How to Play Minesweeper World

Minesweeper World is played on the whole world map as a single board. Every ocean square may conceal a mine; every landmass is safe, inert ground. You reveal water one square at a time — a revealed sea square shows a number counting the mines in the squares around it, or opens as clear water that cascades through its mine-free neighbours. You win by clearing all the open ocean without detonating a mine. This page covers the ocean-as-minefield rules, using coastlines as safe anchors, panning and zooming the globe, the percentage-cleared goal, and why the Strait of Hormuz is always the hardest water on the map.

Step by step

Open anywhere on the map. Click or tap any patch of ocean to start — your first click is always safe and opens a stretch of clear water with numbers along its edges. Land is never a mine, so coastlines are always safe to open.
Read the coasts. Each number counts the mines in the water squares around it. Numbers next to land are the most useful, because the land side is guaranteed safe — that narrows down exactly where the mines in the sea must be.
Pan and zoom the globe. Drag to pan across oceans and pinch or scroll to zoom. The world is far bigger than a classic board, so move around, clear one sea at a time, and come back to the tangles later.
Flag the mines at sea. When a number proves a water square must be a mine, flag it — right-click on desktop, long-press or flag mode on touch — so you never open it by accident across such a large map.
Clear the ocean. Keep opening water you can prove is safe and watch your percentage of the ocean cleared climb. Clear it all without hitting a mine to complete the world — the Strait of Hormuz will be the hardest stretch.

Strategy

Treat coastlines as your friends: land is guaranteed safe, so the numbers sitting on coastal water are the richest clues on the whole map — start every region by reading the shore. Clear enclosed seas and bays first, where the water is boxed in by safe land and the deductions are tightly constrained, before you push out into the open ocean where numbers are sparser. Zoom out to plan which sea to tackle next, zoom in to work the detail, and flag mines as you prove them so a careless click across a wide ocean does not end a long run. And give the Strait of Hormuz the respect it deserves — it is always densely mined, so pick it apart slowly with the surrounding coastal numbers rather than opening water on a hunch.

Frequently asked questions

How is the World board different from Beginner, Intermediate or Expert?

The classic boards are fixed rectangular grids; World is the entire map. There is no set number of mines to memorise — the minefield is the whole ocean, the land is a vast field of guaranteed-safe squares, and you progress by percentage of ocean cleared rather than by clearing a small grid. The core rule, that each number counts the mines touching it, is identical.

Does land ever hide a mine?

Never. Land is completely inert and always safe to open, which is exactly what makes the map solvable — coastlines give you a reliable safe edge, and the numbers on coastal water tell you where the mines in the adjacent sea must be.

How is my progress measured?

By the percentage of the ocean you have cleared. Because the world is one enormous board, you are not racing to empty a small grid — you are steadily revealing more and more open water, and your percentage cleared climbs as you go.

What makes the Strait of Hormuz special?

It is always heavily mined, on purpose. In the real world the Strait of Hormuz is a narrow, strategically vital waterway that has repeatedly been threatened with naval mines, so Minesweeper.Free makes it the densest minefield on the map — the toughest stretch of water you will have to reason through to finish the world.

Can I still flag and chord on the world map?

Yes. Flagging a proven mine works just as it does on the classic boards — right-click, long-press or flag mode — and once a number has the right flags around it you can click it to open its remaining water neighbours in one action. On a map this size, disciplined flagging is what stops one stray click from ending a long run.

Play Minesweeper World →