Game Goals
The goal of Solitaire Rush is to "play out" by moving all 52 cards to the four slots at the top of the board (or "Foundation").
Note: Any Solitaire Rush shuffles that cannot be played out have been discarded before the game begins, so you will only get shuffles that can be completed. But that doesn't guarantee that you won't make a wrong move and get stuck!
Game Rules
The setup for Solitaire Rush is to deal out 28 of the 52 cards into 7 piles, making up the "tableau". The first pile is a single card (face up), the second pile is two cards (top card facing up), the third pile is three cards (top card facing up), etc. The remaining 24 cards form a single face-down pile, called the "hand".
Face-up cards in the tableau can be stacked on top of other cards in the tableau by building downward, alternating colors, in descending order. For example, a red 8 could be placed on a black 9, or a black jack could be placed on a red queen.
You can move more than one card at a time; For instance, a pile containing an 8 of hearts/7 of spades/6 of diamonds could be picked up and placed on a 9 of spades.
When a card in the tableau has been moved to expose a face-down card, that card will flip over and be available for play. Whenever a card in the tableau has been moved to create an empty slot, that slot can be filled with any king (including any cards that have been built onto that king).
To move cards to the Foundation you must start each Foundation pile with the aces of each suit. Once an ace has been moved to the Foundation, a 2 can be placed on the ace of the same suit, and so forth, ending with the king. Once a card has been placed on the foundation, it can be moved back to the tableau, but a 10-point penalty will be assessed for this action.
When there are no moves to make in the tableau, you can tap through the hand, flipping over three cards (or one card for draw-1 tournaments) placing them face-up in the "waste pile". The top card of this waste pile is available to move to the tableau or to one of the Foundation piles, if there is a place for it. Moving a card off the waste pile exposes the card beneath it, making it available for placement. When you have gone through all the cards in the hand, you can return the waste pile to the hand to cycle thru again.
Note that there is a penalty for cycling thru the hand three times or more (for draw-3 tournaments), and an even heftier penalty in draw-1 games for every return to the beginning of the hand.
Game ends when either, a) it plays out (that is, all 52 cards are in the Foundation), b) you get stuck and tap the 'END' button to end your game and collect a time bonus, or 3) your time runs out.
You have 5 minutes to complete every standard game of Solitaire Rush.
Game Controls
- Tap and drag to move a single card from the tableau to another spot in the tableau, from the tableau to the Foundation, from the waste pile to the tableau, or from the waste pile to Foundation.
- To move a group of cards within the tableau, tap on the highest card in the group you wish to move and drag it to the destination card.
- Tap the hand to draw the next one (1-card draw) or three (3-card draw) card(s) to the waste pile. To return the waste pile to the depleted hand, just tap on the empty hand.
- Tapping on an exposed and playable card, in either the tableau or the waste pile, will automatically send it to the Foundation (IF there is a place for it).
- Note that once you have the game "solved" (that is, no face-down cards in the tableau and zero or one exposed card in the waste pile), the clock will freeze and all your cards will play out to the Foundation for you.
- Tap the 'UNDO' button to take back your last move, so long as that move did not reveal the identity of an unseen card. If your last move revealed a hidden card, such as turning over a card on the tableau, the UNDO button will be disabled.
- Tap the 'END' button to effectively end your game when you feel you cannot make any more moves.
Game Scoring
Points are added or deducted for the following actions:
- +50 points: Moving any Ace to the Foundation
- +45 points: Moving any 2 to the Foundation
- +40 points: Moving any 3 to the Foundation
- +35 points: Moving any 4 to the Foundation
- +30 points: Moving any 5 to the Foundation
- +25 points: Moving any 6 to the Foundation
- +20 points: Moving any 7 to the Foundation
- +15 points: Moving any 8 to the Foundation
- +10 points: Moving any 9 to the Foundation
- +5 points: Moving any 10, Jack, Queen or King to the Foundation
- +10 points: Turning over a face-down card in the Tableau
- +10 points: Moving any card from the Wastepile to the Tableau or Foundation (Note: If you are moving a card directly from the Wastepile to the Foundation, these 10 points are in addition to that card's point value for moving it to the Foundation.)
- -10 points: Moving a card from the Foundation to the Tableau
- -20 points: (Draw-3 only) returning the Wastepile to the Hand for the 3rd time, and every time after
- -100 points: (Draw-1 only) returning the Wastepile to the Hand
Time Bonus
At the conclusion of the game you get a time bonus of 1 point for each unused second, times the percentage of cards moved to the Foundation. That is: Time Bonus = ( 300 - T ) x ( CP / 52 )
Where T is the amount of time used (in seconds) and CP is the number of cards moved to the Foundation. (Note that 300 is the number of secs in a typical 5 min game).