A guide to your next move.
Meet Simple Simon
The goal is four complete same-suit King-to-Ace sequences. All cards are face up from the beginning. Simple Simon on ftcadvisor.com uses a single 52-card deck with four suits. There are ten tableau columns and no stock pile.
Read the opening pattern
No hidden cards remain to be turned over later. All 52 cards are placed in the tableau at the start. The first three opening columns contain eight cards each. The remaining columns contain seven, six, five, four, three, two and one cards.
Find a receiving card
Single-card placement does not require matching suits. An exposed card can land on a card exactly one rank higher. An Ace is the lowest rank and cannot receive another card. A King needs an empty column because no higher rank exists.
Move matching groups
A few details help explain this feature. A shorter same-suit segment at the bottom may offer a legal move. A group moves together only when its selected cards descend in the same suit. A visible card can remain blocked by cards beneath it. Being face up does not make every multi-card group movable.
Manage suit changes
Here are the details for this mode. Planning where each segment can land helps avoid blocking a useful card. A mixed build must be separated into legal groups before those groups can move. Open columns can provide space for rearranging suit segments. A mixed-suit descending build can serve as a temporary arrangement.
Create room to rearrange
The following details apply here. An empty column accepts any exposed card or legal same-suit group. A King-led group cannot land on a nonempty column. You do not have to reserve empty columns for Kings. Spare columns can help you reconnect separated parts of one suit.
There is no stock
A few details help explain this feature. A difficult position cannot receive another row of cards. All possible future arrangements depend on the cards already in the tableau. Simple Simon has no stock-deal action. Undo and Replay provide ways to investigate a different sequence of decisions.
Four runs finish the game
A few details help explain this feature. Collecting four runs clears all 52 cards. A descending sequence with a suit change does not count as complete. Each collected run must contain one suit in order from King down to Ace. A full qualifying run is removed automatically at the bottom of a column.
Study a visible puzzle
A few details help explain this feature. New game deals a fresh face-up arrangement. Hint suggests a currently legal move rather than a complete solution. Random Simple Simon games are not claimed to be guaranteed solvable. Replay returns to the same opening arrangement.
A separate saved game
Here are the details for this mode. My Statistics lists Simple Simon starts, wins and best completed results. Its saved position is separate from Spider and the other variants. With saving enabled, Simple Simon stores its current game in this browser. Use Privacy & Cookie Settings to manage or clear the local records.