Minesweeper has a reputation as a luck game. Click a mine on your second move and you're done — nothing you could have done. But this characterisation misses what makes Minesweeper genuinely interesting: the vast majority of any board can be solved through deductive logic alone. Most mines can be located with mathematical certainty before you click a single cell near them. The luck element is real, but smaller than most players realise.
Reading the Numbers: The Basics
Every revealed number tells you precisely how many mines exist in the 8 surrounding cells — horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. A 1 means exactly one mine in those 8 cells. A 3 means three. When all 8 cells around a number are revealed except one, and the number matches the count of flagged mines plus one, that last cell is definitely a mine. This is the simplest deduction and you should be running it continuously across the board.
The inverse: when a number's mine count is already satisfied by flags, every remaining unrevealed neighbour is safe. Right-click to flag all confirmed mines; left-click every confirmed safe cell. Most of the board resolves through these two moves alone.
The 1-2 Pattern: Your Most Common Logical Tool
The 1-2 pattern appears constantly along edges and corners and is the first advanced deduction new players should learn. It works like this: when a 1 and a 2 are adjacent and share some (but not all) of their unrevealed neighbours, you can determine exactly which cells are mines.
Classic edge example: a 1 sits on the bottom edge with two unrevealed cells above it. A 2 is beside it, also on the edge, with three unrevealed cells above it — two of them shared with the 1. The 1 tells us: exactly one mine in those two shared cells. The 2 tells us: exactly two mines across three cells (two shared + one not shared). Since one of the two shared cells is a mine (from the 1 constraint), the 2's additional mine must be in the non-shared cell. That non-shared cell of the 2 is a confirmed mine. The non-shared cell of the 1 (if it has one on the other side) is confirmed safe.
This extends to 1-2-1 patterns, 1-2-2-1 runs, and more complex chains along edges. Once you can read these visually without working through the logic each time, your solve rate improves dramatically.
Corner and Edge Deductions
Corners and edges constrain the possible positions for mines more than the centre does, which makes them easier to reason about. An unrevealed cell in the corner of the board has only 3 neighbouring cells (not 8). This dramatically reduces uncertainty. When a 1 sits adjacent to a corner, and the corner cell is unrevealed while all other neighbours of the 1 are revealed safe cells — the corner is definitely a mine.
Similarly, a 2 sitting one cell from the edge with only two unrevealed neighbours means both those neighbours are mines. Flag them both. This type of forced move is extremely common in Expert mode and should be identified before attempting any uncertain clicks.
When You Must Guess: The 50/50
Despite what logic can accomplish, some boards do require a guess. The most common unavoidable situation: two unrevealed cells with a 1 between them, no additional constraint available anywhere on the board. This is a pure 50/50. One is a mine, one is safe, and no deduction can tell you which.
In this situation: look for context. Does the shape of the open area suggest one cell is more likely to be accessible (already surrounded by other revealed cells)? Does the remaining mine count affect probability? These contextual clues don't guarantee a correct guess, but on average they shift the odds slightly. In competitive play, experts make these guesses confidently and accept the ~50% loss rate as built into the game. In casual play, simply flag whichever feels wrong and click the other — the game ends either way, and you'll know immediately.
Flagging Discipline
Flags are informational tools, not obligations. Flag every cell you've confirmed as a mine — this prevents accidental clicks and helps you see the remaining constraint for nearby numbers. Do not flag speculatively. A speculative flag on a wrong cell will mislead you when reading patterns nearby. Keep flags strictly for confirmed mines only.