If you are just starting to play this classic game or want to review it before starting again, here is a quick overview of how to play Minesweeper on Windows 10.ġ. Then type minesweeper and click the Microsoft Minesweeper app. To play Minesweeper after downloading, open your Start menu.
In this way, you can start playing Minesweeper on Windows 10.
Step 3: Click the Get option and then Minesweeper will download to your computer. Step 2: To download the official version of Microsoft, select Microsoft Minesweeper from the list of many versions of minesweepers.
Minesweeper on Windows 10 can be got from Microsoft Store. Sometimes, you just have to guess.Although Microsoft no longer uses Minesweeper as part of the operating system, this does not mean that you can't play classic games on Windows 10! How to Get Minesweeper on Windows 10? You could still flag these tiles, as the information might come into play later. The 1-2-X pattern frequently predicts bombs in diagonal tiles that you cannot walk to. These are some of the most common patterns, which can be combined through reduction and repeated application to solve even very complex board states.īecause you are controlling an avatar, and because this avatar cannot move diagonally, pattern matching can give you information that is currently useless. This means that the other two bombs of the 3 have to be in the only two available tiles that are not touched by the 1. In this case, the bomb that the 1 is pointing to is again constrained to two tiles. Constraints can also help you to find bombs: This kind of logic can be extended to many more situations. If the second 1 is on a corner, then this pattern also wraps around the corner, since all tiles that the second 1 (but not the first 1) touches must be safe. This means that the last tile that it touches must be safe. The next 1 in the row has to point to the same bomb, because it also touches all of these tiles. In this case, the bomb that the 1 on the border is pointing to is constrained to only two tiles. The 1-2-X pattern can be applied from both sides to solve more difficult situations.Īnother common pattern is the 1-1-X border pattern: The only solution for this is to have one of the bombs in range of the 2 but outside the range of the 1. This is because there can only be one bomb in all tiles that are touched by the 1, but there have to be two bombs adjacent to the 2. Whenever a 1 and a 2 are next to each other in a row, the tile above the X is a bomb. The first and most important pattern is the 1-2-X pattern: A good way to think about this is to think of each bomb as being constrained to a certain area where it can be.
These two basic facts of the game give way to a number of more complex patterns. This is fairly obvious, and it is the first and easiest step when solving the puzzle. Conversely, when a number touches the same number of flags, all other tiles that it touches are safe. When a number is reduced to 0, all unexplored tiles that it touches are safe! Furthermore, this is important when pattern matching, as explained below, because complex situations can be reduced to basic patterns with this method.įirst of all, when a number touches the same number of tiles, all of those tiles must be bombs. Reduction is simply the concept of reducing each number (in your mind) by how many flags it touches. The letter X can be any tile with a known state, such as a number, a known bomb or a safe tile. The numbers 1, 2, … stand for numbers on tiles, a B is a known bomb, a ✔ is a safe tile and a ? is an unexplored and uncertain tile. These basics will be explained here, with additional explanations if the avatar makes things more complicated.įor the purposes of this guide, I’m using a certain notation to explain board states. However, the basic minesweeper principles still apply. It should also be noted that in this game, you control an avatar, which changes a lot of traditional minesweeper concepts.