Minesweeper guide
No-guess Minesweeper: what it is and how the boards are made
No-guess Minesweeper is Minesweeper where every board has been checked before you see it, so that from the first click there is always a square you can prove safe or prove to be a mine. You never face a forced 50-50: if you lose, it was a mistake in your reasoning, not bad luck. Yuzool's Minesweeper deals no-guess boards by default, free in your browser.
Why ordinary Minesweeper makes you guess
In the classic game the mines are scattered at random, and nobody checks the result. Random scattering often produces positions that no amount of thinking can settle. The best-known is two unopened squares at the edge of the board that touch exactly the same numbers, with one mine between them.
When that happens, you have to pick one and hope. On a big board you might meet two or three of these in a single game, so even a perfect player loses a good share of Expert games to luck. Experienced players learn to take these guesses early, so they lose less time when the guess goes wrong, but the luck is still there.
We measured it with our own solver, which plays only by the four rules described below. From a first click in the middle of the board, it could finish about 89% of random Beginner boards, 69% of Intermediate boards and only about 15% of Expert boards (1,000 boards each). The rest needed either a guess or a deduction more complicated than those four rules. Expert, the level people care most about, is mostly not solvable by straightforward logic when the mines are purely random.
What makes a board "no-guess"
A no-guess board is one where a solver has played the whole game, from your first click to the last square, using only logic, and never got stuck. It doesn't look different and it isn't easier in the sense of having fewer mines: the size and mine count are exactly the same as the classic levels. What changes is that every position you reach has at least one square that can be proved.
That has two effects people notice straight away. First, losing feels different: a mine you hit was a square you could have proved, so every loss teaches you something. Second, you keep looking. On a classic board, "I can't see anything" might mean there is nothing to see; on a no-guess board it means you have missed something, which is exactly the habit that makes people better at the game.
How Yuzool's no-guess boards are made
Here is exactly what happens in Yuzool's Minesweeper when you start a no-guess game:
- Nothing is placed until your first tap. The mines are laid when you open your first square, and that square and the eight squares round it are always kept clear, so the first tap always opens an area rather than a lone number.
- A board is drawn from a seed. The mines are a seeded shuffle of every other square, so the same seed, size and first tap give the same board on any device.
- The solver plays it. Starting from your first tap, it plays the whole board seeing only what you would see: the open numbers and the mine counter. It never looks at where the mines are.
- If the solver gets stuck, the board is thrown away. The game moves on to the next attempt of the same seed and tries again, until the solver clears one. Only that board is shown to you.
The solver uses four rules, the same ones a person uses, always trying the simplest first:
| Rule | What it says |
|---|---|
| Full | A number needs as many more mines as it has unopened squares: they are all mines. |
| Done | A number already has all its mines: its other unopened squares are safe. |
| Pair | Two numbers that share squares settle the squares only one of them touches. This covers 1-1, 1-2, 1-2-1 and 1-2-2-1. |
| Count | Counting the mines left on the board: if the numbers account for all of them, every other unopened square is safe (or, if exactly one is left for each, they are all mines). |
Keeping the solver to these four rules is a deliberate choice. A computer could search every possible arrangement and accept more boards, but some of those would need a deduction nobody can explain in a sentence. With these rules every step on every board is something a person can see, and the Hint button can always say why.
No-guess or Classic: which should you play?
Some people enjoy the gamble, and some records only mean something on fully random boards. So the game keeps both. When you start a new game you can pick no-guess (the default) or Classic, which takes the first random board without checking it. Best times and streaks are kept separately for each, so a Classic time is never compared with a no-guess one.
| No-guess | Classic | |
|---|---|---|
| Board size and mines | The standard levels | The standard levels |
| First tap | Always opens an area | Always opens an area |
| Forced 50-50s | Never | Sometimes, especially on Expert |
| When you are stuck | There is always a provable square | There may be nothing to prove |
| Hint | Points at a square and says why | Says why, or marks the least risky square when its rules find nothing |
| Best for | Learning, relaxing, the Daily | Players who like the risk |
If you are learning, play no-guess. You can trust that the answer is there, which turns every stuck moment into practice. If you are already fast and want the old feel, Classic is one tap away.
The Daily is no-guess too
The Daily is one board a day, the same for everyone: 10 by 12 squares with 20 mines, a no-guess board that starts from a marked square so every player begins in the same place. Your time is the score, and each hint adds 30 seconds. Because the board can always be finished by logic, a fast time is about reading the board well, not about getting lucky with a 50-50. Hit a mine and you can try the same board again with the clock still running.
Very crowded custom boards
With Minesweeper Pro you can make custom boards up to 30 squares a side with up to 35% mines. The more crowded a board, the rarer a no-guess one becomes. The game tries up to 600 boards; if none of them can be finished by the four rules, it deals one anyway and says plainly that it may need a guess. The standard levels never get anywhere near that limit.
Playing well on no-guess boards
- Never guess. If you feel you must, you have missed something. Look again at every 1 on the boundary.
- Check the mine counter near the end. The Count rule is part of the solver, so the last few squares are sometimes settled only by how many mines are left.
- Learn the shapes. Most boards are cleared by a handful of Minesweeper patterns; knowing them by sight is what makes you fast.
- Use hints to learn. A hint marks a square, rings the numbers it follows from and explains the step. Free play gives three a game.
Questions
What does no-guess Minesweeper mean?
Every board has been checked so it can be finished by logic from the first click. You will never reach a position where the only way forward is a 50-50 guess.
Is no-guess Minesweeper easier?
It has the same board sizes and the same number of mines. It is fairer rather than easier: you still have to find each step, but there is always one to find, so luck never decides the game.
Why does normal Minesweeper make you guess?
Because the mines are placed at random and nobody checks the result. Random boards often contain shapes, such as two squares sharing one mine at the edge, that no logic can settle.
Is the first click always safe?
Yes. In Yuzool's Minesweeper the mines are placed after your first tap, and that square and all eight squares round it are kept free, so the first tap always opens an area.
Can I still play classic random Minesweeper?
Yes. Pick Classic when you start a new game. It takes the first random board without checking it, and its best times are kept separately from no-guess games.