Doodle CubThe short answer: empty a column as early as you can, build in suit whenever you have the choice, and never press Deal while a better move is still on the table. Those three habits win most 1-suit games and a good share of 2-suit games. Four suits needs all of them plus patience. The rest of this guide explains why each one works, and what changes as you add suits.
You can try every tip in Spider Crayon, a free Spider solitaire game where every deal has already been won by a solver, so a loss always means there was a better line.
The board in one minute
Spider uses two full decks, 104 cards, dealt into ten columns. Only the top card of each column starts face up, and 50 cards wait in the stock. You can put any card on a card one rank higher, whatever the suit: a 7 on an 8. But a group of cards only moves together when it is one suit, in order. Complete a run from King down to Ace in one suit and it leaves the table. Eight runs win the game.
When you are stuck, Deal puts one new card on every column. The catch: you can only deal when no column is empty, and every deal buries ten cards you might have needed.
1. Empty a column first
An empty column is the most powerful thing on a Spider table. It lets you park a card, split a mixed pile, and move long runs one piece at a time. So at the start of a game, look for the column with the fewest cards and work towards clearing it, even if that means skipping a move that looks tidy somewhere else.
Once a column is empty, don't fill it with the first card that fits. Use it as a workbench: move a card in, reorganise, then move things back out. Only drop a King there when you are sure that King will become the base of a long run.
2. Build in suit when you can
Any card can go on a card one higher, but only same-suit runs move together. So when two 8s could take your 7, put it on the 8 of the same suit. A mixed pile like 9 of spades, 8 of hearts, 7 of spades is stuck in three pieces; a clean 9-8-7 of spades moves as one.
In a 1-suit game every card is a spade, so this rule takes care of itself, which is why one suit is so friendly. In 2-suit and 4-suit games it is the single habit that separates wins from losses.
3. Turn over face-down cards before anything else
Each face-down card is information you don't have. Moves that reveal a hidden card are almost always better than moves that just rearrange face-up cards. When you have several moves, pick the one that turns a card over, and prefer the column with the most hidden cards: it is the one that will hold you back later.
4. Deal only when you have to
Before pressing Deal, make every move that helps: reveal what you can, tidy runs into suit, and try to fill gaps with cards that have a home. A deal adds a card to every column, so a column that was nearly free becomes buried again. Remember that you can't deal with an empty column; if you have one, park a card there first, ideally a low card you can lift off again easily.
What changes with 2 and 4 suits
With 2 suits (spades and hearts), plan your piles in pairs of colours: keep a spade run and a heart run apart rather than stacking them, and accept a mixed stack only when it turns over a card. Expect to undo now and then.
With 4 suits, the board fills with mixed stacks. Focus on one or two suits at a time: complete the suit that has the most cards showing, use empty columns to sort, and don't be afraid of a slow game. A 4-suit win often comes from a single lucky deal you set up for by keeping columns tidy.
A short checklist
- Count the cards in each column and pick a column to clear.
- Make moves that reveal face-down cards.
- Build in suit when there is a choice.
- Keep an empty column free as long as possible.
- Deal only when nothing useful is left.
In Spider Crayon you start with 1 suit; three wins open 2 suits and five 2-suit wins open 4 suits. You start at 500 points, lose 1 per move and gain 100 per completed run, and each win earns up to three stars: win, beat par, and win without undo or hints.