Follow the card that the chain exposes.
These games route each exposed card to a prescribed pile. The current card determines the next destination; after it moves, the destination pile supplies the next card. There are usually no competing moves to plan around. The useful lesson is how each layout assigns ranks and why a chain stops.
Last updated: September 2026
Travellers: the reversed numbered piles
Travellers starts with twelve four-card piles and a four-card talon. Its route is Ace to the first pile, Queen to the second, Jack to the third, continuing downward to 2 at the twelfth. Kings go to a separate reserve. After the current card enters a pile, its exposed top becomes the next card. A King stops that chain and the next talon card starts another if one remains.
For example, an exposed Queen goes to pile two. The card already on top of pile two becomes the next card to route. This is a prescribed transfer, not a choice between several Queen destinations. Success requires the twelve piles to contain four cards of their assigned rank and all four Kings to reach reserve.
The Clock
The Clock places twelve four-card piles around a dial and a four-card King pile in the center. Play begins from the center. Ace travels to the first hour, 2 to the second, and so on through Queen at the twelfth; Kings return to the center. The revealed card from the receiving pile continues the chain. Once the King pile’s four cards have been routed back to it, the chain cannot reveal more cards, so the remaining hours decide the result.
Four of a Kind
Four of a Kind has thirteen four-card piles in rows of five, five, and three. The chain begins from the Ace pile. A card goes to the pile for its rank, and the top card of that destination supplies the next move. The object is four matching ranks in every pile. There is no stock or alternative tableau build to rescue a chain that ends before every pile is sorted.
Hide and Seek
Hide and Seek uses thirteen four-card piles arranged in rows of seven and six. It starts from the Ace pile, then routes each card by rank to its named pile. Unlike Hidden Cards, there is no separate reserve to start a new chain after a stop.
Spoilt
Spoilt changes the map: its 32-card pack includes Aces and 7s through Kings. Twenty-eight facedown cells form four suit rows with positions for 8 through Ace; four cards remain in stock. A revealed non-7 card goes to its suit-and-rank cell, displacing the card there into the active chain. Sevens go to suit foundations. After all four Sevens have appeared, the game may require revealing a remaining facedown cell; a card in the wrong position spoils the deal.
What a player can control
In these implementations, the legal routing action is determined by the current card. Hint and Undo can help you understand a chain, but they do not create a different destination for the same card. Replaying a seed repeats its shuffle; it does not offer a new strategic opening. If you want a layout with deliberate placement choices, try Gaps instead.