Minesweeper

Your goal is to clear all of the squares on the board that don’t have mines, and flag all of the mines. Left-click your mouse to reveal hidden squares. Use the numbers you find to figure out where the mines are: each number tells you how many of the surrounding 8 tiles (up/down, left/right or diagonal) are mines. Once you've figured out where a mine is, right-click to place a flag there. How fast can you clear the entire board?

MINESWEEPER TIPS AND STRATEGY

Start at random

When you start playing Minesweeper, you’ll have to pick a square at random. Your first square will never be a mine, but there’s no way to know whether that square will turn up blank or numbered. However, it’s best to start in the center of the board, since if you pick a tile close to a corner it’s easier to find yourself stuck with no good moves early in the game. With that said, since you’re being timed, it’s best to just pick a square and get started. You can make better-educated choices after clicking on your first square.

Look for numbers that touch the same number of squares

When a 1 is only touching one uncleared square, that square must be a mine. This is the same for 2, 3, and so on. Of course this sounds obvious, but when you are stuck, look around the board for instances of this you may have missed! It’s very easy to work in one direction after opening up a new area of the board and forget to look in other directions.

Look for patterns

The more you play Minesweeper the more you’ll pick up on different patterns. For example, if you have a row of numbers that go 1-2-1 and the squares on the top or bottom of this row are cleared, you know you should flag the two squares next to the two 1s, regardless of what numbers are next to the 1s on either side (even if there is an unchecked square there!). This is because there can’t be a mine next to the 2, since then there would be no other place to put the second mine. Similarly, if you have a row of numbers that similarly goes 1-2-2-1 and is clearly above or below, no matter what is on the other side of the 1s from the 2s, the mines must be next to the 2s. There are many more patterns than these to discover as you play!

For more tips on Minesweeper strategy, you can head on over to our Coolmath Games blog here.

WHAT DOES MINESWEEPER TEACH YOU?

Minesweeper is great for pattern recognition, meaning you’ll learn how to look at a series of numbers and figure out what the numbers mean when they’re in a specific order. It’s also great for deductive reasoning.

DO YOU HAVE TO GUESS IN ORDER TO PLAY MINESWEEPER?

Oftentimes Minesweeper is dismissed as a game of luck. However, if players really put their mind to it, there doesn’t have to be a ton of guessing. In some versions of Minesweeper, depending on the difficulty level, there doesn’t have to be any guessing whatsoever a lot of the time.

In our Coolmath Games version of Minesweeper, you may have to guess once or twice a game in order to come out victorious. Our advice - think long and hard before you decide to guess. There may be one more square that you don’t have to guess on, make sure to weigh all of your options before leaping into the unknown of guessing. If you try and avoid guessing at all costs whenever you can, you’ll be surprised by how many Minesweeper games are winnable with minimal risk.

IS THERE A TRICK TO PLAY MINESWEEPER?

Minesweeper is a pretty straightforward game, with not a ton of sneaky tricks to it. The main 'trick' is to just be patient and consider all of your options. 

One tip that we have - if there is a square that only has one mine next to it, and it is tucked away in a corner surrounded by safe squares to the left and right, then the mine must be directly diagonal to it. 

There was one famous trick in Minesweeper, although it is long gone by now. Back in the Windows XP days, if players pressed the keys 'xyzzy' and then the left shift key, a pixel would pop up in the top left-hand corner of the monitor and stay there. When players hovered over a safe square, it would appear white. On the other hand, when players hovered over a square with a mine underneath it, the pixel would turn black. 

WHEN WAS MINESWEEPER INVENTED?

While the claims of when exactly Minesweeper was invented vary, the general consensus is that some variation of it was created sometime during the 1960s or 1970s. However, it didn’t really take off until Microsoft released Minesweeper on one of their Windows game packs in 1990.  

Despite the argument over the release date, there is one thing most agree on - Minesweeper is one of the most popular time-wasters of all time. Many websites claim that Minesweeper is the most popular game of all time, although that is certainly up for debate.

This popularity is due to two factors: the simple game instructions and the fact that Minesweeper comes pre-installed on a lot of computers. 

WHAT IS THE FASTEST TIME IN MINESWEEPER?

Minesweeper speed runs are insane. Considering that the game has been around for decades, there have been many people who have trained countless hours in pursuit of the record. If you are hoping to beat the world record, you will have to be able to complete the entire map in just seconds. You heard that right - the Minesweeper world record is completed in a matter of seconds.

To read more about this, feel free to check out our Coolmath Games blog on Minesweeper world records right here. 

If you're not at that level and just want a more in-depth look at how to play Minesweeper, you can also check out our blog for that right here.
 

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