# Cozy Solitaire guide: tap-to-move rules, reading the deals, and beating par > A beginner's guide to Cozy Solitaire: how tap-to-move picks a destination for you, the Klondike building rules, what par counts, why one undo costs you three stars, and how the card reading is built. Published 2026-10-06 by Glowbox · https://glowbox.dev/guides/cozy-solitaire-guide Cozy Solitaire is standard Klondike solitaire, drawn one card at a time, played by tapping rather than dragging. It comes with a **Daily Deal** that is the same for everyone in the world, a random deal mode, and an AI card reading at the end of every game you finish — whether you won or stopped early. If you have never played Klondike, this guide covers the rules and the input model. If you have, the parts most likely to be new to you are the tap-to-move behaviour and the par system. [[game:cozy-solitaire]] ## The input model: tap, and the game decides where There is no dragging. **Tap a card and the game places it in the most sensible legal position it can find.** The order it looks for a destination is fixed: 1. The **foundations** first, for every suit that can legally accept it. 2. If it cannot go up top, the **tableau columns**, preferring columns that already have cards over empty columns. If no legal destination exists, the card shakes and nothing happens. That shake is the signal that you tapped something with nowhere to go — it is not a bug and it does not cost you a move. One consequence deserves emphasis: because the game prefers occupied columns, **you rarely need to think about which column to build onto**, and empty columns stay empty waiting for Kings. But there is a flip side. If you tap a King while some other column would legally accept it, the King goes there instead of opening up an empty column. If you specifically need an empty column, be aware of that. ## Tapping a card deep in a column moves the whole run This is the biggest difference from drag-and-drop solitaire, and it catches almost everyone out. Tableau columns are built downward in alternating colours, so **10♠ 9♥ 8♠** can sit on one column. If you tap the **8♠**, the game takes the 8♠ *and the 9♥ and 10♠ above it* and moves them as a unit. You cannot lift a lower card out from under a stack. To move a card alone, the cards above it must already have moved elsewhere. A related detail: **only a King, or a run headed by a King, may go into an empty column.** Any other card bounced off an empty column is illegal. ## The rest of the rules - **Foundations:** four piles, one per suit, built up from Ace. They must be filled in order — you cannot put a 2 down before its Ace. - **Tableau:** seven columns. Descending rank, alternating colours (red on black, black on red). - **Stock and waste:** tap the deck to draw one card onto the waste. When the stock runs out, tapping it again flips the entire waste back into the stock. **You may do this as many times as you want.** - **Winning:** all 52 cards on the foundations. Draw one with unlimited recycling means you can always see every remaining card. Being stuck is a move-ordering problem, never a luck-of-the-draw problem. ## Par, and what it actually counts Each deal has a **par** — a reference move count derived from a solver's solution to that deal. Across the 400 deals, par ranges from **100 to 195**, with a median of about **137**. The detail that matters: **par does not count recycling the waste back into the stock.** Those deck flips are excluded. So cycling the deck is effectively free against par. Do not ration your deck turns out of fear — that is one of the more common beginner mistakes here. Par is a reference line from one solution the solver found, not a guaranteed perfect score. Beating it is genuinely good play; matching it comfortably is a solid result. Stars are awarded on the move count against that deal's par: - **3 stars** — you finished at or under par **and used no undo at all**. - **2 stars** — at or under 1.4 times par. - **1 star** — anything slower. Note that the second star threshold has no undo condition, so undoing freely still leaves three stars within reach, just not one-undo-away from it. ## The undo decision you should make early Undo is genuinely generous here — **300 moves deep**, which is more than any realistic game uses. Reverting a move restores the board **and** subtracts it from your move counter, so undoing does not directly inflate your total. But the undo counter is cumulative and never resets. The first undo you take permanently rules out three stars for that game. So decide up front which game you are playing. If it is a casual game, use undo freely and enjoy the 2-star pace. If you are chasing a record or a three-star finish, commit to a line and undo only when you have genuinely lost the position. Because draw one with unlimited recycling means you can usually dig out of a mess anyway, the discipline is often worth it. ## The Finish button When the stock and waste are empty and every tableau card is face up, a **Finish** button appears. It plays the rest of the game out automatically, card by card. Be aware that **each auto-played card is still counted as a move**. If you are sitting at 137 moves on a 140 par, finishing with five cards left pushes you to 142 — over par, and down from three stars to two. Check the counter before you commit. Undo does not work after the game is won, so the button is effectively final once you press it. ## You decide when a game ends Nothing forces a loss. If you want to stop early, tap **Read it**, which asks for confirmation first. You need to have made at least 3 moves before it will let you, since there would be nothing to read otherwise. There is a **Hint** button that highlights a suggested move if you are stuck. Because you can always undo, recycle, or simply stop, the honest way to play is to stop when the position is no longer worth solving rather than grinding to an arbitrary conclusion. ## Today's Deal, the race, and your records The **Daily Deal** is picked from the 400 pre-verified deals by the date, so everyone worldwide plays the same one and it resets at midnight UTC. Every one of those deals was checked by a solver before shipping, so **if you are stuck on the daily, the deal is winnable** — you have simply not found the line yet. Winning the daily also puts you into that day's move-count race. There are eight record tiers, from under 150 moves down to under 60, and the first player to win the daily under each threshold holds that slot for the day. The strictest tiers are worth the most effort: finishing under 60 moves is a demanding target, while simply beating par is a reasonable first goal. Your best move count across all games is tracked on the title screen, along with how many games you have won out of how many you have played. ## The card reading Every finished game — win or stop — gets a reading. It is built from three real cards drawn out of **your** game, not generated at random: - **First light** — the first Ace that appeared face-up. - **The patient one** — the last face-down card you turned over, meaning the card that stayed hidden longest. - **The final step** — the last card you placed onto a foundation. The AI writes a short tarot-flavoured interpretation around those three specific cards, using suit and rank symbolism. Because the omens come from your actual play, two games with wildly different characters produce genuinely different readings. If the AI cannot be reached, the game falls back to a written default, so you always get something. Readings can be shared as a postcard, and there is a **Reading Wall** where recent readings from other players appear, with the option to like the ones you enjoy. ## If you only remember three things 1. You tap, you do not drag, and tapping a card in a column takes everything above it along. 2. Par ignores deck recycling, so turn the stock back as often as you like. 3. Three stars needs zero undos, so decide your undo policy before the game starts. ## FAQ **Is this real solitaire or a simplified version?** It is standard Klondike with draw one. Build the four foundations up by suit from Ace, build the seven table columns down in alternating colours, and turn the stock back over as often as you like. The rules are unchanged; only the input is simplified to tapping instead of dragging. **Can I get stuck and lose?** No. There is no forced loss. The stock recycles indefinitely, undo goes back 300 moves, and a Hint button will suggest a move. Ending a game early is entirely your choice and the game asks you to confirm. **How many moves is par?** Par varies by deal, ranging from 100 to 195 moves with a median of about 137. The exact number for the deal you are playing is what your star thresholds are measured against. **Why did I lose my three stars when I undid one move?** Three stars requires zero undos for the whole game. A single undo anywhere puts that out of reach for the rest of the run, so it is worth deciding your undo policy at the start rather than taking one mid-game. **Does the Finish button count against my move total?** Yes. The Finish button plays your remaining cards into the foundations and each one is recorded as a move. Check your counter before you press it if you are close to par. **How many times can I undo?** Up to 300 moves back, which covers more than any realistic game. The limit exists as a safeguard and you are very unlikely to reach it. **Do I need to download anything or sign up?** No. It plays in your browser, free, with no sign-up. Your current game is saved locally so you can leave and come back to it. ## Games in this article - [Cozy Solitaire](https://glowbox.dev/game/cozy-solitaire): Classic Klondike solitaire where every finished game, win or lose, ends with a card reading drawn from your own play.