The numbers associate with the amount of mines that square is touching. To play successfully you need to look at all the numbers on an area of the map and us logic to determine which squares are mines and which are clear. By understanding where even a single mine or clear square is you can open up more breams and logically find more mines. Answer from rock-my-lobster on reddit.com
🌐
Minesweeper
minesweepergame.com › strategy › how-to-play-minesweeper.php
How To Play Minesweeper
Minesweeper is a game where mines are hidden in a grid of squares. Safe squares have numbers telling you how many mines touch the square. You can use the number clues to solve the game by opening all of the safe squares.
Discussions

ELI5:How do you play Minesweeper?

http://www.wikihow.com/Play-Minesweeper

More on reddit.com
🌐 r/explainlikeimfive
3
0
October 21, 2010
Can anyone explain the proper way to play Minesweeper?
Initially, of course, you have to guess by clicking a random box. If a box that you've clicked in empty, that means that box is touching 0 mines. If the box has a number in it, that's how many mines that specific box is touching. You can then infer which unlclicked boxes are mines. You can right-click on "suspected mine" boxes to mark them with a flag, so you don't accidentally click on that. If you are able to expose all non-mine boxes, you win. Here is a demo: http://screencast.com/t/KP9QnGVZ More on reddit.com
🌐 r/explainlikeimfive
8
2
January 12, 2012
I don't even know how to play minesweeper.
It's pretty tough to explain it all but I'll give it a go: Each board will have a number of mines, your objective is clear all the squares which don't have mines on them. To start a game you click a random square, revealing some numbered squares. The numbers tell you how many mines you have next to your numbered square. Example: http://i.imgur.com/9947l2I.png Using this piece of information we can start to work out where to mines are. If there is 1 square next to a square with a 1 on it then we KNOW it's a mine and we can put a flag on it so that we can see how many we have left. This can be done with any number. Example: http://i.imgur.com/o0dXI00.png Now that we have some mines on the board we can start to clear some other squares. Using the rule previously mentioned, there can only be 1 mine next to a 1 square, 2 mines next to a 2 square, 3 next to 3 etc. Knowing this we can clear out the squares that we KNOW are not mines. Example: http://i.imgur.com/F4Rw9KZ.png Now that we know which squares are safe to press, we can move on. Clicking the square will reveal a new number, and using this we can repeat the previous step to see if there are safe squares nearby. Example: http://i.imgur.com/jzsFYXM.png Once again we have to see if the number of squares touching a number are equal to the number of squares remaining, if so then we can know that there are mines there. If the square is touching the correct number of mines already, then we can clear the remaining squares. Example: http://i.imgur.com/s89N9uT.png Once again we can click on these squares, and in doing so, we finish the board. http://i.imgur.com/1GYfIzm.png Using these steps you can probably complete the Beginner and Intermediate with a bit of practise. I hope this helped you out, if you need any more tips send me a message. More on reddit.com
🌐 r/Minesweeper
9
7
January 7, 2016
How the hell do I play Minesweeper?
The numbers associate with the amount of mines that square is touching. To play successfully you need to look at all the numbers on an area of the map and us logic to determine which squares are mines and which are clear. By understanding where even a single mine or clear square is you can open up more breams and logically find more mines. More on reddit.com
🌐 r/Minesweeper
49
188
October 12, 2020
The numbers associate with the amount of mines that square is touching. To play successfully you need to look at all the numbers on an area of the map and us logic to determine which squares are mines and which are clear. By understanding where even a single mine or clear square is you can open up more breams and logically find more mines. Answer from rock-my-lobster on reddit.com
🌐
Instructables
instructables.com › design › game design
The Minesweeper Basics : 4 Steps - Instructables
November 10, 2017 - The Minesweeper Basics: In this instructable, my first one, I will show you the how-to's, the ropes, and the basics, on winning your classic Minesweeper game... without the cheat codes. All you need is a little stroke of luck (needed on the first part of the 'ible) and som…
🌐
Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Minesweeper_(video_game)
Minesweeper (video game) - Wikipedia
1 week ago - In some variants the first click ... the game, the player uses information given from the opened cells to deduce further cells that are safe to open, iteratively gaining more information to solve the board....
🌐
Wikihow
wikihow.com › hobbies and crafts › games › video games › pc games › how to play minesweeper (with pictures) - wikihow
How to Play Minesweeper (with Pictures) - wikiHow
Understand the principles behind Minesweeper. Each Minesweeper game starts out with a grid of unmarked squares. After clicking one of these squares, some of the squares will disappear, some will remain blank, and some will have numbers on them.
Published   August 10, 2025
Views   226K
🌐
Wolfram MathWorld
mathworld.wolfram.com › Minesweeper.html
Minesweeper -- from Wolfram MathWorld
March 8, 2009 - Minesweeper is single-player ... object is to locate a predetermined number of randomly-placed "mines" in the shortest possible time by clicking on "safe" squares while avoiding the squares with mines....
Find elsewhere
🌐
Minesweeper Online
minesweeper.online › help › patterns
Minesweeper Online
Play minesweeper online with over 10 million players from around the world!
🌐
Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Minesweeping
Minesweeping - Wikipedia
April 10, 2025 - Minesweeping is the practice of removing explosive naval mines, usually by a specially designed ship called a minesweeper using various measures to either capture or detonate the mines, but sometimes also with an aircraft made for that purpose.
🌐
YouTube
youtube.com › shorts › Zil7a1hetQE
You were either a master of this game or had no clue at all🤣 #minesweeper #tutorial - YouTube
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
Published   January 7, 2025
🌐
Instructables
instructables.com › design › game design
How to Beat Minesweeper : 3 Steps - Instructables
November 6, 2017 - We've all tried to complete a game of Minesweeper. But most of us have failed. You get the concept but you just can't win. Here's my way of solving minesweeper, ever since I used it, I've never lost a game. Never. Before you jump into this, you need to know how the game actually works.
🌐
Quora
quora.com › What-are-the-rules-for-playing-Minesweeper
What are the rules for playing Minesweeper? - Quora
Answer (1 of 4): 1. The first step is the hardest. Clicking on a random place(s) and hoping you’re not blown to bits. 2. If you click on a non-bomb area, the square will either open up to be blank, or will contain a number from 1 to 8. 3. These numbers specify the number of bombs that are ...
🌐
Productivity Land
productivityland.com › home › how to play minesweeper? a complete guide
How to Play Minesweeper? A Complete Guide - Productivity Land
March 20, 2024 - You do not have to flag all mined cells to win the minesweeper game. Your first click in the game does not have to be on the first minesweeper cell.
🌐
CardGames
cardgames.io › minesweeper
Minesweeper | Play it online
Play the classic puzzle game Minesweeper online for free. No download required. Can you uncover all the mines?
🌐
YouTube
youtube.com › watch
The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Minesweeper - YouTube
Minesweeper website (World of Minesweeper): https://minesweeper.onlineMy Twitch: https://twitch.tv/dardhongPatterns guide: https://youtu.be/6vcSO7h6Nt0Apolog...
Published   June 25, 2021
🌐
Nothings
nothings.org › games › minesweeper
Minesweeper: Advanced Tactics
If you can logically prove a mine must be in a location, its probability must be 100%; if you can prove one cannot be, its probability must be 0%. So probability is all you need, in some sense. Nonetheless, you use logical deduction to detect those 100% situations; sometimes, especially at easier difficulty levels, that's all you need to complete a Minesweeper game; no appeal to probabilities is necessary.
🌐
Quora
quora.com › What-are-the-actual-rules-of-the-game-Minesweeper-How-are-you-actually-supposed-to-play-this-game-aside-from-guessing-clicking-randomly
What are the actual rules of the game 'Minesweeper'? How are you actually supposed to play this game, aside from guessing/clicking randomly? - Quora
Answer (1 of 3): I used to play the game by clicking on about 4 squares at random - 1 in each quadrant (unless you got a nice clear area). It meant that a lot of the games finished very quickly - but those that didn’t usually gave you a lot more information to help solve.
🌐
Minesweeper Pro
minesweeper-pro.com › introduction
Minesweeper Pro | How to play Minesweeper?
Soon after learning basic moves, you no longer do it step by step: look for 1, count all available covered fields and think whether the numbers match. You look at the board, and you immediately see all the 1s in corners, and you know that you should place flags next to them. This is how patterns work.
🌐
Stanford CS Students
www-cs-students.stanford.edu › ~jl › Essays › minesweeper.html
Minesweeper Strategies and Tactics
MINESWEEPER STRATEGIES & TACTICS · INTRODUCTION I'll assume here that you already know the basic rules of Minesweeper. Just to get our terminology straight, here are the some definitions:
🌐
Juno Beach Centre
junobeach.org › canada-in-wwii › articles › the-ships › minesweepers
Minesweepers : Juno Beach Centre
Contact mines are anchored to the ocean floor with cables that keep them floating just beneath the surface. To neutralize them, the mooring cable must first be severed, to allow the mine to bob up and become visible. Minesweepers drag along a steel wire that ends with a torpedo-shaped floater.
🌐
Instructables
instructables.com › design › game design
How to Play Minesweeper : 6 Steps - Instructables
October 9, 2017 - How to Play Minesweeper: Welcome to Minesweeper. If you're a Windows' user chances are that you already have the game on your computer. This guide will help you in completing your first game. The rule of the game is simple, the number on a block shows the number of mines ad…