Deal is one Draw 1 game that's the same for everyone that day. Finish it on consecutive days to grow your day streak.

Unlocks: ranks, tables and card backs

Every win counts toward your rank: Greenhorn, Trail Hand (1 win), Wrangler (3), Mesa Scout (6), Canyon Guide (10), Ridge Runner (16), Dust Devil (25), Sunset Legend (40) and finally Canyon Royalty at 70 wins.

Wins also open new tables. You start at Canyon Dusk, then unlock High Noon at 2 wins, Red Dawn at 5, Starlit Mesa at 10 and Monsoon Sky, with rain, at 20.

Card backs come from milestones: your first win, 3 wins, your first Daily Deal win, your first win without Undo, then 8, 15, 30 and 60 wins. Card backs are shared across all our card games, so one you earn here also shows up in Four Cells and the rest.

Klondike strategy tips

Klondike rewards a little patience. These are the habits that actually move our win rate.

• Work on the tall columns first. The rightmost columns hide the most face-down cards. When you have a choice between two moves, take the one that turns over a card in a deeper column.
• Don't empty a column unless a King is ready. An empty column is only useful for a King. Clearing one with no King to put there just gives you a hole.
• Pick your King carefully. If you have a red King and a black King waiting, look at which Queens are around. Putting a black King down when the only free Queen is black wastes the space.
• Don't rush everything to the foundations. A 6 sitting on a foundation can't catch a 5 anymore. Send low cards home freely, but hang on to middle cards if a column still needs them as stepping stones. Our auto-move already follows this rule, which is why it sometimes leaves a card on the table.
• Play from the columns before the deck. A column move often reveals a new card. A deck move usually doesn't. When both work, the column move tends to be better.
• In Draw 3, think about the next pass. Taking one card out of the waste shifts every group of three after it. Sometimes skipping a playable card keeps a card you need later on top of a group.
• Split runs to dig. You can move just the lower part of a run. Moving the 7 and 6 off an 8 might free that 8 to land somewhere better and expose what's under it.
• Undo is there for a reason. We don't limit it, and in a tricky spot it's fine to try a line and back out. Just know that one win without Undo is worth 150 extra points and a card back.

Questions