FreeCell
Every card face up, four spare places, and a game you can almost always win.
The aim
Move all 52 cards onto four piles, one for each suit, starting with the ace and going up in order to the king.
How the cards are laid out
- All 52 cards are dealt face up into eight columns: four columns of seven cards and four of six.
- At the top left are four free cells. Each one holds a single card.
- At the top right are four places marked A, for the suit piles.
Because you can see every card from the start, nothing is left to luck: you can plan each game.
How to play, step by step
- A card can go onto a column when it is one lower and the other colour, such as a red 6 on a black 7.
- Any card can go into an empty free cell to get it out of the way. It can move on from there later.
- Any card can go into an empty column.
- Aces go onto the suit piles. Then the 2 of the same suit goes on top, then the 3, and so on up to the king.
Moving several cards at once
A run of cards going down in alternating colours can move in one go, as long as there would be room to move it one card at a time. The game works out the steps for you.
- Each empty free cell lets you move one more card.
- Each empty column doubles that number.
- An empty column you are moving the run into doesn't count.
With two empty free cells and one empty column, for example, you can move six cards at once.
Tips
- Look for the aces and 2s first, and plan how to free them.
- Keep the free cells empty when you can. Every card parked there makes runs harder to move.
- An empty column is the most useful space you have, so think before filling it.
Game numbers
Every deal has a number, shown at the top of the screen. The numbers go from 1 to 1,000,000 and give the same deals as FreeCell in Windows, so a game you know by number plays the same here. Only a handful of deals can't be won; game 11982 is the most famous.
Playing here
- Tap a card to pick it up, then tap where it should go. The places it can go are outlined.
- Tap the card a second time instead, and it goes to the best place for it.
- Undo takes back any move, as many as you like.
- Restart plays the same deal again; New game deals a different one.
- When every card left can go to the suit piles, a Finish button puts them there for you.