New Friend Request
SHOLLY'S TIP SHEETS, CHAPTER XVI: Freecell 2/23/09 8:18 PM
The King takes on a computer card classic, if you'll pardon the alliteration. I don't know the origin of Freecell and I'm too lazy to look it up, but the PC has proven to be a great breeding ground for this particular form of Solitaire over the years, as Windows Freecell comes with your computer nowadays. Throw in a few gold cards, and King.com has an exciting and fresh take on Freecell!
King's Freecell plays almost exactly like the classic you know and love, with one major difference: Four gold cards have been added to the deck, bringing it to a total of 56 cards. These gold cards play an important role in the game that I'll get into in a bit.
You probably already know the rules for basic Freecell, but I'll go over them again just in case:
At the start of a game of Freecell, you have eight empty cells at the top of the screen: The four home cells on the right, in which suit sequences are built from Ace up to King, and the four free cells on the left, which can hold any card, but only one at a time each. Beneath this row is the board, with the entire deck dealt out into eight columns of 7 cards each (the standard 52-card deck plus four gold cards).
The objective is to move all 52 non-gold cards to the home cells, starting with the Ace of each suit and building on it: 2, 3, 4, etc. all the way up to King. Once a card has been moved to its home cell, it's out of play for the rest of the game, so be careful not to move a card there that you might need to help transfer other cards. Note that any Ace that becomes available will automatically be moved to a home cell, as will any 2 whose Ace is in a home cell.
The bottom card of each column and any cards in free cells are always available, and can be moved to an empty free cell or an empty column. Any available card can also be moved to the bottom of another column, if the bottom card of that column is the opposite color and one rank higher than the card you're putting on it. In other words, you can move a black 7 onto a red 8 or a red Jack onto a black Queen, for example. You may also move a properly built alternating-color sequence from one column to another, provided that you're moving no more than one card greater than the number of empty free cells, and that you're either moving them into an empty column, or the top card you're moving is in sequence with the bottom card of the destination column. For instance, if you have two free cells empty, you can move a sequence of up to three cards, so you could move a stack consisting of black 5-red 4-black 3 onto a red 6. Note that unlike some Freecell programs, King.com Freecell does not count empty columns as free cells for this purpose, so you can never move more than five cards at a time.
Now, let's talk about the King's Freecell invention, the gold cards:
There are four gold cards in the King.com Freecell deck. The gold cards can be used to extract any card buried in a column (if you have somewhere to put it), or can be "cashed" for points if not needed for this purpose. When a gold card becomes available, clicking on it will activate it, at which time you must either extract a card or cash it before you will be able to make another move. Note that by the nature of the gold cards, you can never run out of moves while one is available, though if you don't have many options, you may have to decide what to do with it before you're ready to.
When you activate a gold card, you can extract a card that's buried in a column. You may extract any card at all if you have any empty free cells; if all your free cells are full, you may only extract a card that you can legally play, either to a home cell or the bottom of a column.
The game lasts for ten minutes, or until you solve the board or click "Exit Game" in the bottom right corner. King.com Freecell has an auto-solving feature, which means that when you've brought the board to a position in which no card is being blocked by a card of higher rank, the remaining cards will be automatically transferred to the home cells. (Gold cards do not affect the auto-solver in any way.) Oh, and solving the board will score you an achievement point.
The controls are simple. Click and drag any card to where you want it to go. (Dragging a card to the home cell area will automatically play it to the proper home cell if it's playable there.) The card will be moved if it can legally be played there, and will snap back to its original position if it can't. To move a sequence of cards, drag the top card of the sequence. Note that you won't be able to pick it up if the pile is too big or is not a properly-built sequence.
Click on a gold card to activate it. A chime will play to indicate that you've activated a gold card. You may click on the home area to cash the card, or click on the card you want to extract. (If all free cells are full, you can only extract a lit card.) An extracted card will automatically be played to its home cell if it legally can, and couldn't be used in a sequence on the board (in other words, the 4 of hearts won't be moved to a home cell if you still have a black 3 on the board). Otherwise, the card will be moved to an empty free cell, or the bottom of a legal column if all free cells are full.
In order to have meaningful tournament competition in King.com Freecell, your performance is translated into points. Let's talk about how:
Each card played to the home cells is worth 100 points.
Every cashed gold card is worth 400 points. This makes for a deck total of 6800 points, if the board is solved and no gold card is used to extract a card, which is the ideal.
At the end of the game, you will receive a Time Bonus of 2000x(% of time left)x(% of cards played to home cells).
If you solve the board, you will also receive a Move Bonus. This bonus starts at 10000 points, and is reduced by 100 every time you make a move other than playing to a home cell or cashing a gold card.
Scores for solved boards vary depending on the difficulty of the board, by which I mean the number of moves necessary to untangle it. The maximum (theoretically) possible score is 6800(deck)+10000(moves)+2000(time)=18800, but I don't often see scores over 16K. I've broken 16K myself exactly once as of this writing, though I usually score in the 13-16K range when I solve the board, which I do about 90% of the time.
Now, let's talk about how you too can cash in:
First and foremost, think before you click! Based on the scoring, your priorities are as follows:
1. Solving the board
2. Efficiency
3. Speed
In other words, it doesn't matter how fast you can move cards if you get yourself stuck.
When the board first appears, look for the Aces and 2s. It's a good idea to get the Aces out right away whenever practical, in order to help you get rid of other low cards. Another effective strategy is to clear out one column at a time, as an empty column is even better than a free cell for sorting the board out.
Most if not all boards can be solved without using any gold cards, so it's usually best to cash them for extra points. However, always be sure to think ahead; if it looks like you won't be able to get to a critical card, it's better to extract that card than to get stuck.
Use your free cells with care. Be especially wary of putting two cards of the same rank and color in free cells, such as both red 8s. If you don't empty a column or have the next higher card available to build on, this can jam you up in a hurry.
If you need to move a large stack of cards, it's good to use a technique I call "handing off". Look for available cards of the same rank and color as cards in the stack you're trying to move, then transfer parts of the big stack onto these cards. However, once you have a column correctly sequenced and headed by a King, you don't have to move it again.
Other things to be alert for on the board include two cards of the same color and rank in the same column, and a card buried in a column above a sequence it fits. These situations are easier to handle if you've managed to clear a column or two.
Toward the end of the game, if only one card is buried above a card of higher rank, try to release it by playing the card(s) covering it to the home cells if you can, rather than moving the covering card(s). Each move you make that doesn't play a card to a home cell costs 100 points of bonus, which is the value of 30 seconds of Time Bonus. This means that if you can dig out a card in less than 30 seconds by just playing to home cells, you'll save yourself some points.
As always, I'm sure I'll think of more to say after I post this, but this is what I have for now. As always, questions and feedback are welcome. Take care and good luck!
King's Freecell plays almost exactly like the classic you know and love, with one major difference: Four gold cards have been added to the deck, bringing it to a total of 56 cards. These gold cards play an important role in the game that I'll get into in a bit.
You probably already know the rules for basic Freecell, but I'll go over them again just in case:
At the start of a game of Freecell, you have eight empty cells at the top of the screen: The four home cells on the right, in which suit sequences are built from Ace up to King, and the four free cells on the left, which can hold any card, but only one at a time each. Beneath this row is the board, with the entire deck dealt out into eight columns of 7 cards each (the standard 52-card deck plus four gold cards).
The objective is to move all 52 non-gold cards to the home cells, starting with the Ace of each suit and building on it: 2, 3, 4, etc. all the way up to King. Once a card has been moved to its home cell, it's out of play for the rest of the game, so be careful not to move a card there that you might need to help transfer other cards. Note that any Ace that becomes available will automatically be moved to a home cell, as will any 2 whose Ace is in a home cell.
The bottom card of each column and any cards in free cells are always available, and can be moved to an empty free cell or an empty column. Any available card can also be moved to the bottom of another column, if the bottom card of that column is the opposite color and one rank higher than the card you're putting on it. In other words, you can move a black 7 onto a red 8 or a red Jack onto a black Queen, for example. You may also move a properly built alternating-color sequence from one column to another, provided that you're moving no more than one card greater than the number of empty free cells, and that you're either moving them into an empty column, or the top card you're moving is in sequence with the bottom card of the destination column. For instance, if you have two free cells empty, you can move a sequence of up to three cards, so you could move a stack consisting of black 5-red 4-black 3 onto a red 6. Note that unlike some Freecell programs, King.com Freecell does not count empty columns as free cells for this purpose, so you can never move more than five cards at a time.
Now, let's talk about the King's Freecell invention, the gold cards:
There are four gold cards in the King.com Freecell deck. The gold cards can be used to extract any card buried in a column (if you have somewhere to put it), or can be "cashed" for points if not needed for this purpose. When a gold card becomes available, clicking on it will activate it, at which time you must either extract a card or cash it before you will be able to make another move. Note that by the nature of the gold cards, you can never run out of moves while one is available, though if you don't have many options, you may have to decide what to do with it before you're ready to.
When you activate a gold card, you can extract a card that's buried in a column. You may extract any card at all if you have any empty free cells; if all your free cells are full, you may only extract a card that you can legally play, either to a home cell or the bottom of a column.
The game lasts for ten minutes, or until you solve the board or click "Exit Game" in the bottom right corner. King.com Freecell has an auto-solving feature, which means that when you've brought the board to a position in which no card is being blocked by a card of higher rank, the remaining cards will be automatically transferred to the home cells. (Gold cards do not affect the auto-solver in any way.) Oh, and solving the board will score you an achievement point.
The controls are simple. Click and drag any card to where you want it to go. (Dragging a card to the home cell area will automatically play it to the proper home cell if it's playable there.) The card will be moved if it can legally be played there, and will snap back to its original position if it can't. To move a sequence of cards, drag the top card of the sequence. Note that you won't be able to pick it up if the pile is too big or is not a properly-built sequence.
Click on a gold card to activate it. A chime will play to indicate that you've activated a gold card. You may click on the home area to cash the card, or click on the card you want to extract. (If all free cells are full, you can only extract a lit card.) An extracted card will automatically be played to its home cell if it legally can, and couldn't be used in a sequence on the board (in other words, the 4 of hearts won't be moved to a home cell if you still have a black 3 on the board). Otherwise, the card will be moved to an empty free cell, or the bottom of a legal column if all free cells are full.
In order to have meaningful tournament competition in King.com Freecell, your performance is translated into points. Let's talk about how:
Each card played to the home cells is worth 100 points.
Every cashed gold card is worth 400 points. This makes for a deck total of 6800 points, if the board is solved and no gold card is used to extract a card, which is the ideal.
At the end of the game, you will receive a Time Bonus of 2000x(% of time left)x(% of cards played to home cells).
If you solve the board, you will also receive a Move Bonus. This bonus starts at 10000 points, and is reduced by 100 every time you make a move other than playing to a home cell or cashing a gold card.
Scores for solved boards vary depending on the difficulty of the board, by which I mean the number of moves necessary to untangle it. The maximum (theoretically) possible score is 6800(deck)+10000(moves)+2000(time)=18800, but I don't often see scores over 16K. I've broken 16K myself exactly once as of this writing, though I usually score in the 13-16K range when I solve the board, which I do about 90% of the time.
Now, let's talk about how you too can cash in:
First and foremost, think before you click! Based on the scoring, your priorities are as follows:
1. Solving the board
2. Efficiency
3. Speed
In other words, it doesn't matter how fast you can move cards if you get yourself stuck.
When the board first appears, look for the Aces and 2s. It's a good idea to get the Aces out right away whenever practical, in order to help you get rid of other low cards. Another effective strategy is to clear out one column at a time, as an empty column is even better than a free cell for sorting the board out.
Most if not all boards can be solved without using any gold cards, so it's usually best to cash them for extra points. However, always be sure to think ahead; if it looks like you won't be able to get to a critical card, it's better to extract that card than to get stuck.
Use your free cells with care. Be especially wary of putting two cards of the same rank and color in free cells, such as both red 8s. If you don't empty a column or have the next higher card available to build on, this can jam you up in a hurry.
If you need to move a large stack of cards, it's good to use a technique I call "handing off". Look for available cards of the same rank and color as cards in the stack you're trying to move, then transfer parts of the big stack onto these cards. However, once you have a column correctly sequenced and headed by a King, you don't have to move it again.
Other things to be alert for on the board include two cards of the same color and rank in the same column, and a card buried in a column above a sequence it fits. These situations are easier to handle if you've managed to clear a column or two.
Toward the end of the game, if only one card is buried above a card of higher rank, try to release it by playing the card(s) covering it to the home cells if you can, rather than moving the covering card(s). Each move you make that doesn't play a card to a home cell costs 100 points of bonus, which is the value of 30 seconds of Time Bonus. This means that if you can dig out a card in less than 30 seconds by just playing to home cells, you'll save yourself some points.
As always, I'm sure I'll think of more to say after I post this, but this is what I have for now. As always, questions and feedback are welcome. Take care and good luck!
Thanks for all the tips, Sholly73. I love to play Freecell and so appreciate all your tips.
Useful tips there thank you. I have played several thousand freecells and I still learned something new :) x