How to Play Microsoft Solitaire Collection's Events

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Last Updated: August 28, 2026

If you are looking for additional Solitaire games to play, consider playing Microsoft Solitaire Collection's Events mode. With the added value of additional XP for each solitaire game they have and various points and awards, many people have played these games. Have you? If you haven't yet, but have the app, this article will explain how these events can be played.

1

Recognize what to expect from this feature.

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- Some events are geared towards just the same game types at different difficulties. This includes Klondike Adventure, Spider Adventure, FreeCell Adventure, Pyramid Adventure, and TriPeaks Adventure.
- Some events are geared towards the different game types at the same difficulties. This includes Easy Street, Medium Mayhem, The Hard Road, and Experts Only.
- Some events are geared to various games at varied levels. This includes Solitaire World Tour.
- One event type features two game types at various difficulties (the minimum is two difficulties). This includes Two Game Tango.
- Watch out for smaller, shorter, quicker games known as Mini, which is one event type at shorter numbers of games. These can either be Klondike Mini, Spider Mini, FreeCell Mini, Pyramid Mini, TriPeaks Mini, Easy Street Mini, Medium Mayhem Mini, The Hard Road Mini, Experts Only Mini (though Experts Only won't give very many games anyway), Solitaire World Tour Mini, and Two Game Tango Mini.
- In May 2026 when the Solitaire Collection celebrated National Solitaire Day by including 15 easy-difficulty games with the name National Solitaire Day, but that didn't differ from these other events.

2

Recognize the challenge totals for an event.

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Events have between 5 and 30 challenges per event.
- Mini events have 5, 6, or 10 challenges, though some have been geared up to 15.
- Other events with their challenges geared towards the same game types with different difficulties and those geared to varied games at varied levels can have between 15 and 30 challenges.
- The numbers of games can be better answered as you go through these events directly.

3

Look into the type of challenges you may encounter.

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Challenges will be different from one another. The types of challenges may also vary, depending on the event.
- Klondike Solitaire (blue block): Score Challenges, Card Challenges and Solve Challenges.
  - Score Challenges involve playing the game and earning a set score. Notice that this score isn't the set XP points. Once you obtain this score, you'll win the challenge.
  - Card Challenges involve playing the game until a card is moved into the foundation (on the aces piles). Once that card is moved, you'll win the game.
  - Solve Challenges involve solving the entire tableau. Once you've solved the tableau, you'll win the game.
- Spider Solitaire (purple block): Stack Challenges, Score Challenges, and Solve Challenges.
  - Stack Challenges involve completing a set number of stacks. Once you've completed this number, you'll win the game.
  - Score Challenges involve playing the game and earning a set score. Notice that this score isn't the set XP points. Once you obtain this score, you'll win the challenge.
  - Solve Challenges involve solving the entire tableau. Once you've solved the tableau, you'll win the game.
- FreeCell Solitaire (red block): Solve Challenges and Card Challenges.
  - Solve Challenges involve solving the entire tableau. Once you've solved the tableau, you'll win the game.
  - Card Challenges involve playing the game until a card is moved into the foundation (on the aces piles). Once that card is moved, you'll win the game.
- Pyramid (orange block): Score Challenges, Card Challenges, and Board Challenges.
  - Score Challenges involve playing the game and earning a set score. Notice that this score isn't the set XP points. Once you obtain this score, you'll win the challenge.
  - Card Challenges involve playing the game, matching cards until the total number of cards you've matched (or total number of that card has been located and selected) has been reached. Once you've selected the last set of that card, you'll win the game.
  - Board Challenges involve solving boards. Once you've solved that number of boards to their fullest, you'll win that challenge.
- TriPeaks Solitaire (green block): Score Challenges, Card Challenges, and Board Challenges.
  - Score Challenges involve playing the game and earning a set score. Notice that this score isn't the set XP points. Once you obtain this score, you'll win the challenge.
  - Card Challenges involve playing the game, matching cards until the total number of cards you've selected up or down from the last card has been reached. Once you've selected the last set of that card, you'll win the game.
  - Board Challenges involve solving boards. Once you've solved that number of boards to their fullest, you'll win that challenge.

4

Get to the Events feature.

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This button will look different and depend on the type of event being held and hosted by Solitaire Collection.
- Open Microsoft's Solitaire Collection app, whether on your Windows 10, Windows 11, or iOS/iPadOS or Android device. The app has a blue background and has a bunch of cards with "EST 1990" on a ribbon on these cards.
  - Windows' Solitaire icon shows the same three cards but is missing the EST 1990 and instead has a tiny + in its top right corner and is labeled just "Solitaire" or "Solitaire Collection" (depending on your version).
  - This version of Solitaire began with Windows 8^{[1]
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    - In 2013, Windows rolled out a new version called Windows 8.1, but that still dropped support in 2023.^{[3]
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- Open the events feature once the app opens through its splash screen and into the main app screen.
  - On the Windows app found here, you'll find the events feature to be in the bar to the right of "Daily Challenges," just below the FreeCell and TriPeaks games near the top of the screen.
  - On the mobile app found here and here, you'll find the events feature directly below the Daily Challenges button, to the right of "TriPeaks."
- If you are between two events, it'll show the event type, but when you select the event, the screen will show an upcoming "Get Ready" screen along with a working countdown clock below "This Event will start in.".

5

Learn about the Challenge screen.

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Challenges are broken up into several sections. However, the color will vary on the game type played.
- At the top left of the screen, you'll spot the bar about the event conducted. The Windows one has a more graphical GUI, but it's unclickable.
- Within the challenge information box located just below the event name, you'll find the challenge number inside a ribbon labeled "Challenge #(number)".
- Below that will be the challenge info box. This contains the difficulty level for the challenge (Easy, Medium, Hard, Expert).
- Towards the center of the box, you'll find a graphical image of the challenge type (for the game type) and the type of challenge you'll get. The Event challenge types match the Daily Challenge and game challenge difficulties equally.
- Just below this, you'll spot the total points you'll receive for this challenge and the number of game XP you'll receive if you win the game.
  - All challenges are considered winnable, but are based on Microsoft's knowledge of each game. Also, some aren't played to the end (except Solve Challenges).
- To the right of the visual icon and challenge type, you'll spot the Play! button. You can click this button to begin playing this challenge.
- Just outside this box, you'll find "< Skip" and "> Skip" buttons (until there's only one challenge remaining), which can cycle through the challenges as you encounter them.
  - When there is only one challenge remaining, those Skip buttons will vanish.
- Just below the scroll of challenge info, you'll find the number of Challenges Completed.
- There's a bar for other Challenge information, like Calendar (of upcoming events based on a monthly calendar) and a breakdown of the type of Challenges you'll see within this event broken down and displayed to you on the "Challenges" button.
- Below that is your game points progress bar. It's unselectable but keeps tabs on how far you're getting within the Event.

6

Read the Challenge information box.

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This is the last details dialog box before you are presented with that challenge.
- At the top, you'll spot the game type ribbon, challenge number, and complete challenge information (what needs to be completed to win that challenge).
- Below that, you'll find the difficulty level and reward you'll pick up on a successful completion.
  - Partially complete games now receive partial XP. After being subscriber-only between 2018 and 2025, you can now win partial XP for partially complete games if you lose, but you must try it.
- Below that, you'll see a Play button and a Cancel button. Play will get you further, while Cancel will take you back to the Challenges menu.

7

Solve the challenges.

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Games are played much like regular games with cards or with other online solitaire games of the same type. However, if you need help, there are some solitaire how-tos on wikiHow found here, here, here, here, and here.
- Although the bottom bar contains the same setup between PC and mobile devices (including Retry, (two disabled buttons: Solver and Hint), Undo All, Undo, and More), the top bar will differ between PC and mobile device setups.
  - On a PC, you'll see the menu followed by a Back button (taking you back to your Challenges screen), but also a total XP area (which changes as you complete the challenge), as well as the challenge to be completed (without mentioning the challenge number), difficulty and timer (if Microsoft set one up for that game type), and a Full Screen View switcher button (which contains diagonal-up and down buttons pointing towards the top right and bottom left corner of the box).
  - On mobile devices, this bar is simplified. You'll get an ← (as your Back button), total XP, and a challenge to complete (further simplified so it's easy to find and read). Below that bar, you'll spot your difficulty level for this challenge and total timer (counting up).

8

Skim or read your Challenge Complete box.

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- This box contains the challenge number, challenge type near the top of the box, your game overall rank and level, and Reward. It also contains a Continue button. Select the Continue button to exit back out!
- If at any time you decide you’d rather not wait for the Challenge Completed animation to finish filling your XP, tap or click where the Complete Challenge box would be (at the bottom of this box), and it'll advance you to the Complete box, which you will then need to tap again.
- There's no difference in how this box is shown between PC and mobile devices; the only place where there are no differences is in the way the screen shows you.

9

Complete as many challenges as you can.

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You dictate in what order challenges are tackled. Most people play the easiest ones first, though others play game types that they know the most about and could beat in a heartbeat.
- As you complete challenges from the main event menu, you'll notice a countdown clock until the event ends. This is the "Ends in" timer towards the top left corner (just below Menu and "← Back"). Try to finish up whatever challenges you can before that clock strikes 0s.
  - Depending on how long til the clock ends, you'll either see hours and minutes, minutes and seconds, or just seconds, and each one of these pushes the need to complete that much quicker into your need to finish the Event up.
- Note that only players who've completed all challenges will be shown the next steps' screen.

10

Wait for the Events screen to fill the progress bar and switch to the next challenge.

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Once you complete your first challenge, your Leaderboard button will enable. The Leaderboard shows you how you stack up with all the other challenge players in your set of 50 players.
- You can't go back into a previously played challenge, unlike challenges played in the Daily Challenge.
- After you solve the last Challenge, the scroll will roll back up, and you'll be presented with the "All Challenges Completed" screen. This screen means you've completed the event and have solved all challenges.
  - At that point, you'll have to wait the event concludes, and a new event is issued. The time until this event officially finishes is displayed on the countdown clock below the "All Challenges Completed" title.
  - Once the event completes, the new event cycle begins again, starting at the top.
  - This page will have a countdown timer until the event finishes and will be cleared away, just underneath the title.
- Most events don't stick around very long, and most end after 20-22 hours. Those that go for a few days (most do not, these are few and far in between) open in the early morning and don't close until earlier in the morning before the new one opens. In the top left corner of the event screen, you'll spot a countdown timer until the event finishes.
  - About 15-30 minutes past the end of the last event (if you solved any challenges), you'll see an "Your Event results are ready!" box that asks if you'd like to see your results "now." If you want to see them, tap "yes"; if not, tap "no."
- Very few events conclude with the new events opening coinciding with each other. If you miss an event, Microsoft doesn't log these, and you'll sadly miss out all these games' XP.

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After solving 50 challenges within all the events, you'll be given a virtual award trophy saying you've completed 50 challenges. You'll stack up additional copies of this same trophy as you complete the different events in sets of 50 total challenges.

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There are other various virtual Awards you can obtain for completing Events.
- The Event Awards are Eventgoer (solved your first challenge), Event Afficionado (solved all the challenges in an Event), Blinged Out (solved 100 challenges), One with the Dash (hard if you don't know Expert games well), Always Invited (always tried and completed one event within every event of the month), Playing the Odds (played all the odd-numbered challenges before completing the evens), and Perfect 10 (completed all challenges to 10 events).
- Check out your Awards section of the app to see which trophies you've won.
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Periodically, you'll earn an Event award, based on the progress bar. These points will add up. As you excel through the event, it'll explode each virtual glass pane away and color it when your progress bar has gone into and past that point. Although you'll have to select the Ok button once you've seen it notify you, you can get back to that point by selecting the Awards tab (to the right of Challenges) (mobile device) or to the right of the challenges section (PC version).
- There's a "Your Event Profile" below these awards buttons, but you must have accessed this page from the Challenges pane directly or you won't see this button.
  - In this area, you'll spot additional details about your activity within the events you play, along with details about your current event and how you stack up against other players in your 50-person group.
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