Mine Dash Rules: How to Play

A phone, tablet or computer with a browser. Each player uses their own device.

You can play alone, against bots, or with friends. Everyone in the room races the same minefield.

The board is a grid of covered squares. Some of them hide mines. Your job is to uncover every square that is not a mine, without setting one off.

Uncover a square and it shows a number: how many of its eight neighbors hide a mine. A square with no mines around it shows nothing and opens its neighbors for you, and theirs, until the opening reaches numbers.

Every board starts already open in the same place for everyone, with a patch of numbers to work from. The square it opens from never has a mine next to it.

Every board is checked before it is dealt: a careful player can always work out a safe square from the numbers already showing, all the way to the last one. You never have to take a 50-50 chance.

The host picks one of three sizes before each race.

• Easy: 7 by 9 squares with 8 mines.
• Medium: 9 by 11 squares with 16 mines.
• Hard: 11 by 13 squares with 29 mines.

1. Host a room and share the room code, or play on your own.
2. Add bots in the lobby if you want them.
3. Start the game. Everyone moves to the game screen.
4. The host picks the size and what a mine hit costs, then taps Start.
5. Everyone gets the same board at the same moment, already opened, and the clock starts.

The host picks before each race. A mine either freezes your board for 3, 5 or 10 seconds, or puts you out of the race. Five seconds is where it starts.

Frozen, your board shakes, shows the mine, and counts down. You cannot tap until it ends, and the clock keeps running. The mine stays shown, so it can never go off twice.

Out, your board stops where it is. You still place by how much you uncovered.

Playing alone, a mine always freezes. One slip never throws a lone player’s board away.

Hold a square, or right-click it, to put a flag on it: your note that a mine is there. Hold it again to take the flag off. A flagged square cannot be uncovered by a tap.

Flags are your own. Nobody else sees them, and they do not count toward clearing the board. Only uncovered squares do.

A flag next to a square with no mines around it must be wrong, so when the board opens up to it, the flag comes off and the square opens.

When you clear the board, every mine is flagged for you.

Tap a number whose flags around it already match it, and every other covered square around it opens at once.

If one of those flags is wrong, a mine goes off, just as if you had tapped it.

You clear your board the moment every square that is not a mine is uncovered. Your time locks in then.

Everyone who cleared is ranked by time, fastest first. Anyone who did not clear, by running out of time or going out, is ranked below them by how much of the board they uncovered, then by fewer mines hit, then by time.

Two players with exactly the same result share a place.

• When everyone still in the race has cleared their board or gone out. The last board shows “Cleared!” for a moment before the standings come up.
• When the time limit runs out, with more than one racing: 3 minutes for Easy, 8 for Medium and 15 for Hard. The clock shows what is left in the last minute.
• When the host taps End. The race stops where it stands and the standings come up.

A strip along the top shows every player’s board as it fills in, and how far along they are. You see which squares they have uncovered, never the numbers or their flags.

Any player can pause the race for everyone. While it is paused, every board is hidden so nobody can plan ahead, and paused time does not count.

• A late joiner gets the same board and joins the race already running, on the same clock.
• Someone drops: their board comes back as they left it when they return. A player who stays away is given a short grace, then the race stops waiting for them.
• A wrong flag on a safe square that no opening reaches keeps that square covered. Take the flag off and uncover it to clear the board.
• Playing alone there is no time limit and no End button. The clock only measures how long you took.
• A closed tab when playing solo: your board is saved on your device. The next time you start, you can pick up where you left off, with your time and mines hit.
• A new board: after the standings, the host picks a size again and deals a fresh board for everyone.

The host can add bots in the lobby, each set to easy, medium or hard. Bots race the same board as everyone else and show up in the strip like any player.

A bot works the board out from the numbers, one square at a time, the way a careful person would. Now and then it slips and sets a mine off, and pays the same cost as anyone.

An easy bot takes a few seconds per move and slips more often. A hard bot moves about once a second and rarely slips, a real race on any size.

Host a room on your own and start. You race your own clock with no time limit.

Your best time for each size is kept on your device. The setup screen shows it, and clearing a board tells you when you have just beaten it.

Host a room and send the room code or invite link. Friends open it on their own phones, wherever they are, and race the same board.

Open joinme.games/watch on a TV or laptop and enter the room code. The big screen shows every player’s board filling in side by side, with the clock and how far along each one is.

Everyone plays on their own phone. The TV only watches.

• Tap a covered square to uncover it.
• Hold a square, or right-click it, to flag it or take the flag off. Your phone gives a short buzz when the flag goes on.
• Tap a number whose flags match it to open the rest of its neighbors.
• Flag with a tap, the button under the board, makes a plain tap flag instead of uncover. Tap the button again to go back to uncovering.
• The pause button, or Escape on a keyboard, pauses the race for everyone.
• On a phone held sideways, the mine count and the flag button sit beside the board.

How do you play Mine Dash?

Uncover every square of the minefield that is not a mine. Each uncovered square shows how many of its eight neighbors hide a mine, so you can work out where the mines are. Hold a square to flag a mine. The fastest player to clear the board wins.

Does everyone get the same board?

Yes. Every player gets the identical board, opened in the same place, at the same moment. The only difference is how fast each player reads it.

Do I ever have to guess?

No. Every board is checked before it is dealt, so a careful player can always work out a safe square from the numbers showing.

What happens when I hit a mine?

The host picks before each race: your board freezes for 3, 5 or 10 seconds, or you are out of the race. Playing alone, a mine always freezes.

How many players can play Mine Dash?

One or more. Play alone, add bots, or invite friends. Everyone races the same board on their own phone.

Is there a time limit?

With more than one racing, yes: 3 minutes for Easy, 8 for Medium and 15 for Hard. Playing alone there is none.