How to play Minesweeper
Minesweeper is the logic puzzle that came with Windows. Open every safe square on the board without uncovering a mine, using the numbers as clues.
Each number tells you how many of the eight surrounding squares hide a mine.
Rules
- Beginner is 9 × 9 with 10 mines, Intermediate 16 × 16 with 40, and Expert 30 × 16 with 99.
- Your first click is always safe and always opens an area.
- Opening a blank square opens all its neighbours automatically.
- Flag squares you know are mines. Clicking a number that already has the right number of flags around it opens all its other neighbours (chording).
- Open every safe square to win. Your time is your score, and the best time, win rate and streaks are kept for each difficulty.
Controls
- Left-click
- Open a square
- Right-click
- Place or remove a flag
- Click a number
- Chord: open its unflagged neighbours
- Tap / long-press
- Open / flag on touch screens (the Dig/Flag toggle swaps them)
- Arrows + Space
- Keyboard play; F flags, N new game
- 1 / 2 / 3
- Switch difficulty
Tips
- A 1 touching only one closed square means that square is a mine. Start from simple cases like that.
- Look for the 1-2-1 and 1-2-2-1 patterns along a wall: they always resolve the same way.
- Chording saves a lot of clicks and time once you trust your flags.
- If you really have to guess, open squares in the middle of open ground rather than squares next to other numbers.
About Minesweeper
Minesweeper descends from mine-hunting puzzles of the 1960s and 70s, but the version everyone knows was written by Robert Donner and Curt Johnson at Microsoft and shipped in the Windows Entertainment Pack in 1990, then with Windows 3.1 in 1992. It is often credited with teaching a generation to right-click, which is a polite way of saying it was on every office PC for two decades.
This remake keeps the three classic board sizes, chording and a guaranteed-safe first click, and adds keyboard play, long-press flagging on touch screens, and best times, win rates and streaks for each difficulty.
Questions
What does the first click do in Minesweeper?
Your first click is always safe and always opens up an area of blank squares, so you never lose on move one and always have some numbers to work from.
How do I flag on a phone?
Long-press a square to flag it, or use the Dig/Flag toggle to make every tap a flag. On a desktop, right-click flags and left-click opens.
What is chording?
Click a revealed number that already has the right number of flags around it and all its other neighbours open at once. It is the quickest way to clear a board, provided your flags are right.
How is Minesweeper scored?
By time: your score is how fast you clear the board. Best time, win rate and current streak are kept separately for Beginner, Intermediate and Expert, locally in your browser.