Yukon Solitaire Strategy Guide
Yukon is Klondike without the stock. All 52 cards are on the table from the first move, and you can move any face-up card together with every card on top of it, in sequence or not. That freedom makes Yukon a game of planning stacks and turning the hidden cards. This guide covers what to do first, how to use empty columns and why the Kings matter.
Opening principles
The first column has one face-up card. Each column to the right has one more face-down card than the last, up to six, with five face-up cards on top. You build the four foundations from Ace to King by suit, and on the table you build downward in alternating colours. Only a King, with whatever sits on it, can go into an empty column.
- The card you pick up must fit. Cards on top of it come along for free, but the card you grab has to be one rank lower than the destination and of the opposite colour.
- Turn hidden cards first. Every card you flip adds options. Prefer the move that uncovers a face-down card.
- Dig where the hidden cards are. The right-hand columns hide the most, so make progress there before you build on them.
Moving stacks
Because any face-up card can carry what is above it, the length of a pile is rarely a problem. The question is whether the bottom of the part you lift fits somewhere.
- Lift a card to reach what is under it. If the card you want is buried under three face-up cards, you can often move the whole group at once to a matching card elsewhere.
- Move the longest useful stack. Carrying a long pile onto its match often turns a hidden card in one move.
- Do not bury the column you want to dig. Before you build onto a column, check how many hidden cards it still has.
Empty columns and Kings
An empty column is the most useful tool in Yukon, but only a King fits in it, so it is only worth making when a King is within reach.
- Empty a column when a King is ready. An empty space with no King available is wasted.
- Move Kings that sit on hidden cards. A King on top of face-down cards is the one to relocate; it releases the hidden cards under it.
- Leave a King that is already first in its column. Moving it to an empty column gains nothing: you just swap one empty column for another.
Foundations
Aces and 2s should go up at once. After that, think before you send a card to a foundation, because a low card can be the landing spot another card needs.
- Do not rush the middle ranks. A 5 or 6 often does more good on the table than on a foundation.
- You can take a card back. On this site the top card of a foundation can be moved back to a column, so a hasty move is not fatal, but it costs a move.
- Once every column is face up and descending, you are done. The rest is collected for you.
Common mistakes
- Burying hidden cards. Building on a column that still has face-down cards makes them harder to reach.
- Moving stacks that free nothing. A move that does not turn a card, open a column or enable another move only wastes your options.
- Losing track of colours. If both cards of the colour you need are already buried under stacks, the next step may be impossible.
- Filling an empty column with a stack that is not needed. Keep the empty column for a King that actually releases something.
- Playing on after the deal is lost. If the cards you need are locked under each other, start again.
Advanced techniques
- Look two moves ahead. Before moving a stack, check what the card under it will be able to do once it is free.
- Use Undo freely. Yukon rewards trying a line and backing out when it fails.
- Use the Solver after a loss. It tells you whether the position could still have been won. It does not consider moving cards back from a foundation, so it can miss a line that needs one.
- Plan for the long sequence. Try to line up cards of alternating colours so that one move carries a whole run.
How winnable are the deals?
In our screening, the solver found a full winning line within its search limit for about 57% of 4,000 random Yukon deals (2,282 of them). That is a lower bound: the search is limited, and the solver does not use the move that takes a card back from a foundation. New games and the Daily Challenge only use deals the solver has proved winnable, so a winning line always exists. The solver knows every hidden card and you do not, so winnable does not mean easy.
Practice and play
Play a few deals with one rule: before you move a stack, say what card it turns over or what column it opens. If the answer is nothing, look for a better move. That habit separates quick wins from slow struggles.