How to play Minesweeper
A complete guide: the rules, the controls, the patterns that solve most boards, and how scoring works in this version.
In one paragraph. Somewhere under the grid there are mines. Open a tile and it tells you how many mines touch it. Use those numbers to work out which tiles are safe, mark the mines with flags, and open everything else. Clear the whole board and you win - Easy is worth 1 point, Medium 2 and Hard 3. Your first tile is always safe, so you never lose on the opening click.
The rules of Minesweeper
Minesweeper is played on a rectangular grid of covered tiles. A fixed number of mines is hidden under them, spread at random, and the counter above the board tells you how many there are. Nothing else is hidden: there are no traps, no moving pieces and no time pressure beyond the clock that runs for your own record.
- Open a tile. If a mine is under it, the board is over. If not, the tile shows a number from 1 to 8 - how many of its eight neighbours (including the diagonals) contain a mine.
- A blank tile means zero. When an opened tile touches no mines at all, the game automatically opens everything around it, and keeps going outwards until it reaches numbers. That is why a lucky click can clear a quarter of the board at once.
- Flag what you are sure about. A flag marks a tile as a mine and protects it: a flagged tile cannot be opened by accident. Flags are bookkeeping for you - the game never checks whether they are right until the board ends.
- You win by opening every safe tile. The mines do not need to be flagged; when the last safe tile is opened, the remaining tiles are marked for you and the board is done.
What the numbers really tell you
Every number is a small, exact statement: "of my eight neighbours, exactly this many are mines". Two consequences follow, and together they solve most of a board:
- The count is complete. If a 1 already has one flag next to it, every other neighbour is safe - all of them, with certainty.
- The count is tight. If a 3 has exactly three covered neighbours left, all three are mines. No deduction needed, just counting.
Almost everything else is these two rules applied to a pair of numbers at once. A tile that two numbers disagree about is usually where the next certain move is hiding, so when you get stuck, stop staring at one number and compare neighbours instead.
Playing this game
On a phone or tablet
- Tap a covered tile to open it.
- Hold a tile for about half a second to plant or remove a flag - the phone gives a short buzz.
- Flag button in the toolbar switches taps to flagging permanently, which is faster when you are marking a whole cluster. Tap it again to go back to opening.
- Tap an open number whose flags are all in place to open the rest around it at once.
- The Hard board is wider than a phone screen, so it scrolls sideways inside its own frame; the page around it stays put.
On a computer
- Left click opens a tile.
- Right click plants or removes a flag.
- Left click on a number whose flags match its count opens all remaining neighbours - the "chord".
- Keyboard: Tab and the arrow keys move between tiles, Enter or Space opens, F flags, Esc closes a dialog.
Difficulty levels and points
The three levels are the classic ones. They differ in board size and in mine density, which is what actually makes a board harder: the denser the mines, the more often the numbers overlap and the further ahead you have to reason.
| Level | Board | Mines | Density | Points for clearing it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 9 × 9 (81 tiles) | 10 | 12% | 1 |
| Medium | 16 × 16 (256 tiles) | 40 | 16% | 2 |
| Hard | 16 × 30 (480 tiles) | 99 | 21% | 3 |
Points are awarded only for a board you finish. Hitting a mine ends that board and awards nothing - there is no penalty beyond that, and starting again is free. Your points, your number of wins and your best time on each level are kept in your browser and shown in the header.
The hint button
Stuck? The hint button opens one tile that is guaranteed not to be a mine, preferring the edge of the area you have already cleared - the place where you are actually stuck rather than a random corner. Hints are unlimited and cost no points. Try to work out why the tile was safe once it opens - that is how the patterns stick.
Patterns that solve most boards
1. The completed number
Find a number that already has as many flags around it as its value. Every remaining covered neighbour is safe. This is the single most useful move in the game and the reason chording exists: instead of clicking those tiles one by one, click the number itself.
2. The forced count
The mirror image: a number whose covered neighbours are exactly as many as its value. All of them are mines - flag them and move on. A 1 in a corner with one covered tile left is the simplest case.
3. The 1-1 rule along a wall
Two adjacent 1s sitting on the edge of your cleared area, both looking at the same pair of covered tiles: the first 1 says one of those two is a mine, so the second 1's count is already used up. Any extra tile that only the second 1 touches is therefore safe. This is how you make progress along a long wall of ones without guessing.
4. The 1-2-1 pattern
Three numbers in a row reading 1-2-1, with three covered tiles in front of them: the mines are under the two 1s, and the tile in front of the 2 is safe. It appears constantly on the Medium and Hard boards and is worth learning by sight.
5. The 1-2-2-1 pattern
Four in a row reading 1-2-2-1 with four covered tiles: the mines are under the two 2s, and the tiles in front of the 1s are safe - the exact opposite of 1-2-1, which is why they are worth learning as a pair.
6. Counting the leftovers
Late in a board, use the mine counter. If three mines remain and you can prove two of them are in one corner, the last one is somewhere in the rest - and often that is enough to finish a region that no single number could resolve. On the Hard board this endgame count regularly saves a guess.
Tips for playing faster
- Open the middle first. The opening click is always safe, and a tile in the middle has eight neighbours instead of three, so it is far more likely to start a big cascade.
- Work the frontier, not the board. All information lives on the boundary between opened and covered tiles. Scan along it instead of jumping around.
- Chord instead of clicking. Once the flags around a number are right, one click on the number replaces up to eight clicks.
- Flag only what you need. Flags cost time; experienced players flag just enough to enable chording.
- When you must guess, guess cheaply. Prefer a corner or an edge tile, and prefer a guess that will reveal a lot if it is right.
- Take the pause. The timer stops with the board covered, so stepping away costs you nothing.
A short history
The game descends from 1960s and 1970s mainframe games about walking through hidden minefields, was shaped into its modern form by Mined-Out (1983) and Relentless Logic, and reached everyone when Microsoft shipped Minesweeper with Windows 3.1 in 1992 - originally as a way to teach people to use the right mouse button. The rules have barely changed since: a grid, some numbers, and the constant, quiet pressure of one wrong click.
Frequently asked questions
Is this Minesweeper game free?
Yes. Every level is free, there is no account and no purchase. The game is paid for by the advertising described in our Privacy Policy.
Can the first click be a mine?
No. The mines are placed after your first click, and never on it or on the eight tiles around it, so the opening move always opens a pocket rather than ending the board.
Is every board solvable without guessing?
Not always. Mines are placed at random, as in the original game, so a board can end in a position where two tiles are equally likely and only a guess separates them. Good play makes that rare and pushes it to the very end of the board; the hint button is there for when it happens.
Do I have to flag all the mines to win?
No. The board is won the moment the last safe tile is opened. Any mines you did not flag are marked for you.
Is my progress saved?
Yes. The board, your flags, the timer, your points, your wins and your best time per level live in your browser's local storage. Close the tab and reopen it later and everything is where you left it. Clearing your browser data or playing in private mode erases it.
Can I play offline?
Once the page has loaded, the game itself needs no connection - everything runs in your browser. Only the advertisement and the measurement need the network.
How many points can I earn?
One point for each Easy board you clear, two for Medium and three for Hard. There is no cap: the total simply adds up in your browser. It is a personal counter, not a ranking, and it has no monetary value.
What happens when I hit a mine?
The board ends, every mine is revealed, and any flag you placed on a safe tile is marked as wrong so you can see where the reasoning went astray. No points are awarded, and the next board starts immediately.