How to solve Minesweeper, and whether it is all luck
The first thing anyone looking up Minesweeper tips wants to know is whether the game is all luck. The honest answer: it depends on how the board was made. Boards laid out at random can leave you in spots where no amount of reading settles anything, and on the classic Expert size (16×30, 99 mines) only 326 of 2000 boards, about 16%, could be cleared without a single guess (what to do when you must guess). On either kind of board, the skill is the same: read everything that can be read, and only then choose. Puzzle Lounge checks each board as it is made, confirming it can be cleared by reasoning alone, so you never have to guess. This page walks through how to read a board, with real positions from free stages. New to it? Start with the basics of reading.
In the pictures: yellow marks the numbers a step reads from, a red ✕ a cell that must be a mine, a green ○ a cell that must be safe, an orange ? the two cells that look like a 50/50, and a dashed blue outline a cell that opens later. A heavy line is the edge of the board (the wall). Rows and columns are numbered as the board stands upright; on some screens the game may turn it on its side.
Is Minesweeper down to luck?
We measured it. We laid 2000 boards of each size at random, with no check, except for the same first opening Puzzle Lounge gives you (no mines around the first cell), and had a computer try to read each one out, using every arrangement of the numbers along the edge and the count of mines left.
| Size | Boards | Cleared by reasoning alone |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner (9×9, 10 mines) | 2000 | 1858 (about 93%) |
| Intermediate (16×16, 40 mines) | 2000 | 1460 (about 73%) |
| The classic Expert size (16×30, 99 mines) | 2000 | 326 (about 16%) |
One forced guess anywhere keeps a board out of that count, and the computer never misses a step. So 16% does not mean 84% of boards are decided by luck: it means 84% need one guess somewhere. The computer also limits how much it works through at once, so slightly more boards than this may be solvable.
The bigger the board, the likelier it is to demand a guess. So the honest answer is that unchecked boards really do have spots that need luck. Puzzle Lounge checks every board as it is made and throws out any that can't be cleared with the reading below (Custom, where you set the size yourself, is checked the same way; with a great many mines no fair layout may turn up, and only then does an unchecked board appear, with a message telling you so).
| Difficulty | What the check allows |
|---|---|
| Easy, Medium, Hard | One number, two neighboring numbers, and at the very end the count of mines left |
| Oni, Extreme | All of that, plus up to four numbers read together. Every board has at least one spot that needs it. |
In Hard, from stage 501 on, stages that need the Oni-style reading come in little by little, and by the end nearly all of them do. There are 1,000 stages in each of the five difficulties, 5,000 in all; every one was run on November 9, 2026, and all pass the check.
The basics of reading
Clues only exist where open cells meet closed ones. Go along that edge one number at a time and check two things. Most cells are settled by repeating them.
- If a number, less its flags, equals its closed cells, every closed cell is a mine.
- If the flags around a number equal it, every other closed cell is safe.
When a number has flags around it, read it as what is left once they are taken away. Read that way, the patterns in the next section show up on their own.
Patterns: 1-1, 1-2, 1-2-1, 1-2-2-1
When one number won't settle a cell, compare neighbors. Every position here is one where no cell on the entire board can be settled by a single number alone, so the pattern is what actually does the work.
1-1, with an open cell acting as a wall
If a 1 has only two closed cells to use, and the 1 beside it touches the same two, the next cell along is safe. An open cell blocks the way just like the edge of the board does.
1-2
With a 1 and a 2 side by side, if the 2 has exactly three closed cells and two of them also touch the 1, those two hold at most one mine, so the 2 needs another in the cell beyond the 1's reach. The cell on the far side of the 1 is safe.
1-2-1
Read the 1-2 from both ends: the cells directly across from the 1s are mines, and the one across from the 2 is safe.
1-2-2-1
The cells across from the two 2s are mines, and the cells on either side of them are safe.
Against the wall
At the edge of the board a number has fewer closed cells to use. When an open row runs all the way to the wall, the 1 at its end touches only two closed cells, and comparing it with the number beside it is enough.
Reading three or more numbers together
On Oni and Extreme you will meet spots where comparing any two numbers settles nothing. Then you combine three or more into one conclusion.
In this position no single number and no pair of numbers anywhere on the board settles a cell, even with the count of mines left added. Only reading all three does.
Count the mines at the end
When a few closed cells are left, count the mines left. If none are left, the rest are safe. A cell no number touches can only be settled this way. When only a few mines are left, combining the count with numbers can settle more (the second picture).
The mines-left number on screen is the total minus your flags (and mines stepped on). One wrong flag throws it off.
A real 50/50, and one that only looks like it
When a mine is known to be in one of two cells and every number points at those same two, it looks like a 50/50. Usually you just don't have enough clues yet. To tell:
- Look for cells that touch only one of the two.
- If such a cell is still closed and not known to be a mine, its number could settle it. It isn't a 50/50 yet.
- Only when there are no such cells, or they are all walls or mines, is it a real 50/50 no number can ever break.
The first picture is a real moment from Medium 2-10. At that moment even the count of mines left doesn't help. But as the second picture shows, solve below and row 10, column 3 opens and decides it.
There's no example of a real 50/50 here, because Puzzle Lounge's boards only pass the check if no such spot exists. In the first picture, if row 10, column 3 were a mine, you would have the real thing.
When you truly have to guess
On boards with no such check (other sites, or a Custom board here where no fair layout turned up and the game told you so), you can reach a point where you must choose. Then go in this order:
- First clear everything else. New clues may settle it, and near the end the count of mines left may too.
- Choose the cell that helps you most if it's safe. Among equally risky cells, take the one whose number will give you something new.
- Compare rough odds. On the classic Expert size (16×30, 99 mines) about one cell in five is a mine. The three closed cells around a lone 1 are each about one in three. A cell no number touches is often the better bet. These are only rough guides.
- If it is a real 50/50, just pick one. Both choices are equally likely. Once you've confirmed nothing touches only one of them, more thinking won't help.
At Puzzle Lounge, stepping on a mine doesn't end the game. You can carry on or start over. It is recorded, it costs you the no-mistakes star, and in the Daily and This week's rankings it adds 60 seconds to your time (a hint adds 30).
The order to read a board in
- Go along the edge one number at a time, counting closed cells and flags.
- Take away the flags, and read what is left.
- Compare neighbors and look for patterns: 1-1, 1-2, 1-2-1, 1-2-2-1 and the wall shapes.
- If nothing settles, move elsewhere, and count the mines left at the end.
- On Oni and Extreme, read three or more numbers together.
Controls and rules are in How to play. See also the level pages: Easy · Medium · Hard · Oni · Extreme.