How to play Minesweeper

Minesweeper is a classic test of pure deduction. Somewhere under the grid sit a fixed number of hidden mines. Your job is to uncover every safe square without ever clicking a mine — using the clues the board reveals as you go. It's a quiet, satisfying logic puzzle that rewards careful thinking over speed.

Goal

Reveal every cell that does not contain a mine. Do that and you win. Open a single mine and the round ends immediately, so the game is really about proving where the mines are before you commit to a click.

Reading the board

When you reveal a safe cell, it shows a number — and that number is the whole game. It tells you exactly how many mines touch that cell among its eight surrounding neighbours. A "1" means just one of those neighbours is a mine; a "3" means three of them are. A cell that touches no mines at all shows no number and automatically opens up its entire connected region of blanks, often clearing a large area in one click.

Controls

• Left-click reveals a cell.
• Right-click (or long-press on touch) plants a flag to mark a cell you believe hides a mine. Flagging never reveals — it's just your own marker, and you can right-click again to remove it.
• Left-click a revealed number once you've flagged as many neighbours as its value to chord-click — this instantly opens every remaining unflagged neighbour. It's a huge time-saver, but only safe if your flags are correct.

Difficulty and tips

Beginner is a 9×9 grid with 10 mines, Intermediate is 16×16 with 40, and Expert is a wide 30×16 board with 99. Your very first click is always safe — the mines are placed around it — so open up the middle to get a generous starting region.

• Work the edges of revealed areas, where the numbers give you the most information.
• When a "1" already touches one flagged mine, every other neighbour of that cell is provably safe.
• If two numbers share neighbours, compare what each demands — the overlap often pins a mine exactly.