To solve Minesweeper, work along the edge of the open ground, one number at a time. Most moves come from two simple checks: a number with exactly as many hidden squares as mines it needs (they’re all mines), and a number with all its mines flagged (the rest are safe). When those run out, compare two numbers that share hidden squares. Six techniques cover it, and the first two do most of the work on every board.
New to Minesweeper? Read the rules first. This page assumes you know that a number counts the mines among its eight neighbours.
1. All mines found: the rest are safe
When a number already touches as many flagged mines as its value, its other hidden squares are safe. Open them, or tap the number to chord.
2. All hidden are mines
When a number touches exactly as many hidden squares as mines it still needs, every one of them is a mine. Flag them.
These two checks are most of the game. On the boards we tested, nearly every one used both: 199 of 200 Beginner boards, for instance.
3. Subsets: the 1-1 pattern
When all of one number’s hidden squares are next to another number too, compare them. The first number’s mines are among the shared squares, so the second number’s extra squares hold whatever’s left. If nothing’s left, they’re safe; if what’s left fills them, they’re mines.
Along a straight edge this is the 1-1 pattern: two 1s side by side, one of them at the end of the edge, make the square beyond them safe.
4. Pairs: the 1-2 pattern
When two numbers share only some of their hidden squares, the shared squares can hold no more mines than the smaller number allows. That often settles the squares only one of them touches.
Here the 2 (with a flag below it) needs one more mine above it, and the 3 needs two. The two squares they share can hold at most one mine, because of the 2. So the 3’s own square, on the right, must be its second mine, and the 2’s own square, on the left, must be safe. This is the 1-2 pattern: the 2 here works like a 1, because one of its mines is already flagged.
5. Mine count
The counter shows how many mines are left. In the endgame it can settle the last hidden squares: if every mine is found, everything still hidden is safe, and if the hidden squares left are exactly as many as the mines left, they’re all mines.
6. Every arrangement
When none of the above finds anything, take a group of numbers that share hidden squares and work through every way the mines could sit among those squares. A square that’s safe in every way is safe; one that’s a mine in every way is a mine.
It’s slow by hand, and you’ll rarely need it: on the boards we tested, it was needed on 1 Beginner board in 200, 3 Intermediate and 19 Expert.
How often each technique is needed
We played 200 Classic (random) boards of each size from the game by deduction alone, from a first tap in the middle, always using the simplest technique that worked. This is how many boards used each technique (including boards that later needed a guess):
| Technique | Beginner | Intermediate | Expert |
|---|---|---|---|
| All mines found | 199 | 194 | 183 |
| All hidden are mines | 199 | 194 | 190 |
| Subsets (1-1) | 51 | 125 | 172 |
| Pairs (1-2) | 4 | 18 | 114 |
| Mine count | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Every arrangement | 1 | 3 | 19 |
Beginner boards are almost all simple checks. On Expert, comparing numbers (subsets and pairs) is part of nearly every board.
A Beginner board, solved
The rules page starts a Beginner board from the game: one tap opens 53 squares, then a 1 finds a mine and another 1 clears three squares. Here’s how the rest goes.
Steps 1 to 10: simple checks. Ten moves in a row, each one either flagging a mine (technique 2) or opening safe squares (technique 1), working round the edge of the open ground. Five mines are flagged.
Step 11: the only subset. Then the simple checks run out. In the top-right corner, two 1s sit one above the other in column 7. The top 1’s two hidden squares are both next to the lower 1 too, so the lower 1’s third hidden square is safe.
Steps 12 to 20: simple checks again. Opening that square shows a new number, and the simple checks take it to the end, without a guess.
When you get stuck
- Look along the edge. Every move is next to a number at the edge of the open ground. Go round it number by number.
- Flag what you’ve found. The simple checks are much easier with flags in place.
- Compare neighbours. Two numbers next to each other, sharing hidden squares, are where the 1-1 and 1-2 patterns hide.
- Check the counter late in the game. With few squares left, the mine count can settle them.
- Classic boards sometimes need a guess. If nothing is certain anywhere, press Stuck?: it will say so. The game’s default boards never do.