Minefield — user guide

Find every safe square without opening a mine.

Start a round

Choose Pocket (8 × 8 squares, 10 mines) or Field (9 × 12 squares, 20 mines). Tap any square. Your first reveal and all its neighbours are safe, so the first move opens an area.

A number tells you how many mines touch that square. Count the eight surrounding positions, including diagonals; edge and corner squares have fewer neighbours. A blank means no adjacent mines, and opens the surrounding safe area automatically.

Controls

• Phone/tablet. Reveal: Select Reveal, then tap a covered square. Flag or unflag: Select Flag, then tap a covered square.
• Mouse. Reveal: Left-click follows the selected Reveal/Flag mode. Flag or unflag: Right-click toggles a flag in either mode.
• Keyboard. Reveal: Focus the board with Tab; arrows move; Enter or Space reveals. Flag or unflag: F toggles a flag.

On touch, the square reacts on release. Sliding your finger off cancels the tap. You can scroll vertically on shorter screens. Use the visible Flag control rather than relying on long-press behaviour, which varies across devices.

A flagged square cannot be revealed until you remove its flag. You have no more flags than the board has mines. “Flags left” counts unused markers, not confirmed unlocated mines. A flag can be wrong.

Read the board

• Dark green, raised: still covered.
• Cream, flat: revealed and safe.
• Coloured number: adjacent mine count.
• Amber flag: your marker on a covered square.
• Rust-coloured board frame: Flag mode is selected.

The timer counts real elapsed time from your first reveal and keeps running while the guidebook or another tab is open. It is informational only, with no time limit; there is no separate pause control. “Safe squares” shows your progress toward clearing the board.

A small playbook

1. One remaining neighbour. If a revealed 1 touches exactly one covered square and every other neighbour is revealed, that covered square must be a mine. Flag it.
2. Enough correct flags. If a 2 touches two mines you have correctly identified and flagged, its other neighbours are safe. Switch to Reveal and open them individually.
3. All remaining neighbours must be mines. If a 3 has one correctly flagged mine and exactly two other covered neighbours, both remaining covered neighbours are mines.
4. Cross-check adjacent numbers. A deduction from one number can help solve the next. Do not treat a flag as proof: it is your own note.

The first opening is guaranteed safe; later moves are not guaranteed solvable without a guess. There are no hints, automatic chording or undo.

Win, lose and restart

Reveal every safe square to win. You do not have to flag every mine. The clock stops and a success message appears.

Opening a mine ends the round. The hit mine is highlighted in red, all other mines are shown, and incorrect flags are marked with an ×. A correctly flagged mine is displayed as a mine in the finished board. The clock stops and further board actions are locked.

Choose New game for a fresh random board. Changing board size also starts a new round. During active play, confirm the replacement or choose Keep playing. A ready or finished round restarts immediately.

Install and play offline

Open the game online once and allow the page to finish loading. On supporting browsers:

• Android/Chrome: use “Keep it on your phone” or the browser's Install app / Add to Home screen action.
• iPhone/iPad: open in Safari, use Share, then Add to Home Screen.
• Desktop: use the browser's install action if offered.

Installation availability depends on your browser. The game needs HTTPS (or localhost during development) for offline installation. If opened inside the common arcade, installation belongs to that host site.

After the first complete online load, the standalone game, its in-game guide and full guidebook can work offline. Installation is optional for browser play. Physical-phone installation has not yet been verified on a device.

A reload, closed tab or navigation away discards the round and the timer. There is no saved game, resume or score history. Stay on the page to keep the current round.

Full guidebook

Open full guidebook opens this guide in a separate tab, preserving the round in the original open game tab. The timer keeps running. Use the browser’s Print command to print or save it as a PDF.

Help

“How to play” opens the guide on phones; desktop shows it beside the board. If a square will not open, check whether it is flagged, whether Flag mode is active, or whether the round has ended.