How to play Minesweeper

Minesweeper is a puzzle of pure deduction. A field of grass hides a number of mines. Open a cell and it either shows a number - how many of its eight neighbours hide a mine - or, if it has none, it opens a whole area around it. From those numbers you work out where the mines must be and which cells are safe, until every safe cell is open.

In many versions of the game you sooner or later reach a spot where the numbers can't tell you anything and you have to take a fifty-fifty chance. Not here. Every board on skill.games is checked before you see it: a solver that never guesses must be able to clear it from your first cell. Whenever you're stuck, there is always a cell you can prove to be safe - finding it is the game.

How to play on skill.games

When you open the game, the settings popup appears. Pick a difficulty - Easy, Normal, Hard or Crazy - and press PLAY. The level you chose is remembered for next time.

• Starting: tap any cell. The first cell is always safe and always opens an area, so you have numbers to work with from the start.
• Opening a cell: tap it. On a computer, click it.
• Flagging a mine: hold your finger on a cell for a moment (a white ring fills up while you hold) and a flag appears. Or tap the round flag button at the top of the screen: while it is orange, a tap places or removes a flag, and holding a cell opens it instead. Tap the button again to go back to opening. On a computer, right-click a cell to flag it.
• Removing a flag: flag the same cell again. A flagged cell can't be opened by accident: tapping it does nothing until you remove the flag.
• Opening around a number: when a number already has that many flags around it, tap the number and every other closed cell next to it opens at once. This is called a chord, and it saves a lot of taps. Careful: if one of those flags is wrong, the chord opens a mine.

The counter on the left of the top bar shows how many mines are left (the total minus the flags you have placed), and the clock on the right shows your time, which starts with your first tap. On a phone held sideways the counter and clock move to the left of the board and the flag button to the right; the board turns with the phone, so the cells stay as large as possible.

The menu button in the top-left corner pauses the game and the clock, starts a new game or switches the sound on or off. The game is saved as you play, so if you close the page you can press CONTINUE and carry on with the same board.

Rules

The board. A rectangle of closed cells, some of which hide mines. The number of mines is fixed for each difficulty and shown on the counter.

Opening. Opening a safe cell shows how many of its up to eight neighbours (above, below, left, right and the four diagonals) are mines. A cell with no mines around it shows nothing and opens all its neighbours, and any of them that are also empty keep the opening spreading.

Mines. Opening a mine ends the game. All the other mines are then shown, and any flag you placed on a cell without a mine is crossed out.

Flags. Flags are only your notes. The game never checks them while you play, and you don't need to flag anything to win.

Winning. You win when every cell without a mine is open. The remaining mines are flagged for you, and your time is compared with your best at that difficulty.

No guessing. The mines are laid only after your first tap, never on that cell or next to it, and the layout is kept only if it can be solved from there by logic alone, using the numbers on the board and the number of mines left.

Strategy tips

• Start with the easy numbers. A 1 with only one closed neighbour has its mine right there. A number that already touches as many flags as it shows makes all its other neighbours safe.
• Read numbers in pairs. Two numbers side by side often share most of their closed neighbours. If a 1 and a 2 share all but one cell of the 2, that extra cell must be a mine. The well-known 1-2-1 and 1-2-2-1 patterns along a wall work this way.
• Look at corners and edges. Cells at the edge have fewer neighbours, so their numbers say more.
• Use the counter late in the game. When only a few cells are left, the number of mines remaining can decide between two arrangements that the numbers alone can't tell apart. Every board here may need this, especially on Hard and Crazy.
• Flag what you're sure of. Flags make chording possible and keep you from opening a mine by accident. Don't flag on a hunch: a wrong flag spoils every deduction made from it.
• Chord for speed. Once a number's mines are flagged, one tap on the number clears its neighbourhood. Fast times come from good flags and frequent chords.
• If you think you must guess, look again. Since every board can be solved without guessing, there is always a provable move. Check the numbers around the edge of the open area one by one, and then the mine count.

Difficulty levels

The boards are taller than they are wide, so they fit a phone held upright; on a wider screen they are shown turned on their side.

• Easy: 8 by 10 cells, 10 mines. Lots of open space; most moves follow from a single number.
• Normal: 9 by 12 cells, 18 mines. You will often need to read two numbers together.
• Hard: 10 by 15 cells, 30 mines. Mines one cell in five; patterns and the mine count come into play.
• Crazy: 11 by 17 cells, 42 mines. The densest field, where many moves need careful reasoning across several numbers.

The results screen shows your time, your best time at that difficulty (marked when you set a new one), and for a lost board how much of it you had cleared. Your statistics - wins, losses, win rate and streaks - are kept separately for each difficulty.