Yukon Solitaire Strategy: Plan Ahead and Win More Games
How to win more Yukon solitaire games: dig into the tallest piles first, move groups to free buried cards, plan a few moves ahead and don't rush cards up.
Sunroom Games · Updated
Yukon looks like Klondike, but it plays very differently. Every card is dealt at the start, and you can move any face-up card together with everything on top of it. There's no stock to turn and very little luck: the game rewards the player who sees a few moves ahead. Here's how to do that, with numbers from our own test games.
If you'd like the rules first, see how to play Yukon.
What our test games showed
We had the computer play 1,000 deals of Yukon in different ways and counted the wins.
- Planning ahead is everything. Looking only two moves ahead, it won almost no games at all. Looking four moves ahead, it won 34 games in 100. Looking six moves ahead, it won 50.
- Which pile you dig into matters. Turning over cards from the tallest pile of face-down cards first won 50 games in 100; starting with the shortest piles won 43.
- Rushing cards up hurts. Sending every card up to the foundations as soon as it could go won only 40 games in 100, against 50 when cards went up only once they were safe.
Those three ideas are most of the strategy. The tips below put them into practice.
1. Play the Aces and 2s you can see
On average, more than two of the four Aces are face up at the start, and in 98 deals out of 100 at least one is. As soon as an Ace is on top of its column, send it up, and its 2 when that's free too. They rarely help in the columns, and moving them often uncovers something useful. An Ace buried in the middle of a column is a good reason to plan a few moves (see tip 7).
2. Dig into the tallest piles first
The last two columns hide five and six face-down cards. Those hidden cards are the biggest unknown in the game, and the longer they stay hidden, the more likely they are to hold a card you need. When you have a choice, make the move that turns over a card in the tallest face-down pile.
3. Think in groups
The rule that makes Yukon special is that any face-up card can move, with every card on top of it, whether those cards are in order or not. So don't only look at the bottom cards of each column. Look for any face-up card that could go somewhere.
That also means a card buried in the middle of a column isn't stuck. If the card just above it can move somewhere, the buried card is free.
4. Plan a few moves ahead
Often no single move turns over a card. Instead, one move makes room for a second, and the second for a third, which finally reveals something. Before you move, ask: where could this card go, and what would that free up? Our test games show how much this matters: looking six moves ahead won half the games, while looking two moves ahead won almost none.
That's exactly what our Hint button does. When no move helps right away, it looks up to six moves ahead for the quickest way to turn over a card or send one up, and suggests the first step, using only the cards you can see.
5. Don't rush cards up to the foundations
Once a card is on its foundation, it can no longer hold a card in the columns. Put the 6 of hearts up too early, and you may find a black 5 with nowhere to go. A card is safe to send up when both cards of the other color one rank lower are already up: the 6 of hearts is safe once both black 5s are on their foundations. In our tests, sending cards up only when they were safe won a quarter more games than sending them up at once.
6. Use empty columns wisely
Only a King can go into an empty column, but it takes everything on top of it. The best use of a space is a King that's sitting on face-down cards: move it, with its group, into the space, and a new card turns over. Moving a King that's already at the bottom of its column into another space gains nothing.
7. Look for the card that's in the way
When you need a particular card, say the 2 of clubs, find it and look at the card just above it in its column. If that card can move somewhere, the 2 is free. Sometimes you'll need to make a home for that card first, which is where planning a few moves ahead comes in.
8. Use Undo to try a plan
Yukon is a game of plans, and some don't work out. Undo takes your moves back one at a time, so you can try a line of play, see what it turns over, and go back if it leads nowhere. Our Hint button is happy to suggest a different first step from the new position.
How often should you win?
Not every deal of Yukon can be won, even with careful play. In our tests, simply following the Hint button won about half of all deals, and looking further ahead won more. If you're winning around half your games, you're doing well; if you plan further ahead than the hint does, you'll do better.
Yukon's cousin, Klondike, rewards many of the same habits. Our Klondike strategy guide has more, and Which Solitaire Game Should You Play? compares Yukon with six other kinds of solitaire.