A complete guide: eight columns, four free cells and four foundations, moving cards in descending order and alternating color. Controls on muta.pro and layout strategy.
FreeCell is a solitaire almost without luck: the entire 52-card deck is visible from the very start, and the vast majority of deals are solvable. The goal is to move all cards into the four foundations, each by its own suit, from ace to king. Success depends not on luck but on planning: four free cells give room to maneuver, but they are easy to occupy uselessly.
The entire deck is open and laid out in eight columns. Above are four free cells (each for one card) and four foundations for collecting suits. On the right you can see how many cards have already been collected to the foundations, the time and the number of moves; below is a rules hint and the game log. The timer starts on the first move.
Click a card — it is highlighted together with the matching run beneath it. With a second click, indicate where to move it: to a column, to a free cell, or to a foundation.
In columns cards are placed in descending order and alternating color: a black seven on a red eight, a red six on a black seven, and so on.
Any top card can be temporarily set aside in a free cell to open up a move. There are only four cells — spend them wisely.
Several cards move at once if the "descending + alternating color" order is kept. How many cards you can shift depends on the number of free cells and empty columns.
Foundations are filled by suit from the bottom up: first the ace, then the two of the same suit, and so on up to the king. The "⚡ Auto-collect" button will send all cards it can to the foundations by itself.
The solitaire is solved when all 52 cards are laid out across the four foundations — from ace to king of each suit. The "collected" counter reaches 52, and a screen appears with the number of moves and the game time. The game keeps statistics: games played, wins, best result by moves and best time. Changed your mind — the "↶ Undo" button rolls back moves, so any deal can be played out carefully.
Free cells are your main resource. The more of them are free, the longer the runs you move.
An empty column sharply expands your maneuvering room — aim to clear at least one.
Aces and twos are needed early: free them from the depths of the columns first of all.
The deck is fully open — plan a chain of moves rather than sending everything to the foundations at once.
In FreeCell everything is decided in the first half-minute — even before the first move. The whole deck is open, which means the game can be "read": you can see where the aces are buried, which suits are lagging, and where the first long run suggests itself. A good start is a plan, not a move. First with your eyes, then with the mouse.
Note how many cards lie above each ace. The most buried ace sets the pace of the whole layout: distribute your cells around it.
Look at the eight top cards. Often the move you need is already on the surface — a red eight will lie on a black nine without spending a single cell.
Look for two or three cards that immediately form a descending chain of alternating colors. This is the foundation to which you will attach everything else.
A red 8♥ lies on a black 9♠ right in the column — no need to spend a cell.
The main beginner's mistake at the start is grabbing the first move that comes along. Before occupying a cell, always look for a free move in the columns: a card that already has a receiver by color should go there, not into reserve. A cell spent on a card that already has a home ready in a column is a dead end you've handed yourself. Keep a simple principle in mind: first find the "exit", then make the "entrance". When you put a card into a cell, know in advance which card it will return onto.
The only rule within columns is one lower and a different color. The rank descends strictly by one, and the color must alternate: onto any red card goes only a black one, onto a black one — only a red one. The suit doesn't matter here, only the color does. Confusion here is the source of most "silly" losses.
A correct chain: the color alternates B-R-B-R, the rank drops Q-J-10-9.
7♠ and 7♣ are interchangeable — both are black, both will lie on a red eight. Don't look for "your suit": in columns only color matters.
In a hurry it's easy to put a black card on a black one. The engine won't allow such a move, but you've already lost time and attention. Check the color of the receiver before clicking.
A long correct chain is not decoration but a ready-made "train". A run assembled by the law of alternation will later travel all at once to an empty column or onto the card you need, saving you a whole string of moves. So don't be afraid to build sequences right on the table, even if it's not yet clear where they'll go: an ordered run is almost never superfluous, whereas scattered cards on the column tops block each other and eat up cells.
You move a run "in a single motion", but by the rules the engine carries the cards one at a time, using cells and empty columns as transfer points. Hence the exact formula for the maximum move: (free cells + 1) × 2 to the power of the number of empty columns. It explains the whole economy of the game and why you shouldn't mindlessly jam the reserve.
(4 + 1) × 2⁰ = 5 cards. The base limit: each free cell adds just one card to the move.
(4 + 1) × 2¹ = 10 cards. An empty column has doubled the carrying capacity — that's twice as strong as any cell.
(4 + 1) × 2² = 20 cards. Each further empty column doubles the limit again. Clearing columns is a strategic priority.
Two free cells plus one empty column carry a run of up to ten cards at once.
Try to return a card from a cell to a column at the first opportunity. An empty column, on the contrary, keep empty until you find what to place in it with maximum benefit.
If a run travels into the empty column itself, it stops being a transfer point — count the formula without it. With one cell and one empty column, only 2 cards will move into it.
A foundation is filled strictly from the bottom up — ace, two, three and so on up to the king of its suit. This means buried aces and twos are the bottleneck of the whole game. But "bringing up" and "sending to a foundation right away" are different decisions, and confusing them is dangerous: sending to a foundation is irreversible, and a middle card sent up too early leaves its partner card of the opposite color without a place.
The diamonds foundation is built by suit from the bottom up; drive the ace and two up right away, the three — depending on the situation.
Nothing useful builds under them in the columns, and on the table they only get in the way. Send them to the foundation without hesitation.
A five through nine is often more useful in a column as a receiver for alternating color. A 6♣ given to a foundation early may leave a red 5♥ without a place.
If the black foundations have gone up to sevens while the red ones are stuck at threes, the red low cards have nowhere to lie on top of the black ones. Don't drive one suit ahead of the rest.
The "⚡ Auto-collect" button is convenient, but turn it on when the columns are already ordered. In the middle of the game, manual control over the foundations matters more than speed.
"↶ Undo" (Ctrl+Z) lets you test a move in practice: made it, saw a dead end — rolled it back. With an open deck this is a fair way to calculate variations, not a crutch.