Minesweeper strategy

Good Minesweeper players aren't lucky; they guess less. Almost every board can be cleared mostly by logic, and the habits below get you there faster and more often.

Getting started

Here, the first click is always safe and always opens an area, so you can start anywhere. Many players start near the middle, where an opening has room to spread in every direction. If the first opening is small, look for a deduction before clicking anywhere new: a second random click is a real gamble.

The two rules that do most of the work

  1. Just enough covered cells. If a number touches exactly as many covered cells as its value (counting flags), they're all mines.
  2. All mines found. If a number already touches as many flags as its value, every other covered cell around it is safe.

Sweep the edge of the open area applying these two over and over. Each new mine you find lets another number apply rule two, and each safe cell you open adds numbers for rule one. On Beginner these two rules alone solve most boards.

Reading numbers together

When neither rule applies to any single number, compare neighbouring numbers that share covered cells. If one number's covered cells are all among another's, the difference in their values must be in the cells that only the larger one touches. That simple comparison is behind every well-known pattern: the 1-1, the 1-2, the 1-2-1 and the 1-2-2-1. They're worth learning by sight, and the patterns page shows each one with diagrams.

Reduce the numbers first

A number next to a known mine is really a smaller number. A 3 touching one flag is a 2 for the cells that are left; a 2 touching two flags is finished. Experienced players do this subtraction automatically, and it's what lets them spot a 1-2-1 inside a row that actually reads 2-3-2. If you flag, flag carefully: a wrong flag poisons every number around it.

The endgame: count the mines

Near the end, the mine counter becomes a clue of its own. If two mines are left and the only unsolved spot is a pair of cells that must hold one of them, the last mine is somewhere in the rest of the covered cells. Counting like this often settles positions that look like a coin flip. It only works if your flags are right, so check them before relying on the counter.

When you have to guess, guess well

Sometimes the numbers really can't decide, for example two covered cells with a single 1 between them and nothing else to go on. Every Minesweeper player loses some games this way. You can still improve your odds:

  • Make sure you must. Press Hint if you're unsure: it will say if there's anything left to work out, at the cost of a best time.
  • Guess early rather than late. If a guess is unavoidable, take it while little is at stake rather than after twenty minutes of work.
  • Prefer cells that teach you something. A guess that, if safe, reveals a number that unlocks the area is better than one that only opens itself.
  • Compare the odds. A 1 with four covered neighbours makes each a 1-in-4 risk; a random cell far from any number carries roughly the board's overall density, about 1 in 5 on Expert. Pick the safer one.

Playing faster

  • Open around numbers in one click. Clicking a number whose mines are all flagged opens all its other neighbours at once.
  • Flag only what you need. A flag costs a click. Many fast players flag only the mines they need for opening around numbers, and simply avoid the rest.
  • Work along the edge. Keep working one stretch of the open area's border rather than jumping around the board; the deductions there feed each other.

Then practise. Beginner is good for drilling the two rules, Intermediate for patterns, and Expert for everything at once. Start a Beginner game.