Welcome to the World of Osmosis!

In this exciting solitaire game, called Osmosis (or Treasure Trove), things work a bit differently than the classic versions you might be familiar with. Here, you don’t have to follow a strict order when building your foundations, and lower foundation rows can only be played if their rank has been unlocked in the higher rows. It adds a twist to the game, making it all the more interesting! Oh, and just so you know, there’s a 13% chance of completing this game. Exciting, isn’t it?

Let’s Get Started: The Cards and the Layout

In Osmosis, you’ll need a standard 52-card French deck. Give it a good shuffle, and then deal four piles, each containing four cards, face down. Once the cards are dealt, flip each pile over so that the top card is face-up. It’s important that you can only see the top card of each pile; the rest must remain hidden. These piles should be arranged in a column, and we call them the reserve piles.

Now, here comes an interesting part. Take one card and place it face up to the right of the top reserve pile. This card becomes your first foundation. As you progress in the game, more foundations will be added, but for now, just focus on this card and its special role.

The draw pile is made up of all the remaining cards.

THE GAME

The goal is to create foundation rows using cards of the same suit. It doesn’t matter what the order of the cards is. The foundation rows should be built in a way that allows all the card ranks to be visible.

Whenever a card of the same suit becomes available, it can be placed on the first foundation, regardless of its rank. However, on the lower foundations, you can only play cards of the same suit if a card of the same rank has already been played on the foundation above it. Keep in mind that the foundation card must have been played as well in order to build onto the foundation pile.

When it comes to playing cards, there are a few important things to remember. First, the top cards of the reserve piles are always available for play. You can use them whenever you need to make a move.

If you want to play a card from the draw pile, you need to draw the top three cards as a group. It’s crucial that you don’t change the order of these cards because they must be played from top to bottom. If you find that you can’t play a card, you have to discard that card and any cards below it to the waste pile. Keep in mind that the top cards of the waste pile are not eligible for play, so don’t try to use them.

Once you’ve played through the entire draw pile, it’s time to pick up the waste pile and start again. You can play through the draw pile as many times as you need to. Remember, the goal is to move all the cards into their foundation rows. If you run out of eligible moves and have no more options left, unfortunately, you lose the game.