Idea2Play Original
Broken Deck: Repair Cards and Plan Your Escape
Broken Deck begins with a familiar face-up solitaire layout and an unfamiliar problem: six cards are split in half. Repairing those cards is part of reaching the foundations, and every waiting fragment changes how much room you have to work.
By Idea2Play · 2 min read · Updated
Match both rank and suit
The deal has 46 whole cards and 12 halves across eight columns, plus four free cells and a Repair Slot. Two opposite halves of the same rank and suit make one whole card. Either half may arrive first; an occupied Repair Slot accepts only its match.
Fragments cannot travel like whole cards
An exposed half can move to an empty free cell or the Repair Slot. From a free cell, it can move only to the Repair Slot. A waiting half in that slot can move back to an empty free cell.
Halves cannot enter columns or foundations, and they cannot transfer between free cells. A whole card cannot land on an exposed half. A half also prevents a group containing it from moving, so locating its partner is often more valuable than rearranging unrelated cards.
Use normal FreeCell building after repair
Whole cards build downward in alternating colors in the columns and upward in suit on the foundations. Any whole rank may enter an empty column. Each free cell holds one whole card or half.
Moving whole-card groups requires temporary capacity: (empty cells + 1) × 2 for each spare empty column, excluding an empty destination. The Repair Slot never increases that capacity.
Plan the repair before occupying the slot
Start on Relaxed, where Hint prioritizes repairs and Undo can restore the exact halves if a plan fails. Challenge removes those assists.
- Locate both halves of a damaged card.
- Check how you will uncover each half without filling all four cells.
- Choose where the repaired card will go.
- Complete the repair, empty the slot, then reassess.
Try it at the table
Pick one idea from the guide and try it in a game. You can play without an account.