Getting Mines ready…
Find a safe square before you guess
The three numbers are open. Only A–E are covered; every other neighbour of these numbers is known to be safe.
Which of these squares can you safely open?
Choose C
C is safe. If it held a mine, the middle 2 would need another mine at B or D. Either choice would give one of the end 1s two mines. So C cannot hold a mine.
Choose B
B holds a mine. Once C is ruled out, the middle 2 needs both B and D. Flag B rather than opening it.
Choose D
D holds a mine. The middle 2 needs both B and D after C is ruled out. Flag D rather than opening it.
Use the whole edge: after B and D are flagged, A and E are safe too. If extra covered neighbours touch the clues, work out their constraints before applying this pattern.
Read the illustrated Mines guideAbout Mines
Uncover every safe square and flag the hidden mines: every board can be cleared by reasoning, never by luck.
Mines is a Minesweeper-style deduction game played on a grid of covered squares. Some of them hide mines. Open a safe square and it shows a number: how many mines touch it, counting the diagonals. Read the numbers together and you can work out where every mine lies, flag it, and open everything else. Open a mine and the round is over.
Most versions of this game leave you, now and then, with two squares and no way to tell which is safe. Not here. Every board is dealt with a safe area already open, and our server plays it through before you see it, keeping only boards that can be cleared by reasoning alone. A fast time is never a lucky one. Medium, 12 by 12 with 24 mines, counts for the monthly leaderboard, which resets on the 1st of every month at 00:00 UTC; Easy and Hard are there for warming up and for a challenge.
How to play
- Pick a level — Medium is the ranked one — and press Start. The clock starts with a safe area already open.
- Tap or click a covered square to open it. Its number says how many of the eight squares around it hide a mine.
- Mark a mine with a flag: right-click, long-press on a phone, or switch the Flag button on and tap.
- Tap a number whose mines are all flagged to open every other square around it at once.
- Open every square that is not a mine to finish. Opening a mine ends the round.
- Your time is measured by our server. Sign in to put it on the monthly leaderboard.
Tips
- A 1 with only one covered square next to it has its mine right there. Flag it and look at its neighbours again.
- Read numbers in pairs along a wall: a 1 next to a 2 often tells you exactly which squares hold the mines.
- When a number touches as many correctly placed flags as it shows, its other covered neighbours are safe. Check the flags before chording.
- Flags are your notes, not the answer — a wrong flag only costs you when you open around it.
- Near the end, count: the mines still unflagged must fit into the squares still covered.
Guides
Questions players ask
Do I ever have to guess?
No. Every board is checked before it is dealt: a solver that only uses the numbers clears it from the opening area. If it would need a guess, the board is thrown away and another dealt.
When does the leaderboard reset?
On the 1st of every month at 00:00 UTC. The final standings are kept: the top three of each month receive an honour on their profile, and your all-time best never resets.
How is my time measured?
By our server, from the moment the opening area is shown until you open the last safe square. The board stays on the server, so a square’s number is only known once you open it.
Do I need an account to play?
No. Press Start and you play straight away under a guest name. Sign in with an account you already have to put your time on the monthly leaderboard.
Leaderboard
All boardsMonthly season · ends in 1d 22h (Sun 1 Nov, 00:00 UTC)
No ranked results yet this season. The first player to finish a Medium · 12×12 (ranked) game leads.