Rainbow solitaire follows rules based on generic "Klondike" solitaire. Klondike uses a standard 52-card deck, with 4 suits (2 red and 2 black) of 13 cards each (ace through king). Rainbow Solitaire uses a custom 50-card deck, with 5 suits of 10 cards each (zero through nine).
The Rainbow suits use 5 colors:
However, each suit is made up of two of those colors:
The table is organized exactly like Klondike. There are 3 regions:
When dealing out a new hand, the deck is shuffled, and 7 descending piles are dealt out.
The descending piles contain increasing counts of face-down cards, with a single face-up card on top.
More specifically, one edge has only the face-up card. Adjacent piles have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 face-down, below the 1 face-up card on each.
All remaining cards are left in the face-down draw deck.
In the descending piles, two face-up cards may be stacked when...
Example: may be placed on either or . Each has 1 color in common.
It may not be placed on
or , because no colors match; nor on , because both colors match.
In the done piles, two cards may be stacked when...
Example: A may only be placed on a .
Any single uncovered face-up card may be moved from any pile to any other pile, as long as the stacking rules hold.
Any uncovered face-down card may be flipped over.
Within descending piles, the flipped card stays in place.
From the draw deck, flipped cards move to the top of the turned pile.
An empty descending pile may have any moveable played onto it.
An empty done pile may have any moveable played onto it.
There is a special bulk move, only between descending piles.
Whole stacks of face-up cards, or partial stacks that include the bottom-most, may be moved together.
So long as the top card in the moving sequence can validly be placed on the exposed card of the destination.
If you mistakenly move a card somewhere you didn' intend, you can use Undo to move it back.
However, you may not use Undo to flip a card back face down.
You can undo multiple steps if you want to, back to the last point you flipped a card.
The draw deck is never considered covered. The top card may be flipped at any time. The flipped card is placed on top of any existing turned cards.
Only the top-most turned card is moveable to elsewhere.
No other cards may be moved to the turned pile.
Players only get one pass through the draw deck. Once the last card has been turned over, the game is nearly over. You must make do with the turned, descending, and done piles as best you can.
To win, eventually play all of your cards to the done piles.
If you are unable to, the hand is lost.
The Wild version of the game introduces a new suit, with special stacking rules.
A 6th suit is added, colored in a rainbow pattern.
This is meant to indicate that it matches all colors.
This suit also contains 10 cards (0 through 9), so the total deck now has 60 cards.
In descending piles, a wild card may be placed on any non-wild card, as long as the numbers are appropriately descending.
Similarly, any non-wild suit may be placed on a wild suit.
BUT, a wild card may not be placed on another wild card.
Examples: may be placed on any of .
may be placed on a .
But may not be placed on a , because both are wild.
In done piles (of which there are now 6), a wild card may be placed on any card, as long as the numbers are appropriately ascending.
This includes other wild cards.
Similarly, any non-wild suit may be placed on a wild suit.
That means that done piles may switch colors.
Example: A done pile starts with , and continues .
Then and can be played on the same pile.
And can be played on top of that.
In standard Rainbow Solitaire, like in Klondike, it is usually wise to play as many cards among the descending piles as possible, before turning over any more cards from the draw deck. If you can move cards from the turned pile to either a descending or done pile, that is usually safer than leaving it in the turned pile to be covered by another turned card.
Look for opportunities to rearrange existing descending piles by moving sequences connected through one shared color to a different pairing connected through the other shared color. That can free up a landing place for another card.
In Rainbow Wild, the wild cards make it more likely that card sequences can be rearranged to make room for a new card.
The opportunity to move wild cards to done piles is a powerful tool to avoid cards being stranded in the turned pile, but it is also dangerous. Done piles that get excessively tangled can lock out one suit.
Each pile has a hot-key associated with it.
Labels will appear as soon as any key is typed.
Select a card by typing the hot-key for its pile.
Typing the key again will select an additional card.
To drop a card, hold SHIFT while typing the key of the destination pile.
Or simply type space to auto-drop where the game predicts.
Escape will de-select.
Ctrl+Z will undo, if available.
Ctrl+G will start a new game (when that option is visible).
Ctrl+M will return to the main menu (when that option is visible).
Consider playing through the tutorials for a quick and visual recap of these rules.
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