Clear the pyramid by pairing two uncovered cards that add up to 13. Kings go on their own. Three passes through the stock, with undo.
What is Pyramid Solitaire?
Pyramid Solitaire is a one-player card game in which you clear a pyramid of 28 cards by removing pairs of uncovered cards whose values add up to 13. Kings count as 13 by themselves and are removed alone. The rest of the deck forms a stock that you turn over one card at a time to find partners for the cards in the pyramid.
A deal is short, often a few minutes, and the arithmetic is simple. The difficulty comes from order: every card you take out may be the partner another card was waiting for.
How to play Pyramid Solitaire
Setup: 28 cards are dealt face up into a pyramid of seven rows, one card at the top and seven on the bottom row. Each card overlaps two cards of the row beneath it. The other 24 cards make the stock, with a waste pile next to it and a pile for removed cards on the right.
Card values: Ace is 1, number cards count their number, Jack is 11, Queen is 12 and King is 13. That gives six pairs that make 13: Ace with Queen, 2 with Jack, 3 with 10, 4 with 9, 5 with 8, and 6 with 7. A King needs no partner.
Which cards are available: a pyramid card can be used only when both cards that overlap it from the row below are gone. At the start, only the seven cards on the bottom row are available. The top card of the waste pile is also available. Cards that are still covered show just their corner, so you can still read them while planning.
Removing cards: pair two available cards that add up to 13, either two pyramid cards or one pyramid card with the top waste card. Remove an available King on its own with a single tap.
The stock: tap it to turn one card onto the waste. When the stock is empty you can turn the waste back over and go through again. You get two redeals, so three passes through the stock in total, and the number of redeals left is shown under the stock.
Winning and losing: you win when the pyramid is empty, even if cards remain in the stock. The deal is over when the stock and redeals are used up and no pair or King can be removed. The game tells you when that happens.
Pyramid Solitaire strategy
Remove Kings at once. A King has no partner, so taking it out never costs you anything and always uncovers something.
Count partners. There are four cards of each rank. If you need a 7 for a 6 in the pyramid, check how many 7s are already gone or locked deep in the pyramid. When partners are scarce, save them for the pyramid cards that block the most other cards.
Watch for cards that cover their own partner. If a 4 sits on top of a 9 in the row above it, those two can never be paired with each other, because the 9 is not available until the 4 is gone. The 4 will need a different 9, so look for one early.
Open the pyramid from both sides. Cards near the middle of the bottom rows hold up more of the pyramid than cards on the edges. Clearing from left and right evenly gives you more available cards at once and more choices for each stock card.
Choose between pairs with care. When one pyramid card can pair with either a waste card or another pyramid card, using the waste card keeps the pyramid partner for later. When the pair inside the pyramid uncovers two new cards, that is often worth more. Removing the top waste card also exposes the card under it, which may give you a second pair straight away.
Use the first pass to learn the stock. With three passes you will see every stock card more than once. Note where the partners you need are, and on the next pass you can plan which pyramid cards to clear before that card comes up. Undo is unlimited if a plan goes wrong.
Pyramid rules and related games
Our Pyramid uses one fixed rule set: draw one card at a time, two redeals, and the deal is won when the pyramid is cleared. There are no options to change.
Other rule sets exist. Some versions allow no redeals, some let you pair the top stock card with the top waste card, and some count a deal as won only when the stock is cleared too. Pyramid also belongs to the wider family of adding solitaires, and it sits close to TriPeaks and Golf, where you remove a card that is one rank above or below the waste card.
Origins of Pyramid Solitaire
Pyramid is one of the adding patience games, where cards are removed when their values reach a fixed total. Its exact origin is not recorded. It has been a fixture of computer solitaire collections for decades, and its 28-card pyramid uses the same number of cards as the Klondike tableau.
Playing Pyramid Solitaire on Hevagames
Pyramid on Hevagames runs in the browser on phones and computers, with no download. Drag one card onto its partner, or tap one card and then the other. Tap an available King once to remove it. A counter shows how many cards you have removed and how many redeals remain. On a keyboard, use the arrows and Enter to pick cards, Z to undo, D to draw and N for a new deal.
Scoring: 10 points for each pyramid card removed and 2 points for each stock card removed. A win adds a bonus of 600 points minus 2 per move and half a point per second. Undo is unlimited but counts as a move. The game saves itself, your best score stays on your device, and the pyramid resizes so all seven rows fit on a phone screen in light or dark theme.
How to play
- 1Remove two uncovered cards that add up to 13: Ace counts 1, Jack 11, Queen 12.
- 2A King counts 13 and is removed on its own with a single tap.
- 3A card is uncovered when no card from the row below overlaps it. The top card of the waste can also be paired.
- 4Tap the stock to turn one card. You can turn the waste back over twice, so you get three passes in all.
- 5Clear all 28 pyramid cards to win. The deal ends when nothing can be removed and the stock is used up.
Controls
Tips
- Look at which cards each pair would uncover before you choose it.
- Do not pair a card with the waste if the same rank is waiting deeper in the pyramid and blocking it.
- Count the cards left in the stock before you use a redeal.
