The rules of Eight Off

Setup

A deck of 52 cards, without jokers, is shuffled and dealt face up into 8 columns of 6 cards, making 48 cards in total. The remaining 4 cards go into the first 4 of the 8 cells: half the cells are therefore already occupied at the start. Beside them are 4 foundations, one per suit: spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs.

Allowed moves

You always move the top card of a column (the last one, the one not covered by any other) or a card from a free cell.

• Onto a column: the card must be of the same suit and exactly one rank lower. The 7 of hearts can only go on the 8 of hearts, never on the 8 of diamonds or a black 8. In FreeCell, by contrast, you alternate red and black.
• Into a free cell: any card, if the cell is empty. A free cell holds only one card.
• Onto a foundation: the ace of the suit first, then the 2, the 3 and so on up to the king, always in the same suit and one card at a time.
• Onto an empty column: only a king, either alone or with the sequence built on it. A queen, jack, or any other card cannot go there.

Ranks run from ace (lowest) to king: ace, 2 through 10, jack, queen, king.

Moving a group

A sequence already arranged in a column (same suit, consecutive ranks, for example 9, 8, and 7 of clubs) can move as a unit. The app calculates the maximum group size using the same formula as FreeCell:

(free cells + 1) × 2 to the power of (empty columns)

An empty column doubles the capacity; a free cell increases it by just one card. When a king and its sequence move into an empty column, that destination column does not count: it cannot serve as an intermediate space for a move into itself.

Example: with 2 free cells and only one empty column, a king and its sequence can move into that column as a unit only if they total at most 3 cards. The Examples page shows this situation in an actual game.

The end of the game

The game is won when all 52 cards are on the foundations. In practice, it is lost when no useful moves remain: you must then undo moves or start again. The app does not announce a loss.

What the app adds

These points are specific to the Eight Off Solitaire app; other versions of the game score differently.

• Number of cells: 8 (the standard game), 4, or 2, selected in the New Game window. Only playable cells are displayed. With 4 cells, the 4 cards dealt to them fill them all; with 2, both cells are full and the remaining 2 cards go at the bottom of columns 3 and 4.
• No automatic move to foundations: no card goes to the foundations on its own. A single tap on a top card sends it there when allowed; you can also drag it.
• Double tap: the app first looks for a foundation, then the longest column that accepts the card, then an empty column (for a king only), then a free cell.
• Take back a card from a foundation: the top card of a foundation can be taken back by dragging it to a free cell or a column that accepts it. This move neither earns nor deducts points.
• Undo: the last 100 actions; a group moved in one action returns in one action.
• Game code: each deal has a code (for example, EO1-C8-AAAAAFA) that recreates it exactly. See the FAQ.

Scoring in the app

Undoing a move removes the points it earned, and the score never goes below zero.