Mines

How to play Mines

Mines is a logic puzzle played on a grid of covered squares. Some of them hide mines. Clear every safe square without uncovering a mine to win.

1. Tap a square to dig. Your first tap is always safe and opens up an area of the field.
2. Read the numbers. A number shows how many mines are in the eight squares around it: above, below, to the sides and on the diagonals. A blank square has no mines next to it.
3. Flag the mines. When you’re sure a square hides a mine, long-press it, right-click it, or switch to Flag and tap it.
4. Clear around a number. Once a number has all its mines flagged, tap it to open every other square around it in one go.
5. Win by uncovering every square without a mine. Dig a mine and the game is over.

There are three field sizes. Easy is 9×9 with 10 mines, Medium is 16×16 with 40, and Hard is 30×16 with 99. On a phone, the Hard field turns on its side so every square is big enough to tap.

Quick tips for clearing the field

• Start with the 1s. A 1 with only one covered square next to it means that square is a mine.
• Count what’s already flagged. If a 2 already has two flags around it, every other square around it is safe.
• Look at pairs of numbers. Two numbers side by side share most of their neighbours. Comparing them often shows which squares are safe.
• Guess only when you have to. Sometimes the numbers truly can’t tell you, often in the last few squares. Then it’s a coin flip.

Mines FAQ