Classic · logic · solo or duel a friend
Minesweeper
Numbers show how many mines touch a square. Clear the board, or take turns with a friend: whoever hits a mine loses.
Tip: press and hold a square to flag it.
Minesweeper
How to play Minesweeper
The board hides a number of mines. Your job is to uncover every square that isn’t a mine.
- Tap a square to dig it up. Your first tap is always safe and opens an area to start from.
- A number tells you how many of the eight squares touching it are mines. A blank square has none, so its neighbours open automatically.
- Flag a square you know is a mine: switch to 🚩 Flag, press and hold, or right-click on a computer. Flags are just notes to yourself.
- Tap a number whose mines are all flagged to open every other square around it at once.
- Uncover every safe square to win. Dig up a mine and it’s game over.
Levels
Easy is a 9 × 9 board with 10 mines, Medium is 12 × 12 with 22, and Hard is 16 × 16 with 40 (best on a bigger screen). Your best time on each level is saved on your device.
Duel a friend
A Minesweeper you play by text. Tap Duel a friend, type both names and start:
- On your turn, reveal up to three squares. You can end your turn after one if you’d rather not push your luck.
- Send the board. Your friend sees what you opened, takes their turn and sends it back.
- Whoever reveals a mine loses. If the whole board is cleared, whoever uncovered more squares wins.
- Your flags stay on your phone. Your friend has to work out the mines for themselves.
Tips
- A 1 touching only one hidden square means that square is a mine. Flag it, then look at the numbers around it again.
- The 1-2-1 pattern along a wall: the mines sit under the two 1s, and the square under the 2 is safe.
- When you have to guess, guess where there’s the most open space: corners and edges next to big numbers are riskier.
- In a duel, ending your turn early can leave your friend the dangerous guess.
Why it’s good for you
Minesweeper is a logic puzzle in disguise. Each number is a clue, and combining clues to prove a square is safe trains careful, step-by-step reasoning and working memory, with a little nerve thrown in when the logic runs out.
Free, no account, works on any phone or computer. More logic games: Codebreaker, Crowns and Sudoku TagTeam.