Talon: Solitaire & Spider

Talon is a solitaire card game where every Klondike deal can be won. Solitaire and Spider, offline, with no forced ads and a daily deal shared by every player.

Deals that have a solution

Every deal of Solitaire (Klondike, draw one or draw three) and of one-suit Spider has been solved in advance by a solver. When a game gets stuck, the shuffle is not to blame: a solution exists, and you can restart the same deal to find it.

A par to beat

The solver counted its moves. That number, the par, is shown at the start of the game, like in golf. Finishing under it is possible: the solver finds a very good solution, not necessarily the shortest. When you win, the game tells you how many moves you beat it by. That is where solitaire stops being a pastime and turns into a puzzle.

The daily deal

Every day brings a new Solitaire deal, the same for everyone. You and your friends play exactly the same layout and compare your moves: after a win, one button shares your result, with the par and the deal's code. No ad ever shows up there on its own.

Challenge someone

Every deal carries a short code. Send it over and the other person plays the deal you played. No account, no server, the code contains the deal.

Ads: nothing forced

The whole game is free from the first launch: both games, every level, the daily deal, the four themes. No lives to wait for, no coins to collect. It is funded by ads, under simple rules:

• no banners, the table takes the whole screen
• no ad during a game, on the daily deal, on a challenge code or on the victory screen
• between two regular games an ad may be offered, at most once every three games: a notice warns you first, and "No thanks" skips it
• a hint is earned by watching a short ad, if you choose to; with no network, one hint per game stays available

A single purchase removes every ad and gives hints directly.

Two card games, five levels

• Solitaire (Klondike), draw one or draw three
• Spider, with one, two or four suits
• Solved deals are rated one to five stars by difficulty

Comfortable to play

• Drag and drop, or two-tap "tap to move"
• Undo, and automatic resume of the game in progress
• Portrait and landscape, on phones and tablets
• Four-colour deck, to tell suits apart without relying on red and black
• One-handed mode, which brings the table within thumb's reach
• Cards described by VoiceOver, with nothing to switch on
• Four themes: midnight, light, paper cut, wood and brass
• Statistics for each game: games played, wins, win rate, best score
• Rules available in the settings
• Thirteen languages

Offline and private

You can play everything offline, on the train or on a plane. Deals, the daily deal and challenge codes are worked out on your phone. No account, no personal data to hand over; your games and settings stay on the device.

Only two things leave it: anonymous usage statistics, which a switch in the settings turns off completely, and what the ad network needs to show an ad.

One clarification

Solved deals and the par exist for Solitaire (Klondike) and for one-suit Spider; the daily deal is played in draw-one Solitaire. In two- and four-suit Spider, proving that a deal is winnable goes beyond what a solver can manage in reasonable time: those modes generate random deals, with no par announced.

Where the name comes from

The talon is the pile you draw from, the stock. Solitaire, patience, Klondike: three names for the same classic card game. Talon brings together its two best-known variants, Klondike and Spider.