Eight Off rules: the complete guide

Eight Off at a glance

If you remember one thing, make it this: in Eight Off, free cells are your working space and empty columns are homes for Kings. That is the big difference from FreeCell, and most of the strategy grows out of it.

Setting up the deal

Shuffle a standard 52-card deck. Deal the cards face up into eight columns, left to right, one card at a time, until each column has six cards. Overlap the cards so every one of them can be seen. That uses 48 cards.

Above the columns are eight free cells. Put the four cards left over into four of them, one card per cell. The other four cells start empty. On BieGames the four dealt cells are the first four in the row.

You also need room for four foundations, one per suit. They start empty. On a big screen BieGames stands them down the right-hand side; on a phone they sit in their own short row at the top.

There is no stock and no waste pile, and nothing is face down. Everything you need to know about the deal is in front of you before you make your first move.

How to play, step by step

In each column, only the last card — the one not covered by anything — is free to move. (A run of cards in one suit can sometimes move together; see below.) A card in a free cell is always free to move.

The legal moves

1. Column to column. Move a card onto another column if it is the same suit and one rank lower: the 8♠ onto the 9♠, the Q♥ onto the K♥. The 8♥ can’t go on the 9♠ — color doesn’t count, only suit.
2. Into a free cell. Move any free card into an empty cell. Each cell holds exactly one card.
3. Out of a free cell. A card in a cell may go onto a column (same suit, one lower), to its foundation, or — if it is a King — into an empty column.
4. Into an empty column. Only a King may start an empty column, either on its own or at the head of a run in its suit (K♣ Q♣ J♣).
5. To a foundation. Each foundation starts with an Ace and builds up in one suit: A♦, 2♦, 3♦ and so on to K♦.

You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations. You lose when no legal move is left — or, more often, when the only moves left just shuffle the same cards between cells and columns without getting anywhere.

Why building in suit matters

In FreeCell, a red 6 can go on either black 7, so every card has two possible homes. In Eight Off, each card has exactly one: the 6♥ can only ever sit on the 7♥. If the 7♥ is buried, the 6♥ has to wait in a free cell or stay where it is. That one rule is why Eight Off gives you twice as many cells.

It also creates a particular kind of knot. If a card lies on top of a lower card of its own suit — the 10♣ covering the 3♣ — neither can reach the foundation until the 10♣ moves somewhere else. Spotting those knots early is half the game.

Moving runs: how many cards at once

The official rule is one card at a time. But when a column ends in a run in one suit, such as J♦ 10♦ 9♦, you could always move it card by card using your empty free cells. Computer versions do those steps for you, and you can drag or tap the whole run at once. Players call this a supermove.

In Eight Off the limit is:

Cards you can move at once = empty free cells + 1

Worked example. You want to move 9♠ 8♠ 7♠ onto the 10♠, and two free cells are empty. Your limit is 2 + 1 = 3 cards — just enough. Here is what the shortcut does for you:

1. Put the 7♠ in a free cell.
2. Put the 8♠ in the other free cell.
3. Move the 9♠ onto the 10♠.
4. Bring the 8♠ back onto the 9♠, then the 7♠ onto the 8♠.

Five single-card moves, one tap — and both cells are empty again afterwards.

Why empty columns don’t raise the limit

In FreeCell, an empty column doubles how many cards you can move, because part of a run can wait in it while the rest moves. That trick doesn’t work in Eight Off. The cards in the middle of a run are never Kings, and only a King may stop in an empty column.

Example. Same run, 9♠ 8♠ 7♠, but now you have one empty free cell and one empty column. In FreeCell the limit would be (1 + 1) × 2 = 4 cards. In Eight Off it is 1 + 1 = 2: the 8♠ can’t wait in the empty column, so you can’t move all three. Free a second cell first.

Moving a King-headed run into an empty column

A run headed by a King — K♥ Q♥ J♥, say — may move into an empty column, and the same limit applies. With two empty cells you can move a three-card King run into the empty column; with only one empty cell you can’t. A single King, of course, can always move into an empty column if it is free.

Worked examples

Digging out an Ace

The position. In column two, the A♦ is covered by the J♣, and on top of that the 5♥, which is the exposed card. Column seven ends in the 6♥. You have three empty free cells, and no Q♣ is showing anywhere.

1. 5♥ onto the 6♥. Same suit, one lower — no cell needed.
2. J♣ into a free cell. Its only home is the Q♣, and that card isn’t available, so the Jack waits.
3. A♦ to its foundation. If the 2♦ is free anywhere, it follows right away.

One free cell spent to free an Ace. The question to ask now is where the Q♣ is, because until you reach it, that J♣ is using one of your cells — and every cell you use lowers the size of the run you can move.

Choosing which King gets the empty column

The position. You have just cleared column five. The K♥ is sitting in a free cell. The K♠ is the exposed card in column one, on top of the 2♠ and the 3♥.

• Moving the K♥ out of its cell gives you an extra empty cell, which raises your move limit by one.
• Moving the K♠ uncovers the 2♠, which may be able to go straight to its foundation, and then the 3♥.

Neither is always right. If the A♠ is already home, moving the K♠ sends the 2♠ straight up after it — and the 3♥ too, if the 2♥ is up. If your cells are nearly full, freeing a cell is often worth more. Look one or two moves ahead and count what each choice actually opens up.

Edge cases and rule questions

Can a card go into an empty column if it isn’t a King? Not under the classic rules, and not on BieGames. Some programs offer “any card” as an easier option.

Can I move a King that already heads its column into another empty column? You can, but it changes nothing, so BieGames never suggests it and tap-to-move won’t do it.

What if all eight cells are full? Then you can move only one card at a time, and only onto a column or a foundation. This is the most common way to get stuck, so treat the last two or three cells as an emergency reserve.

Can I put a card on top of a card in a free cell? No. A cell holds exactly one card.

Can cards come back off the foundations? Not on BieGames. Some computer versions allow it, but in Eight Off it would never help: the only card that could ever be built on a foundation card is the next lower card of its suit, and that card is already on the foundation.

Should I always send cards to the foundations? In Eight Off, yes — for the same reason. Once the 5♣ can go up, nothing in play can ever need it, because the 4♣ is already home. That’s why BieGames’ Auto-move sends every playable card up without asking, unlike FreeCell, where some cards are held back.

Do I have to fill an empty column right away? No. You may leave it empty until a King is ready to move there. An empty column does nothing for your move limit, though, so there’s rarely a reason to wait once a King needs it.

What counts as a lost game? No rule ends the game for you. If no card can move, or you’re going round in circles, the deal is lost from that position. Undo or Restart lets you try a different line.

Scoring and records

Eight Off has no official scoring system. A deal is either solved or it isn’t, so players keep track the same way FreeCell players do:

A scoring example. You and a friend both play deal #2026. You win in 92 moves and 6 minutes; your friend wins in 118 moves and 4 minutes. You both solved it — you found the shorter line, and your friend found one faster. Numbered deals make that kind of friendly comparison fair.

BieGames shows your deal number, moves and time as you play, and keeps your best time, fewest moves, wins and streaks. Achievements reward things like winning in under 100 moves, never having more than six free cells in use, and moving a King into an empty column.

How winnable is Eight Off?

Very. With eight free cells, almost every deal has a solution. When we ran our solver over all 100,000 numbered deals on BieGames, it found a win for all but 131 of them, and it proved those 131 impossible.

That doesn’t make every position winnable. Fill your cells carelessly and you can turn a good deal into a lost one in a handful of moves. BieGames only hands out random and daily deals that the solver has already won, so if you get stuck, there was a way through.

Variations

• Any card in an empty column. The most common house rule. It makes empty columns as useful as they are in FreeCell and the game noticeably easier.
• Alternating colors. Build down red on black instead of in suit. Each card then has two possible homes, which again makes the game easier.
• Baker’s Game. Eight columns dealt like FreeCell (four of seven cards, four of six), four empty free cells, and building down in suit. Any card may fill an empty column.
• Seahaven Towers. Ten columns of five cards, with the last two cards starting in the free cells. Columns build down in suit, and only Kings may fill an empty column — close kin to Eight Off.
• FreeCell. Four free cells, building in alternating colors, and any card in an empty column. The most popular game of the family — you can play FreeCell here too.

Where Eight Off fits in

Eight Off is one of the oldest ancestors of FreeCell. It is close kin to Baker’s Game, the suit-building game by C. L. Baker that Martin Gardner described in his “Mathematical Games” column in Scientific American in June 1968. Paul Alfille later changed Baker’s Game to build in alternating colors, creating FreeCell, and in 1978 he programmed the first computer version of it on the PLATO system. So if you’ve played FreeCell, you’ve played a descendant of this game.

Playing Eight Off on BieGames

On the Eight Off page every random deal is one the solver has won, and the Daily deal is the same for everyone each day. Deal # plays any deal from 1 to 100,000. Undo is unlimited, Restart takes you back to the start of the same deal, and Hint shows a move from a winning line (or says when it can only offer a best guess) — tap the card it lights up to play it. You can turn Auto-move off in Settings if you’d rather send every card home yourself.

Eight Off terms

• Column — one of the eight piles in the tableau. Also called a cascade or pile.
• Free cell — one of eight holding spaces, each for a single card. Also called a reserve.
• Foundation — one of four piles built up by suit from Ace to King.
• Run — cards at the end of a column going down by one in the same suit, like 7♥ 6♥ 5♥.
• Supermove — moving a whole run at once, as a shortcut for single-card moves through empty cells.
• King-headed run — a run that starts with a King; the only kind of run that can move into an empty column.
• Knot — a card lying on a lower card of its own suit, so neither can go home first.
• Deal number — the number that identifies one particular shuffle, so anyone can replay it.

Quick questions about the rules

How many free cells does Eight Off have? Eight. Four start with a card in them and four start empty.

How many cards are in each column at the start? Six, in eight columns. The four cards left over go into the free cells.

How many cards can you move at once? One more than your number of empty free cells. Empty columns don’t add to it.

What can go in an empty column? Only a King, or a run in one suit headed by a King.

Is Eight Off the same as 8 Off solitaire? Yes — it’s the same game, just written with a numeral.