The goal
- Klondike
- Move all 52 cards to the four foundations, one per suit, from ace up to king.
- FreeCell
- Same as Klondike: all 52 cards on the four foundations, ace to king, one suit per foundation.
- Spider
- Build eight complete runs from king down to ace in a single suit. Each complete run leaves the table, and the game is won when all eight are gone.
The cards and the layout
Klondike and FreeCell use a standard 52-card deck with no jokers. Spider uses 104 cards, the same as two decks, but only in the suits you pick: with one suit you get eight sets of spades; with two, four of spades and four of hearts; with four, two of each suit.
- Tableau
- The columns where the cards are dealt and where most of the play happens. Only the exposed card at the end of a column can move, or an ordered run that ends with it.
- Foundations
- The four piles at the top, one per suit, built up from ace to king. Klondike and FreeCell have them.
- Stock and waste
- In Klondike, the cards left over after the deal sit face down in the stock, and the cards you turn over go to the waste. In Spider, the stock holds the cards that get dealt ten at a time.
- Free cells
- FreeCell only: four spaces that hold one card each, of any rank.
Aces are low and kings are high.
How to play Klondike
- The cards are dealt into seven columns: one card in the first, two in the second, and so on up to seven in the seventh. Only the last card of each column is face up. The other 24 cards go face down to the stock.
- On the tableau, cards build down one rank at a time in alternating colors: a red 7 goes on a black 8.
- An ordered run can move as a whole, or starting from any card in it.
- When you move the card covering a face-down card, the face-down card flips over on its own.
- Only a king, or a run that starts with a king, can fill an empty column.
- Tap the stock to turn cards onto the waste, one at a time or three at a time, depending on what you picked before the deal. With draw three, only the top card of the waste can be played.
- When the stock runs out, tap it to flip the waste back over; the cards return to the stock in the same order. You can go through the stock as many times as you like.
- Cards are played to the foundations one at a time, ace to king in the same suit, from the tableau or from the waste.
Once every card is face up, the stock is empty and at most one card is left on the waste, the remaining cards move to the foundations automatically.
How to play FreeCell
- All 52 cards are dealt face up into eight columns: four with seven cards and four with six. There is no stock.
- The tableau works just like Klondike: cards build down one rank at a time in alternating colors.
- Each of the four free cells holds one card. A card in a free cell can go back to a column or onto a foundation.
- Any card, or any ordered run, can fill an empty column.
- How many cards you can move at once depends on the open space: the number of empty free cells plus one, doubled for every empty column. With two empty free cells and no empty column, that is 3 cards; with two free cells and one column empty, 6. If you are moving into an empty column, that column does not count.
- Cards are played to the foundations just like in Klondike, ace to king in each suit.
Cards that are no longer needed on the tableau move to the foundations automatically.
How to play Spider
- There are ten columns: the first four get six cards and the other six get five, with only the last card of each column face up. The remaining 50 cards stay in the stock, enough for five deals of ten.
- A card can go on any card one rank higher, regardless of suit: a 7 of hearts goes on an 8 of spades.
- To move several cards at once, they must be in sequence and all of the same suit.
- Any card, or any same-suit run, can fill an empty column.
- When you move the card covering a face-down card, the face-down card flips over on its own.
- Tap the stock to deal: one face-up card lands on each of the ten columns. You cannot deal while a column is empty. The only exception is when there are fewer cards on the table than columns, since then there is no way to fill them all.
- When a column ends in a complete run from king down to ace, all in one suit, that run leaves the table automatically.
Spider has no foundations to build card by card: the only way cards leave the table is as complete runs.
Rules for all three
- You can only pick up a face-up card, and only if everything on top of it is in sequence.
- In Klondike and FreeCell, the top card of a foundation can come back down to a column if it fits there. That costs points.
- UNDO takes back the last move, score included. The game remembers your last 150 moves.
- HINT highlights a move that actually gets you somewhere, such as turning over a face-down card, emptying a column or sending a card home. If no move helps, it tells you so; if the table is out of moves, it tells you that too.
- There is no losing: the game ends when the table is cleared. If you get stuck, NEW GAME takes you back to the menu to start another.
Scoring
- Card to a foundation
- 10 points for every card that goes home. In Spider, which has twice as many cards, it is 5 per card, so each complete run is worth 65.
- Card turned over
- 5 points each time a face-down card flips on the tableau.
- Waste to tableau
- 5 points, in Klondike.
- Foundation back to tableau
- Minus 15 points.
- Time bonus
- Clear the table and you earn a bonus that starts at 700 points (1,400 with draw three and in Spider) and drops by 2 points for every second of play, down to zero.
Your score never drops below zero. Only a cleared table makes the TOP 5, and all three games share the same leaderboard.
Game options
- Pick your game
- Klondike, FreeCell or Spider, in the menu before the deal.
- Draw
- In Klondike: 1 card (easier) or 3 cards (tougher).
- Suits
- In Spider: 1 suit (laid-back), 2 suits (balanced) or 4 suits (a real fight).
- Pick a deck
- The card design, when there is more than one. Your choice carries over to the other card games in the same series.
- Tap or drag
- One tap sends a card to the best spot; drag it if you want to choose.
- Keyboard
- On a computer, SPACE draws from the stock, Z undoes and D asks for a hint.
Tips for beginners
- In Klondike, work on the columns with the most face-down cards first: every card you turn over opens things up and scores points too.
- Don't rush to fill an empty column. It's worth more saved for a king or a long run.
- In FreeCell, use the free cells sparingly: every occupied cell cuts down how many cards you can move at once.
- In Spider, build in suit whenever you can. Mixed-suit runs can't move together and end up blocking the column.
- Before sending a low card home, check that the tableau doesn't still need it as a place to build on.
Solitaire variations
Solitaire comes in dozens of variations around the world. Some versions limit how many times you can go through the stock in Klondike, others score differently or play FreeCell with more or fewer free cells. On Selminha.com, you can go through the Klondike stock as many times as you like, FreeCell has four free cells, and Spider lets you choose one, two or four suits.