Minesweeper – How to Play & Beat it

One of the classic games that came loaded on everyone’s first computer is Minesweeper. Minesweeper is a total icon in the gaming scene and a great way to either kill some time or get your noggin working double-time. It can be fun, but it can be very difficult if you have no idea what you’re doing. Here’s how to play and ultimately beat a game of Minesweeper.

How to Play Minesweeper

To beat Minesweeper, you need to figure out how the game works first. It all starts with clicking on a random square on the grid. The numbers that show indicate how many bombs are surrounding that square. If it is just grayed out, then there are no bombs around it.

Because of this, we recommend that you start with a smaller grid when you’re only beginning to learn the ropes of the game. And frankly, since you only get one life, the only possible way for you to beat a Minesweeper game every single time, no matter how experienced you are, is by playing on a smaller grid.

Tips on How to Beat Minesweeper

Once you’ve nailed down the basics of the game, which are pretty simple, you can eventually learn some tricks of your own that will help you beat the game more often. Below are some tips on how to beat this classic PC game.

Start at the corners of the grid

By choosing to click on or unravel the corners of the grid, to begin with, makes the process of deducing the bombs’ locations easier and more organized. For example, after clicking on one corner and a ‘1’ appeared, you’d have to take a leap of faith and select one of the three squares surrounding it.

The game begins with a lot of these leaps of faith decisions on which square to click, but the more of them that you reveal, the more that you can use the numbers that appear on the grid to be more definitive and less scared on the next square you choose to click on.

Play Minesweeper more to beat patterns

The more games you play on Minesweeper, you’ll slowly start to decipher the patterns a lot easier. You can either play more often to be familiar with these patterns or utilize tutorials on Youtube to learn from others. When you chance upon a square that opens up plenty of numbers, weed out the most obvious ones first. For example, an unlicked square surrounded by numbers is obviously a mine.

Use the flags to your advantage

When you right-click on a square, it marks a red flag on it to help you indicate the spots which you think are where the mines are. This makes the game a lot less confusing and more manageable to beat. It is also important to note to not overuse these flags. Only plant them on squares in which you are more than sure that a mine is located there.

De-press the squares

A feature that most do not know exists right off the bat is the de-press function. By doing a left-click and a right-click at the same time on a square that shows a number, it reveals which squares are surrounding it. This helps you figure out which square potentially has a mine based on the number it shows. Learning this trick is quite simple yet saves you a lot of headaches in trying to beat this popular puzzle game.

And that’s it for all our tips on how to play and beat Minesweeper. Once you’re more experienced in playing this cult classic, you can begin challenging yourself to beat the game the fastest as you can. If you like puzzle games, you can check out our list of the best puzzle games on Switch.