Play Minesweeper
Read the numbers, flag the mines, clear the field.
Rating
0
Best
—
Loading…
Controls
- Click to reveal a cell
- Right-click or long-press to flag
- R to restart
About Minesweeper
Minesweeper looks like a game about luck and is almost entirely a game about deduction. Every number on the board is a constraint, and most positions can be solved completely by comparing two overlapping constraints against each other.
The board here is 9 by 9 with ten mines — the classic beginner layout, which is small enough to finish in a minute and dense enough to force real reasoning. Mines are placed after your first click, so the opening move is never a loss, and the game opens a connected region of empty cells to give you something to work with.
The timer starts on your first reveal and stops when the last safe cell is open. Because the field is a fixed size, the clock is the score: two players who both win are separated only by how quickly they read the numbers.
Flagging is optional but strongly recommended. Beyond preventing accidents, a flagged board lets you apply the counting rules at a glance instead of recalculating every neighbourhood from scratch.
Tips for a higher score
- Start in the corners. They touch fewer cells, so their numbers are easier to resolve.
- If a number already touches that many flags, every other neighbour is safe to open.
- If a number touches exactly that many unopened cells, all of them are mines.
- Learn the 1-2-1 pattern along a wall: the mines sit under the two ones, never under the two.
- When nothing is certain, guess in the largest open region — you get more information back.
Frequently asked questions
Can I lose on the very first click?
No. The mines are placed after you click, and the game guarantees your opening cell and its neighbours are clear.
How do I flag a mine on mobile?
Press and hold a cell for about half a second. A flag appears and the cell can no longer be opened by a tap.
Is every Minesweeper board solvable without guessing?
Not always. A small number of boards end in a genuine coin flip between two cells, which is part of the game's history.
Want to go deeper? Read our full Minesweeper guide — a 7 minute read on the strategy behind the game.