How to play Spider Solitaire

Spider uses two decks, 104 cards, dealt into ten columns with only the top card of each face up. The goal is to build eight runs from king down to ace in a single suit. A finished run is lifted off the table by itself; clear all eight to win.

Any card can go on a card one rank higher, whatever its suit: a 7 on any 8. But you can only move several cards together when they are a run of the same suit, so try to build in suit. Any card or same-suit run can go into an empty column. When you move the last face-up card off a column, the card underneath turns over.

When you run out of moves, tap the stock at the top left to deal one more card onto every column. There are five deals in all, and every column needs at least one card before you can deal.

One, two or four suits

1 suit uses only spades, so every card can join every run: a good way to learn. 2 suits mixes spades and hearts, and 4 suits uses all four, which is much harder and often can’t be won.

Controls

Tap or click a card to move it (with the cards above it) to the best place: onto a card of the same suit first, then any card one higher, then an empty column. Or drag it where you want. Undo takes back moves, Hint lights up a move and Restart deals the same cards again. On a keyboard, Z undoes, D deals and H shows a hint.

Tips

Turn over hidden cards whenever you can, and empty a column early: it lets you shuffle runs around. Prefer moves that build in suit, even if another move looks just as good. Before you deal a new row, make every move that helps, since the new cards cover everything.

Is my game saved? Yes, on this device: your game in progress, wins and best times.

Also try Klondike Solitaire and FreeCell.