How to Play Spider Solitaire

Spider Solitaire uses two decks, 104 cards, dealt onto ten columns. The first four columns start with six cards, the other six with five, and only the top card of each is face up. The remaining 50 cards wait in the stock as five rows of ten.

Move a card, or a run of cards, onto any card one rank higher. A run only moves as a unit when every card in it is the same suit and the ranks count down in order. When a complete King-to-Ace run of one suit is built, it leaves the table for the foundation row. Clear all eight runs to win.

When you run out of useful moves, click the stock to deal one card onto every column. Dealing is not allowed while any column is empty, so fill the gap first. An empty column accepts any card or run.

Controls

• Drag a card or run onto a column, or tap the run and then tap the column. Tapping a selected run again moves it to the best legal place.
• H shows a hint and says why the move is a good one, U or Ctrl+Z undoes, D deals a row from the stock, N starts a new deal.
• The hint highlights the card or run to move and draws an arrow to the column it should land on, with a tag that says why. When no move makes progress it highlights the stock instead and tells you to deal. Press Hint (or H) again while the arrow is showing to see why the move is safe and what risk it avoids; that second press is free.
• Undo is unlimited. Each undo costs one point, and each hint costs five once you have won a game (hints are free until then).

Tips and Strategy

• Turn over hidden cards first. Every face-down card is a card you cannot plan around. The hint prefers moves that flip one, then moves that join a same-suit run.
• Keep runs in one suit. You may put any card on a card one rank higher, but a mixed pile cannot move as a unit, so it traps whatever sits underneath it.
• Deal last. A stock row puts a card on every column at once and can bury a run you were building. Use it when the hint points at the stock, which means no move flips a card or builds a run.
• An empty column is a tool, not a goal. It accepts any card or run, but it also blocks dealing until you fill it.
• Empty a short column before a long one. Every column you can clear is a parking space for a King or a stuck run. Once the stock is used up the hint counts emptying a column as progress; before that it holds back, because a new empty column blocks the next deal until you fill it again.
• Check the count before a stock deal. Five rows remain at the start, ten cards each. If a column is empty you must fill it before dealing, so plan one move ahead rather than discovering the block after you have cleared the column.
• Undo is a planning tool. It is unlimited and costs one point, so trying a line and backing out is cheap. It does cost the three-star bonus, so decide before the game whether you are playing for stars or for a safe win.
• Read the hint's reason, not just its arrow. The reason says whether the move flips a hidden card, joins your run (and how long it becomes), empties a column or completes a King-to-Ace run. Over a few games you learn to see those patterns yourself.

What Makes This Spider Solitaire Different

Beyond the standard rules, the game adds a hint that explains itself. When you press H it sorts the legal moves into real progress (completing a run, flipping a hidden card, making a same-suit run longer, or emptying a column once the stock is used up), then set-up moves that open one of those. Before it points at the stock it searches short lines of up to five moves for one that flips a hidden card or builds a same-suit run, using only the cards you can see, so it does not spend a deal while a short line of moves can still make progress. It leaves out any move that only shifts a card between two equal places or takes the table back to a position you just had, so following it does not swap cards back and forth. The chosen move gets an arrow from the card to its landing spot and a short tag saying why, and the full reason is written out in plain words. Ask again and it explains the risk the move avoids and what else it weighed, so a hint doubles as a lesson.

The other addition is the daily deal and the web loft. Both are described below, and neither locks anything: every suit count is open from the first game. The ladders and stars only unlock cosmetic card backs and table themes.

Daily Deal, Deal Numbers and the Web Loft

Each random deal shows a deal number. Type that number into the menu to replay the same layout. The daily deal is built from the UTC date and the suit count you picked, so everyone who plays one suit on the same day gets the same cards. A daily win extends your streak and marks the calendar in the web loft; skipping a day resets the streak.

The web loft is your collection screen. Stars from wins unlock card backs and table themes, a seven-day streak unlocks one more card back, and a thirty-day streak unlocks one more table. Each suit count has its own ladder with steps at 1, 5 and 15 wins. When all three ladders reach the top, the loft is complete and play carries on for scores.

Your game is saved on this device after every move. Close the tab and choose Continue on the menu to pick up exactly where you stopped, with undo history intact. Hints are free until your first win, then cost five points each.

Suit Counts, Score and Stars

One suit is the relaxed setting, two suits asks for more planning, and four suits is the full game where many deals cannot be won. The score starts at 500, loses a point per move, and gains 100 for every run cleared. A win earns one star, two stars for finishing in fewer moves than the target for that suit count (under 150 moves at one suit, under 200 at two suits, under 260 at four suits), and three stars for a win with no undo and no hint. Each undo costs one point and each hint costs five points, but hints are free until your first win in any suit count, so you can learn from them without a penalty.

The ladders count wins separately for each suit count: Thread at 1 win, Weaver at 5 wins and Loft Warden at 15 wins. Reaching Loft Warden in all three suit counts completes the web loft and unlocks the Crown card back. Card backs and table themes unlock at star totals (3, 8 and 16 stars for backs, 6, 12 and 24 for tables), and a streak of 7 or 30 daily wins unlocks the Ember back and the Aurora table.

A Brief History of Spider Solitaire

Spider belongs to the patience family, solitaire games played with a single player and a table of cards. Unlike Klondike, which uses one deck and four foundations, Spider uses two decks and eight runs, and the name is usually explained by those eight runs, like a spider's eight legs. Its three difficulty settings are the most familiar part of its modern form: one suit is gentle, two suits is a real puzzle, and four suits is the version where skilled players still lose deals.

The game reached a very large audience when Microsoft bundled a version with Windows, where choosing one, two or four suits became the standard way to set the difficulty. The version here keeps those same three settings and the same rules, so skills carry over from any other Spider game you have played. If you want the one-deck cousin, try Klondike Solitaire.