These rules describe Pyramid as implemented in the app: pairs of exposed cards totaling 13 are removed from a 28-card pyramid, with a draw-one stock and up to three passes. The published sources disagree on several points — the choices made here (and why) are called out below.
Remove all 28 pyramid cards by discarding exposed pairs whose ranks total 13, and Kings alone. The stock and waste do not need to be emptied.
- Pyramid: Twenty-eight face-up cards in seven overlapping rows — each card except the bottom row is covered by two cards below it.
- Exposed: A card with neither covering card remaining. Only exposed cards can be played.
- Stock: The face-down draw pile (24 cards after the deal).
- Waste: Face-up cards drawn from the stock — only the top card is playable.
- Discard: Where removed pairs and Kings go — cards there are out of play permanently.
- Recycle: Turning the exhausted stock's waste back into the stock for another pass.
Ace = 1, number cards = face value, Jack = 11, Queen = 12, King = 13.
- Use a standard 52-card deck (no jokers).
- Pyramid: Deal 28 cards face up in seven rows, one card in the first row, two in the second, and so on to seven, with each row overlapping the row above.
- Stock: The remaining 24 cards, face down.
- Remove any two exposed cards whose ranks total 13: two pyramid cards, or a pyramid card and the top waste card.
- Kings total 13 alone and are removed singly.
- Cover pair: a pyramid card whose only remaining cover is its rank-13 partner (itself exposed) may be removed together with it in one move.
- Tap the stock to draw one card to the waste.
- When the stock is empty, the waste may be recycled into the stock at most twice (three passes total). Recycling preserves draw order.
- Gaps in the pyramid are never refilled, and there is no building.
- Removing a pair: +10.
- Removing a King: +5.
- There is no recycle penalty — the pass limit is the cost.
- On a win, a time bonus is added: it starts at 900 and drops by one point per second of play.
You win the moment the last pyramid card is removed, regardless of the stock and waste.
Where the linked sources disagree, this implementation uses:
- Win = pyramid cleared (cardgames.io, solitaired.com, and most digital implementations), not Wikipedia's strict all-52-cards variant (~1 in 50 winnable).
- Three passes through the stock (solitaired.com and Wikipedia's "Par Pyramid"), not one pass (strict) or unlimited (cardgames.io).
- Cover pairs allowed (cardgames.io and most digital implementations).