Introduction
Freecell is a classic in the rank of patience games. It's not as punishing as many other solitaires, as all cards are revealed from the start and most Freecell games can be won from the outset unlike many other Solitaires that may contain impossible configurationsm, but it's tricky enough that it remains ever interesting as one tries to puzzle out what cards should move where, and how best to utilize the limited free cells on offer.
The objective
As with most patience games, to win FreeCell, you must get all the cards onto the Foundations. The Foundations are ordered by suit and rank, each Foundation has one suit and you must put the cards onto them in the order Ace 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Jack Queen King.
The different piles
There are three different types of piles in FreeCell Solitaire. They are:
- The Free Cells: The four piles in the upper left corner.
- The Foundations: The four piles in the upper right corner.
- The Tableau: The eight piles that make up the main table.
The setup
Deal out the cards to the 8 tableus. The Tableau piles are numbered from 1 to 8, piles 1-4 start with 7 cards each, piles 5-8 with 6 cards each. The Foundations and Free Cells are empty.
Allowed moves
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Move one or more cards from one Tableau pile to another. You can move the top card of a pile on the Tableau onto another Tableau pile, if that pile's top card is one higher than the moved card and in a different color. For example, you could move a red 6 onto a black 7. If the top cards on a Tableau pile are ordered, e.g. you have red 6, black 5, red 4 as the top cards, then you can click the red 6 and move all of them together onto another Tableau pile that has a black 7 as its top card. HOWEVER, there is a limitation to how many ordered cards you can move together. The number of cards you can move together is basically the number of empty free cells and empty tableaus + 1. So, if you have 2 free cells empty you can move 3 cards together. If you have all 4 free cells empty you can move 5 cards. If you have 3 free cells and 4 empty tableaus you can move 8 cards together. Moving many cards together is basically just a convenience the game provides. In the strictest sense you should always move one at a time, but if you have 4 ordered cards and 3 free cells then you could trivially move the top 3 ordered cards to the free cells, then move the fourth card and then move the 3 cards from the free cells back onto the fourth card. So, for convenience the game allows you to move n+1 cards together, where n is the number of free cells.
If you have an empty Tableau pile then you can move any card there. - Move a single card onto a Free Cell. You can always move the top card of any Tableau Pile, Free Cell or Foundation onto a Free Cell if it's empty. Free Cell's can only hold a single card at a time.
- Move a card from a Free Cell. You can move a card from a Free Cell onto a Foundation if it's in the same suit and one higher than the Foundation's top card. Or you can move a card from a Free Cell onto a Tableau pile if the card is one lower and in a different color than the Tableau pile's top card. E.g. you could move a red 5 from a Free Cell onto a Tableau pile where the current top card was a black 6.
- You can move a Tableau card onto the Foundations. You can either drag the cards onto the Foundation, or just double click it and then it will go there by itself. When the Free Cells are empty and all cards on the Tableau are arranged in 4 piles and each of the piles has been ordered in descending order with alternating red/black cards then the Tableau will clear itself, since at that point you are guaranteed to win the game.
- You can Undo as many times as you like. The game offers unlimited undos. Each Undo counts as a new move though, so if you're trying to win the game in as few moves as possible you should be careful about how many undos you use.
And that's it!
Want to play Freecell and put your newfound skills to the test? Play a round at Cardgames.io.
