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Minesweeper for Dummies |
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Introduction Minesweeper is a beyond simple game that pits the player against the clock to find all of the mines hidden on the board, without actually clicking them. The game is very simple, yet people don't understand the mechanics of the game. This is why this guide exists. |
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| Chapter 1: Shut up and just teach me! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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What are the numbers...? When you click a square on the board, it will reveal a number. The number is the number of Mines in the 8 squares around that number. Remember, this is Minesweeper. We're trying to find all of the Mines without actually clicking them. For an example:
This board shows that we have 1 unclicked square, and a bunch of "1"s. Each "1" is telling you that there is 1 Mine in the 8 squares around it. However, since each "1" has all of the squares around it already revealed, except that single unrevealed square, where do you think the Mine is? Of course. That single unrevealed square is the only Mine on this board. The more numbers there are, the more complicated it gets, right? WRONG! The more numbers there are, the better! With more numbers revealed, we can almost accurately guess which of the remaining unrevealed squares are Mines. In this example:
You'd probably say to yourself "I could NEVER guess which ones are Mines...". Well, I doubt that! This setup is easy, all thanks to that "3" there. If we focus on the "3," what do we see? It has 5 out of 8 squares around it already revealed. That means there's 3 squares around that are unrevealed. Wait a tick. "3" means there's 3 Mines around it, right? And there's only 3 squares left that are unrevealed. That must mean... Yes! Those 3 squares left around that "3" are ALL Mines! Now if you look at the "2" beside the "3," knowing that those 3 squares around the "3" are mines, you'll notice that 2 of the 3 squares unrevealed around the "2" are Mines now. Don't quite understand what I'm talking about? Here I've marked the 3 Mines with an "M":
See how the "2" now has 2 Mines in the 3 unrevealed squares around it? This means that that "2" has filled it's "quota" (We'll use "quota" as a term to say that a number has the required amount of known Mines around it). Since that "2"'s quota is filled, any other squares around it will NOT be Mines. Because of this, we can click each square above the "1"s, and not lose the game:
Now we've won the game! |
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| Chapter 2: Pattern recognition | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In the game of Minesweeper, there are certain "obvious patterns"
that appear, and quite often. We just brushed on 2 patterns in the previous Chapter, so
let's explain them in detail:
This pattern is the simplist of them all. If you see a "1" anywhere on the board, then see if it has only 1 unrevealed square around it. If it does, then that unrevealed square is a Mine. There is no if, ands, buts or maybes with this pattern. A "1" with only 1 unrevealed square around it means that unrevealed square is a Mine, and you should flag it. Next pattern:
This pattern is also very simple. Using the knowledge that a "3" signifies there's 3 Mines around that square, we know that those 3 squares in the pattern are all Mines, and should be flagged. There can be variations to this pattern that mean the same thing, such as:
This would mean that the 4 unrevealed squares are all Mines. Remember to always think of each individual square's pattern, instead of the whole pattern at once. Some-what complicated pattern:
This pattern is not an exact-science pattern... It's more of a "freebie" pattern. If you ever see this pattern anywhere, the unrevealed square in the corner of the 2 (marked with an * on the example board) is NOT a Mine, and never will be, 100% of the time. The reason we know it's not a Mine, is because of the "1"s beside the "2." They are telling us that there's 1 Mine in those 2 squares around them. Since we know there's 1 Mine in each of those groups of 2 Squares, the "2" has filled a semi-quota. This is not a full quota, because we don't know EXACTLY where the Mines are. But we know there's 2 Mines beside the "2", so, any other squares around the "2" are not Mines. Didn't understand me? You will eventually get it as you read on. There is one variation of the above pattern that must be mentioned...
This pattern is the opposite of the above one... It means that there's a Mine in the corner square (marked with an "M"), 100% of the time. It's the same principle with the above pattern, in that the 3 has filled 2 out of 3 of it's quota through those "1"s, so that means the remaining square is the last unrevealed square available, so it HAS to be a Mine. Using each of these simple patterns, I've devised a board that can help you to use them in a real game. See if you can guess where each of the Mines are without actually revealing anything, then see if you were right by clicking here.
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| Chapter 3: Using other squares effectively | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The best (and frankly the only way) to win at Minesweeper is to use
all of what is available on the board. This means that you will need to use other squares
besides the obvious ones to figure out where there's a mine, and where there isn't.
In this example:
We see that there's no clear indication as to which will be a mine and which won't, right? Wrong again! If we look at the "1" on the left side, there's 2 squares around it, so what means a 50/50 shot of a Mine. Now we look at the "2" beside it, and it's got 3 squares around it. So now there's a 2/3 shot from the "2", and a 1/2 shot from the "1." However, let's say the square above the "2" was a Mine. Would that work? Nope! And here's why: If the square above the "2" was a Mine, then that would fulfill the quota of the "1" to the left of it. But if the quota of the "1" to the left is filled, that means the square above it would be empty, right? Which then would mean the second Mine for the "2" would be up-right of it. But wait a second. The "1" to the RIGHT of the "2" already has filled it's quota from the square above the "2" being a Mine. So now we're in a pickle. This must mean that the square above the "2" is NOT a Mine at all. And if the square above the "2" is not a Mine, that must mean the only other 2 squares around the "2" are Mines, which would be the squares up-left and up-right from it:
There would be more Mines to the right, but our board stops there. This isn't the only circumstance where you can use logic and other squares to figure out where the Mines are. In this example:
We see a couple of obvious Mines that we can then use to our advantage. Below the "1" in the top-right corner is a Mine because it's the only square around it, and below it still is another Mine, which we know is a Mine because of that "2" on the right. So now we have 2 Mines pinpointed. Because there's a "3" there, and we have 2 of it's quota filled, there must be another Mine in the 3 squares below it... But which square is it? Well, if we use the last example in this one, you'll see that the "1" & "2" in the bottom-left corner is like the last example. So this must mean that the square below the "1" is a Mine and the square below the "3" is a Mine:
The reason this works like this is because the "3" only had 1 Mine left to fill it's quota. If the pattern was slightly different, then it could have run one of 2 ways, and it wouldn't have been an exact science. For example:
This could go one of 2 ways, and you wouldn't know which is exactly going to work.
In this specific example, you could always click the square below the top-right Mine, and what it said would determine where the other Mines were. |
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| Chapter 4: Closing advice | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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- Remember to flag known Mines so you can plainly calculate where other Mines will be. - Always pay attention to EVERY square to find Mines. - If you're stuck, then make sure you've clicked every possible square that you know isn't a Mine. - Don't play for best times until you understand how everything works, and can click without thinking. |
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