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Game SitesRainy Day Spider Solitaire is a Pogo card game based on Spider Solitaire. I’m sure by the name you were expecting it to be based off of Spades, or Cribbage. ^_~
If you’ve never played Spider Solitaire, well, the rules are pretty simple. You have two decks of cards (104 cards total) and the first 54 cards are dealt into 10 piles at the top. These piles are called the foundation. The remaining 50 cards form the draw pile.
Whenever you have 13 cards of the same suit in descending order, all 13 cards go poof. (Descending order is King-Queen-Jack-10 and so on. Aces are the very last cards.) To win the game you must remove ALL of the cards.
With me so far? Good. ^_^
Unlike regular Solitaire, there aren’t any piles to put Aces and everything else. So in order to get cards in the same suit AND descending order, you have to move the cards around on the foundation.
This is where it gets tricky. You can stack cards in descending order, regardless of suit. (Example: A 5 of hearts could go on top of any 6 and nothing else.) BUT you can only move cards at the end of the stack if they’re sequential AND are the same suit.
If I have a 7 of hearts with a 6 & 5 of clubs on top of it, the only cards I can move are the 6 & 5. If I really need that 7 I’ll have to move the other cards before I can reach it.
Take a look at the picture below. The neon-green boxes highlight which cards can be moved around. Everything else is stuck for right now.
Now remember the 50 cards in the draw pile? You have to get rid of those cards too. Not just one card at a time either, oh no. Whenever you draw cards it’s 10 at a time; one card for each stack in the foundation. So now you have a new mess on top of whatever you managed to organize.
Empty stacks are good things because it gives you a little more freedom to move things around. But you have to have something in every stack before you can draw more cards. Boo. :(
That covers the basics of Spider Solitaire. It can be a brutal game, but luckily Rainy Day Spider Solitaire includes a few options to make things a little easier for us.
Why Rainy Day Spider Solitaire is Unique
First off, Rainy Day Spider Solitaire has 3 different modes.
- Easy – All of the cards are the same suit. Winning is pretty simple.
- Normal – All of the cards are divided into two suits. Winning the game is tougher, but not too bad.
- Hard – The cards are divided into four suits now. Winning is a challenge.
To be honest, I stay away from hard mode. I get really anxious when there’s a lot of chaos and disorder around me.
Normal mode is a lot more fun in my book. ^_^ But try each mode for yourself and see what you like best.
Rainy Day Spider Solitaire also includes six extra cards, bringing the total to 110 cards. Two of the cards are “free cells.”
Free cells will temporarily hold one card for you. If you get in a tight spot a free cell can help you get things untangled. The downside is that each free cell is a 1-time use only thing. Also, they’re in the deck like regular cards, so you have to wait until you’re dealt a free cell before you can use it.
In other words, don’t count on a free cell being there when you need it. Keep it strictly an emergency use thing. You’ll also get a small token bonus for any free cells left at the end!
The other four extra cards are “scratchers.”
As you can see, each one is divided into 4 squares. Pick a square to scratch and you get whatever prize is under it. (Always tokens.)
The scratchers vanish as soon as you scratch them. They’re just a nice little bonus. ^_^
Rainy Day Spider Solitaire also includes an 11th “free” column.
You can put whatever you want in this column, as long as it’s a legal move. (Like putting a 10 on top of a Jack. You couldn’t put an Ace on top of a 4 though.)
If you manage to win without using the free column you get a bonus. It’s 5 tokens on easy, 25 in normal, and uh… more than 25 tokens in hard mode. I didn’t win a hard game, okay? *^_^*
Also, in the bottom right corner you’ll see 5 piles that say “Draw” on them. The card on top of each pile will land on the leftmost stack. You won’t know what the other 9 cards are in each pile until you click, but it’s still nice to at least know what one card is. ^_^
Still, I think the best feature in Rainy Day Spider Solitaire is the Undo button. There is no penalty for using it!! Whenever you have multiple choices you can use the Undo button to figure out the best option. For example, let’s say you have two 6s of diamonds and one 7 of diamonds. Which six should you move? Many times moving even just one card frees you to make other moves. You can follow the trail as far as you want, then use Undo to back up ‘til you have to pick a 6 of diamonds again.
It’s wonderful, but it has limits. You can’t undo a draw or clearing a set of 13. Look carefully before you commit!
Tips & Tricks
Start with the highest value same-suited cards and work your way down. Not sure wha tI mean? Let’s try a normal mode game together. ^_^
We have a few options here, but we’ll start with the easiest things first. We’ll click on the free cell card, move the 9 of diamonds to the 10 of diamonds, and the 6 of diamonds to a 7 of diamonds.
Fewer options this time. We have two 3s of clubs and only one 4 of clubs. We’ll use the Undo button to try both options and figure out which one is best.
Sorry, I didn’t want to show every single step along the way. *^_^* If you’ll notice, right now everything is still in suited groups. If we want to get to some of the cards buried at the top (and we do), then we’ll have to make some mix-suited stacks.
Be very careful when making mix-suit stacks! Remember that you’ll eventually have to draw more cards, and they can throw your perfectly orchestrated hand into chaos.
Looking at the top card on the draw piles, I’m going to pick the one with the 8 of diamonds on top, since we already have three 9s of diamonds.
Things are a little messy, but not too bad. You can probably see several new moves. ^_^ Just keep working with the suits as best you can. Try to “clear” a stack as soon as you can. You can put anything you want in an empty stack, so long as it’s a legal move. Use empty stacks to move card groups around.
If you’d like more help with Rainy Day Spider Solitaire, check out the Badge Hunters forum or these articles on BadgeHungry!
Final Rating
I’m not a huge fan of Spider Solitaire games in general. But I have to admit, Rainy Day Spider Solitaire is the cutest one that I’ve played. For every complete suit (13 cards) you remove, a ray of light appears. If you win the game the sun comes out and the spider is all happy.
Come on! That stuff is CUTE! ^_^
I like that there are 3 difficulty levels and the bonus features (free cells and the free column) are quite nice, but… I still don’t love this game. I rate it 3.5 stars out of 5.
What would you rate it? Do you have any Spider Solitaire tips to share?
Similar Games
If you’re looking for fun card games, give some of these a try.
- Pyramid Solitaire at iWon – Remove cards by finding pairs that add up to 13. Can you beat the pyramid?
- Treasure Hunter at Spigo – An amazing cross between Tri-Peaks solitaire and Bejeweled!
