But if you click fast there is no time to react, so you will lose if the middle square is a mine. The best way to improve efficiency is to play slowly. For example, if it is a 4 or 7 the game can be solved no matter how many mines remain. A general rule of thumb is that if one square in a 50/50 situation touches a high number, it is more likely to be a mine than the other square. If a number is touching the same number of squares, then the squares are all mines. Minesweeper makes the 1st click safe, so if you click a mine it is moved to the top left corner (or the nearest empty square on its right). A smart player will click the outer two squares first, which allows enough time to react to the initial click and decide if there is a mine. If you study them, they are actually 1-2-1 and 1-2-2-1 patterns (or combinations of patterns). The normal way to chord is moving the right button down and up to flag, and move both buttons down and up to chord. I did not optimize the randomness of the generated mine position, therefore some games could be impossible or too easy. It depends whether you want quantity or quality. Local probability is easy to calculate but is usually wrong. You can improve your chance of winning by clicking randomly! After a long playing session, it can help to change the version you are playing. A perfect NF player would need 40 and 120 clicks. A special case of probability is when guessing involves the top left corner. Near a high number like 7 a NF player needs only one click to open the safe square, but a Flagger needs seven flags and a chord. Many players listen to music while they play. Less movement equals better scores. There is 1 mine in the first two squares, and 1 mine in the first three squares. This page was last modified 12:24, 6 March 2014. In this case you should always start in the middle to get the biggest opening on average. Thinking does not improve your chance of guessing correctly, it only wastes time. The next stage in reducing movement is learning to 'see' the solved board. World War 1 at Sea - Ships of the Royal Navy, 1914-1919. Difficulty, dimension, and menu customization (not to mention more advanced customization) and different themes. There is no need to touch the other squares. These are so common new players should memorise them immediately. This wikiHow teaches you how to play Minesweeper on a Windows computer. If you have to think to place the mines, you will lose valuable time. The 1-2 Pattern This lesson will explain what to do when you see a 1-2 pattern like this: . NF players look for openings. Flag as shown and chord on the 1 above. Minesweeper world record on Expert level by Kamil Murański. Before you start learning patterns, you should learn the basics. The first is 1-1 and the second is 1-2. Do not guess unless it is necessary. So before you place a flag, decide if it is useful. I've taken the liberty of playing a little with JS bin here came up with a functional Minesweeper game demo. Large openings are more helpful but you will lose more games trying to find them. Efficiency is measured by your Index of Efficiency, or IOE. These examples are extreme cases but show the general reasoning. Minesweeper with Story Mode 10. The game ends when all safe squares are open, not when all mines are flagged. When you play Minesweeper, you meet particular patterns in almost every games. Right-click to flag a square as a mine. This is the golden rule of Minesweeper. Sean Barrett has written Minesweeper Advanced Tactics as a guide. The Official Minesweeper community of Reddit! Suppose you've cleared some squares, and encounter a flat row of uncleared squares. Techniques include learning patterns and where to click first, using guessing tactics and developing efficient clicking and mouse movement. The objective in Minesweeper is to find and mark all the mines hidden under the grey squares, in the shortest time possible. If you can prove a square is safe, open it instead of guessing where the mine is. Select a difficulty level and enjoy the game! Find the most efficient solution and path to each problem before pressing any buttons. Avid Minesweeper fans will immediately recognize that pattern. Emmanuel Brunelliere (France) calculated the theoretical odds as follows: Tim Kostka then used his knowledge of Board Cycles to find the actual chance of finding openings on Windows Minesweeper. Once I found a Medium level that had a 1-2-2-1 pattern that I could uncover in 4-6 clicks, the … The description to this is fairly straightforward: whenever you see the pattern 1-2-2-1, it means there's two mines adjacent to the 2's, and the other two tiles will have no mine. The shorter the gap, the more time you save. You could flag both mines, but it is more efficient to flag the outer mine as shown and chord on the 1. Here are some examples: There are two basic patterns which combine to make all other patterns. A very inefficient and unlucky Flagger would need 80 clicks (40 flags, 40 chords) for both games. The Windows Vista version of minesweeper always gives an opening on the 1st click. See screenshots, read the latest customer reviews, and compare ratings for MineSweeper (Free). Waiting to see if you guessed right also wastes time, so assume you survived and try to keep playing. Click on the two tiles next to the 1's, 20 times, and you're good for this achievement. Take short exercise breaks to increase blood flow and stimulate your brain.