Minesweeper
Clear the board without triggering a mine
A grid hides a fixed number of mines. Tap a square and it either opens or ends the run. Every opened square shows how many mines touch it, and that single number is your whole information supply. From there, Minesweeper is deduction: you are reading a map that only reveals itself where you are already safe.
How to play
Playing Minesweeper
- 1
Tap any square to open it and start reading the board.
- 2
Read each revealed number as the count of mines in the eight squares around it.
- 3
Open a blank square and its empty neighbors cascade open, clearing large safe areas at once.
- 4
Flag a square you are sure hides a mine so you cannot open it by accident.
- 5
Avoid opening a mine, because one wrong tap ends the round immediately.
- 6
Clear every safe square to finish the board, where speed, not points, is the traditional score.
Tactics
Three ways to get better at Minesweeper
The 1-2-1 pattern
When three numbers read 1-2-1 along a wall with three covered squares behind them, the outer two are mines and the middle is safe. The related 1-2-2-1 flips it: the squares behind the 2s are mines.
Subtract the flags
Treat every number as the count minus the flags already next to it. A 3 with two flags around it is really a 1, and if it has exactly one covered neighbor left, that square is a mine.
Guess early, guess corners
Some boards force a guess. Take it early, while little is at stake, and pick a corner or edge: fewer neighbors means fewer ways to be wrong. Late on, the remaining mine count often turns a guess back into a certainty.
Inside Reel Games
Minesweeper in the swipe feed
Reel Games keeps Minesweeper one flick of the thumb from whatever you were just playing, and the board appears fully drawn: no spinner, no splash. Because the game runs on the device, a plane at cruising altitude or a subway platform works as well as your kitchen, and your score syncs to the leaderboards once you are back online. Swipe away and back and the next board is there with no loading screen, and no ad ever cuts in.
Good for a quiet twenty minutes when you want something to solve.
Next up
Games like this one
They are all in the same app, so trying one costs a swipe.
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Solve the classic puzzle
Minesweeper is one of 47
Free to download, no ads, and the whole library keeps working when your signal does not.