Minesweeper how-to: rules, flags and safe moves

How to play

1. Reveal tiles until every cell without a mine is open. A corrupted crystal is a mine: opening one ends the round.
2. Each number counts mines in the eight surrounding cells, including diagonals. Blank cells have no adjacent mines and automatically open connected blank areas and their numbered edges.
3. Flag a hidden cell when you believe it contains a mine. Flags do not prove a cell is a mine and are not required to win. The counter is total mines minus the flags you placed; too many flags make it negative.
4. Double-click an open number when exactly that many neighboring cells are flagged. This chord opens its remaining unflagged neighbors. A wrong flag can make the chord hit a mine.
5. Beginner has 9 columns and 9 rows with 10 mines. Intermediate is 16×16 with 40. Expert is 30 columns by 16 rows with 99. Mines are randomly placed after the first reveal; later moves are not guaranteed to be solvable without guessing.
6. Play again creates a new random field at the same difficulty. Switching difficulty or pressing New game replaces the current board. Unfinished boards are not restored after leaving or reloading.

Controls

Mouse

Left-click to reveal, right-click to toggle a flag and double-click a revealed number to chord.

Touch

Tap to reveal, hold a tile to flag, or turn on Flag mode and tap. Swipe sideways to explore a wide board; a swipe cancels a long press.

Keyboard

Arrow keys move focus. Enter or Space selects using the current reveal or flag mode. F toggles a flag; C chords an open number.

Score and progress

The timer starts on the first reveal, pauses with Pause or when the tab is hidden, and stops when you win or lose. There is no time limit. Your wins, games started and best winning time are saved separately for each difficulty on this browser when local storage is available.

Tips

• Start on Beginner and look at the boundary between revealed numbers and hidden tiles. A 1 with just one hidden neighbor identifies a mine.
• If the flags around a number already account for all of its mines, its other neighbors are safe only if those flags are correct.
• If a clue needs two more mines and touches only two unflagged hidden cells, both must be mines. Compare overlapping clues before guessing.
• Do not treat a flag as evidence. An incorrect early flag can make a later chord lose the game, even when the flag count matches.
• When no forced move remains, consider risk rather than assuming every board has a logical next step. The solver can distinguish proven safe cells from probabilities.

Stuck on a board? Copy its visible numbers and flags into the Minesweeper Solver to identify forced safe cells, locate mines or compare probabilities. The solver uses only the clues you enter; it cannot guarantee a safe guess.