Spider is the solitaire that looks like Klondike and plays nothing like it. Ten columns instead of seven, two decks instead of one, and no foundations to feed card by card. Here a suit only leaves the table when you have built the whole thing, king down to ace, in one unbroken run.
That is the entire difficulty. Nothing is banked, nothing is safe, and a sequence you spent twenty moves assembling can be broken by one careless placement. There is no partial credit in spider.
It is also the reason people who like it really like it. Klondike hands you a deal and a certain amount of luck. Spider hands you a puzzle where almost every position has a best move, and finding it is the game.
How to play Arkadium's Spider Solitaire
One hundred and four cards, two full decks, are dealt into ten columns. Most of each column is face down. Fifty cards stay in the stock.
- Build columns downward in rank: a nine goes on a ten, a two on a three.
- For a single card, suit does not matter. You may put any nine on any ten.
- To move several cards at once, they must already be in descending order and all of the same suit.
- Complete a run from king down to ace in one suit and it leaves the table automatically.
- Deal from the stock when you are stuck. Ten cards land, one on every column.
- Remove all eight sequences to win.
The rule that catches everyone
You may place a nine of hearts on a ten of spades. That is legal, and it is often the only move available.
But that nine is now stranded. It cannot travel with the ten, because a multi card move requires a single suit, so the only way to free it again is to move it somewhere else on its own.
Mixed columns are how spider games die. Sometimes you have to build one. You should always know that you are doing it.
The stock
Dealing is not free and it is not optional either. Ten cards land face up across the board, one per column, and they land on whatever happens to be there. A tidy board becomes messy in a single deal.
You also cannot deal while any column is empty, which turns an empty column from an asset into a decision.
Suits and difficulty
Spider is played in one suit, two suits or four. One suit is a gentle puzzle. Two is the version most people settle on. Four suits, a full two decks with everything in play, is one of the hardest solitaires there is.
If this version lets you choose, start at one suit until the sequence building feels automatic, then move up.
How the score is worked out
You begin at five hundred points and lose one for every move, then gain a hundred each time a full suit leaves the table. Finishing faster adds a bonus. The arithmetic quietly discourages aimless shuffling, which is a fair description of what loses spider games.
Tips and strategy
Empty columns are the whole game
In Klondike an empty column takes a king and little else. In spider it takes anything, which makes it the most powerful thing on the board.
An empty column is a workbench. It is where you park a card that is in the way, where you unpick a mixed run one card at a time, and where you rebuild a sequence in the right suit.
Two empty columns are worth more than twice one. Getting to the second is often the moment a game turns.
But remember you cannot deal from the stock while a column is empty. So the useful sequence is: open the column, do the work it enables, then fill it before you deal.
Order of priorities
- Turn over face down cards. Every hidden card is information you do not have.
- Build in suit whenever there is a choice, even when the mixed move is more convenient right now.
- Empty a column when you can see what you will use it for.
- Deal from the stock only when the board genuinely offers nothing.
Do not build on kings early
A king can never move onto another card. Anything you stack under a king is committed until the whole run leaves the table.
Early in a game that is usually a trap. Put your working sequences on lower cards, where the whole run can be lifted somewhere else if the position changes.
Before you deal
A deal drops a card onto every column, including the ones you have carefully arranged. Spend a moment first: finish any in suit move that is available, and make sure no column is one card away from being tidy.
The habit costs five seconds and saves whole games.
Undo is part of the game
Spider positions are dense enough that the wrong move is often invisible until three moves later. Working backwards from a jam teaches you which move was actually the mistake, and that lesson transfers to every future deal in a way a fresh shuffle never does.
The rest of the family
Classic Solitaire is Klondike, the hidden card game most people learn first. FreeCell shows you all fifty two cards from the start and is almost always winnable. Solitaire Story TriPeaks is the fast one, built on chains rather than columns. More in cards.
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Frequently asked questions
How many decks does Spider Solitaire use?
Two, so one hundred and four cards dealt into ten columns, with fifty held back in the stock.
Can I move a run of cards of different suits?
No. A single card can go on any card one rank higher, but moving several at once requires them to be in order and all of the same suit.
What is the difference between one, two and four suits?
How many suits are in play. One suit is a gentle puzzle, two is the usual choice, and four suits is one of the hardest solitaire variants there is.
Why will the game not let me deal?
Because a column is empty. Dealing puts one card on every column, so spider requires all ten to have at least one card first.
How does the scoring work?
You start at five hundred, lose a point for each move, and gain a hundred for every complete king to ace sequence removed. Finishing quickly adds a bonus.
Is Arkadium Spider Solitaire free?
Yes, free in the browser with nothing to download and no account.