Spider Solitaire — Play Free Online

Spider Solitaire is the slow-burn card game that sits at the opposite end of the speed scale from a jumper. There is no clock chasing you and no falling off the bottom of the screen. You get a tableau of ten columns, a stock of cards waiting to be dealt, and a single goal: build complete runs of one suit from King down to Ace and clear them away.

It uses two standard decks, 104 cards in all. Most of the work happens in your head. A session is a long string of small decisions about which column to dig into, which card to leave buried a little longer, and when it is finally worth dealing a new row. If you come to Doodle Jump for quick, tense bursts, this is the page for the calmer moment between them.

It runs in the browser with nothing to install, and a game can be paused simply by walking away from it.

How to play

You can place a card onto a card in another column if it is exactly one rank lower, so a 6 goes onto a 7. Suit does not matter for the move itself, but it matters a great deal for what comes next: only a run of cards in the same suit can be moved together as a unit, and only a full same-suit run from King to Ace is removed from the table.

When you run out of useful moves, deal from the stock. That puts one new card face up on every column at once, which is why it is best saved for later. Cards deal onto empty columns too, so keep that in mind before you clear a column you are not ready to refill. Empty columns are the most valuable thing on the board, because any card or run can be parked there.

Play is done with the pointer: click or drag cards on a computer, or tap and drag on a phone. The control line listed for this page mentions arrow keys and WASD, but a card game like this is built around selecting and moving cards with the mouse or your finger.

Tips

• Uncover face-down cards first. Moving a card onto a column that is already buried is worth less than flipping a hidden one.
• Try to empty a column early. With a free column you can untangle a messy stack that would otherwise block you for good.
• Build in a single suit whenever you can. A mixed-suit stack looks tidy but cannot be moved as a block later.
• Delay the deal. Look over every column for a move before you spend the stock, since the extra cards can bury runs you were building.

Similar games on Doodle Jump

If you want another game that rewards patient thinking over reflexes, Fireboy and Watergirl asks you to solve each room with two characters, and Bloons Tower Defense 2 is a planning game about where to place your defences. For something that swaps the cards for quick reactions, Helix Jump and Bouncy Basketball are better choices.

Spider Solitaire suits short breaks and long sittings alike, and it works well on a phone, where tapping and dragging cards is comfortable. It is a good pick for anyone who wants a quiet puzzle with no pressure.