Porchlight › How to play › FreeCell
How to play FreeCell
A solitaire game with every card dealt face up. Nothing is hidden, so almost every deal can be won with careful planning.
The aim
Move all 52 cards onto the four foundations, one for each suit, building from ace up to king.
Setting up
The deck is dealt face up into eight columns: seven cards in each of the four columns on the left, six in each of the four on the right. Above them are four free cells, each of which can hold one card, and the four foundations.
There is one variant, Classic. Deals are shuffled at random.
Playing
You can move the bottom card of a column, or a card from a free cell:
- To a foundation, if it's the next card of its suit.
- To an empty free cell.
- To a column, onto a card that is one rank higher and the opposite color (a red 6 onto a black 7). Any card can go into an empty column.
Cards on a foundation stay there.
Moving runs. A stack at the bottom of a column that already runs down in alternating colors can be moved as one, but only if you could have moved it one card at a time through your empty free cells and empty columns. The limit is the number of empty free cells plus one, doubled for each empty column. An empty column you're moving a run into doesn't count toward the limit.
| Empty free cells | Empty columns | Most cards in one move |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 0 | 5 |
| 4 | 1 | 10 |
| 2 | 1 | 6 |
| 0 | 0 | 1 |
Cards that go home by themselves. Aces and twos go to their foundation as soon as they're free, even before your first move. Any other card goes home automatically once both foundations of the opposite color have reached the rank below it. A red 5 goes up as soon as both black foundations show a 4.
Undo takes back your last move, together with anything that went home by itself after it, up to 300 moves back. Each undo counts as a move.
Winning
You win when all four foundations are complete. If no move is left, the game tells you, but doesn't end: you can undo, or give up. Giving up counts as unsolved.
Today's deal and the clock
New game deals a free game, open to everyone. Today's deal is the same for every player and changes at midnight UTC. It's for members only, and you get one attempt, which counts from the moment it's dealt. Only a game cut short on our side can be dealt again.
The clock runs from the deal to your winning move and can't be paused. Making no move for 15 minutes, or leaving or losing your connection for about a minute, ends the game as unsolved. Today's best ranks the day's winners by time, then by fewest moves. Members also see their own record: deals played and solved, best time, and their daily run (the number of days in a row they've solved the daily deal).
On Porchlight
- Click a card to pick it up, then click where it should go. Clicking a card higher up a run picks up the cards below it as well. Legal destinations light up.
- Or drag the card, with a mouse or a finger.
- Double-click a card to send it home. If it can't go home, a column card goes to the first empty free cell instead.
- Undo with the button, or Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on a Mac).
- If a move isn't allowed, a message under the table says why.
Tips
- Keep your free cells empty as long as you can. Each one you fill shrinks the runs you can move.
- An empty column is worth more than a free cell, because it doubles your limit.
- Before you start, find the buried aces and twos and plan how to free them.