Cookie Bonus Tips & Techniques

It's been a while since I've posted on this blog - I certainly wouldn't want you all to forget about me. There have been quite a few "How-To" posts lately, so I felt compelled to continue the trend.

I've discovered since beginning to play Cookie Bonus Solitaire how cleverly-designed this game really is (as those of us poor addicts can certainly testify). I've played several Klondike-based solitaire games in the past, but with the incorporation of bonuses and cheats, this is certainly one of the most unique. In fact, I've found that I've had to adjust the way that I play Klondike in order to optimize my score, and so I thought that it might be interesting to start a thread to discuss tips and techniques for this game.

Now, some of you may find these techniques to be useful. Some of you will say, "Duh! How else would you do it?" And undoubtedly some of you will think, "How does this clown even finish a single deck?" I should make it clear that I don't think that I have all the best techniques - just watch my scores when I am online sometime and that will become clearly evident. This is just how I usually handle certain game situations. Please feel free to comment and add your own best tips & techniques.

Finally, I realize that many of us visit Fat-Free solely to relax, have a little fun playing a deck or two, and chat with our buddies, and that you could care less about your total game score. As I've said before, there are many different ways to enjoy this site - Vexxed and his crew are quite astute in this respect. However you spend your time on Fat-Free is fine by me (as long as its not abusive to other members of the community) and I look forward to the pleasure of your company!

#1 - Use your cheats wisely. Okay - you've only got four of them, and only three are really useful while playing out the deck (more on the fourth one later). Most of you are aware that as you complete decks, your points per card played and final bonus increase proportionally. That being the case, your chance to post higher scores increases with each deck that you complete. Therefore, completing as many decks as possible should be your first priority if you wish to generate large deck scores. We all know that completing decks becomes increasingly more difficult once your cheats are no longer available. My opinion is that you should use your cheats - especially on the first two or three decks - only as a last resort. In other words, it might make sense to deal through the cards in your hand several times until your "cookie count" is down to one and finish deck one with a low score, yet preserve all of your cheats for a later deck. Of course, if you find yourself in a situation where you have a couple of 500-point Dueces face-up on the table but you haven't drawn any Aces on your first trip through your hand. In this case I wouldn't hesitate to use the Find Aces cheat and cash in the points right off the bat.

#2 - Pick the right time to use your cheats. Yes, this is related to tip #1 above, but a little different. When you do decide to use a cheat, try to use it in a situation in which you can make several moves once the cheat has been played. For example, you have two Dueces face up in your hand and maybe a three and four of the same suit face up on the table - this might be the best time to use your Find Aces cheat. Maybe you have a black Queen in your hand on top of an Ace, a red Jack and red King face-up on the table with nothing under the Jack, and an empty spot on the table. Use your Any Space cheat to put the Queen in the empty spot, play the Ace, play the Jack on the Queen, etc. You get the picture...

#3 - Pay attention to the cards in your hand. Try to remember what cards you saw in your hand after dealing through the first time. I do this especially with Aces, because it helps me decide if I should play my Find Aces cheat. If there's a chance that I can play a card "naturally," I try to do so to preserve the cheat card - even if it means sacrificing a few points for the chance of scoring higher later. Of course - as I stated in tip #1 - be very careful when sacrificing "sure points" for what "could be."

#4 - Expose as many of the table cards as possible. If I have a choice between playing a red Eight in my hand and a red Eight on the table, I'll play the table card every time. While it may sometimes be frustrating having a lot of cards in your hand, you can at least see them and you have the Shuffle and Any Space cheats to get to the cards you need.

#5 - Treat your Kings with respect, but only when you can see them. One of the biggest differences between Cookie Bonus and regular Klondike is the way in which I handle Kings and empty spots on the table. If a King is face-up on the table, I make it a priority to move him to an empty spot. If there are no Kings face-up on the table and I have a choice of moving a card off of a pile or one with nothing underneath, I will always move the card on the pile - again relating to tip #4 above. There is one important play on a King that seems at first to be contrary tip #4. If there is one empty spot on the table, a red Queen on the table with nothing underneath, and an black King in your hand and a red King on top of a pile on the table, play the King in your hand to the empty spot, move the red Queen onto the black King, and move the black King to the recently-vacated spot.

#6 - Cash in your cookies as soon as possible. All of your points hinge on the number of cookies that you've accumulated. I always try to cash in a card that has a x2 Cookie Bonus on it. You can always move the card back down to the table - the points that you earned for the card will be deducted but your cookie count stays the same. This is especially important if you have a few 500-Point Bonuses left to play. More on this in #7.

#7 - Manage the auto-play feature. One of the most frustrating parts of the game is the auto-play feature in which cards are automatically moved to your Finish pile in consecutive order by suit. While it may be convenient at times in that it saves you several finger-taps when finishing a deck, more often than not the cards won't be moved in the order in which you prefer. For example, there may be X2 Cookie Bonuses on the Ten of Diamonds and Jack of Spades, and a 500-Point Bonus on the Eight of Hearts. Even though you might be able to play the Ten and Jack first if you had control, if the auto-feature takes over, it will inevitably play the Eight first, costing you 2000 points! The goal is to hold onto a card that keeps the Eight from being played automatically, yet allows you to play the Diamond and Spade suits up to the Ten and Jack. I find this to be one of the most challenging parts of the game, but incredibly rewarding when you are able to pull it off!

#8 - Strategize before playing the Pile-to-Hand Bonus. The Pile-to-Hand Bonus is useful more often than not (probably why it's called a "Bonus"), but sometimes it can leave you stuck with cards in your hand that you can't get to without using Shuffle or Any Space. If you have more than one play available at the time the Pile-to-Hand Bonus can be played, think about what you want to do before playing it. This is especially important if some of your other plays are on piles with only one face-down card. Do you want to play the Bonus, move the face-down card to your hand, and leave an empty spot with your next play? Or do you want to play your other card first so you can play the face-down card on the table?

#9 - Use Peek to your advantage. Okay. It's the cheat we all love to hate. As I implied in tip #1, Peek is the one cheat that is essentially useless - while playing out the deck. I have maybe used it once in the last 100 decks that I've played; however, this doesn't make the cheat absolutely worthless. You may have noticed that upon completing a deck, you are awarded a final bonus which is the product of the number of cookies that you've obtained, multiplied by the number of decks you've completed, multiplied by the number of cheats that you have left! So, don't use Peek just for the sake of using it - save it to increase your deck completion bonus.

#10 - Take your time and don't give up! I don't know how many times I've noticed a play sitting on the table that I could have made two rounds ago or dealt the next three cards in my hand just as I see a play that I could have made from my hand. All it takes is one mistake to make the difference between completing a deck and a 200-point Surrender. And if the Surrender is inevitable, don't pull the plug until you've played every point that you can. You still get credit for points that you've accumulated on un-completed decks. That extra 50 points may seem like peanuts compared to a decent deck score, but after a couple of hundred Surrendered decks it will add up!