The classic Spider challenge
Four-suit Spider is the version most people mean when they say “Spider Solitaire”, and it is one of the hardest card games you can play on a screen. Two full decks are dealt across ten columns, and you must assemble eight complete runs, each one a single suit from King down to Ace. Nothing about the layout is forgiving: with four suits in play, the card you need to extend a run is usually buried under cards of other suits.
The deals on this page come from a library in which a solver found a complete winning line and the line was replayed through the game's rules, so a win exists in every game you are dealt. Finding it is the hard part. A winning line for these deals is typically a few hundred moves long, and a human has to see the plan without being able to look under the face-down cards. Read how the check works, and what it does not promise, on the winnable Solitaire page.
What makes 4 suits so much harder
- Runs are rare. Only cards of the same suit move together, and a random card has a one-in-four chance of matching the suit of the card it lands on.
- Mixed stacks block you. A 9 of clubs on a 10 of hearts is legal, but nothing underneath that pair can be reached until you pull them apart one card at a time, which needs spare columns.
- Every deal adds ten cards. Dealing from the stock covers every column at once, often over a run you had been building.
- Empty columns are scarce. They are the main tool for untangling mixed stacks, and you can only deal when none are empty.
A plan for 4-suit games
- Count the Aces, Twos and Kings first. Low cards of any suit end up under everything else, so find out which columns are going to be hard to reach.
- Dig where the hidden cards are. Work on the column with the most face-down cards, as long as it does not wreck a long run.
- Prefer same-suit moves, even small ones. A two-card same-suit run is movable; a two-card mixed stack is not.
- Keep one column for sorting. Try to leave a single column almost empty as a workspace and use it to separate mixed stacks.
- Avoid early deals. Use every productive move first. Each deal is the point where a game often becomes unrecoverable.
- Use Undo like a lab. Try a sequence, look at what it opened, and take it back if it only buried cards. Unlimited undo is there for that.
How the Hint button helps
Hint suggests a legal move and favours moves that reveal hidden cards, extend a same-suit run, or empty a column. It does not know the winning line, so treat it as a nudge. If hints stop making progress, use Undo and look for a different plan.
Step up from easier modes
If four suits is too much to start with, play 1-suit Spider to learn the structure, then 2 suits to practise choosing suits. The Spider rules guide covers every legal move.
Frequently asked questions
Is 4-suit Spider Solitaire winnable?
Not every random deal is, which is why this site only deals from a library where a solver found a complete winning line and the line was replayed through the game rules. A win exists in each of those deals, but finding it is difficult.
Why is 4-suit Spider so hard?
Only cards of the same suit can be moved together, and with four suits most placements create mixed stacks that block the cards under them.
What is the best way to start a 4-suit game?
Look for same-suit moves that reveal hidden cards, aim to empty a column early, and avoid dealing from the stock until you have no productive moves left.