How to Play Minesweeper

Many people first met Minesweeper on an office computer years ago, clicked a few squares, lost in three seconds and decided it was a game of luck. It is not. Once you know what the numbers are telling you, it becomes a calm, satisfying puzzle of pure reasoning, a little like a crossword where every clue is a number.

This page explains the game from the very beginning, with two small examples you can follow square by square. Read it once, then try a Small board. Most people are clearing boards within a few games.

The Board

The game is played on a grid of covered squares. Some of them hide mines; the rest are safe. You can choose from three sizes here:

A counter under the board shows how many mines are left, which is simply the number of mines minus the number of flags you have placed.

The Goal

You win by uncovering every safe square. That is all. You do not need to flag the mines, although flags are a great help along the way. You lose if you dig a square that hides a mine, though on this site you can take that move back if you wish (see "If you dig a mine" below).

Digging and Flagging

There are only two things you ever do to a square:

• Dig it, to uncover it. Do this when you are sure the square is safe.
• Flag it, to mark it as a mine. Do this when you are sure a mine is there. A flagged square can't be dug by accident. Tap it again in Flag mode to take the flag off.

Under the board are two large buttons, Dig and Flag. Whichever one is pressed in decides what a tap on the board does. You can also press and hold a square for about half a second to flag it without changing mode, or right-click it with a mouse. With a keyboard, move around with the arrow keys, press Enter or Space to dig and F to flag.

What the Numbers Mean

When you dig a safe square, it shows a number from 1 to 8: how many mines touch that square. "Touch" means any of the eight squares around it: above, below, left, right and the four corners. A square on the edge of the board has only five neighbours, and a corner square has only three.

If a safe square touches no mines at all, it shows no number. It is a blank, and because none of its neighbours can be a mine, the game opens them all for you at once. If any of those are blank too, their neighbours open as well, so one tap can open a large area.

Each number has its own color here (1 is blue, 2 is green, 3 is red, and so on), but the digit is always printed large and clear, so you never have to rely on the color.

Your First Square

On this site, your first square is always safe. The mines are only placed after you tap, and never on that square or the eight around it. So the first square is always a blank, and it always opens an area for you to start reasoning from. It does not matter much where you start; the middle is as good as anywhere.

Worked Example 1: The Lonely 1

Here is the bottom-left corner of a board, so row 2 is the bottom edge. "?" is a covered square, and the numbers are open squares. Rows and columns are numbered so we can talk about them.

Let us reason it through one step at a time.

1. Look at the 1 in row 2, column 1. Its covered neighbours are row 1, column 1 and row 1, column 2 (it is on the edge, so it has no squares below). One of those two is a mine, but we don't know which yet.
2. Now look at the 1 in row 2, column 2. Its covered neighbours are all three squares of row 1, plus row 2, column 3. It also needs exactly one mine.
3. The first 1 has already told us that one mine is in row 1, column 1 or 2. Both of those squares also touch the second 1. So the second 1's single mine is used up there.
4. That means the second 1's other covered squares (row 1, column 3 and row 2, column 3) are both safe. Dig them.

This idea, "this number's mine must be in squares it shares with a neighbour, so its other squares are safe", is one of the most useful in the game. The Hint button here explains steps exactly like this one.

Worked Example 2: Flag, Then Clear

Again row 2 is the bottom edge of the board.

1. The 2 in row 2, column 2 touches only three covered squares: row 1, columns 1, 2 and 3. Two of those three are mines.
2. The 1 in row 2, column 1 touches only row 1, columns 1 and 2. So at most one mine is in those two squares.
3. The 2 needs two mines but can find at most one in columns 1 and 2. So the other one must be in row 1, column 3. Flag it.
4. Now the 1 in row 2, column 3 touches that flag. It already has its one mine, so its other covered neighbours (row 1, column 2; row 1, column 4; row 2, column 4) are safe. Dig them.
5. With row 1, column 2 safe, the 1 in row 2, column 1 has only one place left for its mine: row 1, column 1. Flag it, and this corner is finished.

Notice the rhythm: one number tells you where a mine must be, you flag it, and the flag "uses up" a neighbour's number, which tells you where it is safe to dig. Most of a game is that rhythm, repeated.

Chording (Optional)

When a number already has as many flags beside it as the number shows, all its other covered neighbours are safe. Experienced players open them all at once by tapping the number itself. This is called chording. It is switched off here unless you turn it on in Settings, because a tap on a number that has a wrong flag beside it will dig a mine.

If You Dig a Mine

In the classic game, digging a mine ends the game at once. Here, unless you switch it off, the game asks "Oops! Take that back?" Undo puts the square back as it was, and you can carry on. A game where you took a mine back still counts as a win if you finish the board, but not as a perfect game. If you choose not to take it back, every mine is shown, any flag in the wrong place gets a cross, and you can replay the same board or start a new one.

Winning

The moment the last safe square is open, the board is cleared and you have won. Any mines you hadn't flagged are flagged for you. The end screen tells you whether it was a perfect game, how many hints you used and, if you turned the timer on, how long you took.

Common Questions

Do I have to flag every mine?

No. Flags are reminders for you. Only opening the safe squares counts. That said, flagging the mines you are sure of makes the next steps much easier to see.

Will I ever have to guess?

Not with the standard setting. Every board is checked before you see it, and only boards that can be cleared by reasoning are used. If you switch "No-guess boards" off in Settings, you get classic random boards, where now and then two squares are truly a coin toss.

What if I get stuck?

Scan along the edge of the open area for a number that is already "full" (it touches as many flags as its number), or one with as many covered neighbours as its number. If you still can't see a move, tap Hint. It opens a safe square and tells you the reason, so you learn the pattern for next time.

Can I play the same board again?

Yes. Replay This Puzzle in the end screen puts the same mines back, with your first square already opened. Each board also has a puzzle number; a friend who types the same number in Settings and taps the same first square gets the same board.

If You Like Minesweeper

Minesweeper suits people who enjoy careful, step-by-step reasoning. If that is you, try Sudoku, which has the same "prove it, don't guess it" feel, or a gentle Word Search. When you are ready to go further, our strategy guide covers the patterns that come up again and again.