What is Klondike Solitaire?

Klondike is the classic one-player card game most people simply call Solitaire. You start with 28 cards dealt into seven columns, the rest in a stock pile, and four empty foundations. The goal is to build each suit up on its foundation from Ace to King.

Solitaireshake plays Klondike with tap-to-move controls, unlimited undo, hints, and a solver that can check whether your game is still winnable and show you the way through.

How to play

1. Deal. Seven tableau columns hold 1 to 7 cards, with only the top card of each face up. The other 24 cards form the stock.
2. Build down in alternating colours. Place a card on a tableau card one rank higher and the opposite colour, such as a red 6 on a black 7.
3. Move runs together. Any face-up run in a column can move as a group onto a valid card.
4. Turn up hidden cards. When you move the last face-up card off a column, the card beneath flips over.
5. Fill empty columns with Kings. Only a King, or a run starting with a King, can go into an empty column.
6. Draw from the stock. Tap the stock to turn cards onto the waste pile. The top waste card is always playable.
7. Recycle the waste. When the stock runs out, tap the empty stock to turn the waste back over and go through again.
8. Build the foundations. Move Aces to the foundations as soon as they appear, then build each suit up in order to the King.
9. Win by moving all 52 cards to the foundations.

Draw 1 vs Draw 3

Scoring

Standard scoring

You earn 10 points for each card moved to a foundation, 5 points for moving a waste card to the tableau, and 5 points for turning up a tableau card. Moving a card back off a foundation costs 15 points, and recycling the waste costs 100 points in Draw 1 or 20 in Draw 3. Finish in more than 30 seconds and you earn a time bonus of 700,000 divided by your time in seconds.

Vegas scoring

You buy the deck for $52 and earn $5 for every card you get to a foundation, so you need 11 cards up to break even. Vegas allows one pass through the stock in Draw 1 and three in Draw 3.

Daily puzzle points

Your first solve of the daily puzzle starts at 1,000 points. Each extra attempt costs 50, each move costs 1, every 10 seconds costs 4, and each hint costs 10, with a minimum of 100. Moves and time add up across attempts, and undo counts as a move.

Klondike strategy tips

1. Flip hidden cards first. Prefer moves that turn over a face-down card, especially in the longest columns.
2. Work the big columns. The right-hand columns hide the most cards. Freeing them early opens up the game.
3. Don't rush to empty a column unless you have a King ready to put there.
4. Choose your King carefully. Pick the King whose colour fits the Queen you can play next.
5. Keep the stock for later. Play from the tableau before drawing, so the stock still has answers when you need them.
6. Hold back low cards when it helps. Sometimes a 3 or 4 is more useful in the tableau, as a place to build, than on its foundation.
7. Build evenly. Advancing the foundations evenly keeps both colours available for building in the tableau.
8. In Draw 3, count the cycle. Playing one waste card shifts which cards turn up on the next pass, so a play can unlock a card you need.
9. Use the solver to learn. When a game goes wrong, find your last winnable move and see what a better line looks like.

Odds of winning

Not every Klondike shuffle can be won. In our own testing, the Solitaireshake solver proves that roughly four out of five random Draw 1 shuffles are winnable with perfect play, and fewer Draw 3 deals. Real games are won less often, because players can't see the face-down cards.

That's why the daily puzzle and our winnable shuffles are checked by the solver before you see them. Easy, Medium and Hard shuffles are graded by how much searching the solver needs to find a win.

A short history

Klondike takes its name from the Klondike region of Canada's Yukon, famous for the gold rush of the late 1890s. It was already a popular patience game when Microsoft included Solitaire with Windows 3.0 in 1990, which made it one of the most played computer games ever.

What is FreeCell?

FreeCell deals all 52 cards face up into eight columns. Four free cells hold one card each while you dig for the cards you need. Because nothing is hidden, almost every deal can be won with careful planning.

How to play

1. Build down in alternating colours on the eight columns, such as a red 9 on a black 10.
2. Park cards in the free cells. Each cell holds one card. Any card can go into an empty cell.
3. Move runs with enough space. You can move a run of cards at once if you have enough empty cells and columns to shuffle it across. Each free cell lets you move one more card, and each empty column doubles that.
4. Any card can start an empty column.
5. Build each suit up on the foundations from Ace to King to win.

FreeCell strategy tips

1. Free the Aces and 2s early. They are usually buried, and everything else waits on them.
2. Keep free cells empty for as long as you can. A full set of cells leaves you no room to move.
3. An empty column is worth more than a free cell, because it doubles the size of the runs you can move.
4. Plan several moves ahead. With every card visible, you can usually see the whole line before you start.

What is Spider Solitaire?

Spider uses two decks across ten columns. Your goal is to build eight full runs from King down to Ace in a single suit. Each finished run leaves the table on its own.

How to play

1. Build down by rank on any suit, such as any 8 on any 9.
2. Only same-suit runs move together. A mixed-suit stack has to be taken apart one card at a time.
3. Deal a new row from the stock when you run out of moves. Every column must have at least one card first.
4. Complete a suit from King to Ace and it clears automatically. Clear all eight to win.

1, 2 or 4 suits

One suit is the relaxed version and most deals can be won. Two suits adds real decisions about which runs to build. Four suits is the classic test of patience and is won far less often.

Spider strategy tips

1. Build in suit whenever you can, even if another move looks tidier.
2. Empty a column early. It is the most powerful space in Spider.
3. Deal from the stock only when you have to, after you have made every useful move.

How to play Pyramid

1. Pair cards that add up to 13. Jacks count 11, Queens 12 and Kings 13, so a King clears on its own.
2. Only uncovered cards can be paired. A card is free once both cards overlapping it are gone.
3. Use the stock. Turn cards onto the waste and pair the top waste card with a free pyramid card.
4. You get three passes through the stock. Clear all 28 pyramid cards to win.

Pyramid tips

1. Look before you pair. If two cards can each pair with the same card, choose the one that uncovers more.
2. Work the bottom rows first so cards higher up become available.

How to play TriPeaks

1. Play a card one higher or one lower than the top of the waste pile, in any suit. Aces and Kings connect.
2. Uncovered cards flip face up as you clear the cards below them.
3. Draw from the stock when you're stuck. Drawing ends your current chain.
4. Clear all three peaks to win.

Scoring and chains

Each card in a chain is worth more than the last, and clearing the top of a peak earns a 250-point bonus. Long chains are where big scores come from.

How to play Golf

1. Play the bottom card of any column onto the waste pile if it is one higher or one lower than the top card.
2. Suits don't matter, and Aces and Kings don't connect.
3. Turn a card from the stock when you can't play.
4. Clear all seven columns to win. Like real golf, a lower count of cards left is better.

How to play Yukon

1. All 52 cards are dealt into seven columns. There is no stock.
2. Move any face-up card together with everything on top of it, even if those cards aren't in order.
3. The card you move must be one lower and the opposite colour from the card you place it on. Only Kings go into empty columns.
4. Build each suit up on the foundations from Ace to King to win.

Yukon tips

1. Uncover face-down cards first, especially in the right-hand columns.
2. Big moves are free. Moving a large stack costs nothing, so use it to reach buried cards.

How to play Canfield

1. The deal. Thirteen cards form the reserve, with the top one face up. One card goes to the first foundation, and its rank becomes the starting rank for all four foundations. Four more cards start the tableau.
2. Build the foundations up in suit from the starting rank, wrapping from King back to Ace.
3. Build the tableau down in alternating colours, also wrapping, so a King can go on an Ace.
4. Empty tableau spaces fill from the reserve automatically. Once the reserve is gone, any card can fill a space.
5. Turn the stock three cards at a time, with as many passes as you like. Move all 52 cards to the foundations to win.

Canfield tips

1. Empty the reserve first. It's where most games are lost.
2. Keep a tableau space open for the next reserve card rather than filling it from the waste.

How to play Forty Thieves

1. Two decks. Forty cards are dealt face up into ten columns of four. The rest form the stock.
2. Build down in suit, such as the 6 of hearts on the 7 of hearts.
3. Move one card at a time. Runs move together only when you have empty columns to shuffle them through.
4. Any card can fill an empty column.
5. One pass through the stock. Build all eight foundations from Ace to King to win.

Forty Thieves tips

1. Empty columns are everything. Work toward one before turning many stock cards.
2. Play Aces and 2s up early, then think before burying low cards.

How to play Scorpion

1. The deal. Seven columns of seven cards. The first four columns start with three cards face down. The last three cards wait in the stock.
2. Move any face-up card, with everything on top of it, onto the next higher card of the same suit.
3. Only Kings go into empty columns.
4. Tap the stock once to deal its three cards onto the first three columns.
5. Build each suit from King down to Ace in a column. Completed suits clear, and four of them wins the game.