r/solitaire

Solitaire is my comfort game. In October 2024 my android phone suddenly stopped turning on, and my husband convinced me to try an apple phone.
I have tried 30+ apps each for both standard/klondike Solitaire, as well as spider solitaire over the past 1.5 years. I have yet to find a version for either that is truly comforting. They all have things that bother me enough that I usually find them more agitating than relaxing.

On my last phone I had a Klondike app that was simple, ad free, no gimmicks or weird animations, not too fast or slow, turn 3, had auto complete that kicked in at the right time, and I think it also had an option for “winnable” games which I like. The card faces weren’t obnoxiously large print, or too small. I think my record was 44 seconds and it just helped my brain calm down immediately and was really intuitive. It was the perfect game that I had discovered somewhere in my 10+ years with an android phone.

For spider solitaire it was not ad-free but after playing for a couple days I paid for the ad-free version for like 6.99 or something like that. It was worth it, and I loved it. I’m not adverse to paying for a game, if I have a chance to play it before committing to paying. It had changeable backgrounds and I had chosen a fluffy white kitten on a pink background, and I think it also has “effects” that could add cute sparkles. Sometimes the sparkles were too much going on, but I used them occasionally.

I have spent so much time trying to find similar games on my Apple phone, and even borrowed my dads old android phone to log in to my Google Play to see if it had a history of my downloads that I could redownload and use that phone just for solitaire. It was unsuccessful. I have been unable to turn on my old phone at all, or recover anything from it.

If this resonates with you and you have suggestions please let me know!

not sure if the person who has shared the solveibility posts will get one up this month or not, but wanted to make the post for the month for discussions to have things condensed in one place? do we like this? lol

july 1st was a bit challenging, but i got it on the third try whew.

if you need help on any days, leave a comment and i'm sure myself or someone else will respond! can use spoiler tags when needed.

if the solveibility post gets posted then i'll update this.

happy july everyone! everyone dojng well?

UPDATE: SOLVEIBILITY SHARED DOWN BELOW.

For months now I'm trying to beat my personal record of 88 moves, but without success. What are the odds to get below 88 moves? I'm starting to think I'll never beat that :-(

This is most "vibrant" solitaire community I found online - not counting those around a very specific publisher.
Is the game dead? (It was suggested to me in another sub.)
It is both relaxing and brain-stimulating, depending on the variant you choose.
Quick win or long strategy battle - your choice.
I am patiently (pun intended) waiting for the Renaissance.

I play classic Klondike (draw 1) as a tiny reset during the day. I am a stay-at-home mom with a toddler, so my "me time" is basically micro-breaks: waiting for the microwave, a quick bathroom sit, or when my kid is happily stacking blocks for a few minutes.

My problem is that I keep getting stuck in games that feel hopeless, but I can't always tell fast enough. That means either I waste the whole break chasing a dead end, or I quit too early and later wonder if it actually had a chance.

Do you have any simple heuristics for when to restart versus keep going? A few things I'm curious about:

- What are your top priorities in the first 10 to 20 moves?

- Any red flags that usually mean the deal is probably not worth it?

- How aggressive are you about pulling cards from the stock versus focusing on uncovering the tableau?

- If you only have a couple minutes, what is your fast-play routine?

Not looking for perfect play, just a few practical rules of thumb that help avoid time sinks and get a quick satisfying win more often.

Longtime FreeCell player, and the one thing that I sometimes wanted was to share a game. In most apps you can't hand someone "this exact game" the way you'd pass a chess position. So I built that in: every game produces a short replay key that captures the deal and the moves. Paste a friend's key and you get their exact board to race, or watch their moves play back as in "Play Along" mode.

There are also a few rule modes (Hard Mode with 0 resting cells, Hidden Rows, a 5-cell easy lane), a daily challenge with a leaderboard, and large-print cards. Free, no ads. Happy to answer anything / take feedback. Links in a comment so I'm not spamming the post.

Also check out my developer blog as why I made yet another FreeCell app.