Play Wave Motion Solitaire Online for Free (No Signup Required)

Every card starts face up across eight reserve piles, and you sequence them by suit onto eight builds, a near-luckless test of pure calculation from move one.

Wave Motion Solitaire is David Bernazzani's clever blend of FreeCell and Scorpion, and it opens in an unusual way: the entire deck is already on the table. All fifty-two cards are spread face up across eight reserve piles, so nothing is hidden and everything is in play from the first move. Your job is to feed those cards, one by one, onto eight empty build piles.

The catch is that the reserve itself cannot be built on. You may only move a card off the top of a reserve pile, and the eight build piles are where the real work happens. There you stack cards down in the same suit, so a nine of clubs accepts only the eight of clubs, and an ordered same-suit run can be lifted and moved as a group. Because the layout is completely open, Wave Motion is a game of pure calculation with almost no luck once the deal is set.

Victory arrives when every card has been sequenced onto the build piles. Its close sibling, Flow, plays by the same rules but eases the difficulty by letting you build on the reserve too, which is why Wave Motion is considered the sterner test of the pair.

If you enjoy Wave Motion, try Flow Solitaire or Scorpion Solitaire, two classic solitaire card games.

If you run into anything odd or have an idea that would make the game better, please contact me.

Have fun!

How to play Wave Motion Solitaire

Layout:

8 reserve piles: The whole deck is dealt here face up at the start. You may take the top card of a reserve pile, but you may never build on the reserve, and an emptied reserve pile is not refilled.

8 build piles: All eight begin empty. Build down in the same suit, and move ordered same-suit runs together. This is where every card must eventually end up.

Reserve:

There are eight reserve piles, and between them they hold the entire fifty-two-card deck, all dealt face up. Every card is visible from the very start.

Only the top card of a reserve pile may be played, and it can go onto a build pile that accepts it. No card may ever be placed onto the reserve, so building there is not allowed. Once a reserve pile is emptied it stays empty for the rest of the game.

Tableau:

There are eight build piles, all empty at the start. This is the tableau where you assemble your sequences.

A card can be added to a build pile only if it's one rank lower and the same suit as the pile's current top card, so the only card that fits on the eight of clubs is the seven of clubs. An ordered same-suit run may be moved together as a single unit, and any card may be placed onto an empty build pile.

Cards on the build piles that form the top of an ordered run remain available, so you can rearrange sequences as you go. The deal is won when all fifty-two cards have been sequenced onto the build piles.