How to Play Minesweeper – Rules, Patterns & Strategy

What is Minesweeper?

Minesweeper is a single-player logic puzzle played on a grid of covered squares. Some of those squares hide mines. Every square you uncover shows a number that counts how many mines sit in the squares touching it, corners included, so each number is a small constraint on up to eight neighbors. Your job is to combine those constraints until you know exactly which squares are safe and which are not, and to uncover every safe square without digging a mine.

The game became famous as a Windows freebie in the early 1990s, sitting next to Solitaire on millions of desktops. Our version keeps that game intact in Classic mode, with the three traditional board sizes, a timer, and best times, and adds Journey mode: a ladder of numbered puzzles where every board has been verified to be solvable by logic alone, played with three hearts instead of instant game-over.

Objective of Minesweeper

Uncover every square that does not hide a mine.

That is the whole win condition. You never have to dig the mines, and you do not have to flag them all either. The moment the last safe square is open, the field is clear and the board is won. In Journey the flags plant themselves on the remaining mines as a small celebration; in Classic the timer stops and your time is compared with your best.

Complete Rules for Minesweeper

Setup and the First Click

1. The board. Squares start covered. A fixed number of mines is hidden among them, shown by the mine counter at the top of the board.
2. Classic first click. In Classic mode the board is empty until your first dig. Mines are then placed so that the square you clicked and the eight around it are all safe, which means the first click always opens at least a small area.
3. Journey safe start. In Journey mode each puzzle opens with a mine-free 3x3 area already dug for you. Journey layouts are fixed per puzzle number, so puzzle 40 is the same board for everyone.
4. Board sizes. Classic offers three fixed sizes; Journey grows its own. The mine density is the number that actually matters, because it is what decides how often the numbers run out on you:

Journey boards run from 5x5 in the first puzzles up to 12x12, with mine density rising gently as each wave of puzzles goes on.

Reading the Numbers

• A number counts its neighbors. A revealed square shows how many mines are in the squares that touch it, including diagonally. A 3 in the middle of the board has three mines among eight neighbors; a 3 in a corner has three mines among just three neighbors, so all of them.
• Zero opens itself. A revealed square with no mines around it shows as blank and the game automatically uncovers every square around it. Any of those that are also zero keep the chain going, which is how one click can open a large region.
• Satisfied numbers. When a number already touches as many flags (or, in Journey, defused mines) as it shows, every other covered square around it is safe to dig.
• Forced mines. When a number has exactly as many covered neighbors as mines still unaccounted for, every one of those covered squares is a mine.

Those two facts, satisfied numbers and forced mines, are the whole engine of the game. Everything in the strategy section is a faster way to see them.

Digging and Flags

• Dig uncovers a square. On a mouse it is the left button; on touch it is a tap with the dig tool selected.
• Flag marks a square you believe hides a mine. On a mouse it is the right button; on touch either switch the toggle under the board to the flag, or press and hold any covered square to plant a flag without switching tools.
• Flags are free. Planting a flag is never penalized, a wrong flag is never scored against you, and you can remove a flag at any time. Digging a flagged square does nothing except wiggle the flag; that is the flag doing its job.
• The mine counter shows the total mines minus the flags you have planted. It does not know whether your flags are right, so it is only as good as your deductions.

Chording

Chording is the move that makes Minesweeper fast. Click (or tap) a revealed number whose surrounding flags already match it, and the game digs every other covered square around that number in one action.

• Only chord a satisfied number. If the flags around a number do not add up to it yet, clicking it does nothing except briefly highlight the covered squares it governs, a useful way to see which unknowns a number is talking about.
• A wrong flag makes a chord dig a mine. In Journey the chord stops at the first mine hit, so a bad chord costs one heart, never more. In Classic it ends the game. Check the flag before you chord.
• Defused mines count as flags in Journey, so after a slip you can still chord off the numbers around it.

Hearts, Mistakes and Restarting

• Journey has three hearts. Digging a mine costs one heart. The mine is defused in place, stays visible, and nothing explodes. You keep playing.
• Out of hearts. Lose all three and the puzzle restarts with three fresh hearts. The layout is fixed per puzzle number, so it is the same board again, not a new one, and your place in the Journey does not move.
• Classic has none. One mine ends the game, every mine is revealed, and you can start a fresh board. That is the original rule, kept on purpose.
• Restart is always free and always available, in both modes. In Journey it hands you the same layout again; in Classic it deals a fresh board.
• Scoring in Journey. Each revealed square scores points, multiplied by a combo that grows with consecutive correct digs. A mistake resets the combo, and a chord earns a flat bonus. Classic scores too, and shows the score alongside a count-up timer and a move counter, but the time is what it remembers: the difficulty list keeps a best time for each of Beginner, Intermediate and Expert.

When Is Minesweeper Guaranteed Solvable?

A traditional Minesweeper board places its mines at random and checks nothing else. Most of the time the numbers are enough, but sometimes they are not: two covered squares in a corner, one mine between them, and no number anywhere that can tell them apart. That is a forced guess, and it is the single most common way a good Expert game ends.

Journey mode removes forced guesses entirely. Every Journey board is generated and then handed to a logical solver that only uses deductions a human could make: satisfied numbers, forced mines, comparing two numbers that share neighbors, and the global mine count. A board is kept only if that solver can clear it completely from the opening area. If it cannot, the board is thrown away and another one is generated. So in Journey:

• There is always at least one safe square you can prove, right up to the last one.
• If you feel forced to guess, you have missed a deduction, not run out of them. Re-read the frontier, and check every pair of numbers that share covered squares.
• Mistakes still happen, and that is what the hearts are for. A no-guess board is not a no-mistake board.

Classic mode keeps random placement, so Classic boards may require a guess late in the game. That is faithful to the original, and it is also why Classic tracks time rather than a completion streak.

Strategy: How to Read a Board Faster

The Two Basic Moves

• Satisfied number, dig around it. A 1 touching a flag: every other covered neighbor is safe. Do this before anything else, because each dig reveals more numbers.
• Forced mine, flag it. A 1 with exactly one covered neighbor: that neighbor is a mine. A 2 with two covered neighbors: both are mines.

Patterns Along a Wall

Most deductions happen on the frontier, the line where revealed squares meet covered ones. A few patterns come up constantly:

• 1-1 at the end of a wall. Two 1s side by side along an edge, with covered squares above them, and the first 1 sits against the border or against a revealed square. The first 1’s mine must be in one of the two covered squares it can see; the second 1 sees those same two plus one more, so its mine is already accounted for and the third square is safe.
• 1-2-1. Three numbers 1, 2, 1 in a row along an edge with three covered squares beside them. The 2 needs two mines in three squares; each 1 can only afford one. The only arrangement that works puts the mines under the two 1s and leaves the square under the 2 safe.
• 1-2-2-1. The same idea one square longer: the mines are under the two 2s, and the squares under the 1s are safe.
• Subtraction. Two neighboring numbers share some covered squares. Subtract the smaller number’s mines from the larger number’s; the difference must live in the squares only the larger number can see. If a 2 and a 1 share the same two unknowns and the 1 has nothing else, the 2’s other unknown is a mine.

You do not need to memorize these as rules. Every one of them is just the two basic moves applied to overlapping numbers, and after a few boards you start seeing them as shapes.

Using the Mine Count

When the numbers run out, the mine counter is the last piece of evidence. Count the mines you can prove in the remaining regions and compare with the counter. If two mines remain and the frontier accounts for both, every covered square away from the frontier is safe. In Journey the solver uses this rule too, so the last few squares of a hard puzzle often turn on it.

Journey Tips

• Start from the opening. The pre-opened area is chosen so that deductions exist from its edge. Work the frontier around it before wandering.
• Never guess. A guess in Journey is always avoidable. If nothing is obvious, walk every number on the frontier one more time and check for a subtraction you missed.
• Restart rather than grind. A restart costs nothing and gives you the same layout with everything you already worked out. On a stubborn board that is usually faster than spending your last heart on a guess.
• Chord aggressively once flags are certain. The combo multiplier rewards consecutive correct actions, and chords count.

Classic Difficulty Tips

• Beginner (9x9, 10 mines). Big openings are common. Click a few spots near the middle until one spills, then work the frontier. Most boards fall to satisfied numbers alone.
• Intermediate (16x16, 40 mines). Openings are smaller and you will need the wall patterns. Flag deliberately and chord to keep the pace up. If a region stalls, leave it and open another; the mine count may resolve it later.
• Expert (30x16, 99 mines). Density is high enough that a guess is sometimes unavoidable, usually in the last few squares. Take the forced guesses early rather than late, when a wrong one costs less time, and keep flags only where you intend to chord. On a phone the board is shown tall rather than wide; it reads best on a tablet or a laptop.
• Chasing a best time. Skip flags on obvious mines and dig around them, learn to chord off numbers as soon as the flag lands, and open with clicks in the middle of the board where zeros are most likely.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Chording off a guessed flag. The chord trusts your flags completely. In Journey that is a heart; in Classic it is the board.
2. Forgetting the diagonals. Every number counts eight neighbors, not four. Missed corners are the most common misread.
3. Guessing in Journey. There is always a proof. A guess that happens to work still resets nothing, but a guess that fails costs a heart you did not need to spend.
4. Flagging everything on Expert. Flags cost clicks. Mark the ones you will chord against and leave the obvious isolated mines alone.
5. Ignoring the mine counter at the end. The last two or three squares are usually decided by how many mines are left, not by a number.

Ready to Play?

You know the rules, the patterns, and the difference between a guess and a deduction. The rest is practice, and the first Journey puzzles are built to give it to you gently. Play Minesweeper free →