What is Wasp?
Wasp Solitaire is a one-deck game in the Scorpion family. It shares Scorpion’s core mechanics — seven columns, same-suit placement, free movement of face-up tails, a three-card reserve, and a King-to-Ace same-suit run completion goal — with one important difference: in Wasp, any card or movable group can fill an empty column, not just Kings or King-headed groups.
This single rule change makes Wasp meaningfully more forgiving than Scorpion. The ability to temporarily park any card in an empty column gives you more options when reorganizing suit sequences, and it reduces the risk of creating an empty column that cannot be productively used because no King is available.
Full rules
The 52 cards are dealt into seven columns. Columns 1–4 receive seven cards each: the bottom three are face-down and the top four face-up. Columns 5–7 are fully face-up. Three cards remain as a reserve, dealt one to each of the first three columns when the player chooses.
Any face-up card moves along with all cards above it, provided the destination card is one rank higher and the same suit. Empty columns accept any card or group (unlike Scorpion where only Kings are permitted). The game is won when all four K–A same-suit runs are assembled in the tableau.
How Wasp differs from Scorpion
In Scorpion, an empty column is a dedicated King-anchor slot — powerful but limited in use. In Wasp, an empty column is a general-purpose staging area that any card can occupy temporarily. This flexibility changes how you approach suit separation: you can use empty columns to break apart mixed groups and sort suit cards without needing a King available.
The consequence is that Wasp rewards more aggressive suit-separation tactics early in the game. In Scorpion, investing an empty column carelessly can lock you out of placing Kings; in Wasp, the recovery cost is lower. Players who find Scorpion too unforgiving typically prefer Wasp as the more accessible entry point.
Read the Wasp section of the Scorpion guide →
Key strategic concepts
Because empty columns can hold any card, the temptation is to use them freely as parking spots. This is a trap: every turn an empty column holds a parked card is a turn you cannot use that column for a larger reorganization. The best Wasp play treats empty columns as working space — always passing cards through, never simply storing them.
Wasp still requires a same-suit destination, though an unordered face-up tail may travel with the selected card. Check whether the tail will bury a useful card at the destination and how you can move it afterward.
How Wasp compares
- Scorpion — same rules but empty columns accept only Kings; stricter and harder
- Three Blind Mice — ten-column Scorpion-family layout; longer game
- Yukon — alternating-color group moves instead of same-suit; foundations instead of in-tableau runs
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Wasp is part of The Web · Spider & Scorpion and is a variant of Scorpion.
More Spider & Scorpion games
- Scorpion — Move any face-up stack to build suit runs.
- Three Blind Mice — Ten-column Scorpion with a two-card reserve.
- Spider — Build same-suit sequences to clear the board.
- Beetle — Two-deck Spider cousin with ten columns.
- Mrs. Mop — Two-deck open Spider, all face-up.
- Relaxed Spider — Spider with relaxed redeal rule.
Also try
- Gaps (Grid & sequence puzzles) — Fill four rows of gaps to build 2–K suit runs. No aces, three passes.
- Klondike (Klondike family) — The patience everyone knows. Draw 1 or 3.
- Seahaven Towers (FreeCell & open packers) — FreeCell cousin: ten columns, same-suit builds, two cells.
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