FreeCell

How to Play FreeCell

What Is FreeCell?

FreeCell is a classic solitaire game played with one standard deck of 52 cards. Unlike most solitaire games, every single card is dealt face up at the start, so nothing is hidden from you. That makes FreeCell a game of pure skill rather than luck. With careful planning, almost every deal can be won. Your goal is simple: move all 52 cards onto the four foundations, building each suit up in order from Ace to King.

The Layout

A game of FreeCell has three areas on the table:

• The tableau. Eight columns of cards spread across the middle of the screen. The first four columns are dealt 7 cards each, and the last four columns are dealt 6 cards each, for a total of 52 cards. Every card is face up and visible from the very first move.
• The free cells. Four empty spaces, usually shown in the top left corner. Each free cell can hold exactly one card at a time, and it can be any card you like. Think of the free cells as a small parking lot where you can set a card aside for a moment.
• The foundations. Four empty spaces, usually shown in the top right corner, one for each suit. This is where you build your winning piles. Each foundation starts with the Ace of its suit and builds up in order: Ace, 2, 3, and so on, all the way to the King.

How to Move Cards

Only the bottom card of each tableau column (the fully visible card nearest to you) is free to move. You can move that card in four ways:

• To a foundation, if it is the next card needed for its suit. For example, if the foundation for hearts shows a 4, you may place the 5 of hearts on it.
• Onto another tableau column, if it is one rank lower than the card it lands on and the opposite color. A red 8 can go on a black 9, and a black Jack can go on a red Queen. Suits do not matter in the tableau, only color and rank.
• To an empty free cell, as long as that cell is not already occupied. Any card may go into a free cell.
• To an empty tableau column. When a column has no cards left, any card, from a lowly 2 up to a King, may be placed there to start a new column.

Cards stored in a free cell are never stuck. You can bring them back to the tableau (following the same down-and-alternating-color rule) or send them to a foundation whenever you like.

Moving Groups of Cards: The FreeCell Formula

Strictly speaking, FreeCell only lets you move one card at a time. In practice, you can move a neatly ordered group, a run of cards going down in rank and alternating in color, in a single drag, because the game could do it for you card by card using free cells and empty columns as stepping stones. This shortcut is often called a supermove.

How many cards can you move at once? Use this simple formula: take the number of empty free cells, add 1, then double the result once for every empty tableau column. In other words, (free cells + 1) × 2 for each empty column.

• With all 4 free cells empty and no empty columns, you can move up to 5 cards at once.
• With 2 free cells and 1 empty column, you can move (2 + 1) × 2 = 6 cards.
• With 0 free cells and 0 empty columns, you can only move 1 card at a time.

One important detail: if you are moving the group onto an empty column, that column cannot help with the move, so your limit is cut in half. Keeping cells and columns open is what gives you room to work.

How to Win

You win when all 52 cards have been moved to the foundations, each suit stacked in perfect order from Ace to King. In FreeCell this is almost always possible: well over 99.99% of random deals can be solved with correct play. If a game feels impossible, the answer is nearly always a different sequence of moves, not a bad deal, so feel free to undo and try another line.

Playing on This Site

You can drag and drop any card or valid group, or simply double-click (double-tap on a touch screen) a card to send it automatically to the best available spot. The buttons above the table give you a New deal, Undo, Redo, a Hint when you are stuck, and Auto-finish to sweep the remaining cards home once the game is clearly won. Undo is unlimited, so you can experiment freely. Every deal also has a seed number, so you can replay the exact same deal and try a better plan.

FreeCell Strategy & Tips

Plan Before You Move

Because every card in FreeCell is face up, the whole game can be read like a puzzle before you touch a single card. The strongest habit you can build is to pause at the start of each deal and trace where the Aces and 2s are buried.

• Think at least two or three moves ahead. Ask yourself not just "can I make this move?" but "what does this move let me do next?"
• A move that looks helpful but leads nowhere is worse than no move at all. If you cannot see a follow-up, look for a different line.
• Use Undo without guilt. Trying a line, seeing it fail, and backing up is exactly how experienced players solve hard deals.

Treat Free Cells Like Gold

The four free cells are your working space, and every filled cell shrinks the number of cards you can move at once. A player with four full cells can only move single cards and usually loses soon after.

• Park a card in a free cell only when you know how it will come back out. A card with no exit plan is a card in jail.
• Try to end each little sequence of moves with as many empty cells as you started with, or more.
• Low cards (2s, 3s, 4s) make the safest temporary parkers, because they can often leave for the foundations soon.

Dig Out the Aces Early

Nothing happens on the foundations until the Aces arrive, so freeing them is the first real job of every deal.

• Target the columns hiding Aces and 2s, and unbury them before doing general tidying elsewhere.
• Prefer moves that uncover a useful card over moves that merely look neat.
• Do not rush every card to the foundations, though. A 3 or 4 left in play can still hold a red or black card you will need to move later.

Build an Empty Column

An empty column is the most powerful resource in FreeCell, even more valuable than a free cell, because it doubles your group-moving capacity and can hold a whole run instead of one card.

• Look for the shortest column, often one of the 6-card columns, and work toward emptying it.
• Once you have an empty column, spend it carefully. Filling it with a random card wastes it; filling it with a King (or the start of a long run) puts it to work.
• With one empty column and a couple of free cells, you can relocate long runs and untangle almost any mid-game knot.

Keep the Long View

• Avoid piling too many cards on top of a King early on; a buried King with a long tail can lock a column for the whole game.
• Try to keep foundations rising evenly. If your hearts pile races ahead to a 9 while spades sits on an Ace, you may run out of red cards to build with in the tableau.
• When two moves both work, choose the one that keeps more options open. Flexibility wins FreeCell games.

Frequently Asked Questions

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