Get Doubletaire

How to play

Start with solitaire you already know.

Doubletaire is two solitaire layouts played side by side. Each one follows the rules you have played for years. What is new is the relationship between them.

Part one

Classic solitaire basics

Each Doubletaire layout is a Klondike-style game. If these terms are already familiar, skip ahead — nothing here has been changed.

Tableau
The columns you build down in alternating colours — a red card onto a black card, a black card onto a red one.
Foundations
Four piles built up by suit, from Ace to King. Filling all four is how a layout is completed.
Stock
The face-down pile you draw from when there is no move left on the table.
Waste
Where drawn cards land, and where the top card is available to play.
Hidden cards
Move the card covering a face-down card and it turns over, opening up moves that were not there a moment ago.

The goal in a single layout is the one you know: build all four foundations up by suit, from Ace to King.

Part two

The Doubletaire connection

This is what makes Doubletaire different. Two layouts, played as one system.

A card moving between two connected solitaire layoutsTwo solitaire layouts — the left game in blue, the right game in red. A ribbon connects them and a card travels along it from one layout to the other, where a highlighted empty pile shows a possibility opening up.LEFT GAMERIGHT GAMEA card moving between two connected solitaire layoutsTwo solitaire layouts — the left game in blue, the right game in red. A ribbon connects them and a card travels along it from one layout to the other, where a highlighted empty pile shows a possibility opening up.LEFT GAMERIGHT GAME
A card that is a dead end on one side can be the move that opens up the other.
Two layouts
Doubletaire puts two solitaire layouts side by side. Each one plays by the rules you already know.
The connection
The two layouts are not sealed off from each other. They form one system, and progress in one can open up the other.
Sharing
When the game's connection conditions are satisfied, a card can move across to the other layout and create a possibility that did not exist there before.
Completing the challenge
The challenge is finished when both layouts are solved — which is not the same thing as solving two separate games.

On the exact sharing conditions

Doubletaire’s sharing conditions are still being designed and tested. We would rather publish them once than publish them twice, so this page describes what sharing does without pinning down the rules that decide when it becomes available. They will be documented here in full once they are final.

The sequence

Play. Connect. Share. Solve.

  1. Play

    Start with solitaire the way you already know it. Familiar layouts, familiar moves, nothing new to learn first.

  2. Connect

    Read both layouts as one board. Watch for the moments where progress on one side changes what is possible on the other.

  3. Share

    When the connection conditions are satisfied, a card can cross between the games — and a dead end becomes a move.

  4. Solve

    Work both layouts to completion. There are many routes through, and sharing is usually what separates them.

Tips

Getting good at the connection

  • Look for opportunities. A card that is blocked on one side may be exactly what the other side is waiting for.
  • Plan ahead. Think a few moves out before you share. The obvious share is not always the useful one.
  • Use the stock wisely. Turning over new cards changes what both layouts can do, not just one.
  • Balance both sides. Pouring everything into one layout tends to strand the other.

Explore game modes

A Doubletaire concept screen showing an in-app How to Play guide with Basics, Sharing and Modes tabs.