Minesweeper Game

How to Play Minesweeper

Minesweeper hides mines under a square grid. Reveal every safe square to win. A revealed number counts mines in the eight surrounding positions, including diagonals. Flag a covered square when you believe it contains a mine. Flags are optional for winning; correctly placing them does not replace opening all safe squares.

Your first revealed square and its immediate neighbors are protected. Mines are placed deterministically from the puzzle seed and your first choice. Opening a zero automatically reveals connected zero areas and their bordering numbers, while respecting flags. Subsequent choices can reveal a mine and end the game.

Choose Reveal or Flag, then tap a covered square. Right-click flags on desktop. Open squares cannot be flagged, and the number of active flags cannot exceed the mine count. If you reveal a mine, the result shows the mines as ✹ and incorrect flags as ×. You can review the board before restarting.

Read Numbers and Use Chord

If an open 1 touches only one covered square, that square must contain a mine. If an open 1 already has one correctly flagged neighbor, the other neighboring covered squares are safe. Combine information from several numbers before making a decision; a single number may not determine every neighboring square.

Chord opens all unflagged neighbors of an open numbered square when the number of neighboring flags equals its number. Select an open number and press Chord, or use C on the keyboard. This action counts flags, not whether the flags are correct. A wrongly placed flag can cause Chord to open a mine.

Flags left is a count of unused markers, not a guarantee that the marked squares are right. If a safe square is flagged, remove the flag before opening it. Hint opens one safe unflagged square after the first reveal and records assistance. Some generated boards can require guessing; these are not advertised as guess-free puzzles.

Daily Boards, Difficulty and Keyboard

Easy uses a 6×6 board with 6 mines. Normal uses 8×8 with 10 mines, and Hard uses 9×9 with 16 mines. There is no countdown. The playing clock starts with interaction and pauses when the tab is hidden. The board stays compact on a phone, with a visible tool choice instead of requiring a long-press gesture.

Daily uses the UTC date and difficulty as its seed. Players choosing the same first reveal receive the same mine layout; different first reveals can produce different layouts so the starting area stays safe. Restart repeats the seed, and making the same opening repeats that board. Practice generates another seed through New game.

Progress saves the mine layout, revealed squares, flags and active time in this browser. Arrow keys move the focus. R reveals, F toggles a flag, C uses Chord, and Enter or Space uses the selected tool. Daily wins add a streak day and update the practice calendar. Best times exclude games completed with hints.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the first reveal safe?

Yes. Mines are excluded from the first revealed square and its immediate neighbors. This protection applies to the first reveal, rather than to every later move.

Are these guess-free boards?

No. Number clues often allow deductions, but some positions can require a guess. Hint can reveal a safe square and records assistance.

Why did Chord reveal a mine?

Chord counts nearby flags. If a flag is on the wrong square, an unflagged mine can be opened even when the flag count matches the number.