Klondike Strategy

Look before you move

Before you touch a card, find any Aces and twos, any moves that would turn a card over, and any Kings already showing. Then pick the column you most want to dig into.

The first legal move you see is often not the best one. Two moves can look alike and leave you with very different tables ten moves later.

Know what you’re up against

A new deal puts 28 cards in the columns and 24 in the stock. Of the 28, 21 are face down: none in the first column, one in the second, and six in the seventh.

Those 21 hidden cards are the real puzzle. The stock can be searched as often as you like, while a face-down card stays hidden until you clear everything on top of it.

Ask what each move frees

Before each move, name what it gets you: a card turned over, a card sent home, a spot opened for something you need. If you can’t name anything, look for a better move.

Shuffling a black 8 from one red 9 to the other red 9 gains nothing unless it uncovers something or clears the way for a card you need.

Open the tall columns first

The face-down cards are where deals are won or lost, and the tallest columns hide the most of them. When two moves look equal, take the one that turns a card over in the taller column.

Short columns can wait. They are quick to clear whenever you need them to, and clearing one early only pays when a King is ready to move in.

Decide between twins

Every card except a King has exactly two cards it can sit on in the columns: a red 9 goes on the 10 of spades or the 10 of clubs. Two cards of the same rank and colour also compete for the same spots.

When either black 6 could go on your one open red 7, move the 6 that turns a card over. If neither does, move the one from the taller column, because that is the stack you will need to dig through.

Split a run when it helps

You can move part of a run, starting from any card in it, as long as the top card of the part you move fits where it lands.

Say a run reads black 8, red 7, black 6, and you want that red 7 on its foundation. If the other red 7 is open, move the black 6 across to it, and the first red 7 is free to go home.

Watch your open spots

Each open card is a landing spot, and there are only so many. A red 6 from the waste can land on your open black 7, but if a red 6 in a column was waiting for that spot, you have just blocked your own dig.

Before you fill a spot, check whether something in the columns needs it more.

Spot the trouble early

Sometimes the card you need sits under a card that has nowhere to go. When a low card is stuck beneath a higher one, count what it would take to free it: which card has to move, where it could land, and what has to happen first.

If that takes several steps, start on them early. Trouble like this is much easier to solve while the stock still has plenty of cards in it.

Empty a column only with a King ready

Only a King can fill an empty column. Emptying one with no King to put there wastes the space, and you can’t park another card there while you wait.

A good moment to clear a column is when a King is sitting on top of face-down cards. Moving it into the empty space turns over the card beneath it.

Choose the right King

Which King you choose matters: pick the one whose colour suits the cards you need to place on it. A black Queen needs a red King, and a red Queen needs a black King.

If the Queen of spades is sitting on top of your tallest column, a red King in the empty space gets that column moving. Look at the Queens and Jacks in play before you decide.

Leave a settled King alone

A King at the base of a column, with nothing hidden under it, is exactly where it wants to be. Moving it to another empty column changes nothing.

Save your attention for Kings sitting on face-down cards, and for Kings still buried or in the stock.

Play the columns before the stock

A card moved out of a column can uncover something new; a card taken from the stock only changes the waste. Look over the columns before you draw, and draw when you have run out of useful moves there.

You can go through the stock as often as you like, so there is no need to grab a card just because it’s showing. It will come round again.

Take a stock card for a reason

The best stock cards are the ones that let a column move: the red 8 that gives your black 7 somewhere to go, for example, so the card under that 7 can turn over.

A card that only adds to a column without freeing anything can wait. It also uses up one of your open spots.

In Draw One, learn the order

Draw One lets you see all 24 cards, one by one, and every one of them is reachable. Turning through the stock once early in the deal tells you what you have to work with.

Once you know a King or a needed 7 is coming, you can plan around it. Every card you play out of the stock also makes the next pass shorter.

In Draw Three, count the stock

In Draw Three, which cards you can reach depends on how many are left in the stock. A full stock of 24 gives you only 8 cards on the first pass: the 3rd, 6th, 9th and so on, plus whatever lies under one of those once you play it.

Playing one card from the waste shifts every group of three after it. Play the 6th card, and on the next pass the groups run 1 to 3, then 4, 5 and 7, then 8, 9 and 10. The 7th, 10th and 13th cards are now on top.

In Draw Three, play from the back

A play only changes the groups after it, so cards earlier in the stock stay where they were. If you want cards from both early and late in a pass, take the later one first when you can.

Playing a card can also move a card you wanted out of reach. In the example above, the 9th and 12th cards were on top before the 6th was played, and now they aren’t.

When the stock doesn’t divide by three, the last draw is short, and the very last card is always reachable.

When the cards you need won’t come up, play one card from the waste and go round again. The whole order after it changes.

Aces and twos go straight up

An Ace can’t hold anything, and a two could only hold an Ace, which is going home anyway. Send these up as soon as you can reach them.

Don’t rush cards home

Higher cards are sometimes needed in the columns to hold the next card down, so before sending a 5 home, check the other-colour 4s have somewhere else to go.

The same goes for a 9 or a 10 early in the deal. That card may be the only landing spot for something you are about to uncover.

Know when a card is safe

A card is completely safe to send home once both of the cards that could sit on it are already on the foundations. The 5 of hearts is safe once the 4 of spades and the 4 of clubs are home.

Before that point, it’s a judgement call. Sending a card home is still often right, especially when it turns something over.

Bring a card back down

You can move the top card of a foundation back onto a column. If you need a landing spot for a black 5, and the 6 of hearts is on top of its foundation, bring it down onto an open black 7.

It’s easy to forget this move exists, and it gets many stuck deals going again.

Keep the suits level

When one suit races far ahead of the others, its cards are gone from the columns while the other colour still needs them. Building all four suits at about the same pace keeps more landing spots open.

Use Undo as a test

Undo goes back up to 60 moves. Use it to try an idea: turn over the card you’re curious about, see what it is, and step back if it doesn’t help.

When you’ve hit a wall, go back to the last choice you weren’t sure about and try the other way.

A hint shows a move, not a plan

The hint looks for a card that can go home first, then a move between columns, then tells you to draw. It finds a legal move and doesn’t look ahead.

That means a hint can suggest sending a card home too early, or a column move that gains nothing. Treat it as a reminder of what’s possible, and decide for yourself.

Run the stuck checklist

Before you give up on a deal, go through these:

• Can a card come back down from a foundation?
• Can part of a run move to its twin?
• Is there another King that would suit that empty column better?
• Have you been through the whole stock since your last play?
• In Draw Three, would playing one waste card shift the groups?

Replay the deal

Replay this deal, in the menu, restarts the same cards from the beginning. Since you now know where everything is hiding, a second try on a hard deal is the best practice there is.

A deal that beat you can teach you more than three that went smoothly.

For fewest moves

Every card you move counts, every draw counts, and so does turning the waste back over. Learning the stock’s order in fewer passes saves more moves than anything else.

Avoid moving runs back and forth, and use Replay this deal when a deal looks like a good one for a low score.

For best time

Double-click sends a card where it goes without a drag, and a single click sends an Ace straight up. U undoes a move and H shows a hint.

Once every card in the columns is face up, Auto-complete plays out the rest, stock included. Getting those last face-down cards turned over is the finish line.