The best board games to play only solo (Solitaire) 2025

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.

Orchard: A 9 card solitaire game is an engaging and compact solitaire tile-laying game that has captured the hearts of players with its simplicity, strategic depth, and quick playtime. Garnering acclaim by winning the 2018 9-Card Nanogame Print and Play Design Contest, Orchard challenges players to skillfully manage a limited set of resources — in this case, nine double-sided cards — to create a flourishing orchard.

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.

Under Falling Skies is a solo board game with a focus on strategic defense against an alien invasion. It features a multi-mission campaign where players defend cities from extraterrestrial threats.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Players conquer the rocky slopes of an ever-changing mountain. They must carefully place the next path section to complete their ascent while tackling various round objectives. This puzzle is filled with pitfalls that keep players engaged and challenged.

Players take on the role of General Longstreet during the desperate Confederate assault on July 3, 1863, at the Battle of Gettysburg, known as Pickett's Charge. They must swiftly push their troops across deadly open terrain while balancing the need to regroup for another attack. With only five rounds to achieve their goal, players face the choice between death and glory as they race against time.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Start with one sheep in your field and manage the event cards presented to you to reach a total of one thousand sheep before going through the event deck three times. The sheep deck includes values of 1, 3, 10, 30, 100, 300, and 1,000. Players draw cards to gain effects such as duplicating sheep, adding new ones, or swapping sheep values. If you end up without any sheep or fail to have at least one 1,000 sheep card after three rounds, you lose.

In Hostage Negotiator: Crime Wave, each turn represents a conversation between you and a hostage taker. Players use cards and dice to increase conversation points, lower the threat level, and release hostages. This standalone expansion includes new conversation, terror, and decision cards, as well as new kidnappers, each introducing unique rules and demands. The game is ready to play right out of the box and enhances the original game with additional content.

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.

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.

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.

An alternative solitaire narrative game where World War II has gone horribly wrong. Command one of six models of the "America Bomber" from a base in the Azores while strategically bombing the US mainland. The goal is to maximize bombing damage while improving your pilot and crew and surviving increasingly challenging missions.

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?

Players are thrust into the Soviet leadership during the collapse of socialism from 1985 to 1991, trying to steer the vast country towards democracy. This fast-paced, educational solitaire game features a system where "people" markers on five converging paths represent the political awakening of various regions, all culminating in Moscow, where a coup could erupt. Managing efforts carefully is crucial, and players must navigate risky decisions, balancing military and political strategies to avert disaster and achieve their goals.

The battle for Castle Itter took place on May 5, 1945, near the Austrian village of Itter, during the final days of World War II. Players take on the role of troops defending the castle, aiming to withstand attacks until the SS deck is exhausted. Points are earned for each surviving defender while points are lost for any remaining SS counters on the board at the end of the game.

Hostage Negotiator is a gripping solo board game where you take on the role of a law enforcement agent tasked with negotiating the release of hostages from a dangerous hostage-taker. The game immerses you in high-stakes crisis negotiation, demanding strategic thinking and decision-making under pressure.