The goal in Fortitude is to move all the cards from the tableau and the stack to the foundations. These foundations follow suit, begin with aces and grow to jacks, queens or kings, depending on your level.

The Deal

When you start Fortitude, you are dealt six columns of four cards each, face up on the tableau. The remainder of the cards is left in a stack next to the discard pile as shown above.

You can get new cards moved from the stack to the discard pile by clicking on the new card stack. You can move the last card from the discard stack to the one of the columns by clicking on the discard pile to select it, then on the destination column. If the move is legal, the card will be moved, otherwise nothing will happen.

A move to a column is legal if the card to be moved is the next-lower rank and opposite color of the bottom card of the column. For example, if the bottom card of a column is the ten of diamonds, either the nine of clubs or the nine of spades can be added to that column. Cards can also be moved from column to column in the same way.

Blank columns will accept any single card, and can be built on just like any other column. If you have one or more blank columns available (as at the start of the game), multiple cards in a column can be moved (if legal) by moving one card to the blank column, then moving the next card to the destination column, then moving the card put in the blank column onto the destination column. The game will do this for you automatically if you click on the source column to select it, then click on the destination column.

If a card can be moved to the foundation without any risk of losing strategic choice, the game will automatically move the card for you. If there's a card you want to move up to the foundation, you can move it either by clicking on the card, then clicking on the destination foundation, or double-clicking on the card.

At the first level, the deck is made up of all the cards without the queens or kings. If you're able to move all these cards to the foundations, the game will redeal with the queens added, and your score will continue. If you succeed with this deal, the kings will be added and redealt. If you make it through this deal, the game will take out the queens and kings again and deal seven columns of cards instead of six, leaving you with only one blank column at the beginning of the deal, and so on. The ten highest scores are maintained with the players' names.

Scoring