How to play Eight Off

Eight Off is a close relative of FreeCell and Baker's Game with a generous twist: instead of four free cells there are eight, and four of them already hold a card when the game begins. Every card is face up, columns build down in the same suit, and an empty column can only be filled by a King.

With so much space to work with, Eight Off is one of the friendliest open patience games - most deals can be won. But the cells fill up quickly if you use them carelessly, and the King-only rule for empty columns means a column you clear is not as flexible as it is in FreeCell. The fun lies in sorting four suits out of the tangle with as little waste as possible.

How to play on skill.games

When you open the game, the settings popup appears. Choose a level - Easy, Normal or Hard (6 cells) - check your record at that level and press PLAY. The cards fly onto the table and the game begins.

• Moving cards: tap a card and it goes to its best place: a foundation, otherwise the card of its suit one rank higher, otherwise an empty column it may enter, otherwise a free cell. Tapping a card in the middle of a column moves it together with the run on top of it, if the run is in suit and in order.
• Dragging: drag a card, or a run, and drop it where you want it. A move that isn't allowed is refused: the cards shake and slide back, and the game says why when it is the King rule or a run that is too long.
• Double tap a card to send it straight to a foundation.
• Undo: the UNDO button at the top takes back your last move, as many times as you like, all the way back to the deal. On a computer, Ctrl+Z (or Cmd+Z) works too.
• The score line at the top shows your moves, the time and your score.

On a phone held upright the foundations sit at the top, the row of free cells under them and the columns below. On a wide screen the cells stand in two columns on the left and the foundations on the right.

When the rest of the cards can simply be played up, the game finishes for you. Once all four foundations reach their Kings, the cards cascade off the table and the results screen shows your moves, time and score, with your statistics for that level: wins, losses, win rate and streaks.

The menu button in the top-left corner pauses the game, starts a new deal or turns the sound off. The "?" button opens this guide. The deal is saved after every move, so you can close the page and press CONTINUE next time - even your undo history comes back. A deal you abandon by starting a new one counts as a loss at its level.

Rules

The layout. Forty-eight cards are dealt face up into eight columns of six. The last four cards go into four of the eight free cells, so you start with four cells empty (two on Hard, which has six cells). Above everything are the four foundations.

Foundations. Each foundation builds up in one suit from the Ace to the King. Cards played to a foundation stay there.

Building in the columns. A card can be placed on the card one rank higher of the same suit: the Jack of clubs on the Queen of clubs. Nothing can be placed on an Ace.

Free cells. Each cell holds any single card, which can later be played onto a column or a foundation.

Empty columns. Only a King, or a run in suit headed by a King, can be moved into an empty column. (On Easy, any card may fill an empty column.)

Moving runs. Officially only one card moves at a time. The game lets you move a run of the same suit in order as one move, as long as the free cells would let you move it card by card: up to one more card than the number of empty cells. Because only Kings may enter an empty column, empty columns don't add to that count - except on Easy, where each empty column doubles it, as in FreeCell.

Scoring. Every card played to a foundation scores 10 points. Every 30 seconds of play costs 30 points, although your score never drops below zero. When you win, a time bonus of 600,000 divided by the seconds you took is added. Undoing a move takes its points back, and an undo counts as a move.

Winning. You win when all 52 cards are on the foundations.

Strategy tips

• Use the four starting cards. The cards already in the cells are free to play at any moment. Often one of them is the key to a column - an Ace, or the card a long run is waiting for.
• Count your empty cells, not your filled ones. How long a run you can move depends only on the empty cells. Before you park a card, ask how many cells you will need for the next big move.
• Plan homes for Kings. A cleared column is only useful to a King. Before you empty one, know which King is going there and what that unlocks.
• Build in suit from the top down. A long run headed by a King in its own column is finished business: it never needs to move again until it goes to the foundation.
• Play to the foundations freely. Building in suit, a card that can go up is never needed on the table again - the only card that could ever sit on it is already on its foundation.
• Fewer cells, more care. On Hard there are only two empty cells at the start; free a cell before you fill another.

Difficulty levels

• Easy: eight cells, any card may fill an empty column, and every deal is one our computer player has already solved, so each Easy game can be won.
• Normal: the classic game: a random deal, eight cells and Kings only in empty columns. Almost every deal can be won with steady play.
• Hard (6 cells): a random deal with only six cells, four of them full, and Kings only in empty columns. A real test: a good share of deals can't be won, and the rest need careful use of every cell.