Designed by Bram Tebbutt
Written by Mark S. Ball
Printable PDF

GAME OBJECTIVE  
Remove all of the cards from the layout
PLAYERS 
1 player
CARDS & CONTENTS
52 card deck, one chip or token (optional)
RANKING
Cards rank (low) A - King, Ace (high)

INTRODUCTION 

Ricochet is a solitaire card game that combines Tri-Peaks Solitaire with the arcade classic Breakout.  Use the top card of the waste pile to destroy cards along the four surrounding walls. Each wall has three layers, and as layers are destroyed, more cards are uncovered.  Play your cards right, completely destroy the walls, and win the game! 

MATERIALS

The game requires a 52 card deck.  Use a poker chip or token to mark the location of the ball.  Aces are both high (above the King) and low (below the 2).

SETUP

The layout consists of four walls.  Each wall has three layers of cards stacked like a pyramid.  As the inner layer is busted, outer layer cards are opened and revealed.

The outermost layer of each wall has two cards face down.  The next layer inward has three cards face down.  The final layer has four cards face up.  This is the layer that encloses the room, and the corner cards are shared between neighboring walls.

Place the rest of the cards face down in the center of the layout to form the stock.  The space beside the stock holds the waste cards which are used to destroy the walls.  Flip the top card of the stock over to begin the waste pile.  

PLAY

The top card of the waste pile is used to destroy open cards along the walls.  Any face up card is an open card.  Face down cards are closed cards.  Only open cards can be destroyed during play.  

The top waste card can destroy any open card that is one rank higher or one rank lower.  For example, if the top waste card is a 3, it can destroy a 4 or a 2.  Remember, if the top waste card is an Ace, it can destroy a 2 or a King. The destroyed card is placed on top of the waste pile.  It becomes the next card used to destroy an open card.  Build the waste pile up or down according to rank.  Suit and color does not matter.

Place the coin or token on the location of the card that was just destroyed.  Players cannot remove two cards from the same wall consecutively.  Play must ricochet towards different walls each time a card is destroyed.

As the game progresses, any closed card that is completely uncovered is immediately flipped over to become an open card.

CORNER CARDS
Walls share corner cards.  If a corner card is destroyed, the player must move toward either wall opposite of that corner.  

REFRESH THE WASTE PILE
If the top waste card is unable to destroy any open cards, flip the top card of the stock over onto the waste pile and continue play.

The game continues until all of the wall cards are destroyed or the stock runs empty. 

WIN

Destroy all of the wall cards to win.  If the stock runs empty before the walls are destroyed, the game is lost.

Ricochet v1.0.3 | Last Updated 11/7/2022 | Originally Published 1/2/2022