Scorpion Solitaire Strategy: What Wins, Counted
Win more Scorpion solitaire games: keep the reserve until you're stuck, turn over face-down cards first, look ahead, and don't hurry Kings into empty columns.
Sunroom Games · Updated
Scorpion is one of the hardest games of solitaire. Twelve cards start face down, only Kings can go into an empty column, and the three reserve cards can be dealt just once. It rewards patience more than speed: the order you do things in matters a great deal. To find out which habits matter most, we had the computer play the 1,000 deals our Scorpion game hands out in different ways and counted the wins. Here's what we found.
If you'd like the rules first, see how to play Scorpion.
What our test games showed
Playing the way our Hint button does, the computer won 516 of the 1,000 games. Changing one habit at a time showed what each one is worth:
| One change from the hints' way of playing | Games won (of 1,000) |
|---|---|
| None: the Hint button's own way | 516 |
| Deal the reserve straight away | 274 |
| Don't put turning over face-down cards first | 357 |
| Look only one move ahead | 365 |
| Hurry every King into an empty column | 428 |
| Deal the reserve as soon as no big move is left | 472 |
| Dig into the shortest face-down pile first | 514 |
The tips below take the biggest differences first.
1. Keep the reserve for when you're truly stuck
The three reserve cards land on the first three columns, on top of whatever is there. That can bury the very cards you were about to free. Dealing them straight away won only 274 of our 1,000 games instead of 516, and even dealing them as soon as no big move was left won 472. Make every small move you can first, and deal the reserve only when nothing else will move. Our Hint button suggests it only then.
2. Turn over the face-down cards
The twelve face-down cards in the first four columns hold cards you'll need: in about 65 deals in 100, at least one King is among them, and about one Ace is hidden in an average deal. Until they're turned over, you can't finish the runs they belong to. When a move uncovers a face-down card, it's usually the best move on the board. Without that priority, our test games won 357 instead of 516.
All four face-down piles start the same height, so which one you dig into first made little difference (514 wins starting with the shortest). Just keep turning cards over.
3. Look a few moves ahead
Often no single move turns over a card. Instead, one move frees a card that can go somewhere else, and that frees the card you wanted. Remember that any face-up card can move, with every card on top of it:
So a card in the middle of a column isn't stuck: if the card above it can move, it's free. Looking only one move ahead, our test games won 365; looking six moves ahead, as our Hint button does, they won 516.
4. Don't hurry Kings into empty columns
This one surprised us. An empty column can only take a King, so it seems natural to fill it with one at once. But a King that's sitting on face-up cards isn't in the way of anything yet, and once it's in the space, the space is gone. Hurrying every such King into an empty column won only 428 of our games instead of 516.
Fill an empty column when it does something for you: when the King is covering a face-down card, or when moving it frees a card you need for a run. Otherwise, keep the space and keep playing.
5. Watch what comes along
Because a card takes everything on top of it, a big group can bury a card you're about to need. Before you move a group, look at what's in it, and at what it will cover on the column it lands on. If it will cover the next card of a run you're building, look for another way.
6. Build runs you can finish
A run only clears when it's complete, King down to Ace, all in one suit. A half-built run in a column you can't reach is no help. Work on the suits whose missing cards you can see, and remember that the cards you haven't seen yet are face down or in the reserve.
7. Use Undo, and try Wasp if Scorpion is too hard
Undo takes your moves back one at a time, so you can try a plan and go back if it leads nowhere. And if Scorpion feels too hard, choose Wasp in Settings: everything is the same, except that any card can go into an empty column. On the same 1,000 deals, following the hints won 604 games of Wasp.
How often should you win?
Scorpion is hard even on the deals we hand out, every one of which our program has won knowing where every card is. Playing the Hint button's way, without peeking at the face-down cards, the computer won about half of them. If you're winning that often, you're playing very well. For how Scorpion compares with other games of solitaire, see Can every game of solitaire be won?. Scorpion's cousins, Yukon and Spider, reward many of the same habits: see our Yukon strategy guide and Spider strategy guide.