Scorpion Solitaire Strategy: 6 Tips

Scorpion rewards patience and planning more than speed. New here? Read the rules first.

1. Uncover the hidden cards

Twelve cards start face down. Every move that exposes one is worth making early, even at the cost of tidiness: you can't plan what you can't see.

2. Earn an empty column

An empty column takes a King and everything on it, and a King at the base of a column is where a finished run has to live. Clearing a short column is usually the turning point of the game.

3. Mind the Aces

An Ace can only ever sit on a 2 of its suit. An Ace buried under a long disordered pile blocks that whole pile. Avoid covering Aces, and free them when you can.

4. Deal the tail late

The three tail cards fall on columns one to three and can bury what you've set up. Deal them when you're out of useful moves, or when one of them is exactly the card a run needs.

5. Build from the King down

A run must start with a King at the base of a column. Look at each King: what sits on it, and what would have to move for the Queen, Jack and ten of that suit to follow?

6. Use undo to look ahead

Undo is free. When two moves compete, try one, look at what it uncovers, and go back if the other is better. Scorpion is a puzzle, and reading ahead is part of it.

Last updated 2026-10-20