Spider Solitaire

Tips for Spider Solitaire

If Spider Solitaire is new to you, start with one suit. Every build there can travel together, so you learn how runs form before you have to manage colours. Two suits and four suits are much harder, because you can place a card on any card one higher, but only a same-suit sequence moves as one piece.

That rule shapes every good game. Build in the same suit whenever you have the choice, since a mixed column is hard to move later. Emptying a column is worth working towards, as an empty column gives you room to sort. Fill it again before you deal, though, because the stock will not deal while any column is empty.

Deal from the stock only when you have run out of useful moves, since it puts a new card on every column and can bury the sequences you were building. When you are unsure, press H for a hint, which looks for a same-suit build first, and use undo freely, as it goes back as far as you like. Each move costs a point from the starting 500, so avoid shuffling cards back and forth, and every completed run adds a hundred.

How to play Spider Solitaire

The goal in Spider Solitaire is to clear the table by building eight complete runs, each from king down to ace in a single suit. Two packs are dealt into ten columns, and fifty cards are left in the stock. Before the deal you choose one, two or four suits.

You may place a card on any card one rank higher, whatever its suit, so a seven can go on any eight. Only a run in the same suit moves as one piece, though, so a mixed column has to be taken apart card by card. Any card or same-suit run can go into an empty column. When a full run from king to ace is in place, it lifts off the table on its own.

When you have no useful moves left, click or tap the stock. It deals one fresh card onto each of the ten columns, which gives you five deals in all, but it will not deal while any column is empty. The game is won when all eight runs are complete. The score starts at 500, loses a point for each move and gains a hundred for each run.

On a computer you drag cards with the mouse; on a phone you drag with your finger or tap a card to send it to the best legal spot. H gives a hint, U undoes a move, P pauses, M mutes and N restarts.

About Spider Solitaire

Spider Solitaire is one of the best-known patience games played with two packs of cards, and one of the hardest to win, because the stock keeps adding cards to every column. Kiloo's version plays the standard game with ten columns and fifty cards in the stock, and lets you choose how hard it is by setting the number of suits.

That choice makes it suit a wide range of players. One suit is a gentle introduction where every build can move together, two suits asks you to keep spades and hearts apart, and four suits uses the full pack and rewards careful planning. Your best score is kept for each difficulty in your browser, so you can work your way up. The hint looks for a same-suit build first, undo goes back as far as you like, and tapping a card sends it to the best legal spot, which makes Spider Solitaire easy to play on a phone as well as on a computer.

Frequently asked questions