How to Play Zapster Solitaire

Overview & Setup

This is a solitaire/patience game using a traditional 52-card deck, minus cards of rank 10. The objective is to empty the draw pile without suffering overflow - having more cards that must be placed in cells than you have cells. The game begins with 6 cells and all cards shuffled face-down in the draw pile.

You can play a Quick game using 1 deck and starting with 2 zaps, or a Marathon game using 2 decks and starting with 3 zaps.

Game Progression

Make moves until you've either won the game or suffered overflow. For each move, you can either draw or zap.

Draw: ClickTap the draw pile to draw a card. If it has any cards of matching rank in your cells, discard the matches, activate its power if it has one, and discard the card. Otherwise, you must place it in an empty cell.

Zap: You get a limited number of zaps per game. Use one by clickingtapping a card in a cell. That card and any others that match its rank are discarded, and its power is activated if it has one, just as if you had drawn a matching card.

Powers

Kings, Queens, and Jacks have powers that are activated by matching or zapping them, after any matched/zapped cards are removed from the cells. Each power activates only once per move. For the purposes of these powers, Aces have the number 1.

Kings: Get an extra zap.

Queens: If there are any numbered cards in your cells, find the highest number. You now have that many cells.

Jacks: If there are any numbered cards in your cells, find the lowest number, and draw that many cards. You must place each one in an empty cell, without checking for matches, suffering overflow if there's not enough room. If there are not enough cards remaining in the draw pile, draw all of them.