How to Play Sea Towers Solitaire

Sea Towers is a popular FreeCell variant with a different starting layout and stricter building rules. You build suits downward on the tableau and use four cells to store temporary cards.

Setup

1. Four foundation piles start empty, ready for Aces.
2. Four cells can each hold one card temporarily to help you maneuver; two of them start the game with a card already in them.
3. Ten tableau piles start with five face-up cards each.

How to play

• Build on the foundations upward by suit, starting with Ace (A♠, 2♠, 3♠, and so on). Eligible cards move automatically whenever no other card can be built on them (you can adjust this behavior in Settings).
• On the tableau, build downward in the same suit (6♥ on 7♥, for example).
• Only the top card of each pile can move; you cannot move groups of cards.
• Use cells to store any single card; empty cells help you create more moves.
• Empty tableau piles can only be filled with a King.

How to win

Objective: Move all 52 cards to the four foundations by building upward in suit from Ace.

You win when all cards are in the foundations. You're stuck when no more moves are available.

Tips

• Use cells strategically to unlock sequences, but save empty cells for critical moves.
• Build downward in suit on the tableau to expose cards faster.
• Plan ahead: avoid filling empty piles carelessly, as they're needed for major moves.

Play Sea Towers free on Windows

CardTray is a free solitaire app for Windows that includes Sea Towers alongside 300+ other games. It saves every move as you play, so you can close the window and pick the game up later, replay any deal, and take on a new Daily Challenge deal every day. Browse every game in the Game Gallery.

Related games

More games from the FreeCell family:

• Stalactites — A minimal tableau puzzle where you clear 48 cards arranged in eight columns using only two temporary holding cells.
• Tuxedo — Tuxedo deals every card face up across seven tableau piles right from the start, and gives you seven free cells to help shuffle cards around while you build foundations by suit.
• Antares — Antares blends two classic tableaus into one game: four piles play by FreeCell's alternating-color, single-card rules, and four piles play by Scorpion's same-suit, flexible-group rules, all feeding the same foundations and free cells.
• Baker's — A strategic solitaire in the FreeCell family, with four temporary storage cells and eight tableau piles where you build sequences in descending order by suit only—no alternating colors.
• Chinese FreeCell — A streamlined version of FreeCell using only Hearts, Spades, and Diamonds.