Minesweeper — The Rules, the Numbers, and How to Clear a Board
Minesweeper hides a set number of mines in a grid of covered squares. Open a square and it either shows a mine — game over — or a number telling you how many of the eight squares touching it contain mines. Open every square that is not a mine and you win. Your first click here is always safe: the mines are only laid after it, away from that square and its neighbours, so every game opens with a clear patch to work from.
The numbers are the whole game. A 1 next to only one covered square means that square is a mine; flag it. Once a number's mines are all flagged, every other covered square around it is safe to open. Most of the board falls to those two ideas, repeated. The famous patterns — the 1-2-1 along a wall, where the mines sit under the 1s, and the 1-2-2-1, where they sit under the 2s — are those same two ideas applied to a row at once.
Flag a square by right-clicking it, by long-pressing it on a phone, or by switching on Flag mode and tapping. Clicking a number whose flags already match it opens all of its remaining neighbours in one go — called chording, it is what makes fast play possible. A wrong flag means chording opens a mine, so flag carefully.
There are three standard sizes: Beginner, 9 by 9 with 10 mines; Intermediate, 16 by 16 with 40; and Expert, 30 by 16 with 99. Expert is wider than a phone screen, so it scrolls sideways inside its own box. The mine counter shows mines minus flags placed, and the timer starts on your first click. Occasionally even perfect play reaches a spot that is a genuine fifty-fifty guess — that is part of classic Minesweeper.
How to play Minesweeper
- Choose Beginner, Intermediate or Expert.
- Click any square to start — the first click is always safe.
- Numbers show how many mines touch that square. Use them to work out where the mines are.
- Flag a mine with right-click, a long-press, or Flag mode.
- Click a number whose mines are all flagged to open everything else around it. Open every safe square to win.