Talon: Solitaire & Spider

Talon, the solitaire that plays fair. Free, and complete. Both games, all five levels, the daily deal, the three themes: everything is there from the first launch. No lives to wait for, no levels to unlock, no currency to collect. What it costs, said plainly: an ad shows now and then between two games. Never while you are playing. Never on the daily deal. And no banner — the table is yours from top to bottom. If you would rather see none at all, a single purchase removes them for good. Everything plays offline. On the underground, on a plane, out in the country: playing never needs a network. Deals, the daily deal and challenge codes are computed on your device, without going through any server. PLAY AGAINST THE BEST SOLUTION, NOT AGAINST CHANCE Every deal has been solved in advance by a solver. So you know two things no other solitaire tells you: the game is winnable, and there is a solution in a certain number of moves. That number is the par. It shows during play, as in golf. Finishing under it is possible — the solver finds a very good solution, not necessarily the best one. That is where solitaire stops being a pastime and becomes a real puzzle. THE DAILY DEAL One deal a day, identical for every player, wherever they are. You and your friends face exactly the same distribution. It is the game's appointment: no advertising is ever shown there. CHALLENGE SOMEONE Every game carries a short code. Send it, and your opponent plays the deal you played. No account to create, no server: the code contains the deal. TWO GAMES, FIVE LEVELS • Klondike, drawing one card or three • Spider, with one, two or four suits • Every deal in the catalogue is rated one to five stars by its real difficulty BUILT TO BE COMFORTABLE • 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 to VoiceOver, with nothing to switch on • Three themes: light, cut paper, wood and brass • Undo, hints, automatic resume of the game in progress • Thirteen languages WHAT THE APP DOES NOT DO It creates no account and asks for no personal data. It reaches neither your contacts, nor your location, nor your photos. Your games and preferences stay on your device. Only two things leave it: anonymous usage statistics — which games are played, which are abandoned — used to improve the game, and what the ad network needs to choose an ad. A switch in the settings turns the analytics off entirely, and the ad-free purchase removes the rest. WHERE THE NAME COMES FROM The talon is the pile you draw from — the French name for the stock. The one you touch every turn. AN HONEST NOTE Par and the daily deal exist for Klondike and for one-suit Spider. In two- and four-suit Spider, proving a deal is solvable goes beyond what a solver can do in reasonable time: those modes deal random hands, with no par announced. It is written here rather than hidden.