Minesweeper

Minesweeper is a pure deduction game hiding behind a simple grid. Every square is either empty or holds a mine. Open a square and it shows a number: how many of its eight neighbours contain mines. From those numbers you work out, square by square, which ones are safe.

On Game Oix the mines are placed after your first click, so the first square you open — and its neighbours — is always clear. Boards range from a gentle 9×9 with 10 mines to a dense 16×16 with 50.

1. Choose a board: Easy (9×9, 10 mines), Medium (12×12, 22), Hard (14×14, 35) or Expert (16×16, 50).
2. Click or tap any square to open it. Empty areas open automatically.
3. Mark a square you are sure hides a mine with a flag: right-click, long-press, press F, or switch on Flag mode.
4. Click an opened number whose mines are all flagged to open all its other neighbours at once (chording).
5. Open every safe square to win. Opening a mine ends the game.

• Start with the 1s. A 1 touching only one closed square tells you exactly where its mine is.
• Look for 1-2-1 and 1-2-2-1 patterns along straight edges — they are among the most common certain deductions.
• Subtract shared neighbours. If two numbers share most of their squares, the difference between them tells you about the squares they do not share.
• Count the remaining mines near the end; the total can decide a position that looks like a guess.
• Only guess when you must, and then pick squares far from known numbers, where the odds are usually best.