Every card is dealt face up. Use the four free cells as scratch space and the eight tableau columns to build the foundations from Ace to King. Almost every deal is solvable.
Tap any card to auto-route: foundation first, then a tableau column where it fits (descending rank, alternating colors), then an empty column, then a free cell. Tap the deeper card in a tableau column to move a whole legal sequence at once — limited by how many free cells and empty columns you have available. Win by stacking all four foundations from Ace to King.
Free cells are emergency storage, not parking. Every card you park there is one less buffer for the move you need next turn. Move a card to a free cell only when the alternative is a dead end — pulling a card out of a free cell is much harder than putting one in, because you need a legal home to send it to.
Unbury low cards toward the foundation. The Aces and 2s are the bottleneck — until they reach the foundation, nothing above them in the tableau can join the build. Before any complex shuffle, scan the columns for buried Aces and 2s and plan your moves to liberate them, not your prettier sequences.
Empty tableau columns multiply your power. The maximum sequence you can move in one tap is (free cells empty + 1) × (empty tableau columns + 1). One empty column doubles your move size, two empty columns quadruple it. Creating empty columns early opens up moves that look impossible from the start.
Think backwards from the foundation. Decide which suit goes up first — usually the one whose Ace is shallowest in the tableau, with the 2 also accessible. Then visualize the entire ladder of that suit (A, 2, 3, …) and ask which tableau cards are blocking each step. Solving FreeCell is about clearing those blockers in the right order, not about beautiful tableau columns.