How to play your first game
Look before you move
Find the aces first and count how deep each one is buried. A deal with an ace under six cards is not harder because of that ace alone — it is harder because those six cards have to go somewhere, and everywhere they can go costs you space.
Spend free cells last
A card in a free cell does nothing for you until it comes out. Each one you fill halves what you can move in one go, so a full set of cells is usually the moment a game ends. Move onto columns while you can and keep the cells for the card you genuinely cannot place.
Empty a column early
An empty column takes any card and doubles the size of the run you can carry. It is worth more than a free cell and worth much more than a tidy sequence. If you can clear a six-card column by breaking a run you just built, break it.
Send cards home only when they are done
Aces and twos can go up immediately. Anything else may still be needed to hold a lower card of the other colour, so this site sends a card home only once nothing could want it. If you are playing elsewhere and holding cards back by hand, that is the judgement you are making.
Playing without a mouse
Every card and every place is reachable with Tab. Press Enter on a card to pick it up — the run above it comes too — then Enter on a column, a free cell or a foundation to put it down. Press Enter on the same card again and it goes wherever it can.
| Enter | Pick up · put down |
|---|---|
| Esc | Put it back |
| Space | Send everything home that can go |
| z · x | Undo · redo |
| n | New game |
| ? | Hint |
Finding a card
Hold a key and the matching cards light up. They combine: hold 5 and d together and only the five of diamonds is lit.
| a | The aces |
|---|---|
| 2–9, 0 | That rank (0 for tens) |
| c d h s | That suit |
| r · b | Red · black |
The hint is on ? rather than h because h lights up the hearts.
When you get stuck
Undo back to the last point where you had two choices and take the other one. Most FreeCell deals are lost several moves before the game actually ends — usually at the move that filled the last free cell.
FreeCell strategy
Almost every lost deal comes down to one of five things. They are also the five things the hint on the board can name, so if you have ever wondered what it meant, this is the long version.
- Empty a column
An empty column in FreeCell doubles the size of the run you can move. Why it beats a free cell, and what it costs to keep one open.
- Spending free cells
Each filled free cell halves the run you can move. When parking a card is worth it, and why a full set of cells usually ends the game.
- Digging out
A foundation waiting on a buried ace is the usual reason a FreeCell deal stalls. How deep is too deep, and what to uncover first.
- Moving runs
Why FreeCell lets you drag several cards at once, what the limit really counts, and why moving into an empty column carries one fewer.
- Sending cards home
Sending a card to its foundation too early can cost you the game. The rule for when nothing can need it any more, and where Microsoft FreeCell differs.
The order they matter in
Space first, cards second. An empty column and an open free cell decide what you are able to do at all; which card sits on which pile only decides whether it was worth doing. That is why the board keeps the number of cards you can move on screen rather than hiding it in a rulebook.