Minesweeper
Open every square that has no mine. Every board can be cleared by logic from the first tap, and an owl names the pattern behind the next safe square.
How to play Minesweeper
Minesweeper is a logic puzzle on a grid of squares. Some squares hide mines. You open every square that does not, and you never open a mine. Each open square shows how many mines touch it, counting the squares on all eight sides, so a number is a clue about its neighbours. Every board is made so that it can be cleared by reasoning from the first tap, with no guess at any point. The game opens on a contents page: pick a board and play.
The boards
| Board | Size | Mines |
|---|---|---|
| Easy | 9 by 13 | 20 |
| Medium | 12 by 20 | 45 |
| Hard | 16 by 30 | 99 |
| Today | 12 by 20 | 45 |
On a wide screen Hard lies on its side, as 30 by 16. Today is the daily board: it is the same board for everyone on the same date, and it changes at your own midnight. The Climb is a run of twenty steps, five board sizes with four steps on each, where every clear makes the next board harder, from 15% to 21% of the squares mined. A clear after taking a mine back plays the same step again, and a new board after a mine moves one step down.
Controls
- Your first tap is always safe. The mines are laid after it, away from it, and the first tap opens an area.
- Tap a square to open it. A zero opens the squares round it, and so on, until numbers stop it.
- Mark a square you know holds a mine with a flag. A long press flags, or turn on Flag in the bar at the bottom and every tap flags. A right click flags with a mouse.
- The count at the top shows the mines left: the mines on the board less the flags you have placed.
- When a number has as many flags round it as its value, a tap on the number opens every other square round it. You can turn this off in Settings.
- The board is cleared when every square without a mine is open.
The owl
Press Hint and the owl looks at what you can see and names the simplest move that is certain: one or more safe squares to open or mines to flag. It says which pattern it used, in words, and marks the squares on the board. If a flag is wrong, it tells you to take it off. Every board has such a move at every point, so the owl is never stuck. When a board is cleared, the owl's note sums up the patterns the board needed.
When you open a mine
The board shows where the mines were. Press Take it back and the last move is undone, so you can carry on from where you were; or start a new board. Menu in the bar at the bottom also offers Start this board again, a new board and the contents page.
Settings
- A long press flags: Short, Normal or Off. With Off, only the Flag button and a right click flag.
- A tap on a number opens round it: On or Off.
Your board in progress, the boards you have cleared, your Climb step and these settings are kept on your device. A board left half played is on the contents page as Continue.