Beginner guide · about 5 minutes
Beginner walkthrough
Playing through one board teaches you much faster than reading rules. Let's solve a small 6×6 sample board together from start to finish. Real stages start at 10×10, but the way you think is exactly the same.
Step 1 — start at the entrance and follow the zeros
The entrance (bottom left, marked with a walking person) starts open. Mines are never placed right next to the entrance, so its number is always 0. A 0 means all 8 cells around it are safe, so you can open the cells next to the entrance without worry.
On this sample board, every cell you open along the bottom row turns out to be 0. Each 0 makes the next cell to the right safe, so you can run all the way to the end of the row. The cells above those zeros are safe too, but only open what you need right now — in Classic, fewer opened cells means a better record.
Step 2 — turn toward the exit
The exit (marked with an exit door) is in the top-right corner, so now we head up. The three green-outlined cells above the right end of the bottom row are next to zeros and therefore safe, so open them to read their numbers. From left to right they show 2, 1, 1.
Here comes the key deduction of the game. Compare the two 1s at the right end.
- The rightmost 1 sees only two closed cells: the one directly above it and the one above-left. One of those two is a mine.
- The 1 to its left sees the three cells above it, and two of them are the same cells the rightmost 1 sees.
- Those two cells already hold one mine, and the left 1 only has one mine, so the remaining cell (directly above the 2) is safe.
This is called the 1-1 pattern. When two equal numbers sit side by side and every cell one of them sees is also seen by the other, the remaining cells are safe.
Step 3 — pin down two mines
Open the cell you just proved safe (directly above the 2) and it shows 2. Now look again at the 2 on the second row. It only sees two closed cells now — above-left and above-right. Two mines must fit in two closed cells, so both are mines. Flag them with 🚩. Flags don't count toward your record, so use them freely.
One of those flags touches the rightmost 1. Its single mine has been found, so the cell above the rightmost 1 is safe. That's the "flags = number, so the rest are safe" rule.
Step 4 — open the exit early
Now we just climb the right-hand column. A handy trick: the rules guarantee the exit has no mine, so you can open it before your path reaches it. On this board the exit shows 0, which means the cell below the exit is safe as well.
Open the cell you proved safe in step 3 and it shows 1. That 1 already touches a flag, so the cell above it is safe too. Open it, then finally open the cell below the exit, and the entrance and exit are connected.
Summary — the rules we used
| Situation | Conclusion | Step |
|---|---|---|
| A number is 0 | Every cell around it is safe | 1 |
| Two equal numbers, and one sees a subset of the other's cells | The remaining cells are safe (1-1 pattern) | 2 |
| Mines left = closed cells left | All those closed cells are mines | 3 |
| Flags = number | The other cells are safe | 3, 4 |
| The exit is always safe | Open it early for information | 4 |
Notice that we didn't open a single cell in the big area at the top left — we didn't need it to clear. The more you've played regular minesweeper, the more you'll want to open everything out of habit. In Exit Mine, the secret to good records is asking "do I need this cell to build the path?" first.
Find more deduction patterns in the pattern guide, and tips for lowering your record in strategy.