Yukon looks like Klondike at a glance — seven tableau columns, foundations built up by suit, tableau built down in alternating colours — but it plays very differently. There is no stock and no waste pile. The entire deck is dealt onto the table at the start, most of it face-up, and the game hands you one liberating rule that Klondike never allows.
That rule changes everything, and once it clicks, Yukon becomes one of the most satisfying solitaires you can play free on 247solitaire.my. This guide covers the layout, the core rule, and the excavation strategy that wins games.
The Yukon Layout
A single 52-card deck is dealt into seven columns, exactly as in Klondike. The first column has one card; each column to the right has one more, so the seventh column holds seven cards. The first card of every column beyond the first is face-down, but here is the difference: after that initial deal, extra cards are dealt face-up across columns two through seven, so most of the deck is visible from the very first move.
Above the tableau are the four foundations, one per suit, built up from Ace to King. Moving all 52 cards to the foundations wins the game. Crucially, there is no stock pile to draw from — everything you will ever have is already on the table.
The Rule That Defines Yukon
In most solitaires you can only move a card, or a perfectly ordered run, from the top of a pile. Yukon throws that out. Its signature rule is:
You may pick up any face-up card — along with every card stacked on top of it — and move it, no matter how disordered that group is.
The card you grab must land legally: it goes onto a tableau card of the opposite colour and one rank higher (a black seven onto a red eight), or into an empty column. But the jumble riding on its back does not need to be in sequence. You could move a nine that has a two, a jack, and a five piled messily on top of it, dragging all of them at once. This is enormously powerful and it is the heart of every Yukon plan.
Building down in alternating colours
Tableau sequences still follow the alternating-colour rule when you want them ordered for the foundations: red on black, black on red, descending in rank. But because you can move any face-up card, you are not forced to keep every column tidy. You constantly relocate cards to reach what is buried beneath them.
Excavation: The Winning Strategy
The whole game is a dig. Face-down cards are the obstacles, and the only way to flip one is to clear every card off it. Think like an archaeologist removing layers of earth.
1. Target the face-down cards first
Your priority is not the foundations — it is exposing hidden cards. Every face-down card you turn over adds a new option and often unlocks a chain of moves. Scan the board and ask which column will reveal the most new cards for the least effort, then work there.
2. Use the move-anything rule to shuffle blockers aside
Because you can lift a face-up card with its whole load, you rarely need a card to be "in order" to relocate it. If a useful eight is buried under three junk cards, find a red or black nine to receive it and move all four cards together. You are not building neat runs; you are excavating.
3. Empty a column when you can
An empty column is the most valuable real estate in Yukon. Any card — and everything on top of it — can be dropped into it, giving you a staging area to dismantle a stubborn pile. Kings are the natural anchors for empty columns since nothing can be placed on a King in the tableau.
4. Free the aces and twos, but do not strip the tableau bare
Send aces to the foundations as soon as you can flip them, since they clear space. Be more cautious with higher cards: a five sent home too early is a five you cannot use to catch a four later. Keep useful landing cards in play while you are still digging.
5. Read before you rush
Since almost everything is face-up, plan several moves deep. Yukon deals are winnable roughly 80–85% of the time, so most losses come from digging in the wrong order and burying a card you needed. Trace a path before you commit.
6. Watch where the Kings sit
Kings are both anchors and obstacles. Nothing can be stacked on a King in the tableau, so a King buried mid-column will block every card beneath it until you can move the King and its tail into an empty column. When you plan your dig, note each King's position early; a King trapping several face-down cards is often the single most important knot to untie, and clearing it can cascade into a long chain of reveals.
7. Do not create dead columns
Because there is no stock to refresh the board, a badly built column can lock the whole game. Before you pile a long mixed group onto a card, check that you will still be able to lift it later. If moving a group would seal a face-down card you cannot otherwise reach, find a different home for it, even if that means a slower, more patient dig.
Yukon Versus Klondike
If you know Klondike, the switch is quick. Klondike gives you a stock to draw fresh cards but only lets you move properly ordered runs. Yukon gives you no stock at all — nothing new ever enters play — but lets you move any face-up card with its whole tail. The result is a game of pure rearrangement with no lifelines, which is why players who love full-information puzzles like FreeCell tend to enjoy Yukon too.
Conclusion
Yukon rewards a clear head and a plan. Dig toward the face-down cards, exploit the move-anything rule to shove blockers out of the way, guard your empty columns, and send cards home only when they have stopped being useful in the tableau. Ready to start excavating? Open Yukon and turn over that first hidden card.