Try to expose every cell of the grid that does not contain one of the hidden mines, without opening any cell that does contain a mine.
Click in a grid cell to open it. Every opened cell is marked with the number of mines in the surrounding cells, if there are any; if not, all the surrounding cell are automatically opened. Grid cells that touch only at a corner still count as adjacent, so on the default square grid setting, a cell has 8 neighbours, not 4.
Right-click in a cell to mark it with a flag if you think it is a mine. If a numbered cell has exactly the right number of flags around it, you can left-click in it to open all the cells around it that are not flagged.
The first cell you open is guaranteed to be safe, and (by default) you are guaranteed to be able to solve the whole grid by deduction rather than guesswork. (Deductions may require you to think about the total number of mines.)
As well as playing on a square grid, you can also choose to play the game on a collection of other tilings. Try several and see which you think is most fun. (Beware of tiles that touch at a corner unexpectedly, or in some cases, tiles that nearly touch but not quite.)
If you think you've found a grid which can't be solved without guessing, think harder! Mines was written in 2005, and since it was written, I've had over 50 reports claiming that a grid had two solutions, or required guessing at a safe space to open. None of those reports turned out to be a real bug in the game generation.
Full instructions | Back to main puzzles page