How to play Pyramid
Pyramid is played with one pack. Twenty-eight cards are built into a pyramid, and you win by taking them all away in pairs that add up to 13.
The layout
The pyramid has seven rows, one card at the top and seven along the bottom, all face up. Each card is partly covered by the two cards below it. The other 24 cards are the stock, at the bottom left. Cards turned from the stock go onto the waste pile beside it, and cards you take away go onto the pile at the bottom right.
What the cards count
| Card | Counts as |
|---|---|
| Ace | 1 |
| 2 to 10 | the number on the card |
| Jack | 11 |
| Queen | 12 |
| King | 13 |
So the pairs are ace and queen, 2 and jack, 3 and 10, 4 and 9, 5 and 8, 6 and 7. A king is 13 by itself.
Taking cards
- A pyramid card is free when no card covers it. Cards that are still covered are shown a little darker.
- The top card of the waste pile is free too.
- Tap two free cards that add up to 13 to take them both. They can be two pyramid cards, or one pyramid card and the top of the waste pile.
- Tap a free king to take it by itself.
- Tap the stock to turn its next card onto the waste pile.
The first card you tap is marked; tap its partner to take the pair, or tap it again to let it go. Suits and colours do not matter.
Going through the stock again
When the stock runs out, tap the empty space to turn the waste pile over and go through it again. You can go through the stock three times in all. The line under the table shows which pass you are on. The deal is won as soon as the pyramid is clear, whatever is left in the stock.
Winnable or Random
With Winnable chosen, the game only deals shuffles that it has found a way to clear. With Random you get any shuffle, and a good many of those cannot be cleared.
Tips for winning more often
- Take kings as soon as they are free. It never hurts.
- Before pairing a pyramid card with the waste pile, check whether its partner is also in the pyramid. Two pyramid cards gone is better than one.
- Look for a card whose partner lies directly underneath it. The two can never go together, so the upper one needs a different partner, and you have to save one for it.
- All four of a rank can end up buried. Count where the partners of your bottom-row cards are before you use up the ones in the stock.
- Use your first pass through the stock to learn the order of the cards. They come round in the same order next time, less the ones you took.
Can every deal be won?
No. With three passes through the stock, at least 58 of every 100 shuffles checked could be cleared; with a single pass it is fewer than one in seven, which is why this table gives you three. With Winnable chosen you only get deals the game has already found a way through. The Hint button shows the next move of a winning line while one exists, and tells you if it finds that the pyramid can no longer be cleared.