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Solitairica Beginner’s Guide: Tips, Tricks & Strategies to Save the Realm

Hail to you, champion! We’ve summoned you from across time and space to save the land of Myriodd from the foul forces of Stuck. How, you might ask? By using the power of solitaire!

solitairica guide

Solitairica is a hybrid roguelike card game from Righteous Hammer Games, that uses solitaire as its main mechanic. By matching cards, you can clear your opponent’s fields and ultimately defeat them. It’s available on both iOS and Android platforms.

While solitaire is a very common card game, there are those who may not be familiar with it. Played with a deck of 52 cards, the idea is to stack cards in ascending order (aces to kings) to clear the board. It’s a fun pastime, but is very tricky due to its reliance on luck, and more often than not, you’ll be dealt an unwinnable hand.

solitairica matching
Matching time.

Solitairica takes the card removal aspect of solitaire and plays with it. Instead of a deck of 52 cards, your opponents will have stacks of cards – up to 5 at once – that you combat using the face-up card on your board. By removing cards that are one less or one greater than your face-up card, you clear your opponent’s board, and if you do so, you win!

It sounds easy, but it’s not. Enemies will have multiple tricks up their sleeve, and they fight you using the power of Stuck. In gameplay terms, that means that they’ll draw action cards to perform actions directly, instead of removing cards. You’ll need practice, skill, and more than a little luck to complete your quest to defeat all your enemies and save the world.

So stay with us and check out our Solitairica beginner’s guide for tips, tricks and strategies and find out how you can save the realm!

Master The Gameplay

The core gameplay is rather straightforward: you can delete cards based on what your current card is. You can select cards that are one less or one greater than your current card. There’s no time limit when making your moves, so you can take time and plan your next move carefully.

A good place to start is by hopping numbers; for example, if your opponent has 5-4-4-3 and you have a 3, you can go 4-3-4-5 to get rid of all their cards in one go. In addition, if you destroy one of your opponent’s cards, that card replaces your face-up card.

solitairica tips
Make your move.

If you have no moves left, you can end your turn by drawing a card. Your opponent will draw and activate an action card, then it’ll be your turn again. Be careful about skipping turns: your opponent will do their very best to deplete your 10 hearts and send you to the game over screen!

Energies and Spells

solitairica spell color
A helpful side panel lets you see how much of each energy you have.

As you play, you’ll notice that cards have different colors and symbols. This is an indication of what kind of energy they provide. There are 4 kinds of energy: orange attack, blue defense, green agility, and purple willpower.

These symbols are present on both your own cards and your enemy’s. Whenever you draw a card, you gain one energy of its type; the same holds true when destroying your opponent’s cards with symbols on them. Each of the starter decks are built with 2 kinds of energy: in the case of the warrior deck (the only one available by default), the deck contains Attack and Defense cards, making it straightforward to play.

solitairica spells
Simple, effective magic.

These energies are used to cast spells, powerful abilities that help you achieve victory. By default, you’re armed with 4 spells:

  • Stab, which destroys a card for 3 Attack.
  • Caution, which gives you 2 armor (temporary health that can only be depleted by being attacked)
  • Insight, which lets you peek at the top card of your deck.
  • Mend, which heals you for one heart.

In addition, you have 2 free spell slots where you can put any spell you like. If these free slots won’t suffice, you can also remove one of the starter spells to make more room.

Coin Cards

There’s a fifth kind of card icon – the golden coin card. This kind of card isn’t related to any kind of energy, and can only appear on enemy cards. When destroyed, each coin card gives you coins equal to how many coin symbols there are on it – vital for shopping in between levels.

Gaining Strength through Defeat

solitairica dead
Maybe next time will be better.

Solitairica is built as a roguelike game. While it has a lot of replay value, it’s meant to be difficult, and at times it may feel unfairly so. But just like most roguelikes, Solitairica offers a permanent way to improve your fighting chances through the use of Wildstones.

Whenever you lose a run, you’ll gain Wildstones depending on how far you get and how well you played. These gems can be used to unlock powerful upgrades, such as increased item slots or unlocking face cards with extra abilites for your deck.

Visit The Shop Regularly

And by “regularly” I mean after every battle. The shop stocks valuable items like new spells and passive items that you can purchase with your hard-earned coins. To access the shop, tap any blank space when your next opponent appears or tap the “Wait…” button that appears.

New Spells

solitairica new spell
For your spellbook.

Shops offer more potent spells at increased energy costs. Don’t worry about having too many spells either, since you can swap out which 6 spells you’d like to bring into battle. It’s far better to have a spell and not need it, than need it but not have it.

It’s worth investing in spells that give bigger payoffs for slightly higher costs. An example would be Pierce, which costs 1 more attack energy than your default Stab spell, but also destroys the card behind its initial target. For just 1 extra energy, you’re destroying another card.

Passive Items

solitairica trinket
May they ease your journey.

Items that you acquire in your journey are equipped to one of 4 slots, with 2 slots extra slots becoming available through the use of Wildstones. These items provide various effects, such as free energy at the start of combat, allowing you to take control of the board much quicker.

Holding Items

solitairica hold
Sort of like a pre-order.

If something in the shop piques your interest, but you don’t have the gold to buy it at the moment, you can have the shop hold the item for 10 gold. Holding an item ensures that it won’t be rerolled when the shop resets after you clear a stage. Of course, if you have enough gold at the moment, I’d recommend you snap up the item immediately.

The Celestial Hourglass

solitairica celestial hourglass
Some extra insurance never hurt..

The Celestial Hourglass is a special item that serves as an extra life. If you lose all your hearts, the hourglass will be consumed and you’ll be sent back in time to before the battle began.

Learn How Enemies Work

solitairica stare
Not all your foes will be as easy as the guppy.

Learning how each enemy operates and what cards it has in its arsenal is key to beating the game. This way, you’ll be able to anticipate an opponent’s moves and prepare accordingly for its harder-hitting cards.

Whenever your turn ends by drawing a card, your opponent will flip a card face-up on their field, showing what action they’ll take on your turn. If an opponent’s card has an hourglass on it, that shows how many turns they’ll need to charge up before performing that action. This is usually the case with stronger attacks.

We’ve also included a short walkthrough for some of the early enemies you’ll be facing, to help you get a leg up on them.

Dirt Guppy

solitairica guppy
More like a tadpole, methinks.

The Dirt Guppy makes his triumphant return from the tutorial! Except he’s still not really capable of beating you. The Dirt Guppy makes for a very straightforward battle, where he’ll either Bite you for a measly 1 damage or use Blank Stare, which gives you 2 willpower. And no, that’s not a typo. While in the early game, you can get some free breaks like these, later enemies will use these turns to buff themselves or throw debuffs at you.

Claw Fiend

solitairica fiend
Bats! Why’d it have to be bats?!

The Claw Fiend is an early game enemy that really only has one move – to hit you for 2 damage every other turn. It will constantly play Night Claw, a move that does 2 damage with a one turn charging period. On rare occasions, it’ll play Circle, which changes all its front attack cards into defense cards, helping you mitigate the damage from Night Claw.

Bjord

solitairica bjord
The beards will flow!

Bjord is fairly easy, but don’t get complacent. Bjord is the first of many enemies to receive a random modifier, which tacks on to his name like a title. You might get Humongous Bjord, Greedy Bjord, Puny Bjord, or so many others. Before engaging him in battle, make sure to read what Bjord’s extra modifier does.

Bjord’s gimmick comes from his Beard Barrier card, which adds beards to 2 of his cards. Bearded cards are protected from attack spells like Stab, sacrificing their beards instead. Apart from this, Bjord can hit pretty hard with his Pointy Stick, which deals 3 damage on a one turn charge.

Lord Guppington

solitairica mayor
Gout is no joke. Yeowch.

The corrupt mayor of Findlehooven guards his gold jealously. Most, if not all of his cards are coin cards, meaning that a quick victory will net a very large payout. At the same time, the mayor will use Secure the Treasury! to transform some of his coveted coin cards into other types, denying you the money but making it easier to deal with him.

In terms of direct combat, Lord Guppington isn’t much, thwacking you with a Golden Cane for one damage. The real danger comes from his Hired Goon card, which both does 3 damage and changes 2 of his coin cards into another symbol. The mayor will also sometimes be afflicted with Excruciating Gout, giving you one random energy.

Speed is key to getting the most out of this fight. As the mayor will rapidly secure his gold, use your attack spells to snipe his high-value gold cards before he pockets the money. His attacks follow a clear rotation, but you’ll need to work fast to clear his large board before his thugs get the better of you.

Gremlin

solitairica gremlin
Probably has a really whiny voice.

The nasty gremlin serves as one of the opponents in the second zone, the Meadows of Madness. Just as his name might suggest, he’s an annoying trickster that likes to spam Riddle, which randomizes the energies of his own cards. This can be particularly annoying if you’re using a spell like Alchemy – judicious use of when to start a combo spell is key to beating the gremlin.

While he likes toying with his victims, the gremlin doesn’t much like it when he’s on the receiving end of a beatdown. When backed into a corner, the gremlin will begin to panic, spamming Prismatic Zaps for a sizeable amount of damage every 2 turns. Once he starts zapping, finish the battle fast as it’ll be hard to sustain yourself against his constant attacks.

The gremlin also has a random modifier; be sure to check what it does!

Thrix

solitairica thrix
Om nom nom.

The Thrix is where things start getting tricky. To start off, this fantastic creature has a much wider board that any opponent you’ve faced thus far. While its Gnaw attack hits for an average 2 damage, it has no charge-up time, so the Thrix can spam this move until your demise.

Topping it off is its ability to stun you, preventing you from using your spells for a turn. Alongside its stun comes a dazzle, which will transform a card if you can’t get rid of it on your turn. Dazzle doesn’t fade either, so if you see an opportunity to cull a dazzled card, do it!

Check The Catalog

Solitairica also has a helpful catalog accessible from the main menu. Here, you can brush up on spells, items, and terms that the game uses, as well as view what enemy modifiers are available at all parts of the game.

One term that the game doesn’t cover in this section is Fizzled. When an enemy plays a card, sometimes they’ll be labeled as (fizzled).

solitairica fizzle
And with a timid popping sound, the evil card was no more.

Fizzled means that the opponent’s card resolved with no effect due to there being no legal target. In the above picture, the gremlin’s Pickpocket card fizzled due there not being any coin cards on his side of the field.

Perseverance Is Key

solitairica deck
Heart of the cards, guide me!

Solitairica is a tough game, and the game itself warns you from the get-go that you will fail many, many times before finally achieving success. But don’t forget that each time you go down, you get up stronger than ever. Each failure is just one card in your own deck that’ll come together to build you a bridge to victory.

And with the help of our Solitairica beginner’s guide, we hope that you found something to ease the game’s learning curve and lead to better, more productive runs that will see you go further than you’ve ever gone before.

If you’d like to add some tips of your own or have comments or suggestions to make, let us know in the comment  area!