How to play
- Open every safe cell. Open a mine and the game is over (you can restart the same board).
- Numbers count mines. Each number shows how many of the 8 cells around it, diagonals included, hold a mine.
- Flag what you know. Mark cells you’ve proven are mines. The counter shows total mines minus your flags.
- The first click is always safe. Wherever you click first, the marked start area opens.
You win when every cell that isn’t a mine is open. Flags are optional, but they unlock chording and the hints rely on them.
Controls
| Action | Mouse | Touch | Keyboard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open a cell | Click | Tap | Enter |
| Flag / unflag | Right-click | Long-press, or tap with 🚩 Flag on | Space or F |
| Chord (open around a number) | Click the number | Tap the number | Enter or Space on the number |
| Move around | – | – | Arrow keys, Home, End |
Chording: once a number has all its flags placed around it, click it to open every other hidden cell next to it in one go. If one of your flags is wrong, that opens a mine, so be sure first.
The board is a single Tab stop; arrow keys move inside it. On a phone, Expert (30×16) turns on its side so the cells stay big enough to tap.
Hints (3 per board) first check your flags, which is free. Then they teach the next step: the technique’s name, why it applies, the numbers it rests on outlined, and the cells it proves opened or flagged. Best times only count boards cleared without hints.
Solving techniques
Every board here is checked by a solver that uses only these 5 techniques, easiest first, and never guesses. If it can’t clear a board from the start, the board is thrown away. Medium daily boards need at least one pattern; Hard ones need a 1-2. Hints and the solver use the same names, and each links back here.
In the examples: the numbers ringed purple are what the reasoning rests on, and the cells ringed green are what it proves (opened, or flagged as mines).
1. Safe Neighbors
A number already touching all its mines: every other hidden cell around it is safe.
Count the flags around a number. Once a 2 touches two flags (or a 3 touches three), its mines are all found, and every other hidden cell touching it is safe to open.
This is also what chording does: click a number whose flags are all placed and the game opens the rest of its neighbors for you.
Worked example (Daily #4): The 1 at row 3, column 1 already has its mine flagged, so every other hidden cell touching it is safe.
2. Certain Mines
A number with exactly as many hidden neighbors as mines it still needs: they are all mines.
The mirror image: if a number still needs as many mines as it has hidden cells left around it, every one of those cells is a mine. A 1 in a corner with one hidden neighbor, or a 3 with exactly three, are the classic cases.
Worked example (Daily #4): The 1 at row 3, column 3 needs 1 more mine and has one hidden cell left touching it, so that cell is a mine.
3. 1-1 Pattern
One number’s mines must sit in cells it shares with a neighbor number. If that covers the neighbor’s count, its other cells are safe.
Look at two numbers side by side that share some hidden cells. If every place the first number’s mine could be is also next to the second number, that mine counts for both.
So when the first number’s mines already make up everything the second one needs, the second number’s other hidden cells are safe. Along a wall, a 1 next to a 1 means the cell beyond the second 1 is safe: that’s where the name comes from.
Worked example (Daily #26): Every hidden cell around the 1 at row 1, column 4 also touches the 1 at row 2, column 4, so its 1 more mine is in those shared cells. That’s all the 1 still needs, so its other hidden neighbors are safe.
4. 1-2 Pattern
A number needs more mines than can fit in the cells it shares with a neighbor number: the rest go in its other cells.
The other half of the same idea. A number shares some hidden cells with a neighbor that needs fewer mines. Those shared cells can only hold as many mines as the smaller number allows.
If the bigger number needs more than that, the rest must be in its own cells outside the shared ones. A 2 next to a 1 along a wall: the cell beyond the 2 is a mine.
Worked example (Daily #22): The 2 at row 3, column 8 needs 2 more mines, but the cells it shares with the 2 at row 2, column 8 can hold at most 1 (the 2 at row 2, column 8 needs only 1 more mine). So its other hidden neighbor is a mine.
5. Mine Count
Use the mine counter: when the numbers you can see need every mine that’s left, all other hidden cells are safe.
Watch the mine counter (total mines minus your flags). Near the end, the numbers you can see often account for every mine that’s left. Then any hidden cell not touching those numbers is safe, even pockets no number reaches.
Worked example (Daily #33): Only 1 mine is left, and the 1 at row 1, column 3 needs all of them, so every hidden cell not touching it is safe.