Daily FreeCell Solitaire
The daily challenge deals one FreeCell board per difficulty, the same for every player in the world, and resets at midnight UTC. Your score comes from a fixed formula built on time, moves, undos and hints, so the leaderboard compares how you played rather than which shuffle you drew.
New to the game? Read how to play FreeCell Solitaire before you start the clock, and keep the strategy guide handy for the days when the deal fights back.
How the Daily Challenge Works
- Three boards go live each day, one each at easy, moderate and hard
- Each day and difficulty maps to one fixed seed, so the layout is identical for everyone
- The reset is keyed to the UTC date, not your local clock
- Every board is solved by our solver before it is published, so it is known to be winnable
- Your time runs from the first move, not from when the page loads
How Scoring Works
Every finished run is scored with the same formula. You start from a base of 10,000, lose points for time spent and actions taken, and gain a bonus for winning and for finishing in few moves.
| Component | Value |
|---|---|
| Base score | 10,000 |
| Time | minus 2 per second |
| Moves | minus 5 per move |
| Undo | minus 50 each |
| Hint | minus 100 each |
| Win bonus | plus 5,000 |
| Efficiency bonus | plus 10 for every move under 150, capped at 1,000 |
| Floor | a run can never score below 0 |
The highest reachable score is 16,000, which is the base plus the win bonus plus the full efficiency bonus. Nobody reaches it, because time and moves always cost something.
A worked example
A won game in 4:10 taking 120 moves, with 2 undos and no hints, scores like this:
| Base | 10,000 |
| Time, 250 seconds | minus 500 |
| Moves, 120 | minus 600 |
| Undos, 2 | minus 100 |
| Win bonus | plus 5,000 |
| Efficiency, 30 moves under 150 | plus 300 |
| Final | 14,100 |
|---|
Two things fall out of that arithmetic. Moves cost 2.5 times more than a second of thinking, so stopping to plan is nearly always cheaper than clicking around. And because the efficiency bonus only starts below 150 moves, a tidy line is worth real points rather than bragging rights.
Grades
Scores are also shown as a letter grade, calculated as a percentage of the 16,000 maximum.
| Grade | Percentage of maximum | Score needed |
|---|---|---|
| S | 95% and above | 15,200 |
| A | 85% and above | 13,600 |
| B | 75% and above | 12,000 |
| C | 65% and above | 10,400 |
| D | 50% and above | 8,000 |
| F | below 50% | under 8,000 |
Frequently Asked Questions
When does the daily FreeCell challenge reset?
At midnight UTC. Every challenge is keyed to a UTC date, so the new deal appears at the same moment worldwide regardless of your local time zone.
Does everyone get the same daily deal?
Yes. Each day and difficulty maps to one fixed seed, and that seed produces the same layout for every player. Nobody gets an easier shuffle.
Is the daily deal guaranteed to be winnable?
Every daily board is run through our solver before it is published, and a deal is only used once the solver has found a complete winning line for it. You are never handed a puzzle with no solution.
Do hints and undos cost me points?
Yes. Each undo costs 50 points and each hint costs 100. They are always available, but the leaderboard rewards solving a board without them.