How to Play Strata Solitaire

A compact puzzle using a stripped two-deck set of 64 cards (no ranks below Seven). All the cards are dealt straight into an eight-by-eight tableau grid, so there's no stock to fall back on.

Setup

1. Eight foundation piles start empty, waiting for their first Ace
2. Eight tableau columns each receive eight cards, all face up — the entire deck is dealt out at the start
3. The deck is stripped to Seven through Ace, in all four suits, across both decks

How to play

• Build foundations upward in suit from Ace to King; a card moves to the foundations automatically once no other card could be built on it (you can change this in Settings)
• On the tableau, only the top card of each pile can move
• Play cards downward in alternating colors on the tableau
• Any card can fill an empty tableau space
• At any point, use the Redeal button to shuffle the tableau and deal it back out in the same eight-by-eight arrangement; you can redeal up to twice

How to win

Objective: Move all 64 cards to the eight foundation piles.

You win by building all eight foundation piles to King. You're stuck when no more cards can be moved and you've used both redeals.

Tips

• The small tableau means careful planning is critical
• Look for sequences of alternating colors you can build on to free up other cards
• Since every card is dealt out up front, think ahead — there's no stock to bail you out later

Play Strata free on Windows

CardTray is a free solitaire app for Windows that includes Strata 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 Klondike family:

• Thirty Nine Steps — Build all cards to the foundations while arranging tableau piles in descending order by suit.
• Thirty Six — Fill a compact 6-by-6 spread of tableau piles and empty it by stacking cards downward without worrying about suit, sending everything up to the foundations.
• Triple Interchange — Build foundations from Ace while managing a tableau where cards alternate between hidden and visible.
• Triple Left — A challenging variant of Moving Left where you work with 12 tableau piles and must complete the game with just one pass through the stock.
• Unlimited — Unlimited gives you as many passes through the stock as you need: once it's empty, just turn the waste back over and keep going while you build up eight foundations across two decks.