Busy Aces Solitaire
How to play Busy Aces
Busy Aces is a two-deck solitaire game of the Forty Thieves family in which twelve single cards are built down in suit, one card at a time, with a single pass through a stock of 92 cards.
Twelve piles of one card built down in suit, one card at a time, with one pass through the stock.
The goal of Busy Aces
Move all 104 cards onto the eight foundations, two for each suit, each built up from the Ace to the King.
How to set up Busy Aces
Two standard decks are shuffled together, 104 cards in all. Twelve cards are dealt face up, one to each of twelve piles, and the other 92 form the stock.
Busy Aces rules
Piles build down in suit, one rank at a time. Only one card moves at a time, the top card of a pile or of the waste, and an empty pile takes any card.
Turn the stock onto the waste one card at a time, once through with no redeal. Only the top waste card is in play.
A card on a foundation never comes back into play.
Click a card to send it to its foundation, else onto the first pile it builds on, else into an empty pile. Drag it to choose yourself. With Autoplay off in Settings, only a drag moves a card.
How to win at Busy Aces
You win when all 104 cards are home. With the stock and waste empty and every pile in order, Auto complete, on by default in Settings, plays the rest for you. The game is stuck when no card can move and the rest of the stock brings up nothing that can.
Busy Aces strategy tips
Every pile starts with a single card, so nothing is buried at the start and a pile can be emptied in one move. The hard part is the stock: 92 of the 104 cards come off it, one at a time and only once.
An empty pile takes any card. Keep one open for a waste card that fits nowhere else, since a card left on the waste is covered by the next one you turn.
Building down in suit gives a card only two places on the table, the two cards one rank higher in its suit, so many waste cards find none. Before you turn the next card, look for a move on the table that makes room for the one showing.
Only one card moves at a time, so a card under a long pile comes out one card at a time. Do not build on a pile that hides a low card you will need soon.
Busy Aces questions and answers
How do you play Busy Aces solitaire?
Shuffle two decks together, deal twelve cards face up, one to each pile, and keep the other 92 cards as the stock. Build the piles down in suit, one card at a time, and go through the stock once, one card at a time. You win when all 104 cards are home.
What is the difference between Busy Aces and Forty Thieves?
Busy Aces deals twelve piles of one card instead of ten piles of four, so 92 cards go to the stock rather than 64. As in Forty Thieves, the piles build down in suit, one card moves at a time and the stock goes through once.
What is the difference between Busy Aces and Blockade?
Both deal twelve piles of one card and build down in suit. Busy Aces turns its stock onto a waste one card at a time and moves one card at a time. Blockade has no waste: its stock deals a card onto every pile, an emptied pile is filled from the stock, and a run in one suit moves as one.
Can every Busy Aces deal be won?
Not necessarily. Searching up to a million positions per deal, the game's solver proved 19% of the Busy Aces deals it tried winnable, so at least that share can be won. With Winnable on, in the menu beside New deal, each board comes from a list of 500 proved deals. Hint asks the same solver for a winning line before it suggests a move.
Is there a daily Busy Aces game?
Yes. Busy Aces has a daily board, the same deal for everyone that day, dealt the way a Winnable board is. Log in to play it.