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How rare is each number in Minesweeper
Numbers Typical games of Minesweeper have a wide assortment of numbers, with 0 (blank) through 3 being the most common, and 7’s and 8’s being quite rare. These boards show off Expert boards with as many of each number as possible.
Expert Board with 364 0’sExpert Board with 371 1’sExpert Board with 334 2’sExpert Board with 194 3’s (by noob)Expert Board with 127 4’s (by noob)Expert Board with 94 5’sExpert Board with 72 6’sExpert Board with 38 7’sExpert Board with 25 8’sExpert Board with Equal Number of 1’s, 2’s, and 3’sExpert Board with 1 8, 2 7’s, 4 6’s, etc. (by Bry10022)
As a bonus, it turns out to be possible to create an Expert board with the safe squares having an equal number of 1’s, 2’s, and 3’s. Here is an example. And here is a board with one 8, two 7s, four 6s, etc. all the way up to 128 1’s. : Numbers
Can you lose Minesweeper first click?
No, it is (normally) not possible to hit a mine on the first click in Microsoft’s implementation of Minesweeper. It is pretty easy to convince yourself that it is impossible to lose on the first click.
Is minesweeper ever guessing?
Guessing – Sometimes you need to guess in Minesweeper. The optimal guessing strategy depends on whether your goal is to win or to win fewer games more quickly. New players often make the mistake of guessing instead of learning how to solve patterns, The first strategy is to guess quickly.
This is the best approach when there is no possibility of obtaining further information. It can also be effective if you are happy losing often in order to win fewer games but with better scores. The second strategy is to guess only when you are forced to guess. If the squares touch other unopened squares, solve the rest of the board first in the hope that approaching from a different direction will eliminate the guess.
However, many professionals guess immediately to avoid incurring the time it takes to move the mouse to an easier location. A third strategy is to practice playing with no flags so you become better at looking for empty squares. Players who enjoy flagging often make the mistake of guessing a mine location and chording when they could have opened a safe square instead. This 50:50 guess is unavoidable. The best strategy is to guess quickly. The pink squares are a 50:50 guess. The first strategy guesses quickly. The second strategy solves the rest of the board and hopes new information eliminates the guess. There could be 1, 2 or 3 mines in these four squares. The second strategy solves the rest of the board to determine the number of mines. If there are 1 or 3 mines no guessing is needed. You cannot deduce the mines. The third strategy forgets about mines and opens the safe pink squares. If each pink square is a 1 the blue squares can also be opened. A fourth strategy makes the most useful guess. Sometimes one option eliminates another guess or makes the rest of the board easier to solve.
For example, when there is a 33:66 situation on a row it is best to open the right or left squares. Opening the middle square will force you to make a second guess. A fifth strategy considers probability. The mine density on Beginner (8×8) and Intermediate (16×16) is 0.156 and on Expert (16×30) is 0.206.
When there is a 50:50 guess it is actually safer to open a random square! Edges are more likely to be openings than squares near the middle. A special case is the top left corner where the probability of being a mine doubles after the first click (due to mine shifting). Avoid unecessary guesses. Instead of opening three squares in a row open the yellow squares first so you have time to react if the middle square is a mine. If you open the middle square you need to make another guess. The fourth strategy opens the blue square to eliminate the guess. There are multiple 50:50 guesses. The fourth strategy opens a useful square. If the blue square is a 3 or 7 it eliminates guessing. If the green square is 3 or 6 it could also eliminate guessing. There are multiple 50:50 guesses. The fifth strategy opens a ‘random’ square. On Expert the blue square is 20:80, does not touch a 50:50 and is on an edge so might be an opening. The sixth strategy is to calculate probability. This is the best strategy for winning games but can be complicated and time consuming.
Local probability is easy to calculate but global probability is much more difficult. For example, it is easy to calculate that one mine in two squares is 50:50 but what if probability depends on all possible mine arrangements for the rest of the board? Sean Barrett has written an excellent guide to Minesweeper Advanced Tactics,
The following example considers all six strategies. The first strategy is to guess quickly and hope for the best. This approach will give the best score if you survive. The second strategy is solving the rest of the board to determine the number of mines remaining.
- There are 79 possible mine arrangements but only 1 solution has 9 mines.
- The third strategy opens a safe square but in this case there are none.
- The fourth strategy makes a useful guess.
- In this case there is one square (I) that solves the board if it is a 4 or 7.
- The fifth strategy guesses a square that does not touch a number (B, C, F, G) hoping Expert density of 0.206 comes to the rescue.
The sixth strategy calculates global mine probability which ranges from 0.392 (D, K) to 0.798 (J). Three local 50:50 guesses. Three local 66:33 guesses. Preparing to calculate. Global probabilities.
Is minesweeper always solvable?
No. It’s not like Sudoku, where every puzzle is created to have a unique solution that can be found solely through logic. Depending on where you click in a Minesweeper grid, you may find yourself in a spot where your information is limited and you can’t go any further without taking a guess.
Is minesweeper a game of luck or skill?
Strategies for Mastering Minesweeper – Although when you play Minesweeper it relies partly on luck, several strategies can greatly increase your chances of success. First, players should focus on opening as many squares as possible by clicking on corners or edges of the grid. This minimizes the risk of accidentally clicking on a mine while providing valuable clues about the surrounding squares.
- As you progress through the game, these clues will help create a clearer picture of where mines are likely to be located, allowing you to make more informed decisions about where to click next.
- An essential skill in Minesweeper is the ability to recognize patterns.
- Certain combinations of numbers on the grid provide definitive information about the location of nearby mines.
By familiarizing yourself with these patterns, you can rapidly deduce which squares are safe to click and which should be flagged as potential mine locations. To speed up your gameplay, you can use the left and right mouse buttons simultaneously to clear safe squares, a technique known as chording.
- Developing a winning strategy also involves understanding probability and making calculated risks when necessary.
- When faced with an ambiguous situation, try to weigh the likelihood of a mine being present based on the information given and the overall density of mines on the grid.
- This can help you make more accurate decisions in situations where an educated guess is required.
With practice and persistence, you’ll find your win rate and speed improving over time.
Where do you click first in minesweeper
The First Click – Where is the best place to make the first click in Minesweeper? You need an opening and some numbers to start playing. Most players begin games with random clicks to find an opening. Clicking in the middle produces bigger openings so you get more numbers and an easier start to the game.
- However, openings in the middle are less common than openings on edges.
- The Beginner (8×8) and Intermediate (16×16) levels on Windows Minesweeper generate a limited number of games that repeat in board cycles.
- In 2002, Tim Kostka generated every board and calculated the probability and average size of openings for each square.
The probability of an opening increases towards edges but the size of openings increases towards the middle. Similar calculations were performed for Expert. Average opening size on Beginner ranges from 18 to 32 squares. Average opening size on Intermediate ranges from 27 to 66 squares. Average opening size on Expert ranges from 16 to 41 squares. Opening probability on Beginner ranges from 0.19 to 0.60. Opening probability on Intermediate ranges from 0.21 to 0.60. Opening probability on Expert ranges from 0.12 to 0.50. You might notice that the four squares in the top left corner produce the fewest and smallest openings. Windows Minesweeper makes the first click safe by shifting the mine to the first empty square on the top row, starting from the left corner.
Windows Vista introduced guaranteed openings on the first click so you should always start in the middle. However, new players should start in the middle on all versions because, despite losing more games in the first few clicks, they will finish more games due to larger openings. For experienced players the best place to start is more complicated and depends on personal preference.
For example, do you mind losing thousands of games an hour in the first three clicks just to get bigger openings?
What do blank squares mean in minesweeper
7. Understand What The Blank Squares Mean In Minesweeper – If you see blank squares on the game board, don’t worry, you did not somehow break the game. Sometimes when you click on a square, a cluster of squares will automatically open. These clusters of squares will include both blank and numbered squares.
Can you always beat Minesweeper without guessing
No. It’s not like Sudoku, where every puzzle is created to have a unique solution that can be found solely through logic. Depending on where you click in a Minesweeper grid, you may find yourself in a spot where your information is limited and you can’t go any further without taking a guess.
Can you win every Minesweeper?
While some players may have strategies that give them a better chance of winning more often, there is no guaranteed way to always win at Minesweeper.
What is a good score for Minesweeper?
Really good times: ~7 seconds in Beginner and ~35 seconds in Intermediate. Be warned though. It just gets tougher to better your times from there on. How do I play Minesweeper?
How do you know if you won Minesweeper
How To Play Minesweeper Minesweeper on Windows XP with 40 mines solved in 28 seconds Minesweeper is a game where mines are hidden in a grid of squares. Safe squares have numbers telling you how many mines touch the square. You can use the number clues to solve the game by opening all of the safe squares.
If you click on a mine you lose the game! Windows Minesweeper always makes the first click safe. You open squares with the left mouse button and put flags on mines with the right mouse button. Pressing the right mouse button again changes your flag into a questionmark. When you open a square that does not touch any mines, it will be empty and the adjacent squares will automatically open in all directions until reaching squares that contain numbers.
A common strategy for starting games is to randomly click until you get a big opening with lots of numbers. If you flag all of the mines touching a number, chording on the number opens the remaining squares. Chording is when you press both mouse buttons at the same time.
- This can save you a lot of work! However, if you place the correct number of flags on the wrong squares, chording will explode the mines.
- The three difficulty levels are Beginner (8×8 or 9×9 with 10 mines), Intermediate (16×16 with 40 mines) and Expert (30×16 with 99 mines).
- The game ends when all safe squares have been opened.
A counter shows the number of mines without flags, and a clock shows your time in seconds. Minesweeper saves your best time for each difficulty level. You also can play Custom games up to 30×24 with a minimum of 10 mines and maximum of (x-1)(y-1) mines.
Has anyone ever got an 8 in Minesweeper
Getting an 8 in a minesweeper game, however, is a very rare occurrence in a regular minesweeper game, even the rarest number to get in a minesweeper game, unless you play a modify the game of minesweeper with a higher mine density (term Mine Density means: What is the ratio between the total amount of mines and the
What is the rarest number in Minesweeper
10. What Are The Rarest Numbers In Minesweeper? – The rarest numbers are seven and eight. According to StackExchange.com, getting a number 8 in Minesweeper is roughly 6X10 (to the power of negative 8) or a 0.0008219 chance of getting an 8. Getting a seven is slightly more feasible, with a 0.02716 chance.