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Minesweeper is a logic-based puzzle video game that can be played across multiple types of devices but is generally played on personal computers. The theme at play is simple: find and flag a set amount of mines on the board and clear all other tiles without detonating any mines. Fortunately for newcomers to the game, it’s easy to learn with little guidance, as the challenge is in the actual gameplay rather than a complex matrix of rules.
The objective for the Classic variant is to flag all mines and uncover all remaining cells with help from clues about the number of neighboring mines in each field, going for the best time possible. The Infinite variant has an unlimited grid size, and the objective is to get as high of a score as you can. The game’s objectives vary hinging on which variant of Minesweeper you’d like to dive into.
Both of these variants are meant to cater to people who prefer one style over another and are willing to face the different challenges that the two variants offer. To help people satiate their desire to conquer the game, both iterations of Minesweeper are available to play for free on this site.
In the 1990s, Microsoft developed and released the video game, but it’s suggested that Microsoft drew significant influence from a well-crafted but less recognized game called Mined-Out, created by Ian Andrew for the ZX Spectrum in 1983. According to Andrew, Microsoft leaned on ideas from Mined-Out when developing Minesweeper. Whether or not this was the case, Microsoft’s game was first included in Windows 3.1 and has been a staple classic game ever since.
The Classic has three difficulty levels: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert. The major differences are the grid size and the number of bombs spread and hidden across the grid.
The Beginner grid is a 9×9 square, and hidden within are 10 mines that will need to be flagged. The Intermediate consists of a 16×16 square with 40 hidden objects. And finally, the Expert level is a 30×16 grid with 99 mines.
The Infinite can be fairly confusing at first due to the scale of the grid if you’re not used to looking at it, but after a few turns, it’s simple to pick up on what’s going on. Similar to the Classic version, several difficulty levels are available. However, rather than having three choices, Infinite has five: Beginner, Master, Ultimate, Impossible, and Deathmatch.
Because the grid flows to accommodate an infinite game, the grid size doesn’t change per difficulty. The major changes are the spaces more likely to be freed up and the frequency and placement of mines. The harder the difficulty, the more mines there are to deal with, and the more difficult it is to progress.
Starting the Game
Question Marks: If this option is active, right-clicking a flag on the grid will change it into a question mark. This is useful if you’re unsure whether a tile is a mine. The question marks work better as placeholders than setting one of your limited flags. Clicking again will remove the question mark. If this option is off, right-clicking will only toggle the flag.
Safe Start: When starting a game, your first click will always reveal an empty square, but if you’re lucky, you might also uncover a larger area. You will not open to a mine regardless of where you’ve decided to place that first click.
Chording: This option allows you to click on a number with the corresponding number of flagged mines around it to reveal the surrounding squares. If this option is off, clicking on a number will have no effect.
Open Remaining: When activated, after flagging all the mines and the display showing “000” for remaining mines, you can click the display to uncover all remaining squares.
The following controls are used on a computer utilizing a mouse or mousepad.
Due to the similarities between these devices, the same style of controlling the game applies to tablets and smartphones.
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