The deal

Four reserves hold four cards apiece. The top card of each is exposed, and a seventeenth card starts the first foundation. The other 35 cards form a draw-three stock.

Playing the tableau

The first foundation accepts any card of its own suit. Each lower foundation begins with the same rank as the first base and may accept a rank only after that rank appears immediately above it. Only reserve and waste tops may move.

Goal and first plan

Build all four suit foundations. The waste may be redealt after foundation progress has been made.

Read the base rank and suit first. That rank is the key that opens the other three foundations; look for it among the reserve tops before cycling the stock.

Read the full strategy guide →

Osmosis is part of The Vault · Reserve builders.

More Reserve builders games

Peek — Osmosis with all four reserve piles visible from the beginning.
Sultan — Eight foundations surround the Sultan King; build each up to a Queen.
Royal Cotillion — A 4-column Ladies’ tableau that never refills, a 16-cell Lords’ grid that refills from waste only, and zero redeals.
Aces and Kings — Pairing aces with kings.
Archway — Open patience with arch reserve and dual foundations.
Backbone — Two-deck gated by a forked reserve.

Also try

Beleaguered Castle (Castle games) — Eight columns flanking four aces.
Calculation (Waste-pile builders) — Race four foundations built by fixed increments.
Canfield (Canfield family) — Compact reserve patience with wrap-around foundations.

Learn

Osmosis and Peek family strategy
How Reserve builders games work
Terms: Reserve · No tableau building · Redeal · Stock · Waste
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