The best board games to play only solo (Solitaire) 2026

Grove is a citrus-themed sequel to the award-winning 9-card solitaire game Orchard. It features orange, lemon, and lime trees, as well as a new "wildcard" element—glades—that enhance gameplay by offering more opportunities to boost your harvest. The game also includes recipe challenges on the back of the cards, providing alternative winning conditions for added variety.

Final Girl is a unique solitaire-only board game that puts you in the heart of a classic horror movie scenario. You play as the "final girl," the last woman standing, who must face off against a menacing slasher to survive.

Why would someone attack a police officer? This is one of many questions you face after receiving a ransom demand for your kidnapped daughter.

Mazescape is a captivating labyrinth game for one player that guarantees intense moments of puzzling as you search for the exit. You fold a card on the table, starting with a pointer at the compass rose, and move it along the marked labyrinth paths without lifting it off the card. You must open and close various parts of the map to find the impossible triangle needed to escape, journeying through distinct areas like the docks, the cemetery, and the mountain, with increasing complexity and secondary objectives to explore.

Friday, part of Friedemann Friese's Freitag-Project Series, unfolds the tale of Robinson Crusoe and his loyal partner, Friday. Stepping into Friday's shoes, players navigate the challenges of Robinson's arrival on the island, disrupting your peaceful existence. The objective is clear: assist Robinson in surviving the island and prepare him for a showdown with incoming pirates.

Players navigate a captivating labyrinth game designed for solo play, where they seek the exit through intense puzzle-solving moments. This unique concept involves unfolding a map on the table and maneuvering a pointer along white-marked labyrinth paths, all while ensuring the pointer never leaves the map. Set in ancient Crete, players must overcome the challenges of various cards to escape the legendary Labyrinth of Daedalus and help Ariadne flee from the Minotaur.

Coffee Roaster is a unique solitaire pool-building game that immerses players in the art of coffee roasting. Through careful management of a variety of coffee beans, players aim to perfect the roast level of each bean type to achieve the highest quality of coffee. The game challenges players to balance the roasting process, managing not just the desired roast level but also the uniformity of the roast across all beans, while avoiding the pitfalls of smoke and burnt tokens that can spoil the batch.

Sherlock Holmes is hired by the Earl of Morcar to accompany him on a train journey between London and Liverpool. Soon, Holmes faces challenges including stolen diamonds, a mysterious death, and the kidnapping of a princess, with his loyal assistant Dr. Watson by his side. This comic game allows players to embody a character in a compelling story, where their choices influence the outcome, while navigating through clues, puzzles, and traps.

Three experienced criminals have stolen divine relics from the Nüwa Temple, driven by sheer greed. This theft threatens to plunge the city into an era of plagues and disasters. As a bounty hunter, you are motivated by lucrative contracts and must track down these pillagers. Immerse yourself in a medieval Asian universe as the heroine determined to find the three wrongdoers.

Players select four character types from classic classes such as warrior, wizard, and rogue. They embark on solo dungeon-crawling adventures using only a book, a pencil, dice, and grid paper, generating room contents through random tables as they encounter monsters, manage resources, and complete quests. The game emphasizes strategy and progression without the need for miniatures or traditional role-playing elements.

Perplexus is a 3D labyrinth game where players maneuver a small marble through challenging obstacles within a transparent sphere. Unlike traditional flat mazes, it features various exciting tracks with 100 barriers, providing a three-dimensional experience. Players choose a track to attempt and must carefully navigate the marble by tilting, rotating, and moving the sphere.

During the reign of Emperor Yao, the people of ancient China were plagued by deadly floods along the Yellow River. After numerous failures in flood control, Yu, inheriting his father's work, set out to build a series of channels to divert the swelling river. Players step into the role of Yu the Great in a fully resettable, non-linear solo campaign, aiming to construct the channels while defending their growing village against neighboring barbarian tribes.

Spain, 1936: General Franco's troops move in, leading to a long period of civil war and oppression. A group of Republicans continues the armed struggle, forming resistance groups known as the "Maquis," who risk their lives hidden in the mountains to defend democratic ideals.

Escape, disappearance, murder... Players step into the shoes of Sherlock Holmes or Dr. Watson to solve four particularly tricky investigations.

Players navigate a puzzle-filled round with an obstacle course on a rolling track. The 360-degree course features mind-bending twists, brain-teasing turns, and breathtaking stunts that challenge and inspire, making it hard to put down something that seems so easily graspable. There are 115 steps to conquer in this labyrinthine game.

You own the only inn within a hundred miles: the questionable and prestigious Ugly Gryphon. Guests are rude and uncivil, yet they are the only ones you have. Manage their needs to ensure they get a good night's sleep and avoid trouble, as failing to do so could lead to unrest.

In 1914, the Ottoman Empire agreed to shelter the fleeing German battleship Goeben, renamed Yavuz, as World War I erupted in Europe. As players control the Young Turks, they try to sustain the empire amidst the chaos of war, fighting against British-led forces, Russian armies, and a Hashemite Arab revolt. Despite earlier victories, the Ottomans faced inevitable defeat by October 1918; can you lead them to success where history failed?

20 Strong is a new deck-based game system that can be played in about 30 minutes or less. It features a core of simple, adaptable rules applied to various unique decks, each with its own mechanisms. Players navigate through a mixed card set, facing challenges that may include opponents or unique scenarios, and must manage their successes while keeping track of health and resources.