A number shows how many of the cells touching that square hide a mine, diagonals included. A blank square touches no mines at all.
A number tells you how many mines are hiding in the cells that touch it. Cells touch in all eight directions, so diagonals count.
Reading a number
- A 1 has exactly one mine among its hidden neighbors.
- A 3 has three mines among them, and so on up to 8.
- A blank square has no mines around it, which is why the game opens its neighbors for you.
A square in the middle of the board has eight neighbors, a square on an edge has five, and a corner has only three. That is why corner and edge numbers are often the easiest to solve.
The number counts mines, not flags
A number is a fact about where the mines really are. It does not change when you place flags, and flags do not have to be right for the number to be true.
Putting numbers to work
If your flags are right, once a number has as many flagged neighbors as its value, every other hidden neighbor is safe. The Minesweeper tips guide turns this into patterns such as the 1-1 and 1-2, and how to play Minesweeper has the full rules.