These are a few basic situations which should be incredibly obvious, but if you're struggling with how to play the game, they should be useful. The first case is where you have an isolated covered square and most of the squares around it read 1. That covered square is a mine.

Figure 7 The simplest case.

The next simplest case is where you have two covered squares adjacent to each other and both squares on one side are marked with a 2. If they have no other uncleared neighbors, then both squares are mines.

Figure 8 The two mine case.

Finally, when there are three uncovered squares in a row and the clear square beside the middle one is a 3 (once again this square should have no other neighbors) then all three are mines.

Figure 9 The three mine case.

These are the simplest cases. Other permutations on these simple situations are possible, for example the three squares in the previous example could be in an L shape.

Simple analysis will solve most of the puzzle, but not all. Before going on to the next sections, where we give you more advanced hints, you should play for a bit and see what you can work out for yourself.

These are some more complicated situations. They are a bit of a step up from the last section, so we hope you took our advice and played for a bit first.

In the example below the mines are to the left of the ones. We figure this out by a process of elimination. If the square to the left of the 2 was a mine then the 1s would both have their maximum number of mines leaving no free square for the second mine adjacent to the 2 (since they would also be adjacent to the 1s). Having eliminated the middle square we are left with two squares we require for the 2 so they are both mined.

Figure 10 A not-so-obvious pattern.

This situation can be disguised, for example consider the figure below. It is the same situation, but the extra mined square on the right has increased all the numbers by 1.

Figure 11 The extra mine disguises a copy of the previous example.

Now we're going to try a complicated example. It illustrates two points. The first is that even if you aren't sure which squares are mined, restricting the possibilities is helpful. The second is that knowing which squares aren't mined is nearly as good as knowing which are mined.

Assume that, in the figure below, we start off knowing that the top left square is mined and so the two squares marked 2 on the left only require one more mine. Next observe that the left-most 2 implies that one of the covered squares beneath it is mined, but we don't yet know which one. Since at least one of these squares is mined and they are both neighbors of the second 2 then we know that that 2 is also satisfied by one of these two squares (we still don't know which one). This means that the square beneath the 4 is clear because it is also a neighbor of the second 2 and not one of the two squares we identified previously. This one blank square now leaves the 4 with only four neighbors - all of which must be mines. Not only does it tell us which mines surround the 4, it now tells us which of the squares beside the 2 is mined!

Figure 12 As tricky as it gets.

This sort of situation is tricky. In all the other examples you can learn to look for patterns and avoid thinking hard. Situations like the one in the figure don't crop up easily or in easily recognisable places. Often it is easier to just ignore them and keep playing elsewhere in the hope that you can start clearing the squares from the other side.

Remember, the edge of the board is just the same as a large cleared area (but without the numbers). Often working at the edge of the board is the easiest way forward.

Sometimes you end up in a situation where there is no way to deduce what the configuration is. In these cases you either have to guess or use the hint function (Game ▸ Hint). Sometimes it isn't a 50/50 situation and instead of taking a hint you might like to gamble on the most likely outcome.

One final hint: remember the counter on the bottom left of the window that tells you how many mines you have left? Often, near the end of the game, this number can help you figure out what possible places mines can be. How to do this is up to you to figure out.