Eight Off Solitaire
Eight Off gives you a clear view of every card, but room to move is something you have to manage. Use the eight reserve cells to free the cards you need, keep each column in one suit, and work toward four completed foundations. Play free online above, or start with the examples below. No download or account is needed.
Your goal: build four complete suits
Move the 52 cards onto the four foundation piles. An Ace starts a pile; the 2 of that suit follows, then the 3, continuing upward until the King completes it. You win when every card has reached a foundation. There is no stock to turn over and no redeal: all your choices are already visible.
- Find an available card. You may use the uncovered card at the end of a column or a card held in a reserve cell. Face up does not mean available: cards farther up a column remain blocked by the cards below them.
- Build columns downward by suit. Put a card onto the next higher rank of its own suit. A 7 of spades fits on an 8 of spades. A 7 of clubs does not fit, even though both cards are black.
- Use a cell for temporary storage. Each empty cell holds one available card. Leave yourself enough spare cells for the next move.
- Start empty columns with Kings. Only a King, alone or leading a movable same-suit group, can fill an empty column. A cell can hold any rank; an empty column cannot.
- Send cards to the foundations in order. Start with Aces and build upward within each suit. Kings come last. Ranks do not wrap around: an Ace cannot receive a King in a column.
The opening layout: 48 cards plus four
There are eight working columns, each dealt six face-up cards. Above them sit eight reserve cells; four contain a card and four are empty. The four foundation piles start empty. Together, the columns and occupied cells account for the entire 52-card deck.
Match the suit, not just the color
A legal move
The wrong suit
How many cards can move together?
A group must descend without gaps and stay in the same suit. It must also fit the room available in your reserve cells. Count the empty cells, then add one: that is the largest group you can move. Two empty cells allow three cards; four allow five. An empty column does not increase this limit, even when the group starts with a King.
Why do empty cells set the limit?
The game treats a group move as a series of single-card moves using spare cells. For a three-card group, two cards need temporary places while the leading card moves. The game handles that sequence for you, but checks that enough cells are available first.
At the start, four cells are empty, so the limit is five cards. If all eight become empty, the limit reaches nine. If all eight are occupied, only single cards can move. Empty columns do not multiply these numbers.
Keep empty columns for Kings
You can fill an empty column with a King alone or a descending same-suit group led by a King. The usual empty-cell limit still applies to the group. A Queen cannot start a column, even when every cell is full.
Clearing a column can help you release or relocate a King. It does not create a general-purpose holding space, so consider which King could reach it before moving several cards into cells.
Plan a useful place for each card
You can take your time. Before a move, look at what it releases and what it makes harder to reach.
- Inspect the four cards already in the cells. Moving one onto its next higher card, or onto a foundation, gives you another temporary space.
- Pick a card you want to uncover. Work out where the cards below it can go before filling several cells to reach it.
- Count empty cells again after parking a card. A sequence you could move a moment ago may now be too long.
- When you can clear a column, look for a King that could use it. The gap will not accept a lower card or increase your group-move limit.
- Use Undo to compare positions. A longer same-suit sequence is useful only if you still have enough room to move it when needed.
Make the game comfortable to use
The four-corners button expands the game area. If your browser cannot enter full screen, it can show a focused view within the page. Use the same button to return to the page.
In Settings, Stronger highlights makes selected and hinted cards easier to spot. Reduced motion reduces animations. You can also turn off Show timer if you prefer to play without watching the clock.
- Choose a destination
- Drag the card to the cell, column or foundation you want. With 1-Tap Move enabled, selecting a card lets the game choose a legal move. Turn it off in Settings to select a card and then its destination.
- Hint
- Highlight a move to consider. The cards stay in place until you make a move yourself.
- Undo
- Take back your last move and restore its cards. This also lets you recover a card you sent to a foundation.
- Restart
- Use the game menu to begin this same deal again, with every card back in its starting place.
- New Game
- Choose another random deal when you are ready to leave the current one.
Will my position be here when I return?
Your browser saves the current game when local storage is available. Reopen the page in that same browser to continue. A different device, cleared site data or the end of a private session may leave you without that saved position.
Watch how to play Eight Off
See the opening deal, same-suit moves and the way empty cells help you move a sequence.
Duration: 1 minute 28 seconds.
In this video
Eight Off and FreeCell: the important differences
Both games let you see the whole deal and put individual cards aside in cells. Eight Off gives you eight cells, with four occupied at the start; FreeCell begins with four empty cells. Their column rules differ too. Eight Off pairs consecutive ranks of the same suit and reserves empty columns for Kings. FreeCell alternates red and black and lets any card begin an empty column. If you know FreeCell, check the suit before making a familiar-looking move.
The group-move calculation also differs. Eight Off counts only unused cells; FreeCell can gain additional moving room from empty columns. You can compare the rules on the FreeCell page.
Can every Eight Off deal be won?
We do not have proof that every possible deal has a solution. In a study of 1,000 random deals, our solver completed 977 (97.7%) and proved none impossible. The other 23 unresolved deals reached the two-million-position search limit. That makes 97.7% a lower bound for this sample, not a player completion rate. The study cannot tell you whether your particular deal is solvable or why an attempt ended.
What a solver result does and does not show
A completed solution demonstrates that a sampled deal can be won. An unfinished search only shows that this search did not settle the deal within its limit. It is not a proof of impossibility, and it does not measure how often people win.
The Solitaire win-rate study separates these solver results from recorded player outcomes. The video’s closing discussion of winnability refers to the solver sample, not a guarantee for a new deal.
Questions about Eight Off
Does this game give me only winnable deals?
No. The deals are random rather than drawn from a pre-filtered pool of solved games. The solver study found solutions for 977 of 1,000 sampled deals, but left 23 undecided. Undo and hints help you explore; neither means that every deal is guaranteed to be solvable.
Is Eight Off the same as FreeCell?
They share the idea of temporary holding cells, but the moves are different. Eight Off builds by suit, has eight cells with four initially occupied, and permits only Kings in empty columns. In FreeCell, columns alternate colors and an empty column can take any rank.
Why will a same-suit sequence not move?
Check all three requirements: the cards run downward without a gap, the destination accepts the first card, and the group has no more cards than your empty cells plus one. With every cell occupied, you can move just one card at a time.
Can I put any card into an empty cell?
Yes, provided it is an available single card. A cell holds one card of any rank or suit. An empty column is different: it accepts only a King, alone or heading a movable same-suit sequence.
Why do four cells begin with cards?
The eight columns receive six cards each, using 48 cards. The remaining four cards go into four of the eight cells. You therefore start with four empty cells and room to move a correctly arranged group of up to five cards.
What does Hint do?
Hint highlights a suggested move without playing it. Its search may find a complete solution or a useful continuation before reaching its limit. Consider the suggestion alongside the position on the board; an unfinished search does not prove that the deal is impossible.
Try freeing one reserve cell
Look at the cards currently held in the reserve cells. Can one go onto its foundation or onto the next higher card of the same suit? If you find such a move, make it, count the cells that are now empty, and add one. That is your new group-move limit. Use Undo if you want to compare it with the previous position. If no cell card can move yet, look for a column move that uncovers a suitable destination.
