A calm one-sitting solitaire: lay out the carpet of 20 cards, bring the four aces onto the foundations and collect all four suits from ace to king. Read it — and straight to the table.
Carpet is a solitaire for one player. Your task is to collect all four suits on the foundations (houses), placing cards in order from ace to king: ace, two, three and so on up to the king. When all 52 cards end up in the four houses, the solitaire comes out and the game is won. The aces already lie on the foundations as a footing — all that remains is to build each house up correctly.
A deck of 52 cards is divided like this: the four aces are laid out on the foundations at once — that is the start of each of the four houses. The rest of the cards are shuffled, and from them a 4 × 5 carpet is laid out — a rectangle of 20 face-up cards. The remaining 28 cards go into the closed deck (the stock), which refills the freed carpet cells as the game goes on. Above the carpet you see the four foundations, and below them the carpet itself.
Each foundation collects one suit. A card goes into a house only in ascending order and only in its own suit: after the ace comes the two of the same suit, then the three and so on up to the king.
Only face-up cards from the carpet can be moved to a house. A matching card is highlighted with a golden frame and lifts slightly — that means it can be sent to the foundation right now.
As soon as a card goes into a house, the freed carpet cell is immediately covered by the top card from the closed deck. That is how the carpet keeps producing new options for moves.
Once the stock is exhausted, freed cells are no longer refilled and simply empty out. From then on you play only with what remains face-up on the carpet.
The four aces are the bases of the houses; they are fixed from the very start. They are neither moved nor removed: you build on top of them.
If not a single card on the carpet fits at least one house, there are no more moves. The system will mark a "dead end" — start a new game.
The solitaire counts as solved when all 52 cards end up in the houses — that is, each of the four suits is built up from ace to king. A panel will appear on the table reading "Carpet solved!" with the final score, the time and the number of moves. The faster you gather the carpet, the higher the bonus to your score. But if no matching cards remain on the carpet while the houses are not yet finished — that is a dead end: the game will have to be replayed with a new layout.
Before you move, check each house: sometimes it pays to first play a card that will open the cell holding the one you need next.
Auto-collect plays greedily. If you want to control the order, move by hand and hold back the cards that suit you.
The counter shows how many cards are left in the stock. The closer to zero, the more carefully you should manage your free cells.
If it seems there are no moves, press the "Hint" — it will either find a card or confirm that this is a dead end.
Carpet looks like a game on autopilot — tap the highlighted cards, and that's it. But the solve rate rises noticeably if you look not only at the available move, but at the queue beneath the top cards. Every discard opens a cell, and a new card arrives from the stock — in effect you decide what appears on the table next.
Before a move, check against every foundation: which suit is built up to which rank. There is always exactly one right card for a house, and it is easier to spot when you remember the current "ceiling" of each suit.
Sometimes a card is worth playing not because it matters, but because the freed cell will pull a fresh card from the stock. While there are cards in the deck, every discard is one more chance to draw out a stuck two or three.
The stock counter is your timer. While it is not zero, empty cells refill; after zero the carpet only melts away. Make bold openings while the deck is still feeding the table.
The spades house is built up to the three — only the four of spades will be accepted on the foundation, everything else waits.
When several matching cards are on the carpet at once, the order in which you take them matters. The right sequence opens cells where the continuations you need are hidden beneath, and the wrong one locks the layout into a dead end.
If a card is needed by only one house and there is no second like it on the table — take it without hesitation. Holding it back gains you nothing and wastes the cell.
Pull all four houses along roughly evenly. An imbalance, where one suit is at the king while three are stuck on twos, is what most often drives you into a dead end.
While you have a choice, move by hand. Auto-collect is greedy and takes cards in its own order; save it for the moment when the obvious moves have run out.
Both fives are available, but hearts leads to an exposed six — take the heart one first.
Carpet comes from the family of simple solitaires about collecting houses from ace to king. On muta.pro the basic variant is played, with a 4 × 5 carpet and a stock that refills the cells, but the family has recognizable relatives.
Classically 20 cards are laid out (4 × 5). There are lighter versions with a smaller field — fewer "dead" cells and a higher solve rate — and denser ones, where a dead end lurks more often.
Our variant refills the freed cells from the deck until it runs out. In strict versions the cells are not refilled at all — every carpet card counts, and the game becomes noticeably harsher.
Algerian, FreeCell, Pyramid are neighbors in the catalog: everywhere the goal is to collect the houses by suit, but the layout and freedom of maneuver differ. Once you master Carpet, it is easy to move on to them.
A carpet row: face-up cards are available to play, face-down ones come in as replacements from the stock.
Most lost Carpet deals are not about bad luck but about a couple of typical slips. They are easy to remove, and the solve rate rises noticeably.
Feels like there are no moves? Press the "Hint": it will either find a card or honestly confirm the dead end — and you'll start a new one without doubt.
Some deals are unsolvable in principle. If you're stuck, don't hunt for a move that isn't there — press "New" and take a fresh carpet.