Clear every safe cell. Numbers tell you how many mines are touching that cell.
Tap a cell to reveal it. If it's a mine, the round ends — but your very first tap is always guaranteed safe, so you'll never lose on move one. A revealed number tells you exactly how many mines are hidden in the up-to-eight cells touching it. Use that information to work out which nearby cells are safe and which hide mines.
Right-click on desktop, or turn on Flag Mode and tap on mobile, to mark a cell you're sure hides a mine — this stops you from accidentally revealing it and helps you keep track. You win by revealing every single safe cell; you don't need to flag every mine to win.
Start near the middle of the board, since your first click is always guaranteed safe and tends to open up the most space. Use the numbers logically: if a numbered cell's count exactly matches its number of unrevealed neighbours, all of those neighbours are mines. If a numbered cell's count matches the number of already-flagged neighbours, every other neighbour is safe to reveal.
Is the first click really always safe? Yes — mines are placed only after your first click, and never on or directly next to that first cell.
How do I flag a mine on mobile? Turn on Flag Mode with the toolbar button, then tap any cell to flag or unflag it.
What's the difference between difficulty levels? Easy is an 8x8 grid with 10 mines, Medium is 10x10 with 20 mines, and Hard is 12x12 with 30 mines.
A number counts mines in the touching squares, including diagonals. Read it together with the unrevealed neighbours, not in isolation. Flags are your annotations: a flag does not make a guess correct. If a later deduction depends on a flag that you only guessed, the deduction is uncertain too. Winning requires revealing all safe cells, so filling the board with flags is not the objective.
A revealed 2 touches one mine you have established from other clues and two remaining hidden squares. Those two squares contain exactly one more mine; this clue alone cannot tell you which one. If a neighbouring 1 proves that one of the two is safe, the other must be the remaining mine. By contrast, a 1 with exactly one hidden neighbour identifies that neighbour as a mine directly.
The first reveal is protected by placing mines afterwards and excluding its neighbouring area. Later choices can still lose. Some positions need a guess after available deductions are exhausted; a numbered clue does not always identify one unique safe move.
Send a direct link to Minesweeper.