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Mini Games

Minesweeper

Minesweeper - the classic logic puzzle of clearing safe cells while avoiding hidden mines

How to Play

  • Tap a cell to reveal it. The first tap is always safe.
  • Numbers show how many mines touch that cell. Right-click, long-press, or use flag mode to mark mines with 🚩.
  • Reveal every safe cell without hitting a mine to win!

Select Difficulty

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Minesweeper is a logic puzzle played on a grid of covered squares. Some squares hide mines; every other square shows a number once you open it, and that number counts the mines among its eight neighbors, diagonals included. Open every safe square without touching a mine and the board is cleared.

Controls are simple. Click or tap to open a square. Right-click, long-press for about a third of a second, or switch on Flag mode to plant a 🚩 on a square you think is mined. Open squares with no neighboring mines spread out automatically. Your first click can never lose: the square you pick and all eight around it are kept mine-free, so the opening always clears a patch of the board. Clicking an already-open number does nothing here (there is no chording), so every safe square is opened by hand.

There are three boards. Easy is 9×9 with 10 mines, the same layout as the classic beginner board. Medium (12×12, 26 mines) and Hard (16×16, 56 mines) are our own sizes, picked to fit a phone screen; the classic intermediate board is 16×16 with 40 mines and the classic expert board 30×16 with 99. Hard is the densest of the lot at about 22% mines. The timer starts on your first click and counts in hundredths of a second. Only wins are timed: your best time per board is kept on your device and goes onto that board's leaderboard.

Two patterns cover a lot of play. A 1-2-1 along a wall means mines under both 1s and a safe square under the 2; a 1-2-2-1 means mines under the two 2s. Subtract mines you have already flagged before applying them.

The game descends from mine-grid games of the early 1980s. Microsoft's version first came in the Microsoft Entertainment Pack in 1990 and shipped with Windows 3.1 in 1992, which is how it reached millions of office PCs.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Q. Can the first click hit a mine?

    A. No. The square you click first and the eight squares around it are always mine-free, so your first click opens an empty area to start from.

  • Q. How big are the boards?

    A. Easy is 9×9 with 10 mines, like the classic beginner board. Medium is 12×12 with 26 mines and Hard is 16×16 with 56 mines; these two are custom sizes that fit phone screens, not the classic 16×16/40 and 30×16/99 boards.

  • Q. How do I place a flag on a phone?

    A. Long-press a square for about a third of a second, or turn on Flag mode above the board and tap. Chording (clicking an open number to clear its neighbors) is not supported.

  • Q. Is Minesweeper down to luck?

    A. Mostly not. The numbers settle the vast majority of squares, but now and then a true 50/50 appears, usually near the end, where no logic can tell the two squares apart.