Minesweeper Tips: A Strategy That Wins More Games
Minesweeper looks like luck at first, but most of every game is pure logic. These tips build a Minesweeper strategy step by step, from the first click to the hardest boards. Practise them on the easy level, then take them to medium and hard.
Play Minesweeper →1. Let the first click work for you
The first click is always safe here, and it always opens an area, because the cell you open and its neighbours never hold a mine. Click near the middle of the field: an opening in the middle has more borders to read than one in a corner. There is no need to click around at random after that; from now on the numbers decide.
2. Start with the 1s at the edge of the open area
Look along the border between opened and closed cells. Find a 1 that touches only one closed cell. That closed cell must be the mine. Place a beacon on it. This is the most common move in the whole game, and on the easy level it alone solves a large part of the field.
The same works for any number: if a number touches exactly as many closed cells as its value, all of those cells are mines. A 2 with two closed neighbours, a 3 with three: beacons on all of them.
3. Use the beacons to open safe cells
The opposite rule is just as strong. If a number already has as many beacons around it as its value, every other closed neighbour is safe. A 1 with one beacon next to it: open all its other neighbours. This is where chording helps: tap the number and all those cells open at once. Chord only around beacons you have proven, never around guesses.
4. Learn the 1-2 pattern
The most useful pattern in Minesweeper is a 1 next to a 2 along a straight border. Say the border runs along a row: the 1 touches three closed cells below it, and the 2 next to it touches three closed cells too, two of them shared with the 1. The 2 needs two mines, but the 1 allows at most one of them in the shared cells, so the cell the 2 touches that the 1 does not must be a mine. Mark it. Look for 1-2 along every wall of the open area; it appears in almost every game.
A related pattern is 1-1 at the edge of the field or against an opened wall: the first 1 and the second 1 share their closed cells, so the cell beyond the second 1 is safe.
5. Count the mines that are left
The counter at the top shows the mines left: the total number of mines minus your beacons. Near the end of a game this number becomes a tool. If three closed cells remain and the counter says one mine, and the numbers say the mine is in one of two cells, then the third cell is safe. On the hard board, counting often decides the last corner.
If the counter goes below zero, you have placed a beacon too many. Find it before you chord anywhere.
6. Work in one area at a time
Finish one region of the border before you jump to another. Each move you make adds numbers that help the next move nearby. Jumping across the board leaves half-read areas, and it is in those areas that people chord around a wrong beacon.
7. Place beacons only where a mine is proven
A beacon on a guessed mine is the most common way to lose a game you were winning, because sooner or later a chord trusts it. If you are unsure, leave the cell closed, or use the question mark from the settings as a note to yourself.
8. Know when a guess is real
Sometimes the numbers leave two cells that are equally likely to hide the mine, a true 50/50. Before you accept it, check everything else: other parts of the border, the mine counter, and patterns like 1-2. Often the answer is somewhere else on the board, and opening it gives new numbers for the stuck place. If it is still a real guess, it is part of the classic game. Take it early rather than late, so a loss costs less time, or press Hint: the hint opens a safe cell for you and tells you that a guess was needed.
9. Use hints to learn, not only to escape
A hint shows the numbers that prove its cell safe. When you are stuck on a position you thought was a guess, a hint often shows a pattern you missed. Three hints are free in every game. Wins without hints count for your record, so play your record runs clean and use the hints in practice games.
10. Train on the Daily field and the Expedition
The Daily field gives the same board to everybody each day, a good way to measure your progress against yesterday. The Expedition is a stair of 12 platforms that grow from 8 by 8 with 7 mines to the full hard board; a star marks every platform won without hints. Climbing it clean is the best training for the hard level.
Play Minesweeper → · How to play and rules
Most of all, slow down. Speed comes by itself once the patterns become familiar, and in Minesweeper a careful minute is always cheaper than a fast mistake. These tips follow the rules of Minesweeper on ManyPlay.