Pocket Games
Minesweeper
The first click is blind: the mines are already there and nobody is helping you. From the second one on, the numbers tell you everything there is to know, and games are almost always lost to a deduction you skipped rather than to bad luck.
The rules
Mines are hidden under the grid. Uncovering a cell does one of three things: there is a mine and the game ends; there is a number, telling you how many mines touch that cell among the eight around it; or there is nothing, meaning no mines are adjacent and the whole empty area opens by itself out to the first numbers.
You win by uncovering every cell that does not hide a mine. Flags are not required to win: they are for you, to mark the mines you have already deduced so you do not click them by mistake.
Pocket Games has three difficulties: 9×9 with 10 mines, 14×12 with 25 and 18×14 with 45. The size changes, but density changes more: on the big grid the deducible areas are narrower and you are forced to gamble more often. The timer records your best time for each difficulty.
How to read a number
A number counts the mines in the eight cells around it, diagonals included. Two rules follow, and they are the only ones you really need:
- If the covered cells around a number equal the number itself, they are all mines. A 3 with exactly three covered neighbours has said all it has to say: flag all three.
- If a number’s mines are all flagged already, every other covered cell around it is safe and can be opened.
Ninety per cent of the game is applying those two rules in turn, cell by cell, along the border between the open area and the covered one. You need nothing else until you get stuck.
When you get stuck: look at two numbers together
The step up is to stop looking at one number at a time.
The 1-2-1 pattern. Three numbers side by side along a wall of covered cells, reading 1-2-1: the mines sit under the two 1s, and the cells under the 2 are safe. It feels backwards — the 2 is the biggest number — and that is exactly why people get it wrong.
The 1-2-2-1 pattern. Four numbers in a row: the mines are under the two 2s, and the cells under the 1s are clear.
Subtraction. Two neighbouring numbers sharing some covered cells. If a 2 and a 1 share two cells and the 2 has a third cell of its own, that third cell must be a mine: of the two shared cells only one can be mined (the 1 says so), so the 2 is still missing its second mine, and it can only be where the 1 cannot reach. This is the technique that opens up positions that look hopeless.
Guessing
Now and then there is nothing to deduce and you have to choose. When that happens:
- Count the remaining mines. The counter at the top, divided by the covered cells, gives you the base probability. If a closed-off area is worse than average, open somewhere else.
- Gamble in corners and on edges. They have fewer neighbours, so the information they produce is cleaner and the deduction chains they open are longer.
- Gamble early, not late. A gamble at the start of a game costs little; the same gamble ten minutes in throws away ten minutes.
Common mistakes
- Flagging on a hunch. A wrong flag poisons every deduction that follows, because they all treat it as a fact.
- Opening at random when a deduction exists. Before clicking blind, walk the border looking for the subtraction between two neighbouring numbers: nine times out of ten it is there.
- Rushing past the high numbers. The 3s and 4s carry the most information on the grid, and they are the ones people look at least, because they are scary.
Frequently asked questions
Can the first click hit a mine?
Yes: the mines are already placed when the game starts, so the first cell is as much of a gamble as any other. On easy it goes wrong about one time in eight. For the first click the middle is better, where you are more likely to open an empty area that expands on its own: the preference for corners applies to mid-game gambles, where what you want is not to open a lot but to collect clean information.
Are flags mandatory?
No, you can win without placing a single one. They keep you from losing the thread, and above a certain grid size they become essential.
Why does half the grid sometimes open at once?
Because a cell with no adjacent mines automatically opens its neighbours, which may themselves be empty. It is a chain reaction, and finding one early is the best possible start.
Can you always win by reasoning?
Almost. There are endgame configurations where two cells are indistinguishable and the mine could be in either: there you flip a coin, and that is part of the game.
More games to try
See the full list of games, or open Pocket Games in your browser: they are free and you don’t need an account.