Spider Solitaire Strategy: How to Win at 1, 2 and 4 Suits

Spider looks like one game with three difficulty settings. It plays more like three different games. With one suit you are mostly tidying. With four suits you are managing a crisis that gets worse every time you deal. The good news is that the same few ideas carry you through all three.

To set expectations, here is how often our solver won, even though it can see every face-down card and the order of the stock: 99.8% of one-suit deals, 93% of two-suit deals and about 42% of four-suit deals, within its search limit. (More on that in our odds guide.) Four suits is genuinely hard. Losing there is not a sign you are doing it wrong.

A 30-second rules refresher

Two decks, 104 cards, ten columns. Any card can go on a card one rank higher, whatever the suit. But only a run of a single suit can be picked up and moved together. Build a full King-to-Ace run in one suit and it leaves the table. Clear eight runs to win. The stock deals one card onto every column, five times in all, and you can't deal while any column is empty.

The idea everything else depends on: suit breaks

Picture a column ending 9♠ 8♠ 7♥ 6♥. You can move the 7♥ 6♥ together, and you can't move the 8♠ without first moving them. The point where the suit changes, between the 8♠ and the 7♥, is a break. Every break is a place where your runs stop being mobile.

Good Spider play is mostly about creating as few breaks as you can and repairing the ones you have. With one suit there are no breaks at all, which is why it is so forgiving. With four suits nearly every early move creates one.

Why an empty column is worth so much

An empty column is the only tool that lets you fix a break. Take this position, which turns up all the time at two suits:

• Column A ends 8♥ 7♠ 6♠.
• Column B ends with the 9♥.
• Column C is empty.

You want the 8♥ on the 9♥, but it is stuck under the 7♠ 6♠. So: move the 7♠ 6♠ into the empty column. Move the 8♥ onto the 9♥, now a same-suit pair. Bring the 7♠ 6♠ back onto the 8♥. Three moves, and you have joined two hearts, uncovered whatever was under the 8♥ in column A, and kept your empty column.

That is the pattern. Use an empty column as a workbench, not as storage. If you leave a random card sitting in it, you have given up the one thing that lets you repair the table.

With two empty columns you can do this with longer runs. Each empty column roughly doubles the length of the mixed run you can rearrange, just as in FreeCell.

Getting your first empty column

The first empty column is the turning point of most games. Aim for it from the start. The four columns on the left start with six cards and the six on the right with five, so the right-hand columns are usually quicker to clear. Pick the one with the fewest face-down cards and the best chance of having its top cards placed elsewhere.

Kings: handle with care

A King can only move into an empty column. Once there, the only place it can ever go is another empty column. A lone King dropped into your only empty column has just used it up for a long time.

So move a King into an empty column when it leads a decent run, or when it is the card blocking several face-down cards. Otherwise, let it sit.

When to deal from the stock

Each deal puts a new card on top of every column, which usually means ten new breaks at four suits. Dealing is never free. Before you tap the stock, run through this list:

1. Make every same-suit join you can. A 5♣ that could go on the 6♣ should be there before the deal, not under a random card after it.
2. Flip every face-down card you can reach. You want as much information as possible before the table gets buried.
3. Fill the empty columns sensibly. You must put something in every empty column before you can deal. Use a run that is already complete in one suit, or a card you were going to have to move anyway. Avoid splitting a good run to do it.
4. Then deal. Don't hold off just because a deal feels risky. If you have nothing productive left, waiting gains nothing.

You get five deals. The stock in the top-right corner shows one card edge per deal left, so you can always see how many remain.

1 suit: learn the shape of the game

Every card is a spade, so every run you build is a real run and every run can move. Almost any deal can be won. Use one suit to learn the habits that matter later: turn cards over first, clear columns, and don't rush the stock. If you lose, undo back a few deals' worth and try a different line. It is almost always there.

2 suits: choose your target carefully

Spades and hearts. Now every time you have a choice of where to put a card, pick the same suit. A 6♥ that can go on the 7♥ or the 7♠ belongs on the 7♥, even if the 7♠ move looks tidier for now.

When you have to make a mixed move, make it on a column you don't need to dig into soon. A mixed break on top of three face-down cards is a problem. On top of a finished King-led stack it is much less of one.

4 suits: play for survival

Four suits changes the priorities:

• Face-down cards over runs. Early in the game, flipping cards matters more than building neat runs. You can't plan around cards you can't see.
• Empty columns over everything. Once you have one, guard it. Use it to fix breaks and give it back.
• Collect same-suit fragments. A 9♦ 8♦ here and a 7♦ 6♦ 5♦ there will join up eventually. Keep them mobile and don't bury them.
• Accept losses. Even with perfect knowledge, our solver won fewer than half the four-suit deals it tried within its budget. Some games simply run out of room.

Using Hint and Undo well

Undo goes back up to 500 moves, which in Spider covers a lot of ground. The best use is exploring: try a line three or four moves deep, and if it goes nowhere, back out. Press Hint when you are stuck. It highlights a move, or the stock when dealing is the best option. When our solver finds a winning line from your position, the hint is the first move of that line. Otherwise it suggests the most promising-looking move.

Every game also has a deal number in the toolbar. Restart replays the same deal from the start, which is the best way to turn a loss into a lesson.