Minesweeper

How to play Minesweeper

Minesweeper is a game of deduction on a grid of hidden squares. Some of them hide mines. Uncover a square and it either tells you how many mines touch it, or it is a mine and the game is over.

You win by uncovering every square that is not a mine. Flagging the mines is an aid to your own thinking rather than a goal — the board is won on what you have uncovered.

Reading the numbers

A number tells you how many of the eight squares touching it — sides and corners — contain a mine. A square with no number at all touches no mines, so the game opens up its neighbours for you automatically, which is where those satisfying cascades come from.

Everything in Minesweeper comes from comparing a number against the squares around it. If a 1 touches exactly one hidden square, that square is a mine. If a 1 already touches a flag, every other square around it is safe.

Controls

Uncovering and flagging need to be separate actions, and on a phone that is usually done with a long press — which is slow and easy to get wrong. This version uses a flag button instead: press it to switch between uncovering and flagging, and tap normally either way.

• Tap a square to uncover it.
• Flag mode — turn the flag button on and taps place and remove flags instead.
• On a desktop, right-click flags a square directly, as you would expect.

The first click is always safe

The mines are laid out after your first tap, not before, and never underneath it. So the opening move can never lose the game — a rule worth knowing, because it means there is no reason to hesitate over where to start.

Starting somewhere central tends to open up more board than starting in a corner.

Difficulties

• Beginner — 9 x 9 with 10 mines. Roughly one square in eight. A gentle start.
• Intermediate — 13 x 13 with 26 mines. About one in six and the usual step up.
• Expert — 16 x 16 with 51 mines. One square in five, dense enough that careless play is punished quickly.

Patterns worth learning

Most of Minesweeper is two rules applied over and over, plus a handful of shapes you start to recognise.

• If the number equals the hidden squares around it, all of them are mines.
• If the number equals the flags around it, every other neighbour is safe.
• The 1-2-1 pattern along a wall: the mines sit under the 1s, not the 2.
• The 1-2-2-1 pattern: the mines sit under the 2s.
• Work the edges first. Squares against a wall have fewer neighbours, so their numbers constrain far more tightly than one in the middle.

When you have to guess

Occasionally a board leaves a genuine coin-flip and no amount of care will resolve it. When it happens, count: work out which of the two candidate squares is involved in more constraints, and prefer the one with the better odds rather than the nearer one.

Common questions

Can I lose on my first click?

No. The mines are placed after you tap, and never on the square you tapped.

Do I have to flag every mine to win?

No. The board is won when every safe square is uncovered. Flags are there to help you keep track.

Why is there a flag button instead of a long press?

Long presses are slow, easy to trigger by accident and awkward while scrolling. A mode button is faster and far more reliable on a touchscreen.

Are the boards always solvable by logic?

Not always. Minesweeper boards can contain a genuine fifty-fifty, and this version does not pretend otherwise. The first click being safe removes the worst of the luck.