經典踩地雷

Classic Minesweeper: rules and solving techniques

Use number clues to locate every mine without triggering one. This guide reflects the controls and win conditions in the current browser build. It is reviewed by the PocketJoy game-testing team and maintained by Long-Term New Media Limited.

The rules

A fixed number of mines is hidden under the board. Open a cell and, if it is safe, it shows a number giving the total mines among its eight neighbours; if it has no neighbouring mines at all, a whole blank region opens automatically, sparing you the mechanical work of clicking cell by cell. Right-click, or long-press on a phone, to flag a cell you suspect, and flagged cells cannot be opened by accident. Opening every non-mine cell completes the game — you do not have to flag every mine. Three difficulty levels set the board size and mine count, with a fastest time stored for each on your device. Your first click is always safe, so you can open freely to begin and there is no chance of losing on move one, which is the standard design in modern minesweeper.

Advanced solving

Reasoning from the number 1 is the most efficient start. If a 1 has only one unopened neighbour left, that cell is certainly a mine, so flag it. Conversely, if the flags already placed around a number equal the number itself, every remaining unopened neighbour is safe and can be opened directly. Those two rules resolve most positions and can be applied mechanically without inspiration. When stuck, compare two adjacent numbers, a technique sometimes called pair elimination: if a 1 and a 2 share two unopened cells and the 2 borders one further cell of its own, then because the shared pair holds at most one mine under the 1's constraint while the 2 requires two, that extra cell must be a mine. Comparisons of this kind unlock the great majority of apparently hopeless positions. Corner and edge cells have fewer neighbours — three at a corner, five along an edge — and therefore yield firmer information, so look to the edges when you are blocked. In the endgame, always use the remaining-flag counter: when the panel shows two flags left and only three unopened cells remain across two regions, the answer often follows directly.

Common blind spots

The most common mistake is not flagging and trying to hold mine positions in your head. On a larger board that fails reliably, and flags exist precisely to lock in what you have deduced so that the second rule can then be applied using the flag count. Another is guessing without solid information. Minesweeper does have positions that genuinely require a guess, particularly in hard-difficulty endgames, but most of the time being stuck simply means you have not exhausted the comparisons between adjacent numbers, so work through those before gambling. A third is ignoring the remaining-flag counter, which frequently settles the endgame outright and is the most undervalued piece of information on screen. The fourth is opening in a corner on the first click. Since the first click is guaranteed safe and an opening in open ground is far more likely to trigger a large automatic cascade, the first click should land near the centre where it yields the most information; a corner is equally safe but usually opens very little.

Who it suits best

A natural fit for anyone who enjoys pure deduction. Minesweeper is one of the few classics that is almost entirely free of luck, aside from rare forced guesses, so results come down to how quickly and accurately you reason. It was written by Robert Donner and Curt Johnson and shipped with the Windows 3.1 entertainment pack in 1990, where one of Microsoft's aims was to train users in left and right mouse-button technique — which explains why its core actions are precisely left-click to open and right-click to flag. In complexity theory the generalised version has been proved NP-complete, meaning no general fast solution exists, which is the mathematical reason hard-difficulty endgames sometimes really do require a guess. The easy level is relaxing while the hard level tests speed and accuracy together, and a fastest time for each difficulty is stored on your device.

Feature highlights

Three difficulties set board size and mine count, with a fastest time stored for each so they never overwrite one another. The run panel shows the timer and the remaining flag count — total mines minus flags placed — a number that frequently settles the endgame outright and is the most easily overlooked yet most valuable readout on screen. Your first click is guaranteed safe, so you can open freely without the frustration of an instant loss. Opening a blank area cascades automatically across the region rather than requiring cell-by-cell taps, which sharply reduces the proportion of time spent on mechanical input and lets your result reflect reasoning speed. Phone players get a dedicated note explaining that a long press places a flag, so nobody assumes the mobile version lacks the feature for want of a right button. Completion shows your total time, and hitting a mine says so plainly with encouragement to try again rather than simply reporting failure. A restart button generates a new board at any time.

Controls and record keeping

On desktop, left-click to open and right-click to flag; on a phone, tap to open and long-press to flag, so the full feature set is available on both platforms and nothing is lost for want of a right button. Flagged cells cannot be opened by accident, a protection that lets you work quickly with confidence. The restart button generates a new board at any time rather than only after the current game ends. A fastest time per difficulty is stored in the browser's local storage on your own device, with no account required and nothing uploaded to any server; records do not travel to another device, and clearing browser data removes them. The language button switches between Traditional Chinese and English instantly, updating every panel label, prompt and result string without a page reload. Once the page has loaded, the game itself plays offline, which suits commutes and places with poor reception.

Rules Q&A

Further reading: Minesweeper Numbers and Classic Patterns — ready-made conclusions for shapes like the 1-2-1.

Reviewed by the PocketJoy game-testing team · Operated by Long-Term New Media Limited · hklongtermad@gmail.com