How to play Pyramid
The goal
Clear all 28 cards from the pyramid. Cards left in the stock or the waste don’t matter: once the top card of the pyramid is gone, you’ve won.
The deal
One ordinary deck of 52 cards. Twenty-eight of them form a pyramid of seven rows, one card at the top and seven at the bottom, all face up. Each card is half covered by the two cards below it. The other 24 cards wait face down in the stock, under the pyramid.
Every deal can be won at the level you chose: our solver has cleared each one before it reaches you.
Card values
An ace is 1, number cards are worth their number, a jack is 11, a queen is 12, and a king is 13.
The rules
- Open cards. A pyramid card is open when no card covers it. At the start, the seven cards of the bottom row are open. The top card of the waste is open too.
- Make 13. Remove any two open cards whose values add up to 13: ace and queen, 2 and jack, 3 and 10, 4 and 9, 5 and 8, or 6 and 7.
- Kings go alone. A king is already 13, so an open king leaves by itself.
- Draw from the stock. Tap the stock to turn its top card face up onto the waste. Only the waste’s top card can be played; removing it opens the card under it.
- Go through again. When the stock runs out, tap it to turn the waste back over and start another pass. How many passes you get depends on the level.
Levels
- Relaxed: go through the stock as often as you like.
- Classic: three passes through the stock.
- Strict: one pass. Every draw counts.
When no card can ever leave again, the game says so and offers Undo, Restart deal, and New deal.
Scoring
Every card you remove scores 5 points, and clearing the pyramid adds 100. Each undo costs 2 points. Cards from the stock count too, so the more of them you pair on the way, the higher you score; the most a deal can give is 360.
Controls
- Tap an open card to pick it, then tap a card that makes 13 with it. Tap a king to remove it at once. Tap the picked card again to put it back.
- Quick pair: turn it on in Settings, and a card with only one open partner leaves with it in one tap.
- Drag an open card onto its partner.
- Undo, Redo, and Hint are above the table.
Keyboard
Tab to the table. The arrow keys move between the open cards and the stock. Enter or Space picks a card, pairs it, removes a king, or draws from the stock. Escape puts a picked card back.
- D draws from the stock.
- U undoes and R redoes.
- H shows a hint.
Tips
- Look before you pair. When two 7s could take the same 6, choose the one that opens the card you need next.
- The bottom rows are the hard part. Clear them early, and the top of the pyramid tends to fall quickly.
- A card can’t pair with a card it covers, or one that covers it. Plan around those pairs early, while the stock can still help.
- In Classic and Strict, think about what you’ll need on the next pass before you draw past a useful card.
Questions
Do I need an account? No. Your game saves on this device automatically. An optional account adds cloud saves across devices.
What is the daily deal? One Classic deal a day, the same for everyone. Clear it to grow your daily streak and share your result.
Does the hint ever give up? When the deal can no longer be won from where you are, the hint says so, so you know to undo or restart.
