How to Play Minesweeper

Minesweeper is a logic game. A grid of covered squares hides a number of mines. Your goal is to open every square that is not a mine.

The numbers

When you open a safe square, it shows how many mines are in the eight squares around it: left, right, up, down and the four diagonals. A square with no mines around it is blank, and its neighbours open automatically.

1	1
	1
	1

Controls

Open a square: left-click, or tap.
Flag a mine: right-click. On a phone or tablet, press and hold for a moment. You can also turn on Flag mode so every tap places or removes a flag.
Chord: click or tap a number that already has the right number of flags around it. All its other neighbours open at once. On a computer you can also use the middle mouse button.
New game: the New game button above the board.

Starting

On this site your first click is always safe. The mines are placed after you click, never on that square or next to it, so the first click always opens an area to work from.

Winning and losing

You win when every safe square is open. You do not have to flag all the mines. If you open a mine, the game ends and all mines are shown. Wrong flags are marked.

Levels

Beginner: 9 × 9, 10 mines
Intermediate: 16 × 16, 40 mines
Expert: 30 × 16, 99 mines (shown as 16 × 30 on narrow phone screens)
Custom: 5 to 40 columns, 5 to 30 rows, and the number of mines you want

Next step