Best Of Guides
7 Best Online Solitaire Games When You Want A Real Challenge
Some solitaire games are there to relax you. Others are there to expose sloppy planning, punish impatience, and make wins feel rare enough to matter. If you want the second kind, these seven are the best online solitaire games to queue up.
My Picks
I chose these games because they punish lazy decisions, create narrow recovery windows, and make wins feel like something I actually had to earn.
Spider Solitaire Four Suits
The ultimate challenge. Uses all four suits.
Spider Four Suits is the classic expert test. Mixed suits create constant structural friction, and weak early choices compound hard.
Play Spider Solitaire Four Suits
Forty Thieves
Napoleon at St Helena: two decks, ten columns, same-suit building. One of the hardest solitaire games.
Forty Thieves is relentless because the margins are tiny and the recovery paths are narrow.
Play Forty Thieves
Alaska Solitaire
Bidirectional same-suit Yukon variant with flexible adjacent rank movement.
Alaska Solitaire asks for advanced tableau reading. Its flexible movement creates opportunity, but only if you can see the sequence chain in time.
Play Alaska Solitaire
Emperor Solitaire
Rank and File with worry-back: retrieve top foundation cards to the tableau. Win rate around 60%.
Emperor Solitaire looks friendlier than it is. Worry-back makes it richer, but it also increases the number of bad choices you can make.
Play Emperor Solitaire
Scorpion Solitaire
Yukon-style Spider relative: build down by suit and move exposed tails.
Scorpion Solitaire punishes short-sighted regrouping. You often need to sacrifice obvious moves to preserve a future escape route.
Play Scorpion Solitaire
Yukon
No-stock Yukon classic with long tail moves and alternating-color building.
Yukon becomes very difficult when the board tangles early. Great players separate temporary mobility from actual progress.
Play Yukon
Double Scorpion
Two-deck Scorpion challenge with deeper stack planning and longer runs.
Double Scorpion turns the Scorpion pressure up with two decks and a far denser board. It is a proper long-session challenge.
Play Double Scorpion
Why I Chose These Games
Challenge here means more than low win rate. I looked for games where errors are costly, hidden constraints matter, and wins still feel unlikely deep into the session.
That is why this list mixes different types of difficulty, from Spider's sequencing pressure to Forty Thieves' brutal margin for error.
Want the real thing
Start with the classic expert test
Spider Four Suits is still the cleanest benchmark for serious solitaire difficulty.
Who This Guide Fits Best
Start with Spider Two Suits or Yukon if you want a ramp into harder play. Jump to Spider Four Suits or Double Scorpion if you already know what kind of punishment you are asking for.
When you want a challenge, do not confuse complexity with quality. The best hard variants still feel fair after a loss.
Who This Guide Is Not For
I would not use this guide if you want a relaxing reset after work. Several of these games are more likely to test your patience than calm you down.
I also would not start here if you are still learning tableau basics, because harder variants hide good lessons behind heavy punishment.