FreeCell Solitaire

How to play FreeCell

FreeCell is a single-deck solitaire game where nothing is hidden. All 52 cards are dealt face up into eight columns, so every game is a planning puzzle rather than a gamble. Your goal is to move every card to the four foundation piles in the top right, building each suit from Ace up to King.

In the columns you build downward in alternating colours: a red 6 goes on a black 7, a black Jack goes on a red Queen. The four free cells in the top left each hold one card, and any card can go into an empty column. Those spare spots are the whole game. Every free cell you fill is a spot you no longer have for the next awkward card.

How many cards can you move at once?

You can only pick up one card at a time in the real rules, but a stack is allowed to move as if you used your empty spaces as stepping stones. The limit is (free cells + 1) x 2 to the power of empty columns. With four free cells and no empty columns you can move 5 cards. With two free cells filled and one empty column, it is 3 x 2 = 6. When the stack is headed for an empty column, that column does not count as a stepping stone, so the number is smaller.

This game applies the rule for you. If you try to drag more cards than the board allows, the stack snaps back.

Game numbers and the daily deal

Each deal has a number from 1 to 1,000,000, produced by the same shuffle Microsoft FreeCell has used since the 1990s. Game #1, #617 and #11982 are the same layouts here as on a Windows PC, so you can compare notes with anyone who has played them. Tap the game number above the board to pick any deal, or press New for a random one.

All but a handful of the million deals can be won. The most famous exception is game #11982, which has no solution. The picker warns you about the unwinnable ones, and random and daily deals never choose them. The Daily button deals a game picked from today's date on your device, and finishing it pays a once-a-day coin bonus.

Strategy that wins more deals

Look at the Aces and Twos first

Before moving anything, find where the four Aces and the 2s sit. Columns that bury them under long piles are the ones to dig out early.

Keep free cells empty

Park a card in a cell only when it frees the card underneath for a better use. If all four cells are full, one more bad break ends the game.

Aim for an empty column

An empty column is worth more than a free cell, because it holds a whole stack. Clear the shortest column first, then use it sparingly.

Build long, ordered stacks on high cards

Putting a 4 on a 5 only helps if you will not need that 5 soon. Prefer to extend a stack that already ends in a King or a Queen.

Plan a few moves ahead

Before each move, ask what it uncovers and whether you can move that card next. Unlimited undo is there for experiments. It cancels the no-undo bonus, but a lost game costs more.

Controls

Tap a card to send it where it fits. It goes straight to a foundation or a matching column when that is the only sensible spot. If several spots are possible, the card is selected, the targets glow and you tap one, or tap the selected card again for the best choice. You can also drag cards. Safe cards, meaning those that can never block another move, travel to the foundations on their own; turn that off in Stats if you prefer to do it yourself. U or Z undoes, H gives a hint, N starts a new deal.

Questions