Minesweeper has been a popular game more or less as long as home computers have been popular, and today it is easier than ever to play Minesweeper online. Knowing how to play the game can be a little daunting at first.

Let’s cover the basic rules to play Minesweeper online. It’s not a complex game and yet at the same time it’s vital you attempt to understand the rules before you start playing:

Left clicking squares
The basic gist to play Minesweeper online is left clicking squares on the game board to reveal what’s underneath. This is done with the left click. You want to avoid the tiles with mines underneath them.

Plant a flag
We will cover this in more detail, but to plant a flag when you play Minesweeper online is really important as they help you remember where mines are. This is done by right clicking.

Use question marks
You can also use question marks when you play Minesweeper online if you’re not sure if there is a mine in a particular spot.

Numbers on the board
When you reveal tiles on the board, you will see a number next to the square that has not been revealed. These numbers on the board tell you how many of the squares adjacent have mines.

Winning the game
Winning the game is simple. You don’t have to flag all the mines to win when you play Minesweeper online—just reveal the tiles without mines.
Flags are a really important aspect of the game and vital when you play Minesweeper online. If you don’t use them, you will quickly become confused. Depending on the difficulty level, the board will have a different number of mines.
To place a flag, you simply right click the covered field that you want to mark, and the flag will appear. This indicates that the squares marked contain a mine. Depending on the number of mines, you will have more flags available to use, as some versions of the game will keep track of the flags you use and this becomes an aspect of your score.

As with most online games, when you play Minesweeper online, you can choose a difficulty level out of three options: beginner, intermediate, and expert. These difficulty levels affect a few things when you play Minesweeper online, but naturally overall they make the game harder.

The first level of difficulty is beginner difficulty. This is the best place to start playing the game and gives you the fewest number of squares and the fewest number of bombs.
The main difference you’ll notice between beginner and the other difficulty levels is the number of squares. There will be a much greater number of mines and mines per field when you play Minesweeper online at higher difficulty levels. You’ll have to be a lot more careful with larger and more difficult games as there will be more fields that contain mines.
The higher the difficulty, generally the more uses of the flags you will get, too. As mentioned, many versions of the game when you play Minesweeper online will track the number of flags you use as part of your score.