How to play
The object of the game is to uncover all of the squares which do not
house bombs. You uncover squares by clicking them.
Uncovered squares are shown in a lighter grey and they often contain
a number. The number tells you how many bombs there are in the eight
surrounding squares.
If an uncovered square contains no number, it means there are no
bombs in the surrounding squares and the surrounding squares will be
automatically uncovered. This is why a single click will sometimes
uncover many squares.
To help you remember where the bombs are and to prevent you from
accidentally setting them off, you can place flags by right-clicking
squares. On touch devices you can long-press squares instead.
Walkthrough
The best way to learn is to play!
If you haven't played before you should start on "Easy". At higher
difficulties there are more squares and a higher percentage of those
squares will be bombs, but other than that, the game is the same.
Easy: 9x9 (81) squares with 10 bombs.
Approximately 12% or 1 in 8 squares are bombs.
Intermediate: 16x16 (256) squares with 40 bombs.
Approximately 16% or 1 in 6 squares are bombs.
Expert: 30x16 (480) squares with 99 bombs.
Approximately 21% or 1 in 5 squares are bombs.
The rest of this walkthrough will use the 9x9 (
Easy) grid.
Where do I start?
Don't worry too much about where you start, because your first click
will never be a bomb.
The positions of the bombs are actually determined after your first
click and the clicked square, along with the 8 surrounding squares
are guaranteed to be bomb-free.
That said, I advise that you start by clicking somewhere in the
middle. In the middle you are guaranteed to cleared at least 9
squares with your first click, but if you click one of the corner
or edge squares, you're only guaranteed to clear 4 or 6 squares
respectively.
On this occasion clicking the square in the very center, cleared the
majority of the squares, due to a large number of adjecent squares
with no bombs in their surroundings.
So where are the bombs?
To deduce where bombs lie, you should focus on the numbers in the
cleared squares and decide if there is only one way to position that
many bombs in the surrounding 8 squares.
Look at the yellow-highlighted "2" in the top left hand side of
the following screenshot. The 8 surrounding squares are also
highlighted yellow. Six of the surrounding squares have already been
cleared. This means that in order to satisfy the "2", the 2
remaining squares must both be bombs (yellow circles).
There are several other places where you can make similar deductions,
which are highlighted in different colours.
Tip: The easiest
places to make such deductions are the corners/protusions of the
still covered squares.
Right-click each of squares where you know there is a bomb. Doing so
will cause the bomb count in the top right to decrease, though that
doesn't necesarily mean your flag placement was correct.
So where aren't the bombs?
It's important to remember that your objective is not to flag all
the bombs, but to clear all of the squares where there are no bombs.
After all, that is the true test of whether or not your flags are
in the correct places.
Look at orange-highlighted "1" in the top right hand side of the
following screenshot. We know there is 1 bomb in its surrounding
8 squares (also highlighted orange).
5 of the surrounding squares have already been cleared, so we only
have to worry about the 3 below it. We have already flagged one of
them as a bomb, which satisfies the "1", so the other two (orange
crosses)must not have bombs.
Here's your bravery test: Click them!
Hopefully nothing exploded and you can find more such instances.
Continue looking for places where there must or must not be bombs.
Keep going until you've placed every flag.
Now you've placed all 10 flags, all that's left is to click
the remaining squares. First check the numbers add up to make sure
you don't trip on the finishing line.
If all goes well all of the bombs will be revealed.
Congratulations on your first win!
Play now!