Spider Solitaire rules: the complete guide

Spider Solitaire at a glance

If you only remember one thing, remember this: you can build in any suit, but you can only move cards together when they match. Every tough decision in Spider comes from the gap between those two rules.

Setting up the deal

With real cards, shuffle two standard decks together for the four-suit game. For the easier versions you need eight sets of Ace through King: all Spades for one suit, or four sets of Spades and four of Hearts for two suits. (Eight sets of Spades means raiding eight decks, so the one- and two-suit games are far easier to play on a computer.)

Deal the cards face down in a row of ten columns, going left to right and starting over at the first column each time, until you have dealt 54 cards. That gives the first four columns six cards each and the last six columns five cards each. Turn the last card of each column face up.

You now have ten face-up cards and 44 hidden ones. Set the remaining 50 cards face down to one side as the stock. Leave room for eight finished runs. These spaces are sometimes called foundations, but unlike in Klondike, you never build on them card by card. A run only goes there once it is complete.

How to play, step by step

There are no turns and no time limit. You make one legal move at a time until you win or run out of moves and deals.

The legal moves

• Build down, any suit. A face-up card can go onto the face-up card at the end of another column if it is exactly one rank lower. Suit and color don’t matter: the 6♥ can go on the 7♠ or the 7♥.
• Move a same-suit run as a unit. Cards in order that also share a suit, like Q♦ J♦ 10♦, can move together. You may move the whole run or just its lower part (the J♦ 10♦ alone), as long as the first card of the group fits where it lands.
• Mixed runs come apart one card at a time. Q♦ J♣ 10♦ is in order, but it is not one suit, so the three cards cannot travel together. Only the 10♦ can move, unless you first sort the run out.
• Fill an empty column with anything. Any single card or any same-suit run may go into an empty column. This is different from Klondike, where only a King may.
• Kings only move into empty columns. Nothing ranks above a King, so it has nowhere else to go. Aces are low, so nothing can be placed on an Ace.
• Turn over hidden cards. When the last face-up card leaves a column, flip the face-down card under it. On a computer this happens for you.

Dealing from the stock

When you have made every move you want, deal from the stock. Ten cards come off the stock face up, one onto the end of every column, covering whatever was there. You get five deals in all, and you can’t choose where the cards land.

The standard rule is that you can’t deal while any column is empty. Move a card or run into each empty column first. The only exception comes late in a game, when fewer than ten cards are left in the whole tableau. Then there aren’t enough cards to fill every column, so the deal is allowed anyway.

Finishing runs and winning

When a column ends with all thirteen cards from King down to Ace in a single suit, that run is complete. It is lifted off the table and set aside, and the card under the King flips over if it was face down. A deal can complete a run too: if the Ace you need lands on the right column, the run goes at once.

You win when all eight runs are finished and the table is empty. You lose when the stock is empty and no move you can make gets you anywhere.

A worked example: the opening

Here is how the first few minutes of a two-suit game might go. Suits are Spades and Hearts.

The deal. The face-up cards, left to right, are 8♠, 3♥, 9♥, K♠, 7♠, 2♠, 8♥, 6♥, 10♠ and 7♥.

1. 7♠ (column 5) onto 8♠ (column 1). Same suit, so the two cards will be able to move together later. Column 5 flips a 6♠.
2. 6♠ onto 7♠. Column 1 now ends 8♠ 7♠ 6♠, a clean run. Column 5 flips a Q♥.
3. 7♥ (column 10) onto 8♥ (column 7). Also in suit. Column 10 flips a 5♠.
4. 5♠ onto 6♠ in column 1. The 5♠ could also go on the 6♥ in column 8, but that would be a mixed build. Column 1 now holds 8♠ 7♠ 6♠ 5♠. Column 10 flips a 9♠.
5. 6♥ (column 8) onto 7♥ in column 7. Column 7 ends 8♥ 7♥ 6♥. Column 8 flips a 10♥.
6. 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ onto 9♥ (column 3). All three cards are Hearts, so they move as one. Column 7 flips a J♠.
7. 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ onto 10♥ (column 8). Another same-suit move, and column 3 flips a card.
8. 10♥ 9♥ 8♥ 7♥ 6♥ onto J♠ (column 7). This one is mixed (a Heart on a Spade), but the five Hearts still move together because they match each other. Column 8 flips a card.

Eight moves, eight hidden cards turned over, and you haven’t touched the stock.

Notice what you didn’t do: the 2♠ in column 6 could go on the 3♥ in column 2 and flip a card. That’s legal, and early on, a flipped card is usually worth a mixed build. But make the in-suit moves first and save the mixed ones for when nothing better is left.

1 suit vs. 2 suits vs. 4 suits

All three versions use the same 104-card count, the same ten columns and the same rules. The only thing that changes is how many suits are mixed into those 104 cards.

Why is the jump so steep? In one suit, a 6 on any 7 is a perfect build, so there is nothing to untangle. In two suits, only half the 7s are a perfect home for a given 6. In four suits, just two cards in the whole deck are, and either may be buried deep.

A good path is to play one suit until you win most games, then move up. On BieGames you can jump straight into 2 Suit Spider Solitaire or 4 Suit Spider Solitaire, or pick any level in Settings. The habits that win at two suits — building in suit, clearing a column early, preparing for each deal — are the ones four suits demands too. It just punishes every slip.

Spider Solitaire scoring

Real-card Spider has no score: you win or you don’t. The score most people know comes from the classic Windows version, and BieGames uses the same system.

Two details are worth knowing:

• An undo does not give the point back. The undone move already cost a point, and the undo costs another. Trying a move and taking it back costs 2 points in total. If you undo a move that completed a run, those 100 points go back too.
• There is no floor. The score just keeps counting down by one with each move, so a long struggle with no finished runs will take it lower and lower.

A won game always collects 8 × 100 = 800 points for its runs, so your final score is 1,300 minus your move count, where the move count includes deals and undos. The fewer moves you take, the higher you score.

Scoring a game. You win a two-suit game after 158 card moves, all 5 deals and 9 undos. That’s 158 + 5 + 9 = 172 moves, so your score is 1,300 − 172 = 1,128.

Halfway through a game, the same arithmetic works. Forty moves in, with one run finished, you have 500 − 40 + 100 = 560.

Time doesn’t enter into it. The score rewards careful planning, not speed.

Rule questions people argue about

Can you deal when a column is empty? Not under the standard rule. Every column needs at least one card before you deal. The exception is the endgame, when fewer than ten cards are left on the table and filling every column isn’t possible. Some casual players ignore this rule entirely; it makes the game easier.

Can a mixed run move if it’s in perfect order? No. A run of 10♠ 9♥ 8♠ is in order but not in one suit, so only the 8♠ can move. This is the rule that catches many Klondike players.

Can you move just part of a same-suit run? Yes. Pick it up from any card in the run, and everything below that card comes along.

Does a run have to be in one suit to be removed? Yes. A King-to-Ace run with even one off-suit card stays on the table, and a finished run never comes back into play.

Do you have to remove a finished run? On computers it leaves on its own. With real cards there is little reason to keep it, since nothing can be played on an Ace and a thirteen-card run can only move into an empty column.

Common variations

• No empty-column rule. Some players let themselves deal even with empty columns. It makes the game easier, because you can keep an empty column for later.
• No undo. The way real cards are played. Much harder, since every decision counts.
• Spiderette. A one-deck relative. The cards are laid out like Klondike, in seven columns, and the stock deals one card onto each column. The building rules are Spider’s, and you need four finished runs instead of eight.
• Scorpion. A one-deck cousin where you build down in suit only, but any face-up card can be moved along with everything on top of it, in order or not. Only Kings go into empty columns.

If Spider is your favorite, you may also enjoy FreeCell, which shows every card from the start and rewards the same kind of planning. Our guide to card games to play alone compares the main solitaire games side by side.

Playing Spider on BieGames

You can change these options in Settings on the Spider Solitaire page:

• Suits: 1 suit (easy), 2 suits (medium) or 4 suits (hard). One suit is the default.
• Tapping a card: moves it to the best spot it can go, or just selects it so you choose the destination.

Everything else follows the rules on this page, including the empty-column deal rule and the Windows-style score. Undo and hints are unlimited, though each undo costs a point. There’s also a daily deal that everyone gets, played at whichever number of suits you’ve chosen. Your best score, fastest time and fewest moves are kept separately for each suit setting.

Spider Solitaire terms

• Tableau — the ten columns where all the play happens.
• Stock — the 50 face-down cards held back at the start and dealt ten at a time.
• Deal — turning ten stock cards onto the tableau, one per column.
• Run or sequence — face-up cards in descending order. A same-suit run (or natural run) can move as a unit; a mixed run cannot.
• In-suit build — placing a card on the next higher card of the same suit, like the 5♥ on the 6♥.
• Off-suit build — placing a card on the next higher card of a different suit. Legal, but it can’t move as a group.
• Empty column (or space) — a column with no cards at all. It accepts any card or same-suit run.
• Completed run — all thirteen cards of one suit, King to Ace. It leaves the table on its own.

Quick questions about the rules

How many cards are in Spider Solitaire? 104. Fifty-four start on the table and fifty wait in the stock.

How many times can you deal in Spider? Five times. Each deal puts one card on each of the ten columns.

Can you put any card in an empty column in Spider? Yes. Unlike Klondike, any card or same-suit run can fill an empty column.

Is 2-suit Spider much harder than 1-suit? Yes, noticeably. Any build onto the other suit can’t move as a group later, so you have to plan where each card goes.

Is every game of Spider winnable? No. Some deals can’t be won however you play, and four-suit games are the toughest. For the same question about Klondike and FreeCell, see Are all Solitaire games winnable?

What’s a good Spider score? Since a win scores 1,300 minus your moves, anything over 1,000 means you won in fewer than 300 moves. Compare scores only at the same number of suits.