How to play Spider Solitaire
The goal
Build eight complete runs, each going from king down to ace in a single suit. A finished run leaves the table by itself. Send all eight home to win.
The deal
Spider uses two full decks, 104 cards in all. Ten columns get 54 of them: six cards in each of the first four columns and five in the other six. Only the top card of each column is face up. The other 50 cards wait in the stock, in the top left corner, enough for five more deals.
- One suit: every card is a spade. The gentlest way to learn.
- Two suits: spades and hearts.
- Four suits: two ordinary decks. Some four-suit deals can’t be won.
Every one- and two-suit deal can be won: our solver has finished each one before it reaches you.
The rules
- Build down. You may put a card on any card one rank higher, whatever the suit: a 7♥ on an 8♠.
- Move runs of one suit. Cards that run down in order and share a suit (9♠ 8♠ 7♠) move together. If the suits are mixed, only the cards from the last change of suit can move.
- Turn cards over. When you uncover a face-down card, it turns over by itself.
- Use empty columns. An empty column takes any card or run, not just a king.
- Deal a new row. Tap the stock to put one card face up on every column. You can’t deal while a column is empty. A setting allows it if you’d rather.
- Send runs home. A complete king-to-ace run in one suit leaves the table at once and fills one of the eight home slots.
Scoring
You start with 500 points. Every move, deal, and undo costs 1 point, and every finished run adds 100. A tidy game ends around 1,000 points or more.
Controls
- Tap a card to send it, and the run above it, to the best place. A card of the same suit comes first, then any suit, then an empty column. Tap it again straight away to try its next place at no extra cost. With Quick move off in Settings, tap a card to pick it up, then tap the column to put it on.
- Drag a card or run onto a column.
- Undo, Redo, and Hint are above the table.
Keyboard
Tab to the table. Left and right arrows move between columns; up and down move through the face-up cards in a column. Enter or Space picks up the cards from there; move to another column and press Enter or Space again to put them down. Escape puts them back.
- D deals a new row.
- U undoes and R redoes.
- H shows a hint.
Tips
- Turning over face-down cards matters most: the more you can see, the more you can plan.
- Build in suit whenever you have the choice. Mixed-suit stacks have to be taken apart one card at a time.
- An empty column is your most useful tool. Use it to untangle a stack, then fill it again before you deal.
- Before you deal, make every move that helps. Each deal buries ten cards.
- Shade blocked cards in Settings dims face-up cards that can’t move with the cards above them, so every bright card is one you can pick up.
Questions
Do I need an account? No. Your game saves on this device automatically. An optional account adds cloud saves across devices.
What is the daily deal? One two-suit deal a day, the same for everyone. Finish it to grow your daily streak and share your result.
Why does undo cost a point? That’s classic Spider scoring. Undo as much as you like: it only changes your score, never whether you win.
