Buttons and win conditions are on Game rules. The sections below are what to do after the numbers are on the board. Play a few beginner games on Play now until the same order feels automatic, then move to a larger grid.
Open a corner first
The first click is safe anywhere, so the corner is a choice about information. A corner has three neighbors. A number there is a small ring to finish; a blank there usually opens less than a blank in the center. A center blank can uncover a wide pocket, but a number in the middle still has all eight directions unread.
Once that first opening exists, keep counting along its edge. Do not jump into a distant block of covered cells and click one. That click has no number on it, so it is a guess.
Let a number force the cell
Clear the cells that have only one reading. A 1 with a single covered neighbor means that neighbor is a mine. A 2 with exactly two covered neighbors means both are mines. The other way around: when the flags already equal the number, every remaining covered neighbor is safe and can be opened.
When 1-2-1 sits on an opened edge, the usual reading puts a mine outside each 1, and the covered cell in front of the 2 is safe. Mark that whole stretch before you move to a corner where another number joins the line. If the flags and the digit still disagree, do not double-click yet.
Double-click to check, not to rush
Double-click a number only after the flags around it equal the digit. That opens the other neighbors at once, and a blank keeps opening. It is faster than clicking cell by cell, and it shows a bad count immediately: if a cell that should have opened stays covered, the ring is not finished.
Look around the number once more before you double-click. The right number of flags in the wrong places opens a mine. A smaller mines-left figure in the header only means you planted another flag. It does not mean the ring is done.
Which size to practice, and how Daily compares
Use 9×9 to make “one cell left” and the double-click check into a habit. 16×16 is the Daily size, and the one to watch when you care whether your time is coming down. 30×16 has longer blank runs, so one wrong flag carries into the next several double-clicks.
Daily locks the intermediate layout to the UTC date. The same day is the same board, which is useful against your previous time and against someone else on that layout. It does not replace the size saved in this browser. For a random expert board, pick expert in the side panel. Hint opens one safe cell starting at the top-left. Use it when you are stuck, and leave it alone while you are still reading a patch yourself.
