Spades and hearts
Two-suit Spider uses four sets of spades and four of hearts. You can still put any card onto a card one rank higher, so a red 6 can go on a black 7. But only runs of a single suit move together, and only a full run of one suit, King down to Ace, leaves the table.
That one rule changes everything: mixed runs are easy to make and hard to undo. Good two-suit play means putting cards on their own suit whenever you can, and using an empty column to untangle a mixed run, one piece at a time.
How to play
Spider is played with two packs of cards, 104 in all, laid out in ten columns. The goal is to build eight runs from King down to Ace, each in a single suit. A finished run leaves the table by itself; clear all eight and you win. The full rules, with tips.
- Moving cards. A card can go onto any card one rank higher, whatever its suit: a 7 onto an 8. A run of cards that are all one suit and in order moves together as one.
- Empty columns take any card or run. They are the most useful thing on the table.
- Dealing. When you run out of moves, Deal puts one new card on every column. There are five deals, and every column must have at least one card before you deal.
- Hidden cards turn over when the cards on top of them move away.
Controls
Tap or click a card and it moves to the best place for it, with cards of its own suit first. You can also drag a card or a run to the column you want. With a keyboard, Tab moves between the cards you can move and Enter moves one. D deals, H asks for a hint, U undoes and N starts a new deal.
Undo takes back any move, including a deal, as many times as you like. Hint looks ahead and shows a good next move, with a sentence that says why.
Tips for two suits
- When a card has a choice of homes, pick the one of its own suit.
- Turn over hidden cards before you build long mixed runs; every hidden card you see is information.
- Keep an empty column empty until you really need it. It lets you split and re-sort a run.
- Deal only when nothing useful is left: every deal covers the cards you have sorted.
New to Spider? Start with 1 suit, where every deal can be won. Ready for more? Try 4 suits.