The rules of Seahaven Towers

Setup

A deck of 52 cards, without jokers, is shuffled and dealt face up: 5 cards in each of the 10 columns, making 50 cards. The last 2 cards go into the first two cells. This leaves 2 free cells at the start. The 4 foundations, one per suit (spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs), are empty.

Allowed moves

You move the top card of a column (the last one, which is not covered by any other card) or a card from a 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.
• 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.

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

Empty columns: kings only

An emptied column accepts only a king, alone or followed by its same-suit sequence (king, queen, jack of spades, for example). No other card can go there, even for a moment. This is the major difference from FreeCell, where an empty column accepts any card. A king at the base of a column is therefore well placed; a king covered by other cards can only move to a cell or an empty column.

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 single group. The app limits the 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 only one card. When the sequence goes into an empty column (which requires a king at its head), that destination column does not count.

Example: with 1 free cells and 2 empty columns, the app lets you pick up a sequence of at most 8 cards, but a king-led sequence can only be placed in one of the empty columns if it contains at most 4 cards. The Examples page shows this situation in a real 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 move is possible anymore: you then have to undo moves or start over.

What the app adds

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

• Number of cells: 4, 2, or 1, selected in the New Game window (Easy: 4, Medium: 2, Hard: 1). Removed cells disappear from the board and no longer count toward group size. The two cards from the deal go into the available cells: with 2 cells, they fill both; with 1 cell, the second card goes onto column 2, which then contains 6 cards.
• 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), then a free cell.
• Taking a card back from a foundation: the top card of a foundation can be dragged to a column that accepts it or to a free cell.
• Undo: the last 100 actions.
• Game code: each deal has a code (for example, SH1-C4-AAAAAJ2) 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.