Pyramid Scheme: A Guide to the Card Game

Alternatively, you typed ‘Pyramids’ in the games room search bar, either way – you made it here, and now you’re ready and raring to win yourself that golden trophy!

The set-up and basic play:

Pyramids is a one player non-flash card game, in which the goal is to clear the pyramid of cards. It costs 50NP per turn and you can win a maximum of 5,000NP per day. If you play past this limit, there is no charge to play but you don’t win any more neopoints, although the scores from each game will still contribute towards your lifetime score (more on this later). The basic set up of the game is you are presented with 7 rows of cards: the bottom row (let’s call this row 7) contains 7 cards and the amount of cards in each row above falls by one card per row – meaning the top row (row 1) contains just a single card. Initially the cards in rows 6 to 1 are a mystery (ie they are all face-down) whereas on row 7 all cards are face-up.

To the top of the pyramid there are 2 piles of cards (although due to the game being played in 2D it may not be immediately clear that these are piles). The player turns over a card from the face-down pile on the left (there are 23 cards in this to start with), let’s call this the deck, and places it face-up on the pile to the right (to do this just click on the deck), let’s call this the spent pile. When the game begins, this first turning over has been done for you.

Additionally there are four columns at the top of the game area. The first column ‘Consecutive Plays’ tells you how many times in a row you have cleared the pyramid (well done if it says more than zero!). The second, ‘Game Points’, indicates how many points you have earned during the current game so far. Thirdly, ‘Cards in Pile’ is the number of cards remaining in the deck (see above). The final column is the cumulative points you have amassed from playing pyramids in the last 3 months.

Now, on to actually clearing the pyramid.

To do this, you must place all cards from the pyramid onto the spent pile. However, only a card facing upwards may be played onto this pile, and the card must also be either one above or one below the card already on the pile. Handily, suits are irrelevant in this game!

Example:

The card on the spent pile is a 10. A Jack or a 9 of any suit may be played onto this.

*Note an Ace is able to be played on a King or a 2.

A card in the row above will be revealed once the two cards directly below it have been placed onto the spent pile. If you are unable to play a card onto the spent pile, you must click on the deck, and a new card will be turned over for you. This will continue until you clear the pyramid or (more often) you run out of cards to turnover from the deck.

Scoring Points:

You receive points each time you place a card onto the spent pile. These points directly correspond to the amount of neopoints you will receive at the end of the game. The number on the cards is completely irrelevant for points; it is the row which determines how many you will receive.

Row 7 (bottom row): 3 points

Row 6: 4 points

Row 5: 7 points

Row 4: 12 points

Row 3: 17 points

Row 2: 27 points

Points are also available for the number of consecutive cards you clear from the pyramid.

2 cards: 2 points

3 cards: 4 points

4 cards: 6 points

5 cards: 10 points

…and so on.

Upon clearing the final card from the pyramid, another 502 points will be added to your score. The number of cards left in the deck does not have any effect on the amount of points you will win.

The number of points you earn per game doesn’t matter too much in terms of trophies (read on to the next section) and I suspect most people will not be playing this game for the sole reason of earning neopoints!

The Trophies

There are two different sets of trophies available for the game pyramids, one set considerably easier to obtain than the other.

‘Easy’ Set:

Bronze: Clear the pyramid twice

Silver: Clear the pyramid five times

Gold: Clear the pyramid twice on consecutive turns

(After playing you may curse me for calling these trophies easy to achieve!)

Harder set:

These work similarly to the usual trophies which you get for being on the high-score tables. However, the scores which are used on these tables are your cumulative scores from every game of pyramids you have ever played EVER. Unfortunately if this is your first time playing pyramids then your chances of getting a gold trophy is not very likely – users have had years to amass extremely high scores and so the scoreboard will take a lot of time and patience to claw yourself onto!

The Tactics

Pyramids, like a lot of card games, mainly comes down to luck. Success in this game largely relies upon which cards are dealt into your pyramid and the order of the cards in the deck. However, there are some tactics which you can use when you are trying to decide which card to play, or at least to earn yourself a few more neopoints in the process.

1. Clear the cards which will reveal the most cards in the pyramid first.

If there’s a choice of which card to clear (for example two cards of the same number are available in the pyramid), one of which will reveal one card in the row above and one which will reveal two, generally it is better to pick the card which will reveal two. Sometimes this means making a decision between clearing an edge card or clearing a middle card. You must be careful to not only clear middle cards because you can end up with the edge cards preventing a large portion of the pyramid from being revealed. This is something you should bear in mind, so use your discretion.

2. Clear the cards in the longest consecutive streak possible.

Say the game has just started and the card on the spent pile is a 4, and the cards in row 7 are 4, 3, Q, 3, 7, 9 and 2 (in this order). The best combination of cards to clear would be:

The leftmost 3, 4, rightmost 3, 2.

This is the optimal combination because not only does it manage to eliminate four cards from the pyramid, but also it will reveal one card on the row above, which may also be possible to play in this run of cards. Be prepared to make streaks which don’t ascend or descend straight through the cards – the longest streaks often change directions! It is a good idea to plan your moves before you make them, but also be prepared to adjust them to include cards which get revealed as you go along.

3. Clear the lower rows first

If there is a choice of which card to clear, usually it is wiser to use the one from the lowest row first. This prevents cards lower down the pyramid blocking the cards nearer the top from being revealed. It can be extremely frustrating to have only one card face-up in the pyramid yet to still have a large amount of cards left to be cleared. There may also be times when you have to choose between playing a card from a low row or a card in a higher row which will reveal two cards (see tactic number 1). Unfortunately there is no easy answer to what you should do in a situation like this. In a case such as this you should make a judgement based on how many cards you have left in the pyramid, how many cards are blocked by the lower card or any information tactic number 4 gives you.

4. Keep a running tally of the cards which have been played into the top pile.

Tactic 4 is desperation. Don’t worry, I’ve been there too and I feel your pain. This method is not for the casual pyramids player because it requires a fair amount of effort and concentration. Firstly, you need to create a table with thirteen headings – a heading per type of card. You can do this either on paper or in a spreadsheet (I use a spreadsheet to avoid having to re-write the headings). You must record in your table each time a number appears on the spent pile. There is no need to record the card’s suit.

Example:

The game has just started. The number on the spent pile is a 9. You draw your first tally line under the heading you have for the 9s. You place an 8 on this 9. You draw your first tally line under the 8 heading. You have no cards which are playable on the 8. You click the deck to turnover a new card. The new card is a 9. You add a line to your tally under the 9 heading.

This is helpful because it allows you to keep track of which cards have been played already in the game. Once a card has been cleared into the spent pile, it will not appear again. As such, when you have a choice of which card you should clear, this method may provide you with the best option. I will now illustrate this below:

You have been playing a game for a while and have been keeping a record of the cards on the spent pile. Currently, the card on the top of the pile is a 5. According to your records, this is fourth 5 to appear during the game. Therefore this is the last 5 which will ever come up. Looking at the pyramid you have a choice between clearing a 4 or a 6. A 4 can only be played on a 5 or 3 and a 6 can only be played on 5 or a 7. As the 5 on the top of the pile is the last one available to play either of these cards on, you must look to how many 3s and 7s are left in the game also. Continuing with the example, let’s say that you have already recorded four 7s as having been played, and two 3s. This means that this 5 is the last card in the entire game upon which it will be possible to clear the 6 you have in the pyramid, whereas there are still two more 3s in the game which you may be able to play your 4 on. Therefore you must play the 6 on the 5, not the 4; otherwise you will never be able to clear the pyramid.

This tactic should take priority over any of the others because it can identify moves you should make to prevent clearing the pyramid from being impossible. However, I recognise that this is a rather lengthy process and so if you are just playing for fun then I wouldn’t bother. If you are going for your second consecutive win, however, this could be a major help!

This tactic also allows you to keep an eye on the overall cards which have been played and perform a balancing act of sorts. In other words, you should try and play the cards in an order which will keep the amount of each number played roughly equal to that of the cards numerically adjacent (ie the amount of 2s played should be roughly the same as the number of Aces and 3s played). Obviously this isn’t always possible to do given the cards which are dealt, and you will be able to tell when the pyramid becomes impossible to clear. Hopefully this should help remove some of the disappointment.

The Statistics

Despite all of the tricks which I have just taught you, it is likely you will have to play a fair few games in order to snag yourself a trophy. For research purposes *cough* I played 200 games of pyramid, and here is a breakdown of the statistics:

Games played: 200

Average NP earnt per game: 196

Win percentage: 3%

Longest win streak: 1

Final Thoughts

As I have said throughout this guide, luck is the biggest factor in this game. I hope you are able to nudge the odds more into your favour by utilising some of the tips I have given you today. For now though, it’s time to get out of this desert – there’s sand in my keyboard!