Every deal here can be won
In FreeCell Mania, deals #1 to #20,000 are open, and each one was solved by the game’s own solver before it was opened; the list of unsolvable deals is empty. Eleven numbers whose first shuffle the solver could not settle within its search budget were given a different layout instead of being closed, so the numbering has no gaps.
The numbers belong to this game, not to Windows FreeCell: each layout is generated from a seed built from the text freecell:deal:<number>. So #617 here is not Microsoft’s #617, but it is the same layout for everyone who opens #617 on this site. The 52 cards are dealt left to right into eight columns, which gives the first four columns seven cards and the last four six.
So when a deal goes wrong, the cause is somewhere in your moves, and undo can take you back to it.
The supermove formula
FreeCell’s rules only ever move one card at a time. When you drag a run of five cards, the game performs the single-card shuffle for you: it parks cards in empty free cells and empty columns, moves the bottom card of the run, then stacks the parked cards back on top. The largest run you can move is therefore set by how many parking spots exist:
Largest run = (empty free cells + 1) × 2^(empty columns)
- 4 empty free cells, no empty column: 5 cards.
- 3 empty free cells, no empty column: 4 cards.
- No empty free cell, no empty column: 1 card.
- 4 empty free cells and 1 empty column: 10 cards onto another column, but only 5 into that empty column.
- 4 empty free cells and 2 empty columns: 20 cards onto another column, 10 into one of the empty columns.
Reading the limit on screen
The last two lines catch people out. When the destination is itself an empty column, it cannot also be a parking spot, so it drops out of the count. The game refuses any run that could not be moved by hand one card at a time.
You don’t need to do the arithmetic. When you pick up two or more cards, a line shows how many you selected, the maximum, the maximum into an empty column, and which cells and columns are free. A refused move says why, for example 'Selected 6 / max 5 here · 4 free cells, 0 empty columns'.
With Card speed on Slow or Normal, a run is animated as the real single-card moves; on Fast and Instant it flies as one block. Five cards with four empty free cells is nine single moves — four out, one across, four back. Ten cards through one empty column is 27. Each drag still counts as one move.
Why an empty column beats a free cell
In the formula, free cells add and empty columns multiply. With four empty free cells you can move 5 cards; clearing one column takes that to 10. Even in a cramped position with two cells occupied, one empty column lifts the limit from 3 to 6.
An empty column also holds more: a free cell takes one card, an empty column any card or legal run, and you can keep building on it. But a column used for storage stops multiplying, so park a run there only when it unlocks something you need now.
Early in a deal, find the column with the fewest cards and check where each of its cards could go. If every card has a home, clearing that column is usually the best investment on the board. Watch the kings: a king can never sit on another card, so once moved it can only live in an empty column. A king dealt first into its column, at the very back, is already home; one dealt near the front will eventually cost you an empty column.
Dig out the aces and twos
Every card covering an ace has to go somewhere before the ace can go up. For each ace, count the cards covering it and start with the cheapest.
The game handles the easy part. An exposed ace goes to the foundation automatically, and so does an exposed two once its ace is up. Higher cards go up on their own only when it is safe: when both suits of the opposite colour are already built to one rank below. A red 5 waits until ♣4 and ♠4 are both up, because until then a black 4 might need that red 5 to sit on. Automatic moves count toward your move total, the same for everyone.
Because the automatic rule is cautious, you will sometimes send a card up by hand. Do it when no card of the opposite colour one rank lower can still need it. In FreeCell a card on the foundation never comes back down, so if you misjudge it, undo is the only way back.
Plan a chain before the first move
Before touching anything, read the deal: where the aces and twos are, which columns are short, where the kings sit. Then plan moves as a chain — move this card, which exposes that one, which goes onto that column — and check that the chain ends with more free space than it started with.
An alternating-colour run only helps if it can be moved later. A long run sitting on a buried ace means moving the whole run to reach the ace, and the formula decides whether you can. When a card has two possible destinations, prefer the one that does not cover a low card.
Tapping a card sends it by a fixed order: foundation, then columns with cards from left to right, then empty columns, free cells last. Tap again for the next option, or drag when the destination matters. On a keyboard, 1–8 pick a column, Q W E R a free cell, H the foundation; the same key twice lets the game choose, and Z undoes.
When to spend a free cell
Each card in a free cell costs capacity. Going from four empty cells to three drops the largest run from 5 to 4, or from 10 to 8 with one empty column. A cell is well spent when it does one of these:
- It exposes a card that goes straight to the foundation, ideally starting a chain of them.
- It finishes clearing a column, which pays the cell back several times over.
- It lets a run land where it belongs, and you already know where the parked card goes next.
Name the card that will free the cell
Before putting a card in a cell, name what will release it. A red 6 in a cell needs an exposed black 7 or its own suit built up to 5. If you can’t name either, expect the cell to stay full. With all four cells full and no empty column, you can move exactly one card at a time.
When a run is refused for lack of space, the game sometimes suggests a 'Practice setup': one card to move first — a lone card in a column, or a card in a free cell, sent to the foundation or another column — after which the same run fits. This suggestion is switched off on Today’s deal.
Recognising a dead end
The 'No moves left' notice appears only when no legal move exists. While any free cell is empty a card can go into it, so the notice needs all four cells full. A deal is often lost long before that: cards still move, but no sequence wins.
Signs worth stopping for: all four cells are full and your only moves shuffle the same cards between columns; a low card you need sits under a run longer than you can move. At that point, undoing to the last real choice is cheaper than playing on.
When you are completely stuck, two buttons appear. 'Earlier move' lists your last eight moves with a preview of the board at each, and the clock pauses while you look. 'Same deal again' restarts the number; abandoning a deal you have moved in breaks your win streak.
Undo and hints
Undo in FreeCell has no limit. An undone move disappears from the record and the move count, and cards that went up automatically after it come back down. The clock keeps running, so undo costs time, not moves.
The 💡 Hint button runs the solver on your position, in a background worker for about four seconds at most, and shows the first move of a solution it found, outlined in gold with a line such as 'Hint: column 4 ♣5 → foundation'. That move keeps the deal winnable, but the solver looks for a quick solution, not the shortest, so the hinted move is not necessarily the most efficient.
Its more valuable job is diagnosing a dead end. If your position has no solution, the hint searches back through your earlier positions and reports 'This position can’t be solved — undo N moves to get back on track', with an 'Undo N moves' button that takes you there and points at the move to play. If time ran out before it could prove that, the message starts 'No solution found from here'. If nothing is found at all, the hint is not counted.
Hints have a price. The first hint in a deal asks for confirmation, because a hinted deal becomes a practice game: it is not submitted to the leaderboard and does not add to your win streak, though it doesn’t break it either. Duel has no hint button.
Solitaire, Golf and TriPeaks: what changes
The other games in FreeCell Mania follow different rules, and some FreeCell habits don’t carry over. Each has deals #1 to #5,000 open, all checked by a solver; numbers whose first shuffle failed were given a new layout.
- Solitaire (Klondike): seven columns of one to seven cards with only the front card face up, and a 24-card stock turned one card at a time with no limit on passes. Any face-up run moves together, so there is no supermove limit, but only a king, or a run starting with a king, may go into an empty column. Cards can come back down from the foundation, and there is undo. 901 of the 5,000 numbers were re-laid. Turning over face-down cards matters more than saving space.
- Golf: 35 cards in seven columns of five, with a 17-card stock. You take the front card of any column if it is one rank above or below the top of the waste pile, regardless of suit. A and K do not connect: on an ace only a 2 can follow, on a king only a queen. Undo works once per deal and only on a card you just cleared, never on a stock turn. 2,778 of the 5,000 numbers were re-laid.
- TriPeaks: 28 cards in three peaks over a ten-card base, 24 in the stock and one turned up to start. The same one-rank rule applies, but an ace links to both 2 and K. Here every card in the peaks is face up, so you can plan a chain ahead; only the stock order is unknown. Undo follows the Golf rule. 159 numbers were re-laid.
One habit for Golf and TriPeaks
Every card has to be cleared anyway, so the moves leaderboard effectively ranks who turned the stock the fewest times. Before turning, trace the longest chain you can take from what is already showing.