Learn beginner strategy for Scorpion Solitaire. Core tactics for building same-suit sequences, uncovering buried cards and stock use explained.
Scorpion Solitaire is one of the most distinctive games in the patience family — and one of the most misunderstood by new players. On the surface it looks like a cross between Spider and Klondike: seven columns, face-down cards buried in the early rows, sequences to build. In practice, Scorpion is its own game with its own logic. The same-suit-only build rule, the unusual move mechanic that lets you place any face-up card anywhere a valid suit-sequence continuation exists, and the three-card stock reserve that can only be drawn once all combine to create a game where the difference between a casual win rate of 25–35% and a strategic win rate of 50–65% comes down to three things: understanding how to build same-suit sequences without creating suit conflicts that block progress, uncovering the face-down cards in the correct order, and knowing exactly when and how to spend the three reserve stock cards.
Scorpion Solitaire is one of the most distinctive games in the patience family — and one of the most misunderstood by new players. On the surface it looks like a cross between Spider and Klondike: seven columns, face-down cards buried in the early rows, sequences to build. In practice, Scorpion is its own game with its own logic. The same-suit-only build rule, the unusual move mechanic that lets you place any face-up card anywhere a valid suit-sequence continuation exists, and the three-card stock reserve that can only be drawn once all combine to create a game where the difference between a casual win rate of 25–35% and a strategic win rate of 50–65% comes down to three things: understanding how to build same-suit sequences without creating suit conflicts that block progress, uncovering the face-down cards in the correct order, and knowing exactly when and how to spend the three reserve stock cards.
This guide covers all three in depth. Our free Scorpion Solitaire game is the best place to apply each section immediately — the habits here are most effectively learned by trying them on live hands rather than reading about them in the abstract.
Scorpion deals 49 of 52 cards to seven columns of seven. The first four columns each have three face-down cards beneath four face-up cards; the last three columns are entirely face-up. The remaining three cards form the stock reserve, held back until needed. Foundations are not used during play — sequences are built directly in the tableau. The goal is to arrange all four suits into complete King-to-Ace sequences in the tableau, at which point they are removed and the game is won. The Scorpion move rule: any face-up card may be moved to any column where it continues a same-suit descending sequence — the card placed on top must be exactly one rank lower and the same suit as the card it lands on. Any face-up card carrying cards on top of it moves as a unit; all cards above the moved card travel with it. When all possible moves are exhausted before the game is won, the three stock cards are dealt one to each of the first three columns — this is the only stock deal, and it happens at most once per game. For full rules, see our complete Scorpion Solitaire guide.
Same-suit sequence building is the entirety of Scorpion's strategic challenge. Every move either advances a same-suit sequence, maintains future same-suit building options, or damages them. Players who understand how same-suit sequences form, conflict, and resolve win significantly more games than players who treat Scorpion as a general sequencing game with a suit requirement bolted on.
Understand the suit concentration problem. Scorpion deals seven columns and four suits. At any given point, the 52 cards of the deck are distributed across those seven columns, and each column will typically contain cards of multiple suits mixed together. The core tactical problem is that a mixed-suit column blocks itself: a 7 of Hearts sitting beneath a 9 of Spades in the same column cannot be accessed without first moving the 9 of Spades somewhere — and the 9 of Spades can only go to a column that has a 10 of Spades on top. If no 10 of Spades is accessible, the 9 of Spades — and everything above it — is locked until one becomes available. Every time you make a move that buries a card of suit X under cards of a different suit, you create a future unlocking problem for suit X. The discipline of avoiding unnecessary cross-suit burials is the single most impactful habit in Scorpion.
Build same-suit runs as long as possible before moving them. A partial sequence — say, 9-8-7 of Clubs sitting in a column — is a building block that should be extended before it is relocated. Moving a partial sequence to a new location costs a move and potentially disrupts the source column; extending it in place by adding the 6 of Clubs is almost always preferable. The habit: before moving any partial sequence to a new column, check whether the sequence can be extended further in its current position. Only move it when it cannot be extended further, or when moving it enables a face-down card to be uncovered that extends a different suit's sequence.
Prioritise sequences that approach completion. A suit that has its King, Queen, Jack, and 10 accessible and partially sequenced is closer to completion than a suit where those cards are scattered across five different columns. When choosing between extending two different suit sequences, prefer the suit closer to a complete 13-card run — finishing one suit releases a column position and reduces the tableau complexity for all remaining suits simultaneously. The snowball effect of completing one suit early is real: each completed suit simplifies the board for the remaining three.
Preserve column access for all four suits simultaneously. A common Scorpion mistake is building one suit's sequence beautifully while inadvertently burying the critical low-rank cards of another suit under it. Before extending any sequence, briefly scan the tableau to confirm that the move does not bury a card that another suit needs in the near term. A 5 of Hearts placed on a 6 of Hearts looks productive for the Hearts sequence — but if it buries a 7 of Diamonds that the Diamonds sequence needs to extend, the net effect may be negative. Suit-aware placement — checking what lies beneath both the card you are moving and the destination — is the habit that separates players who hit a mid-game wall from players who clear all four suits.
Twelve face-down cards sit beneath the first four columns at the start of each Scorpion game. Unlike Klondike, where the face-down cards are revealed one at a time as their column tops are moved, Scorpion's face-down cards sit several layers deep and may require multiple coordinated moves to reach. The order in which you uncover them matters significantly — an early reveal in the wrong column can produce a card that has nowhere to go and that disrupts the suit sequences you were building.
Identify which columns have the most face-down cards and start there. Columns one through four each have three face-down cards; reaching the deepest one requires clearing three layers of face-up cards above it. Prioritise uncovering the deepest face-down cards first — not because the card itself is necessarily more valuable, but because clearing the layers above it produces more total information and more useful face-up cards per move sequence than clearing a shallower column.
Match uncovering sequences to suit sequence needs. Before beginning any uncovering sequence, check which suits most need their low-rank cards. If Hearts is missing its 4, 5, and 6 and those cards are plausibly buried in column two's face-down stack, uncovering column two is higher priority than uncovering a column whose face-down card is unlikely to contain Hearts low-ranks. This is imprecise information — you cannot know what the face-down cards are until revealed — but combining suit-sequence gap analysis with column uncovering priority produces better sequencing decisions than treating all face-down positions as equally urgent.
Use the Scorpion move rule to clear face-up layers without consuming empty columns. Because any face-up card can move to a valid same-suit continuation anywhere in the tableau, face-up layers above a face-down card can often be shifted to other columns without needing an empty column as a staging area. This is Scorpion's key advantage over Klondike for uncovering: in Klondike, an inaccessible card often stays buried until the stock produces the right card; in Scorpion, you can actively reorganise the tableau to reach it. Use this freedom aggressively — if a five-card face-up stack is sitting on a face-down card and three of those five cards can be redistributed to valid suit-sequence continuations elsewhere, make those moves before resorting to empty column staging.
The three reserve stock cards are Scorpion's most constrained resource — they can be spent exactly once, and once dealt they are in the game permanently. Spending them at the right moment can unlock a stuck tableau; spending them prematurely wastes the opportunity to use them when the game's critical blockage actually occurs.
Never deal the stock cards until the tableau is genuinely stuck. A genuinely stuck tableau is one where no legal move exists anywhere in the seven columns — not just no immediately productive move, but literally no legal move at all. Many Scorpion positions that feel stuck are not actually stuck: there is a legal move available, but it does not obviously improve the position. Before dealing the stock, exhaust every legal move available, including moves that seem to make the board messier temporarily. Only when every column top is checked and no legal move exists anywhere should the three stock cards be dealt.
Assess what the stock will likely produce before dealing it. The three stock cards are the three cards not dealt at the start of the game. If you have been tracking which cards are visible in the tableau and can estimate which three are missing, you can make an informed assessment of whether the stock deal will help or merely delay the inevitable. If the three missing cards are suits and ranks that can immediately continue an accessible sequence, dealing them now is correct. If they are likely to land on columns where they have no legal continuation, the stock deal may simply add three more stuck cards to an already stuck tableau — in which case studying the current tableau more carefully before dealing is the right move.
After dealing the stock, reassess the full tableau before moving. The three new cards change the tableau state completely. Before making any move after the stock deal, take fifteen seconds to scan all seven column tops with fresh eyes — the new cards may create sequence continuations that were not visible before, and the most valuable of these may not be obvious at first glance. Rushing into the first available move after the stock deal is a common way to miss the move that the stock cards were dealt to enable.
1. Never Bury a Card Under a Different Suit Without a Clear Plan to Unbury It
Cross-suit burial is Scorpion's primary loss cause. Before every move, identify the suit of the card being moved and the suit of every card that will end up beneath it at the destination. If the move buries a card of a different suit under the moved card, confirm that an accessible same-suit continuation exists for the buried suit before committing. If no plan for unburying it exists, find a different move.
2. Extend Partial Sequences in Place Before Relocating Them
A same-suit partial sequence extended by one rank is more valuable than the same sequence moved to a new column. Check whether a sequence can be extended at its current location before spending a move to relocate it. Moving a sequence costs a move and disrupts the source column; extending it costs nothing except the extension card itself.
3. Prioritise the Suit Closest to Completion
When two suit sequences can both be advanced with available moves, always advance the closer-to-complete suit first. Completing one suit early clears a column position, reduces tableau complexity, and accelerates the remaining suits' completion. The first completion is the hardest; each subsequent completion is progressively easier.
4. Use the Scorpion Move Rule to Clear Paths to Face-Down Cards
Before using an empty column as a staging area for uncovering, check whether the face-up cards above the face-down target can be redistributed to valid same-suit continuations elsewhere in the tableau. Scorpion's move rule often provides enough flexibility to clear paths to face-down cards without consuming the empty column resource.
5. Uncover the Deepest Face-Down Cards First
Columns one through four each have three face-down cards. The deepest face-down card produces the most information when revealed and the most useful face-up cards per move sequence during the uncovering process. Start uncovering from the deepest position and work outward.
6. Track Which Low-Rank Cards Each Suit Is Missing
Sequence completion stalls at the lowest missing rank. A Hearts sequence that has King through 5 accessible but cannot find the 4 is stuck until the 4 appears. Keep a running mental note of which low-rank cards each suit is missing and use this list to prioritise which face-down columns to uncover first and which face-up moves to make to expose those cards.
7. Protect Empty Columns — They Are the Scarcest Resource in the Game
An empty column in Scorpion can receive any card or partial sequence, enabling rearrangements that are otherwise impossible. Empty columns are created by completing a suit sequence (which removes 13 cards from a column) or by clearing a short column entirely. Once you have an empty column, treat it as a last-resort staging resource rather than a convenient parking spot — filling it with a card that did not need staging wastes the most powerful tool in your possession.
8. Do Not Deal the Stock Until the Tableau Has Zero Legal Moves
A position with even one legal move is not stuck. Before dealing the reserve stock, verify that every column top has been checked for valid same-suit continuations across all other column tops. Premature stock deals are permanent — you cannot unspend those three cards. The stock's value is highest when the tableau is genuinely immovable; spending it before that point reduces its value to less than its maximum.
9. After the Stock Deal, Scan All Seven Columns Before Moving
The three dealt cards change everything. Take fifteen seconds after each stock deal to re-scan the complete tableau with fresh eyes. The move the stock was meant to enable may not be the first one you see — it may be a chain of two or three moves starting from a column you had not been watching closely.
10. Resign Early on Confirmed Stuck Positions — Do Not Exhaust the Stock on a Lost Cause
Scorpion has a higher intrinsic unwinnable rate than FreeCell or Klondike Turn 1. When the stock has been dealt, all columns have been thoroughly checked, and no legal moves exist that make any suit sequence progress, the game is over. Recognising this position quickly — after one or two systematic checks rather than ten minutes of hopeful shuffling — and starting a fresh hand is the most efficient use of your time. A player who plays twenty Scorpion hands efficiently, resigning stuck positions after three minutes, wins more games per hour than one who spends thirty minutes on every stuck hand. See our solitaire win rates guide for the full context.
The most damaging Scorpion mistake is building long, visually satisfying mixed-suit stacks in the hope that the correct same-suit cards will appear to sort them out later. Mixed-suit stacks create compounding cross-suit burial problems — each card added to a mixed stack makes it harder to extract the cards of one suit without disrupting the cards of another. Every stack in Scorpion should be as suit-pure as possible; visual tidiness that comes at the cost of suit purity is a trade that almost always loses.
The second most common mistake is dealing the reserve stock cards the first time the game feels slow or unproductive. Scorpion positions often look stuck when they are merely unproductive — there are legal moves available, but none of them obviously improve the position. Developing the patience to exhaust all legal moves before dealing the stock, and the analytical habit of distinguishing genuinely stuck from merely unproductive, is the mid-level skill that produces the largest improvement beyond the basic strategy covered in this guide.
In Scorpion, tableau sequences build downward in the same suit only — a 7 of Clubs can only be placed on an 8 of Clubs, not on any other 8. This is more restrictive than Klondike's alternating-colour rule and is the primary source of Scorpion's difficulty. Any face-up card can be moved to any column where it continues a same-suit descending sequence, and all face-up cards resting above the moved card travel with it. The goal is to build four complete same-suit sequences from King down to Ace; each completed sequence is removed from the tableau, clearing space and simplifying the board for the remaining suits. Play our free Scorpion Solitaire game to see how the same-suit rule shapes every decision from the very first move.
Deal the three reserve stock cards only when the tableau has zero legal moves remaining — not when moves feel unproductive, but when a systematic check of all seven column tops confirms that no same-suit continuation exists anywhere in the tableau. Before dealing, try to estimate what the three reserve cards are likely to be (the three cards not dealt at the start) and whether they will immediately continue an accessible sequence. After dealing, re-scan all seven columns before making any move — the new cards may create continuations that were not visible before, and the most valuable post-deal move is often not the most obvious one. For the complete strategic analysis of stock timing, see our Scorpion Solitaire strategy guide.
The most common cause is cross-suit burial: placing a card of suit A on top of a card of suit B in a position where suit B will need that buried card to complete its sequence before suit A does. Every cross-suit burial creates a future unlocking problem, and these problems compound — each one requires a specific same-suit continuation to appear at a specific column top before the buried card becomes accessible again. Applying the cross-suit burial check before every move (tip 1), extending sequences in place rather than relocating them (tip 2), and tracking which low-rank cards each suit is missing (tip 6) together address the three primary causes of mid-game stalls in Scorpion. For a deeper analysis of the strategy dimensions Scorpion engages, see our advanced solitaire variants guide.