Controls

You play by revealing and flagging squares. Tap a square, or click it with a mouse on a laptop, to uncover it. Flagging works differently on each: on a phone, tap the Flag button to arm flagging mode, then tap a square to mark it; on a laptop, just right-click the square directly.

Everything you do is driven by the numbers:

• Numbers appear on uncovered squares and tell you how many mines touch that square. A 1 means exactly one mine sits somewhere in the eight neighboring squares.
• Flags are markers you place on squares you have worked out are mines. Right-click to flag on a laptop; on a phone, tap the Flag button first, then tap the square, and tap Flag again to go back to revealing.
• Empty squares with no number touching no mines open up automatically, clearing whole pockets of the board at once and giving you a running start.

You win by uncovering every safe square. You do not need to flag the mines, only avoid them. Tapping a single mine ends the game.

The board grows across eight levels, adding more squares and more mines, so the deductions get longer and more rewarding.

Tips

• Start in the middle, not the corners. An opening tap in the center is more likely to clear a large empty pocket, giving you numbers to work from instead of a single lonely clue.
• Read a number against the covered squares around it. If a 1 already touches one flagged mine, every other covered square next to it is safe, and that simple comparison unlocks most of the board.
• When a number equals its covered neighbors, they are all mines. A 3 touching exactly three unopened squares means all three hide mines, so you can flag them with certainty and move on.
• Flag mines to keep your reading clear. Marking known mines lets you subtract them from nearby numbers at a glance, which turns tangled clusters into simple arithmetic.
• Work the edges of your cleared area. The border between opened and covered squares is where new information lives. Progress almost always comes from the frontier, not the middle.
• Only guess when logic truly runs out. Most positions have a certain move somewhere. Before you take a fifty-fifty gamble, look again, because the safe square is usually hiding in a number you already have.

Frequently asked questions