Daily Solitaire rules and tips

Fifty two cards are laid out in seven piles and you win by building each suit from ace to king. People often just call it solitaire, but solitaire covers every one player card game, and this particular layout is the one named Klondike.

Most of the laid out cards start face down, so only seven are visible at the beginning, and moving those seven to expose what is under them is how the board opens. The rules are short, yet which card you expose first changes the rest of the board completely, so it is a game about ordering rather than dexterity.

The layout

Seven columns get one, two, three and so on up to seven cards, and only the last card of each column is face up. That uses twenty eight cards, and the remaining twenty four become the stock you turn through when you need something.

Building down

A card can go on a column only if it is one rank lower and the opposite colour, so a red seven sits on a black eight and a black six sits on that red seven, and a run that is already in order moves as one block.

An empty column takes a king and nothing else, so an empty column is not a free parking space. When lifting cards uncovers a face down card, it turns face up straight away.

The foundations

The four piles at the top are built up by suit from the ace, and the game ends when all four reach the king. You may bring a card back down from a foundation, though it usually pays to think once more before sending one up.

Everything below is what the code actually does, and it only lists the places where this app may differ from a version you have played elsewhere.

One deal a day, the same for everyone

The deal comes from the date, so everyone who opens the page on the same day gets the same board. Dealing and playing both happen inside your browser, so nothing about the game travels to a server and no account is needed.

Only deals we have confirmed

Once a deal is generated we search for a line of play that finishes it, then replay that line from the start under this app's own rules to confirm all four suits really come home. Only deals that pass go on the list, and the page opens a board only for dates on that list.

If the first deal does not pass we generate the next candidate for the same date and check again, and if six candidates all fail we serve no board that day. That seemed more honest than letting someone spend an afternoon on a board that cannot be finished.

Not confirmed and not winnable are different statements. Our checker searches within a fixed budget, so some boards it fails to solve would come out fine in a person's hands. We do not call those unwinnable, we simply do not use them.

Stock and undo

The stock turns one card at a time and can be turned over again as many times as you want with no penalty. Undo is unlimited and costs nothing either, so take a move back whenever you feel like it.

Once no face down cards are left, a send them all up button appears and finishes the tidying for you, because at that point only the order remains and clicking card by card is just busywork.

Feel, and what you can turn off

Cards carry at most three shadow layers so their thickness reads without costing much on a slow phone, and each settled card sits a degree or two off centre. A card placed by hand never lands perfectly straight, and that small offset is what makes it read as an object.

Sound and vibration both start off, with toggles under the board. If your browser or system has reduced motion turned on, the lift and settle transitions are skipped.

Keeping your progress

Where you left off is written to this device's browser storage and never sent anywhere, so a refresh or a short break leaves the board exactly as it was. When the date changes, yesterday's board is dropped and a new deal opens.

When the saved board is read back we check again that all fifty two cards appear exactly once and that every column obeys the colour and rank rule. If anything is off we discard it rather than repair it, because a patched save could bring back a board that breaks the rules.

What is not here

Regular runs are not timed, have no score and no leaderboard, and we do not count how many days in a row you came. Only runs you start with Compete on go on the shared leaderboard, ranked by actions. Undo and hints do not reduce anything, and no feature is locked behind watching an ad.

Values this app uses, straight from the code

Reduce the face down cards first

When several moves look equal, work on the column with the most face down cards. Every card you turn over widens the choices you have next, whereas tidying a column that is already fully exposed looks neat but buys you very little.

Send aces and twos up, hold the rest

Aces and twos have nothing that could sit on them, so sending them up costs nothing. Higher cards are still useful in the columns as landing spots, and sending a six or seven home too eagerly is how you end up with nowhere to put the next card.

Run through the stock once early

Turning the stock over costs nothing here, so when a board feels stuck it is quicker to run through it and see what is in there. Once you know which cards are waiting, you know what shape to leave the columns in.

Decide on the king before you empty a column

An empty column accepts only a king, so with no king ready the space just sits idle. Pick which king is going in, count what that king is currently holding down, and only then empty the column so the space starts working immediately.

With two kings available, take the one that can carry more behind it. A black king takes a red queen and then a black jack, so the colour of the queen you can reach usually settles the choice for you.

When two cards of the same rank appear

If both red sixes are showing but there is only one black seven, choosing which six goes there decides the board. The default is the one that exposes a face down card, though when a six already has a long run under it, moving the run to open another column can be worth more.

Bringing a card back down

A card already on a foundation can come back to the columns, so pulling a black five down onto a red six creates a home for a red four. It is not a common move, but it can restart a board that stalled one card short.

Tapping a card does nothing

This app does not use dragging. Tap a card to pick it up and tap the destination column to place it, and the card you picked lifts slightly so you can see it. Tapping the same card again puts it back down.

Tapping a card in the middle of a column picks up that card and everything below it, and that block will not move unless it follows the colour and rank rule. When that happens, tap a lower card to pick up a shorter block.

Nothing seems playable

Hint marks one move you can make right now, looking first for a move that exposes a face down card, then one that sends a card up, then one that plays from the turned cards. It will not play the solution out for you.

If you really are stuck, undo back to the fork or press restart this deal. Neither leaves any record, and today's deal stays the same.

Reopening an earlier day

Pick a date under past deals and that day's board opens exactly as it was. Boards are rebuilt from the date rather than stored, so anyone you send the link to sees the same board.