About

The game

Minesweeper is a logic puzzle played on a grid seeded with hidden mines. Reveal a square to see a number: it counts how many of the (up to) eight squares touching it hold a mine. Use those numbers to work out where the mines are, flag them, and reveal every safe square to clear the board. Reveal a mine and the game is over.

The first square you open is always safe — it is never a mine, and neither are the squares around it — so every game starts with information rather than a coin flip.

No forced guesses

A frustrating Minesweeper board is one you cannot finish without guessing. Every board in this site's library is run through a deterministic solver that uses only techniques a person can follow — counting a square's neighbours, and subset deductions such as the classic 1-2-1 pattern. If a board needs a guess, it is thrown away rather than shipped. A test re-checks every committed board with the app's own engine.

How it works

• Tap or click a square to reveal it, or use the arrow keys and Enter.
• Long-press a square, press F, or turn on Flag mode to place a flag. The remaining-mine counter tracks how many mines are unaccounted for.
• When a numbered square has all of its mines flagged, tap it to open its other neighbours at once — a "chord".
• Your best time for each difficulty is saved in your own browser's local storage. There is no account and nothing is sent to a server.
• Clearing your browser data clears your best times — you can also reset them from the boards page.

The project

This game is part of a small, open collection of browser games. It is built to load fast, work on a phone as well as a desktop, and require no sign-up to play.