How to play Minesweeper

Mines are hidden under some of the squares. Open every square that has no mine to clear the board. Each square you open shows how many of the eight squares around it hold a mine; open a mine and the round stops.

Play Minesweeper

The rules

• Tap a square to open it. A number counts the mines among its eight neighbours, corners included.
• A square with no mines around it opens all its neighbours for you, so one tap can clear a wide area.
• Flag a square you know is a mine, so you do not open it by mistake. Long-press it, right-click it, or turn on Flag at the foot of the screen and tap.
• With "a tap on a number opens round it" on in Settings, tapping a number whose mines are all flagged opens the rest of its neighbours.
• Your first tap is always safe: the mines are laid after it, away from it.

The boards

• Easy: 9 × 13, 20 mines.
• Medium: 12 × 20, 45 mines.
• Hard: 16 × 30, 99 mines; on a wide screen it lies on its side, 30 × 16.
• Today: one Medium board a day, the same for everyone, with its centre already open.

Every board here can be cleared without a guess. A board is kept only if the four patterns below clear it from the first tap to the last, so when you seem stuck, a safe square is always there to find.

The four patterns

Ask the owl and it names the next safe square or mine and the pattern behind it. These are all you need:

1. The count. A number with all its mines flagged has no more: its other neighbours are safe. A number with exactly as many closed neighbours as mines still to find: all of them are mines.
2. One inside another. When all the closed squares around one number also lie around a second number, the squares only the second number touches hold the difference between the two. A 1 beside a 1 on a wall, and a 1 beside a 2, are the patterns you will meet most.
3. Shared squares. Two numbers that share some closed squares: the shared ones can hold only so many mines, and that settles the rest of one number.
4. The total. Near the end, count the mines left. If none are left, every closed square is safe; if as many are left as closed squares, every one is a mine.

Each pattern on a real board: 1-1, 1-2, 2-2, 1-3 and the rest

Tips

• Work along an edge of the open area, one number at a time. Most moves come from the count alone.
• Flag as you go. A flag takes a mine off every number around it, and the next count becomes plain.
• If you open a mine, you can take it back and look again.