SWEEP

Minesweeper on a clock, at whatever size and difficulty you can stand.

SWEEP All games

SWEEP

Minesweeper on a clock, at whatever size and difficulty you can stand.

Four board sizes and four difficulties, from an 11% board with room to think to a 26% one past the density where logic alone gets you home. Boards come one after another and grow as you go. Your first click is always safe; nothing after it is.

What is in it: Minesweeper. Nothing of concern. More for parents

Report a problem with this game

Controls

  • Left clickclear
  • Right clickflag
  • Click a numberclear around it
  • Long pressflag (mobile)
Clicking a satisfied number clears its neighbours. At this speed, that is the game.

Tags

How to play

SWEEP is minesweeper against a clock, one board after another. Before you start, choose a board size and a difficulty on the home screen. Then clear every square that is not a mine. Each number tells you how many of the eight squares around it hide a mine. Left-click to clear a square, right-click to plant or remove a flag, and click a number whose flags are all placed to clear everything else around it.

Your first click on every board is always safe, and so are the eight squares around it, so you always open with a patch to work from. After that, one wrong click ends the run. So does the clock, which starts counting down at your first click; how long you get depends on the size of the board and on the difficulty you chose.

Each square you clear is worth 2 points. Clearing a board adds 60, plus 3 for every second left and 2 for every mine on the board. Then the next board appears, a little bigger and a little denser than the last.

Tips and strategy

  • Click a number to clear around it. Once the flags round a number match it, one click on the number opens all its other neighbours. That is much quicker than clicking each square.
  • Check your flags first. That shortcut trusts your flags completely. If one is wrong, it will open a mine.
  • Take a look first. The clock does not start until your first click, and that click is always safe, so there is no cost to choosing where to open.
  • Use the mine counter. The bar at the top shows mines left, which is the total minus your flags. Near the end of a board it can settle a guess.
  • Know when to guess. At Hard and Brutal density, some positions cannot be solved by logic alone. With the clock running, a quick guess often beats a long stare.
  • Pick your settings for the board you want. The fastest times are kept separately for each size and difficulty, so a quick 7×7 Easy clear competes only with other 7×7 Easy clears.

What's in it

Four starting sizes – Tiny 7×7, Small 9×9, Large 12×10 and Huge 16×12 – and four difficulties:

  • Easy: 11% mines, and the most generous clock.
  • Normal: 16% mines, the classic mix.
  • Hard: 21% mines; you will have to guess sometimes.
  • Brutal: 26% mines and the shortest clock, past the density where logic alone is enough.

Within a run, the board gains a column every second board and a row every third, up to 20×14, and the mine density creeps up slightly on each new board. Your choices are remembered for next time.

Questions

What does the leaderboard record?

Your fastest time to clear a single board, counted from your first click. There is a separate top ten for each of the sixteen size and difficulty combinations, and the home screen shows the one for whatever is selected. Times are kept on this device.

Can I play it on a phone?

Yes. Tap to clear, tap a number to clear around it, and press and hold a square for about a third of a second to flag it.

How does the difficulty ramp during a run?

Each board is larger and very slightly denser than the one before. The clock scales with the board, so you get more time on a bigger board, but there is more to clear.

Can the first click be a mine?

No. The mines are placed after your first click, away from that square and its eight neighbours.

Advertisement

your game starts in 5