Part 1 (Sep 2023) · #31 of 35 in that tierWatch the moment (2:32:54)
Solitairica
- Developed by
- Righteous Hammer Games
- Published by
- Righteous Hammer Games
$9.99
Solitairica takes RPG combat and challenging roguelike progression to a fresh new place—the world of solitaire! Using a variety of magical items and powerful spells, battle your way through a horde of ever-changing enemies and defeat the horrible Emperor Stuck.
Consensus
C66.8/100
Steam players76.1% positiveMostly Positive574 reviews
Metacritic ↗82/100Users: 7/10
VG Insights estimate ↗≈19.8K copies · ≈$139K gross
What creators say
What players say
A turn-based solitaire-meets-RPG roguelite where you clear cards from a tri-peaks-style tableau to charge four resources (Attack, Defense, Agility, Willpower) and cast spells against enemies, climbing to defeat Emperor Stuck.
Solitairica is received as a clever, addictive mobile-born hybrid that critics scored well (Metacritic 82 from six mostly iOS reviews, 70 to 100) and Steam players rate Mostly Positive (about 76-78%, roughly 574 reviews). Fans love the twist on solitaire and the class/deck variety; detractors, who dominate the most-upvoted negative reviews, say the RNG feels unfair, unlock grinding is slow, and animations drag. It is a small-scale niche title (Boxleiter-style estimates put it at 100k-200k owners and low six-figure gross), not abandoned: the Steam forum has pinned threads for an 'Anniversary Update' and a '2025 FAQ' with activity through December 2025, and reviewers mention an update after years of silence. The mobile version originally launched in 2016 and PC came later.
Players love
- Fresh hook: solitaire card-clearing drives RPG combat, described as 'solitaire where you can actually lose and cast spells'
- Four-resource system (Attack, Defense, Agility, Willpower) fuels spells, and synergy between spells, relics and enemy modifiers is praised as satisfying to figure out
- Many classes/decks to unlock, each with different starting resource generation and spell sets, giving variety between runs
- Relaxing, flow-state play that suits short bursts, podcasts or background TV; works well on Steam Deck
- Strong 'one more try' pull and high replay value for solitaire fans and returning mobile players; one reviewer calls the replay value 'insane'
- Accessible and easy to pick up; one reviewer plays it with their son, and the difficulty curve is described as easy to understand
- Critics called it a good fit for touch platforms and praised its addictive loop (AppAdvice 100, TouchArcade 90)
- Developer returned with an anniversary update years later, which some long-time players say improved the game
Common complaints
- RNG is the dominant complaint: stuns, poison, fire and card-altering effects are perceived as stacking unfairly, and the last needed card often fails to appear
- Late-game and final boss damage or card-flooding can exceed what a run can handle; some runs feel unwinnable regardless of build
- Progression grind: upgrades and decks cost 40-60 crystals while a failed run yields roughly 6-18, so unlocking everything takes many runs
- Animations and card flips feel slow even with the speed-up setting on
- Runs can feel samey: enemies are roughly the same each playthrough with only shuffled order and modifiers
- Little player agency over draws (no real tools to control card selection), which undercuts the 'strategy' tag for some
- Launch-era critic note that depth is limited and players repeat favourite spells after unlocking classes (Gamezebo 70)
- No cross-save or cross-play with the mobile version; PC release is Windows only
Can feel tedious
- Repeating the same early levels to farm crystals for each upgrade on each deck
- Slow card-flip and enemy-turn animations, cited as a reason to quit within minutes
- Turns spent passing while enemies add cards, poison, stun or drain abilities
- Achievement hunting: beating the final boss with every deck and a near-pure-RNG 'go from 1 health to full' achievement
- Bugs reported on the forum around the Bard class (spell purchasing, crashes on repeated Inspiration) and stacking effects
What's unique
- Solitaire movement rule where you can play a card one rank above or below the exposed card, used as the core turn action
- Clearing specific card types charges resources that power spells, and boss/enemy attack timers force you to clear cards quickly
- Class-specific decks (warrior, rogue, wizard, bard and others) that each change how resources accrue
- Comically stuck-in-solitaire fantasy theme with Emperor Stuck as final boss, plus Aces/Kings/Queens as unlockable powerful deck cards
- Bridges mobile casual solitaire and roguelike deckbuilding, with Steam tags spanning Roguelike Deckbuilder, Relaxing and Addictive
Players want
- Add a middle difficulty option or softer RNG/difficulty curve (requested by several negative reviewers)
- Speed up animations further or allow skipping them
- Reduce the crystal grind or make early upgrade costs cheaper relative to run payouts
- Give players more tools to mitigate bad draws (mulligans, wildcard/joker-style effects) and review RNG bias, a topic raised on the Steam forum
- Controller support is a recurring forum request
- Cross-platform progress sync with the mobile version, and Mac/Linux builds
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
Roguelike DeckbuilderCard BattlerCard GameRPGStrategyIndieDeckbuildingTurn-BasedSolitaireTurn-Based Strategy
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Tier list Part 1 (2023)
Solitairica is a short, casual deck-building roguelike built around playing Solitaire. He has only played it on his phone, and almost left it off the list until he remembered it is also on Steam. He calls it cute, fun and casual, but very unbalanced and luck-driven. He won't put it in C because it does what it sets out to do well, so he drops it in B.
Liked
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