Tri Towers

How to play Tri Towers

Tri Towers is a fast, addictive solitaire built around three overlapping pyramids of cards. Twenty-eight cards are stacked into three peaks, and a face-down stock feeds a single waste pile beside them. Your job is simple to state and delightfully tricky to do: strip every card off the towers by playing cards that are exactly one rank higher or lower than the card currently on the waste. There is no suit to worry about and no foundations to build — just a running chain of ups and downs. Clear a card and it becomes the new target, so a good player links move after move into a single unbroken run, tearing whole peaks down in one satisfying sweep. When you run out of legal plays you turn a card from the stock, which becomes the new target and lets you start a fresh chain. It is a game of quick reading, a little counting, and a lot of "just one more deal".

The goal

Remove all 28 tableau cards from the three towers before the stock runs dry and you run out of moves. Every card you clear is worth points, every unbroken combo adds a growing bonus, and emptying all three towers earns a big completion bonus plus a speed bonus. Higher scores win the leaderboard.

The board

The 28 tableau cards are arranged in three peaks that share a common base. The top row holds the three single peak cards; below them sit rows of six and nine cards; and the bottom row is a face-up base of ten cards that spans all three towers. Every card overlaps and holds down two cards in the row below it. A card is "exposed" — bright and playable — only when both cards resting on top of it have been removed; covered cards are dimmed. Beside the towers is the stock (24 cards) with the waste pile next to it; the top stock card is turned up automatically when the deal begins, so you always start with a target to build from.

How to play

• Look at the card on the waste pile — that is your current target rank. You may play any exposed tableau card whose rank is exactly one higher or one lower than it.
• You can build in either direction and switch freely: on a 7 you may play a 6 or an 8; after playing the 8 you could then play a 7 or a 9, and so on, weaving up and down as the cards allow.
• Tap or click a bright (exposed) card to play it. It slides onto the waste and instantly becomes the new target. The two cards it was holding down may now be exposed in turn.
• When no exposed card matches, tap the stock to turn its top card onto the waste. That card is the new target — but drawing breaks your current combo streak, so draw only when you truly must.
• There is no redeal. Once the stock is empty you must finish with the cards already in play. Use New Deal for a fresh game and Undo to take back your last play or draw.

Building up, down, and around (A↔K)

Ranks run Ace, 2, 3 … 10, Jack, Queen, King. Playing "up" adds one to the target and playing "down" subtracts one. The two difficulties differ only in what happens at the ends of that ladder. In Easy the ranks wrap around like a loop: an Ace counts as one above a King and one below a 2, so you may play an Ace on a King or a King on an Ace whenever they are exposed. In Hard there is no wrap — the ladder simply stops. A King has nothing above it and an Ace has nothing below it, so the two never connect. Hard therefore gives you fewer escape routes and rewards careful planning; Easy keeps the chains flowing.

Combos and streaks

Every card you play without drawing extends your combo streak, and each card in the streak is worth more than the last. The first card of a run earns a small bonus, the second earns more, the third more still, so a long unbroken chain is worth far more than the same cards played one at a time. The moment you draw from the stock the streak resets to zero and a new chain begins. The game tracks your longest streak of the deal and folds every combo bonus into your final score, so planning routes that clear many cards in a single sweep is the key to a top result.

Winning and scoring

You win by clearing every one of the 28 tableau cards. A banner shows your longest combo and your score, which is submitted automatically to the leaderboard for the mode you played (Easy or Hard). Even if you get stuck before clearing the towers you still score for the cards you removed and the combos you built, so every deal counts. Your best score on this device is remembered per mode, and signing in adds your results to the global rankings.

Strategy tips

• Plan the whole chain before you tap. Because playing one card exposes the two beneath it, the best move is often the one that opens up the longest follow-on run, not simply the first legal card you see.
• Hoard the stock. Drawing resets your combo and is limited — there is no redeal — so squeeze every possible play out of the tableau before turning a new card.
• Open all three towers evenly. Digging one peak to the base while the others stay tall leaves you fewer choices later; clearing across the top keeps the most cards exposed and your options wide.
• Watch for two-way pivots. A rank that can go both up and down (for example a 7 sitting between exposed 6s and 8s) lets you swing back and forth to reach cards you otherwise could not, so save those pivots for when you need them.
• In Easy, remember the A↔K wrap — an Ace and a King are neighbours, and that loop can rescue a stalled chain. In Hard, treat Aces and Kings as dead ends and clear them early while you still have adjacent ranks to play them on.

Frequently asked questions