Crescent Solitaire

Crescent Solitaire Objective

The goal of Crescent Solitaire is to complete all eight foundation piles by suit. Four foundation piles start with ace and ascend to king and four start with king and descend to ace.

How to Play Crescent Solitaire

Crescent Solitaire is played with two decks of cards (104 total) and two gameplay areas—the foundation piles and the tableau. The tableau consists of 16 piles with six playing cards each, arranged in a crescent shape around the eight foundation piles.

The rules are simple, but because the upper foundation piles ascend (ace to king), the lower foundation piles descend (king to ace), and you have so many cards to sequence, winning can be a challenge. Here’s what you should know before you play:

• The upper four foundation piles build up in ascending order, from ace to king by suit.
• The lower four foundation piles build down in descending order, from king to ace by suit.
• You can move cards:
• From the tableau to the foundation piles
• Between tableau piles
• From the foundation piles back to the tableau
• Between foundation piles
• Tableau cards can be sequenced by suit in ascending or descending order, wrapping ranks. This means you can place a king on an ace or an ace on a king. For example, a K♥ can go on a Q♥ or an A♥. Cards stay sequenced, even after you reshuffle.
• If you're stuck, use the shuffle button. This moves the bottom card of each tableau pile to the top. You can shuffle up to 9 times.
• Empty tableau spaces can’t be filled with any other cards.

Crescent Solitaire Strategies

Winning Crescent Solitaire takes careful planning. These strategies can improve your chances:

• Build foundation piles as soon as possible. This helps uncover more tableau cards and frees up moves.
• Peek underneath the top tableau cards. You can click and drag the top card of a pile to see the card underneath. This is helpful to plan your moves, especially if two of the same card appear at the top of two tableau piles.
• Build both ascending and descending same-suit sequences. Since each suit has two foundation piles, one that builds up from ace to king and one that builds down from king to ace, you should set up both ascending and descending sequences within the tableau. For example, if you’re working with hearts, you could create a 6♥, 7♥, 8♥, 9♥ sequence to eventually use on the descending foundation pile and a 6♥, 5♥, 4♥ to eventually use for the ascending foundation pile.
• Avoid building a same-suit sequence in both directions. If you build a pile up and down, for example 6♥, 5♥, 4♥, 5♥, 6♥, you make it difficult to access the second 6♥ without moving four cards into the foundations or using a 7♥ to resequence cards. This can slow down progress toward building the foundations.
• Use the shuffle button sparingly. You can only use it nine times, so assess the cards carefully and make sure you don’t have any more moves before reshuffling.
• Move cards between foundation piles. Toward the end of the game, this may help you build foundation piles more quickly and access essential hidden cards.

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