Play Minesweeper Online

Master the minefield!

Minesweeper is a logic puzzle video game that keeps defying players worldwide despite its basic rules and gameplay.

At face front, this is a simple game with clickable squares but soon enough strategy, logic, and luck come into play, making it a true challenge. After all, the work of a mine sweeper is never out of excitement. There is the thrill of the unknown and the deadly fear that one single mistake can end it all.

This online game puts you directly in the shoes of such a worker. It is your job to analyze the terrain, signal the mines, and clear the path when the path is clear. But the fear of death is still looming. You will not perish if you make a mistake, but the game will be over.

There are 4 difficulty modes for you to choose from:

• Beginner (9 x 9 grid, 10 mines to flag)
• Intermediate (16 x 16 grid, 40 mines to flag)
• Expert (16 x 30 grid, 99 mines to flag)
• Custom (customizable grid size and number of mines in it)

Minesweeper Rules

Mine sweepers are tasked with sweeping the seas for mines and guaranteeing a safe crossing path for ships, whether commercial or warships. In the online game Minesweeper, you take up that role.

The sea comes in the shape of a panel divided into clickable squares. The goal is to highlight all the squares that hide sea mines with red flags and open the safe ones. If you open a square with a mine, the game ends. To win, you must open all the safe squares. The total number of mines hidden in the panel is always disclosed.

How to play Minesweeper online

You must open clickable squares that are empty and flag those that hide mines using red flags. Do a left click to open a square or a right click to flag it.

In this Minesweeper game, your first click is always safe. Then, the time to use logic begins. 

When you open a safe square, you unveil a number. This indicates how many mines there are immediately adjacent to it. The numbers can range from 1 to 8,  with the latter indicating the square is surrounded by mines.

You should apply logic to these numbers to create a path to progress. Sometimes it will be clear which squares are safe and which contain mines, while other times a speck of doubt may remain. In these cases, you should try opening more safe squares to have more data to analyze. When that is not possible, you can try to calculate your odds based on the information you have available and the number of mines left to find. In the worst-case scenario, you might need to rely on luck.

Squares with no mines surrounding them will open automatically to create a safe area.

A bit of history

Minesweeper is a puzzle video game that rose to fame hand in hand with computers. Its origins are surrounded by a cloud of uncertainties, with no one seemingly being able to pinpoint its first creator. 

Although the game experienced some degree of fame in the 80s, it was not until 1992, when it was included in the default pack of games of Microsoft’s Windows 3.1, that it became a household name in computer games.

It was included by default in the subsequent updates to the Windows software, quickly achieving the status of a classic computer game, together with other popular 1-player games such as Solitaire Klondike. Microsoft’s Minesweeper left the default games pack of Windows after 2012 (Windows 8), but it is still available for download at the company’s store.

In the meantime, however, several online versions that do not require a download have emerged on the internet, making the game more accessible to everyone.

Tips and tricks

Beginners of Minesweeper can quickly become overwhelmed with the numbers on the panel and rely too heavily on luck when simple logic could take them farther away.

For those, here are a few strategies and tricks that you can use to improve your performance and might help you become an expert in time. 

1. Don’t forget the corners of a square

Beginners tend to focus on the squares that are clearly adjacent to a number and disregard those that touch only a little corner of the same square. This is a common error and one that game developers know how to explore because these corners usually hide unsuspected mines.

2. Pay attention to the patterns

Several patterns repeat themselves throughout the game. For example, it is common to find a 2 flanked by two squares with the number 1, which translates into a Mine-Empty-Mine pattern.

A 5 at the corner of a safe square-shaped area means that it is only surrounded by 5 squares, which in turn means that all of them must forcibly contain mines.

The more you play, the more these patterns will become obvious. Pay attention to them, learn their meaning to the game and soon enough you can use them to your advantage when you feel stuck.

3. Go for the center first

Keeping safe close to the borders of the panel may be tempting, but it also increases the chances of you finding yourself without enough open squares to help you identify where the mines may be.

Instead, approach the center first. You will have a higher chance of hitting an empty area, limited by a perimeter of squares with numbers that you can use to start clearing the board. 

4. Focus on winning instead of speed

Expert players tend to strive for faster victories each time they play. It is a way of competing against themselves by challenging their analytical and logical skills to the maximum to interpret the data on the panel.

Beginners can also try to solve the puzzles as quickly as possible. However, since they cannot yet recognize the patterns at a glance, there is a higher chance that they will make mistakes and fail. This, in turn, can lead to frustration.

Instead, new players should focus on trying to win. The more they play, the better they will become at it and they will see their time also improve as a result. When winning becomes too easy, then it may be time to step things up and find other ways to keep motivated.

5. When unsure, don’t place a flag

You can add and remove flags at your will during a game without any consequence. However, placing them will influence the way you will interpret the numbers surrounding them. Also, there isn’t a way to differentiate between flags that you are certain and those that you are unsure of.

Therefore, avoid placing them in this latter case. You can easily lose track of which ones are confirmed and not, and this will influence your approach to the game and lead to mistakes.