How to Play Minesweeper
Minesweeper is a game of deduction rather than luck. A fixed number of mines sits hidden under the gray grid, and every cell you open is either a mine, which ends the run, or a number that tells you exactly how many mines touch that cell across all eight of its neighbors. Line up enough numbers and the position of each mine can be worked out with certainty, without ever guessing.
Your first tap is always safe. Mines are placed only after you open the first cell, and the game excludes that cell and the eight around it from the draw, so an opening tap can never end the run. Open a cell with no mines around it and the board floods outward on its own until it reaches numbered cells, which is why a tap near the middle of a large board usually uncovers far more ground than one in a corner.
The run is ten levels long. Level 1 is a 7x7 board with 4 mines and a 60 second clock. From there the board grows through 8x8, 9x9, 10x10 and 11x11 to a final 12x12, the mine count climbs from 4 to 28, and the time limit stretches to ten minutes on the last level. A level is cleared the moment every cell that is not a mine has been opened, so flags are a convenience, never a requirement.
Controls
- Tap a covered cell on a touchscreen, or left-click it with a mouse, to open it.
- Hold a cell for about four tenths of a second to plant or remove a flag. On desktop, right-click does the same thing.
- Sliding your finger while holding cancels the flag, so a drag across the board will not leave stray markers behind.
- The counter above the board tracks flags placed against the level's mine count, so it goes negative in your head if you over-flag.
- Each level runs its own countdown. If it reaches zero the run ends there and scores as a failed level.
Tips & Strategy
Open the middle first
Because the first tap is protected and empty cells cascade, the opening move is free information and you should spend it where it buys the most. A tap in the center of the board has eight protected neighbors and a much better chance of landing in an empty region that flood-fills outward. Corners give you three neighbors and a cramped view. On the later 11x11 and 12x12 boards, one good central opening can hand you a third of the grid before you have made a single deduction.
Work the edges of the opened region
All the information lives on the boundary between opened and covered cells. Scan that frontier for the cheapest facts first: a 1 that already touches exactly one covered cell means that cell is a mine, and a number whose mines are all accounted for means every other neighbor is safe to open. Alternating 1-2-1 runs along a straight edge always resolve the same way, with mines under the two 1s. Recognizing those shapes turns most boards into a chain of certainties.
Flag only what the clock can afford
Flags do not open cells and no level requires them, so treat them as memory aids rather than a duty. On the small early boards, flagging every mine costs time you could spend clearing. On the crowded late boards, where 28 mines are packed into 144 cells, a flag on each confirmed mine stops you from re-deriving the same fact for the third time and prevents the fatal mis-tap. The right amount of flagging changes with the board, and it is worth adjusting deliberately.
Speed is the tiebreak, depth is the score
The scoring rewards how far you get far more than how fast you get there, so never take a coin-flip guess to save a few seconds. Clear the level, then bank whatever is left on the clock as a bonus. When you genuinely cannot deduce a safe cell, pick the guess that also opens the most information, usually a cell touching several unresolved numbers rather than an isolated corner. A guess that resolves half the frontier is worth two that resolve nothing.
Global Leaderboard
Every completed run submits one score to the global leaderboard. Each level you clear is worth its own mine count multiplied by 100, so the deeper boards are worth several times the early ones, and finishing a level with time to spare adds a bonus of up to eight percent on top of that level's value. The level you die on is not wasted either: it pays out half credit, scaled by the share of safe cells you had already opened.
That structure is deliberate. Reaching a deeper level always beats a faster run through the shallow ones, and the clock only separates players who got equally far. A complete ten-level run lands in the tens of thousands of points; scores are accepted up to a ceiling of 20,000 points per run.
The board keeps your personal best rather than your latest attempt, so a weak run can never cost you a position. Scores are recorded on a weekly board, a monthly board and an all-time board at the same time, which means a good week still shows up even when the all-time list is out of reach. You attach a nickname of up to sixteen characters when you submit, and no account is needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Minesweeper free to play?
Yes. It runs in the browser with no download, no install and no sign-up. You only enter a nickname if you decide to put a score on the leaderboard.
How many levels does it have?
Ten. They run from a 7x7 board with 4 mines to a 12x12 board with 28 mines, with the time limit growing from 60 seconds to ten minutes as the boards get larger.
Can I hit a mine on the very first tap?
No. Mines are placed after your first cell is opened, and the game keeps them off that cell and its eight neighbors, so the opening tap is always safe and usually opens a large area.
How is the score calculated?
Each cleared level scores its mine count times 100, plus a time bonus worth up to eight percent of that for a fast clear. The level you fail on adds half credit in proportion to how much of it you had safely opened.
Do I need to flag every mine to finish a level?
No. A level ends the moment all non-mine cells are open. Flags exist to help you keep track and to protect you from mis-taps, and you can finish a whole run without placing one.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. Tapping opens a cell and a long press flags it, which replaces the right-click used on desktop. The board is sized to the screen, and no part of the game needs a keyboard.
What happens if the timer runs out?
The run ends on that level and is scored as a failure there, with partial credit for the cells you had opened. Everything you cleared on earlier levels still counts in full.
