Classic Minesweeper
Minesweeper
The deduction game that shipped with Windows 3.1 in 1990. Numbers count adjacent mines; clear every safe square. Your first click can never hit a mine — start with confidence.
The minefield
How to play
A fixed number of mines hides in the field. Reveal every square that is not a mine to win; hit one and the round ends. Each number counts the mines in its eight neighbours — all the information is on the table, the rest is pure deduction.
- Left-click (tap) reveals a square; right-click (long-press) plants a flag.
- A 1 means exactly one mine among its neighbours, a 2 means two, and so on.
- Double-click (or tap an opened number) to chord: if the flagged neighbours already match the number, the remaining neighbours open at once — provided your flags are right.
- The first click is always safe: mines are placed after it, and the clicked square plus its ring are guaranteed clear.
| Level | Board | Mines | Density |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beginner | 9 × 9 | 10 | ~12% |
| Intermediate | 16 × 16 | 40 | ~16% |
| Expert | 30 × 16 | 99 | ~21% |
From guessing to winning
- Open the middle first: the widest flood-fill, then work along the number edges.
- Learn two patterns:
1-2-1on a wall — the middle square is safe, the outer two are mines;1-2-2-1— the outer two are safe, the inner two are mines. They cover most edge positions. - Exhaust certainty before probability: clear every forced square before facing a guess — the "guess" usually dissolves.
- Chord carefully: it assumes every flag is correct. One wrong flag turns a chord into a triple hit.
About the minefield
Can the first click hit a mine?
No. Mines are laid after your first click, and the clicked square plus its surrounding ring are guaranteed safe.
How do I flag on a phone?
Long-press (about half a second) to flag or unflag; a plain tap reveals.
Same as the Windows game?
Rules, board sizes and number semantics are identical. The interface is ours and ad-free. For the native Windows version, see the Windows 11 guide.