Play Eight Off solitaire online free. Every card is dealt face up, you get eight free cells to work with, and every random deal is one our solver has already won — so each game is a fair puzzle. Drag or tap to move, undo as often as you like, and replay any numbered deal.
How to play Eight Off
Eight Off (sometimes written 8 Off) is a one-player solitaire game for a standard 52-card deck. It belongs to the same family as FreeCell: nothing is hidden, there is no stock to draw from, and winning comes down to planning your moves. The name comes from its eight free cells — twice as many as FreeCell gives you.
The layout
- Eight columns of six cards each, all face up. That is 48 cards.
- Eight free cells. The four cards left over start in four of them, so you begin with four cells full and four empty. Each cell holds one card.
- Four foundations, one for each suit. They start empty.
The goal
Move all 52 cards to the foundations. Each foundation builds up in one suit from Ace to King: A♥, 2♥, 3♥ and so on up to K♥.
Legal moves
- Build down in the same suit. The last card of a column can go onto another column if it is the same suit and one rank lower — the 6♣ onto the 7♣, the J♦ onto the Q♦. A 6♥ can't go on the 7♣; color alone isn't enough.
- Park a card in a free cell. Any exposed card can go into an empty cell. Later it can move to a column or a foundation.
- Only a King starts an empty column. When you clear a column, only a King — or a run headed by a King — can move into it. We use this rule because most rule books do; it is the classic form of the game.
- Play to the foundations. When the next card a foundation needs is exposed, in a column or in a cell, move it up.
Cards on the foundations stay there. You win the moment the fourth King goes up.
Playing on BieGames
Drag a card, or a whole run in one suit, and drop it where you want it. Or tap a card to pick it up — legal spots glow green — and tap where it should go. Tap a card twice to send it to its best spot: a foundation first, then another column, then an empty column for a King, then a free cell. When you ask for a Hint, the card to move lights up and the spot it goes to glows green; tap the card to play that move.
On a big screen the free cells sit in a row above the columns and the foundations stand down the right side. On a phone the foundations get a short row of their own at the top, so the cards stay large enough to read. With Auto-move on (the default, in Settings), cards go up to the foundations by themselves as soon as they can.
On a keyboard, press 1–8 to pick up a column and then 1–8 to drop it, C for a free cell, F for a foundation, H for a hint, Esc to let go, and Ctrl+Z (or ⌘Z) to undo. Tab and Enter work too.
Moving several cards at once
Strictly speaking, you move one card at a time. But if a column ends in a run like 9♠ 8♠ 7♠, you could move it card by card through your empty free cells, so the game lets you move the whole run in one go. In Eight Off the rule is simple:
You can move as many cards as you have empty free cells, plus one.
| Empty free cells | Cards you can move together |
|---|---|
| 0 | 1 |
| 1 | 2 |
| 2 | 3 |
| 4 | 5 |
| 8 | 9 |
If you know FreeCell, notice what's missing: empty columns don't add anything. In FreeCell an empty column doubles how many cards you can move, because part of the run can wait there. In Eight Off only a King can sit in an empty column, so the middle of a run can't stop there on the way. The status line under the table always shows your current limit.
A run headed by a King can move into an empty column, as long as it fits within the same limit. That's often the best thing to do with an empty column: put a King there and build its suit down on top of it.
Eight Off strategy tips
- Look at the whole deal first. Every card is face up. Find the Aces and Twos and see what is sitting on them before you touch anything.
- Watch for same-suit traps. A card lying on top of a lower card of its own suit — say the 9♦ covering the 4♦ — is a knot. Neither card can reach the foundation until the higher one moves somewhere else, so plan where it will go.
- Eight cells go faster than you think. Four are full from the start. Each card you park cuts the size of the run you can move, so try to bring a card back out of a cell before you put the next one in.
- Empty a cell before you empty a column. In Eight Off a free cell helps you move runs and an empty column doesn't, unless you have a King ready for it.
- Give each King a home. A King sitting on other cards has nowhere to go except a free cell or an empty column. When you clear a column, move the King whose suit is most tangled up.
- Build long runs in one suit. A tidy run from the King down can go straight up to its foundation later, card after card.
- Count the cells you'll need. To free a buried card you have to park everything above it. If that's more cells than you have, find another way in.
- Use Undo to learn. If a line goes nowhere, step back and try another. The Hint button shows a move from a winning line, and tells you when it can only offer a best guess.
Eight Off, FreeCell and Baker’s Game
Eight Off is one of a small family of "open" solitaire games where every card is visible and you use spare cells to sort the columns. Like Baker's Game, it is a forerunner of FreeCell, the most popular member of the family.
| Game | Columns build down | Empty columns take |
|---|---|---|
| Eight Off (8 free cells, 4 start full) | In suit | Only a King, or a run headed by one |
| Baker's Game (4 free cells) | In suit | Any card |
| FreeCell (4 free cells) | Alternating colors | Any card |
Building in suit is the strict part: each card has exactly one card it can sit on. Eight Off makes up for that with twice the free cells, and it keeps empty columns for Kings. If you enjoy Eight Off, FreeCell will feel looser and faster; if you like FreeCell, Eight Off gives you a new kind of puzzle with the same feel.
House rules you may meet
- Any card in an empty column. Some versions let any card start an empty column, as in FreeCell. It makes the game easier.
- Alternating colors. Some players build down in alternating colors instead of in suit, which also makes the game easier.
BieGames uses the classic rules: build in suit, and Kings only in empty columns.
Deals, scoring and records
Eight Off has no official point system. You either clear the table or you don't, so we keep score the way FreeCell players do: your moves and your time for each deal, plus your wins, win rate and streaks.
Numbered deals
Every deal on BieGames has a number from 1 to 100,000, shown in the corner while you play, and each number always gives the same layout. Press Deal # to replay one you liked, or to play the same deal as a friend and compare moves and times.
Winnable deals
Before a random deal reaches you, our solver checks that it can be won, so a loss is never the cards' fault. A few numbered deals really have no solution — 131 of the 100,000. If you pick one with Deal #, the status line tells you.
Daily deal
Press Daily for today's deal — everyone playing Eight Off on BieGames gets the same one. Win it on consecutive days to build a streak.
Want every detail, with examples and the common house rules? Read our complete Eight Off rules guide.
Eight Off FAQ
Is every game of Eight Off winnable?
Nearly all of them. When we ran our solver over all 100,000 numbered deals on BieGames, it won all but 131, and it proved those 131 can’t be won. Random and daily deals here are always ones the solver has won, though a few careless moves can still leave a position with no way out — that is what Undo is for.
What is the difference between Eight Off and FreeCell?
Eight Off gives you eight free cells instead of four, and four of them start full. Columns build down in the same suit rather than alternating colors, and only a King can fill an empty column. Empty columns also don’t raise how many cards you can move at once.
Why can only a King go into an empty column?
That is the classic Eight Off rule, and most rule books use it. It keeps empty columns from becoming an easy parking spot, so you have to rely on your free cells. Some versions allow any card; BieGames uses the classic rule.
How many cards can I move at once in Eight Off?
One more than the number of empty free cells. With three empty cells you can move a run of four cards. Empty columns don’t add to the limit, because only a King can stop in one. The status line always shows your current limit.
Why is it called Eight Off?
It is named after its eight free cells, the spaces where you can set cards aside one at a time.
Is Eight Off easier than FreeCell?
It plays differently rather than simply easier. You get twice as many free cells, but you can only build in suit and only Kings fill empty columns. Expect your first few games to take a little more thought — and nearly every deal can still be won.
What does auto-move do?
With auto-move on, any card that can go to its foundation goes there by itself. In Eight Off that is always safe: the only card that could ever be built on it is the next lower card of the same suit, and that card is already on the foundation. You can turn it off in Settings.
Can I play the same deal again?
Yes. Restart takes you back to the start of the deal you are playing, and the Deal # button lets you type any deal number from 1 to 100,000 to play it again later or share it with a friend.
Can I play Eight Off on my phone?
Yes. Eight Off runs in any modern browser on phones, tablets and computers, with nothing to install. On a phone the foundations move to their own row so the cards stay big. Your game, moves and time are saved as you play, so you can close the page and come back later.