How to play Spider solitaire
Spider uses two decks and ten columns. The aim is to build eight complete runs from king down to ace, each in a single suit; finished runs leave the table on their own.
Setting up
104 cards. Ten columns: the first four get six cards and the other six get five, 54 in all, with only the top card of each face up. The remaining 50 cards form the stock, which deals ten cards at a time. With one suit, all 104 cards are spades; with two suits, spades and hearts; with four suits, two ordinary decks.
How to play
Any card can go on a card one rank higher, whatever its suit: a 7 on any 8. But you can only pick up several cards together when they form a run in one suit. That's the whole tension of Spider: mixed-suit building is allowed, but it locks cards together.
An empty column takes any card or any movable run.
Tap the stock to deal one card face up onto every column. You can't deal while any column is empty, so fill gaps first.
When a column ends in a complete king-to-ace run of one suit, the 13 cards are moved off to a foundation automatically.
Scoring
You start with 500 points, lose 1 for every move or deal, and gain 100 for each completed run.
Winning
You win when all eight runs are complete.
Tips
Build in suit whenever you have the choice, even if an off-suit move looks just as good. Empty columns are your most valuable resource: use them to untangle mixed runs, not as parking for single cards. Before dealing a new row, make every useful move first, because the deal covers every column.
Options on this site
- Suits: 1 suit (default), 2 suits, 4 suits
Questions
Which suit setting should I pick?
One suit is the gentle version and wins often. Two suits is a real challenge, and four suits is hard enough that many deals are lost even with careful play.
Are Spider deals checked for a win?
Yes, when "Only deal games that can be won" is on. The solver handles one and two suits well. Four-suit deals are too hard for it to check quickly, so they're marked "not checked".