Spider

Goal of the game

Rebuild eight complete runs, from King down to Ace, all in the same suit. Each completed run immediately leaves the tableau and goes to the foundations.

Setup

You play with two decks, 104 cards in all. Fifty-four cards form ten columns (six in the first four, five in the others), with only the last card face up. The other fifty make up the stock: five rows of ten cards.

How it works

• You place a card on a card one rank higher, whatever its suit: a 7 on any 8.
• However, only an ordered run of the same suit can be moved as a block.
• An empty column accepts any card or run.
• Tap the stock to deal one card onto each of the ten columns. This is impossible while a column is empty.
• A face-down card turns over as soon as it is uncovered.
• Levels: a single suit (Easy, Medium), two suits (Hard, Expert), four suits (Devilish).

Controls

• Drag and drop a card: the run it carries follows.
• Tap a card: it goes to the best spot, preferably onto a card of its own suit.
• Keyboard: Space to deal, Ctrl+Z to undo, I for a hint.
• When the stock is used up and every column forms an ordered run, the game finishes by itself.

Scoring

• 500 points to start.
• Minus 1 point per move, dealing included.
• Plus 100 points per completed run.

About the solver

At Easy to Expert levels, each deal is chosen by a solver that plays it with all cards face up in a separate thread: depth-first search, ordered moves (uncover a hidden card, gather a suit, repair a break), a transposition table and restarts with random variations. It is therefore guaranteed winnable, and its difficulty is measured by the number of positions examined. With four suits, the deal is drawn at random: the solver rarely finds a complete solution there, and the hint then suggests the most promising move from its searches. The hint and the "AI solves" button know the hidden cards; a game finished by the AI does not count toward your records.