partygirlvox said:
Argh I have never understood minesweeper.. its just a complete random clicking-on-squares type game for me.
It's fairly easy once you understand how it works. For your benefit:
Click anywhere you like. I usually start in the corners. Unless you hit a mine on the first click, you will see a number / bunch of numbers come out. Here's the key: each number represents the number of mines hidden in the eight boxes surrounding it.
See the '1' on the top left? The two squares next to it are empty. The one below it is another number. The one directly to the right of it is a number. That means the un-clicked box HAS to contain the mine. So we right click it and flag it.
Next, we move on to the second '1' at the top of the box. Since it reads '1', we know there's one mine in the surrounding squares, and since the mine we previously flagged is in its radius, we know it's safe to click on those two on the right side.
Moving on a bit, you'll see that it isn't really as hard as it looks! Look at the '2-2-2-1' row. Focus on the 1. There's only one square in its 8 square radius that can possibly be clicked, so it MUST contain the mine. Right click. Then move to the '2' directly left of it. Since there are only two possible squares there to be clicked, they both have to contain the mines. And so on.
It only gets complicated if you have more options to work with. Focus on the '2-2-2-1' row again. Look at the first 2. You know there has to be two mines in the surrounding eight squares, but you have a choice of clicking three. So what do you do? You get your help from other squares. Look at the second 2. We already found the two mines, so it's safe to click on the square to the left of them. That's narrowed down the choice to two squares. Now look at the 1 directly above the 2. There's only one possible square to click on there, so it HAS to contain the mine. By right clicking on that square, you effectively satisfy the '1' and the '2.'
See, it's not so bad.
Hope that helps!