Is every FreeCell deal winnable?
Very nearly. Exhaustive computer analysis of the original 1,000,000 Microsoft-numbered deals found exactly eight with no solution — #11982 is the famous one, alongside #146692, #186216, #455889, #495505, #512118, #517776 and #781948. Everything else has at least one winning line. On StillDeck you can load any Microsoft number with the deal chip above the board or a /freecell/?deal=N link.
What makes a deal impossible?
Impossibility is always a capacity problem. Some card ends up needing, as its own prerequisites, the very cards stacked on top of it — and the combined free cells and open columns can never grow large enough to unwind the tangle. When no legal ordering of moves escapes that loop, the position is dead no matter how well you play it.
How is FreeCell different from Klondike solitaire?
Klondike hides most of the deck and feeds it to you through a stock; FreeCell shows you everything at once and hands you four holding slots instead of a draw pile. Open columns behave differently too: here any card may claim one, while Klondike reserves them for Kings. The net effect is that Klondike outcomes lean on what turns up, and FreeCell outcomes lean almost entirely on how well you plan.
How many cards can I move at once?
Add one to your open free cells, then multiply by one more than the number of empty columns — not counting a column you are moving onto. Three open cells and one empty column give 4 × 2 = 8 cards. The group itself must already be a descending, color-alternating sequence. The rule is really shorthand for parking cards one at a time, which is why your ceiling drops as cells fill up.
Can I take a card back off a foundation?
On StillDeck, Undo reverses a foundation play like any other move and restores the exact prior position. Strategically, though, wanting a foundation card back is usually a symptom — the promotion that stranded you happened several moves ago. When it comes up mid-game, restarting with better foundation timing tends to serve you better than the rescue.
Is using hints cheating?
The hint highlights one strong move; it never plays it for you and never prints a full solution. Treat it as a coach you consult rather than an engine you follow: settle on your own move first, then check whether the highlight agrees, and dig into the difference whenever it does not. That comparison is where the improvement happens.
When does auto-complete take over?
Only once finishing is purely mechanical — every card still in play can reach its foundation without any further tableau or free-cell maneuvering. Until that point StillDeck leaves the board entirely to you, so a game is never lost to an over-eager cascade. If it starts and you want another look, Undo halts it cleanly.
How does Undo work here?
Press U or tap the Undo control; each press rewinds exactly one move, as far back as the original deal if you like. The move counter deliberately keeps counting — your history is part of the record — while the cards themselves return to precisely where they were.
Are there keyboard shortcuts?
Three: U rewinds a move, H asks for a hint, R restarts the current deal from the top. There is deliberately no key for New Game — H and N sit next to each other on a QWERTY keyboard, and one mistype would throw away a live game, so dealing fresh always takes a click.
Do my FreeCell stats sync across devices?
Sign in from the /stats page with an emailed magic link and your results follow you between devices; play without an account and they stay on the device where you earned them. Solitaire and FreeCell keep separate ledgers, so your Klondike record never mixes into your FreeCell numbers.
Is FreeCell good for your brain?
It is a genuine workout for working memory, sequencing and cost–benefit judgment: every deal asks you to hold a plan in your head while revising it against what the board allows. Whether card games produce lasting cognitive gains is not settled science, and we will not pretend otherwise — but as focused practice in planning under constraints, fifteen minutes of FreeCell earns its keep.
Can I play FreeCell offline?
Yes — add StillDeck to your device from the browser's install menu and the game runs without any connection. Wins earned offline are recorded locally and folded into your synced stats the next time the device is back online and signed in.