Clear the Dungeon — Free Solo Card Game

How to Play Clear the Dungeon

Clear the Dungeon is a solo card game by Mark S. Ball. Defeat all 12 dungeon monsters before your damage bar fills up. Plays in about 15 minutes with a standard deck.

The Dungeon Deck

All 12 face cards — Jacks, Queens, and Kings of every suit. These are your monsters.

  • Jack = 11
  • Queen = 12
  • King = 13

Deal them face-down into 4 columns of 3. Flip the top card of each column face-up — those are your first four monsters.

The Power Deck

All 42 remaining cards — Aces through 10s plus both Jokers. These are your weapons.

  • Aces are worth 1.
  • 2–10 are worth face value.
  • 🃏 Jokers are worth 10 and are wild triggers.

Each turn you draw 3 cards from the power deck into your hand.

Taking a Turn

1

Draw

Draw 3 cards from the power deck into your hand. Empty hand slots from previously staged cards are refilled.

2

Attack

Use your hand cards to defeat monsters. Each attack requires 3 cards:

  • Up to 2 attack cards whose combined value equals or exceeds the monster's number. Select them from your hand (they glow gold), then click a monster to stage them on it. You can stage across turns — staged cards carry over to your next draw.
  • One trigger card — once a monster has enough attack cards staged on it, select a trigger card from your hand that matches the monster's suit (rank doesn't matter), then click that monster to execute the attack.

Click the monster to execute. You can attack as many monsters as your hand allows in a single turn. A Joker matches any suit as a trigger.

3

Discard

When you're done attacking, click End Turn. Any hand cards you didn't play fly to the damage bar. The damage bar holds a maximum of 7 cards — if it fills, the dungeon overwhelms you and the game is over.

Winning & Scoring

  • Win by defeating all 12 monsters before the damage bar reaches 7.
  • Score = the number of cards remaining in the power deck when the last monster falls. Higher is better.
  • Lose if the damage bar hits 7, or if the power deck runs dry while monsters remain.

Strategy Tips

  • Don't waste triggers. A card with the right suit is precious — if you don't have one, attack cards staged on a monster persist to your next turn.
  • Stage early, trigger later. You can place attack cards on a monster this turn and finish it next turn. Staged cards don't count as discards.
  • Prioritise matching suits. Before ending a turn, check which cards share a suit with a monster. Save them as triggers instead of discarding them.
  • Jokers are wild. Use them as triggers on monsters whose suit you can't match, or as high-power attack cards on tough Kings.
  • Clear columns fast. Defeating a monster reveals the next one. Thinning a column gives you more time before the lower cards surface.

About Clear the Dungeon

Clear the Dungeon was designed by Mark S. Ball as a solo solitaire card game playable with any standard deck. The design strips a dungeon-crawl RPG down to its essential tension: limited resources, mounting damage, and a dungeon that always fights back.

The trigger system is the heart of the game — having the power to attack is never enough on its own. You also need the right suit, which forces you to think two or three turns ahead and treat every card in your hand as a potential resource rather than just a number.

Want the full story? Our Clear the Dungeon how-to guide covers every rule in detail with a worked example, or browse all our free card game guides on The Daily Beacon.