How to Win at MineSweeper: Simple Elimination

This is a continuation of previous posts.

Finding a Safe Square: Simple Elimination

Now that we have found the location of some mines, we should try to determine if there are any safe squares we can reveal.  This is important not only because it is the game’s objective, but revealing a safe square reveals essential information to help us locate and mark more mines.

The easiest way to find safe squares is by Simple Elimination:  If an area only has 1 mine, and you have already located it, then all other squares in that area must be safe.  This happens for us in two instances:

Simple Elimination

The green box to the left tells us there is only 1 mine in the area, but we already have a mine marked in the area.  Thus, all other squares in the area must be safe.  I have marked them with an ‘x’.  Left-Click them to reveal them as safe squares and to get more information about other mines that might be close by.  It works in a similar fashion for the green box on the right as well.  Revealing all the safe squares marked with an ‘x’ yields:

Safe Squares Revealed

After revealing these safe squares, we will go back to mine-hunting mode.  With this new information, can we determine the location of any more mines?  You’ll find that this is the cycle of the game:  locate safe squares (and hence receive information), locate mines, locate safe squares, locate mines, etc.  

Can you determine the location of any more mines?  Here is the next mine I located (this was a No-Brainer minetype):

Result from Mine-Hunting Mode

Take note of the glowing square.  In my next move, I accidentally left-clicked it.  Accidentally revealing a square can happen easily, all the more so on a laptop.  Be careful not to accidentally click on the board.  It can instantly kill your game.  What happened to me?

Accidental Reveal

I got lucky this time, especially considering there are 4 mines in the area!  Yikes!  So I moved on to another part of the board.  Let’s go back to this area:

Remember from my previous posts, this one is not a No-Brainer.  But we can manage something here.  Read about it in my next post.  Thanks for reading.

~The Witch Doctor

Tags: game, microsoft, mine, minesweeper, sweeper, win, windows