Osmosis is a solitaire variation that has a unique gameplay. While players still use a standard deck of 52 cards, its objective is putting playable cards into foundation piles without any numerical order. Sometimes, it’s also called Treasure Love. What makes this game unique is that players sift down the playable ranks from high foundations to lower ones. If you’re good at paying attention, you’ll find Osmosis Solitaire an interesting game.
The Game Layout
The goal of Osmosis Solitaire is to move cards to foundation piles, one at a time per suit. It is played with shuffled cards. Players make 4 reserve rows each with four cards. Cards in these reserves are all played face down, but the 4th card on every row is played face up.
You’ll build 4 foundation piles to the reserve cards’ right. When starting, a random card will start your first foundation. It could be a Jack of Spades, a 2 of hearts, or any other cards. A player then places their remaining cards on their stockpile to the layout’s left. Then as you go through the cards, it’ll form your waste pile just above the stockpile.
Gameplay
Players use reserve top cards as they can be played with whatever they want. But, they can also use the waste pile and stockpile’s top cards. Placing the stock pile’s card on the waste pile reveals the next stock pile’s card. One can play with reserve, waste, or stock cards one card at a time onto foundation piles following these rules;
- Each suit has only one foundation pile. When starting this game, the determined suit makes for the first foundation.
- The rank of the first card you place on the first pile determines what rank you’ll follow to build your other foundations. For instance, if you’ve started with a Jack of spades, the other Jack you’ll discover should begin the next row beneath the spades row.
- Below the last foundation that has cards in it, start building the following pile. There is no skipping of a row in this game.
- Players can build cards into foundations following any order. But, follow the rule of cards starting each foundation.
- Foundations are built by following the osmosis rule, which is that you can’t play a card to a foundation if there is no card of the same rank played onto it already.
- You can start an empty foundation with any card provided its suit has not been played in another foundation yet.
There is no other foundation above the top foundation. Thus, you may play any card to it if it’s of the correct suit. The first card you deal into this foundation pile will start your game, with the three other piles having no cards.
Once players are out of useful moves, flip over the stock pile’s top card into a waste card. Whenever you play a card from the reserve’s row end, it reveals the next card as a face-up one making it available to be played with.
Depending on which version you are playing, you can re-deal uncountable times. Re-dealing takes waste pile cards up, shuffles them, and puts them back to the stockpile for play again. This game is won when a player moves all cards into foundation piles. If there are no more useful moves you can make, even with re-deals you lose.
Also, note that Osmosis Solitaire doesn’t exactly have a strategy. It requires individuals to be attentive when playing. This sounds obvious but it’s easy to miss a play when you’re not focusing. However, don’t play three cards from the discard pile in a row. This will help reveal some cards to be played through the deck.
