Minesweeper
The quiet puzzle of numbers and flags. A field of covered cells, a known count of mines hidden among them, and every number you open telling you a little more about where they lie. Three boards, a safe first click, and your best time kept for each. Free, full screen, and it saves itself.
The game
The board starts covered. Click any cell to open it. Your first click is always safe: the mines are laid only after it, never on that cell or the ones touching it, so it always opens a clear area to start from. An open cell shows a number when mines touch it, from one to eight, counting the cells beside it and on its corners. An open cell with no mines around it shows nothing and opens its neighbours for you, so one lucky click can clear a wide patch.
Read the numbers to work out which covered cells must hold mines, and mark them with a flag: right click a cell with the mouse, or hold a finger on it on a phone or a tablet. On a touch screen the Flag mode button swaps the two, so a plain tap places a flag and a long press opens. The Mines counter above the board shows the mines left once your flags are taken away.
When a number already has as many flags around it as it shows, click it once to open every other cell around it at the same time. It saves a lot of clicking on the larger boards, but it trusts your flags: if one of them is wrong, a mine opens and the board is lost. Open a mine any other way and the board is lost too. Every mine then shows, and a crossed flag marks each wrong guess. The board is won when every cell without a mine is open; the mines you had not flagged are flagged for you.
The three boards
The Board setting picks the board. Beginner is a small square to learn on, Intermediate is the one most people settle into, and Expert is the long wide field that takes real reading and some nerve.
| Board | Size | Mines |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | 9 by 9 | 10 |
| Intermediate | 16 by 16 | 40 |
| Expert | 30 by 16 | 99 |
The clock and your best times
The timer starts with your first click and stops when the board is won or lost. Stats keeps your boards played and won for each board separately, and your best time on each, so a fast Expert win is its own record. A board you leave is waiting when you come back, clock and all. Starting a new game on a board you have already opened counts as a loss, so walking away from a hard spot is not free.
The rules we play by
These are the rules most people learned on the Windows game, with its three boards and their sizes and mine counts unchanged. The one change is the first click, which here always opens a clear area rather than only promising not to be a mine, so no board is lost or stuck on its first move. There is no question mark to cycle through: a cell is covered, flagged or open. A controller works too: the stick walks a cursor over the cells, A opens and X flags.
Anywhere, free
On a phone you can add the game to your home screen and it opens like an app; the board scrolls when it is larger than the screen. There is a desktop app for Windows and Linux for people who want it in the taskbar. An account is optional and only saves your statistics and settings between devices. The same site has Freecell, Klondike and Spider Solitaire, and Spades and Hearts to play with friends by a four letter code or invite link, all free.