Penguin Solitaire Strategy Guide
Penguin is a FreeCell relative where everything is face up and you have seven free cells. The first card dealt, the beak, sets the starting rank of every foundation, so each deal plays a little differently. Columns build down in a single suit, and whole runs move at once. This guide covers the opening, how to spend the cells, what to do with empty columns and the mistakes that quietly lose deals.
Opening principles
You start with 49 cards in seven columns of seven, three foundation cards already placed and seven empty cells. The beak is the bottom card of the first column. Foundations build up in suit from the beak's rank and wrap from King to Ace, and you win when all 52 cards are up.
- Check the foundation starters first. Three suits already have their first card. Look for the next cards of those suits among the bottom cards of the columns.
- Locate the beak and note the rank below it. The beak is buried at the bottom of the first column, and the rank one below it is the only rank an empty column accepts.
- Everything is face up. Plan several moves ahead: you can see where every card is.
Free the beak
The beak's own suit has no starter on the foundations, so that whole suit is stuck until the beak is out. The beak also begins the game at the bottom of a column, under six cards. Digging it out is usually the first long-term goal.
- Clear the first column early. Move its cards onto other columns where they fit, and park the rest in cells.
- Do not rush the other suits. Moving cards to the foundations is good, but not at the price of leaving the first column buried.
- Once the beak is out, send it up. It starts the last foundation, and the cards of that suit can follow as they are freed.
Using the free cells
Seven cells are far more than FreeCell offers, and Penguin needs them: columns only accept the next lower card of the same suit, so many cards have nowhere to go.
- Park cards you will need soon. A card in a cell is safe, and it can return to a column or to its foundation later.
- Keep two or three cells empty. When every cell is full, a single blocked move can end the deal.
- Prefer a cell over burying a low card. A card that is needed for a foundation soon should not end up under others.
Runs and empty columns
Because a whole same-suit run moves as one unit, with no limit on its length, runs are cheap to move. That makes them the most useful structure on the board.
- Build runs deliberately. Put a card on its next-higher card of the same suit whenever you can.
- Remember the wrap. A King goes on an Ace of the same suit, so a run can cross the King-Ace boundary.
- An empty column accepts one rank only. It is the rank one below the beak, or a run starting with it. Decide which column to empty with that card in mind. The status bar shows the rank, for example 5→4.
- Do not waste an empty column. If you have no matching card yet, keep it empty rather than filling it in a hurry.
Common mistakes
- Filling all the cells at once. Without free cells you cannot turn any column around.
- Ignoring the first column. The beak and the cards on top of it are the key to the beak's suit.
- Splitting a run for no reason. A run in one suit takes effort to rebuild, so move it as a unit.
- Forgetting the empty-column rule. Only the rank one below the beak fits. Plan for it before you empty a column.
- Playing on after every cell is full and nothing moves. Use Undo to go back to the last position with options.
How winnable are the deals?
Almost all random Penguin deals can be won. In our screening, the solver found a full winning line within its search limit for about 99.7% of 8,000 random deals (7,979 of them). That figure is a lower bound, because a solver with a limited search can miss lines. New games and the Daily Challenge only use deals the solver has proved winnable. Winnable does not mean easy: the solver plans every move perfectly, and you have to find the route yourself.
Practice and play
Play a few deals with one habit: before the first move, find the beak and the rank below it, then decide which column you will clear first. That plan is worth more than any single trick.