Minesweeper intermediate board of 16 by 16 cells with numbers along the edge of an open area

Minesweeper intermediate on a 16×16 board

Minesweeper intermediate is the 16×16 board with 40 mines, denser than Beginner and big enough for real patterns. The first click is always safe, and by default the board can be cleared by logic alone. No app, no sign-up, nothing before the first click; it works offline and every cell can be played from the keyboard.

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16×16, 40 minesNo-guess mode.

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How to play Minesweeper

  1. Open cells to find the mines. A number tells you how many of the eight surrounding cells hold a mine.
  2. Your first cell is always safe and opens an empty area. Mines are only placed after that first move.
  3. Flag a cell you are sure holds a mine: right-click, press F, hold your finger on it, or turn on Flag mode and tap.
  4. Click or press Enter on a number that already has the right number of flags around it to open its other neighbours at once. If a flag is wrong, that opens a mine.
  5. You win when every safe cell is open. Opening a mine ends the game; Undo is available while you play.
  6. Beginner and intermediate boards are laid out so they can be solved by logic alone. Turn that on for expert or off entirely in Settings.

Keyboard

Arrows
Move between cells (Home, End, Page Up and Page Down jump to the edges)
Enter / Space
Open the cell, or open the neighbours of a number whose flags match it
F
Place or remove a flag (with question marks on: flag, question mark, clear)
U
Undo
Y
Redo
H
Hint
P
Pause
N
New game
?
This help

How to play Minesweeper intermediate

  1. Open any cell to start. Mines are placed after this click, never on it or next to it.
  2. Read each number as the count of mines in its eight neighbours.
  3. Flag proven mines with a right-click, F, a long press or Flag mode.
  4. Chord: click a number whose flags are complete to open all its other neighbours.
  5. Open all 216 safe cells to win. The counter shows mines left minus flags placed.

Intermediate Minesweeper: the patterns that matter

With 40 mines in 256 cells, about 16 percent of the board, openings are smaller than on Beginner and the edge of the open area gets longer and more jagged. This is where pattern recognition starts to pay.

1-2-1 and 1-2-2-1 along a wall

When a straight row of numbers faces a straight row of hidden cells, read 1-2-1 as mine, safe, mine opposite the three numbers. Read 1-2-2-1 as safe, mine, mine, safe. Flag the mines, open the safe cells, and the next row of numbers usually settles itself.

The 1-1 from a wall

Two 1s side by side at the end of a wall share two hidden cells, and the first 1 only touches those two. So the second 1's mine is among them too, and its third hidden cell is safe. It is the simplest subset step and it opens a lot of Intermediate edges.

Keep a rhythm

Clear the easy singles along the whole edge before you stop to think about a hard spot. Flag as you go and chord numbers instead of clicking cells one by one. When one area stalls, work elsewhere; a fresh number may settle it.

Daily, stats and printables

This page plays the 16×16 board with no-guess mode on by default, so every stall has a logical way out. Press H if you cannot find it; the hint names the rule it used.

The timer starts on your first move and pauses when you switch tabs. Stats per board size stay in this browser: played, won, win rate, best and average time.

Undo and Redo cover the whole game, even the first click. The first two hints on a puzzle are free; if ads are switched on later, more hints offer a short ad or a 30-second wait. Wins come with share text, and every random board has a code such as A7K3Q that replays it.

Plays anywhere, no app, no account

The 16×16 intermediate board keeps its cells large enough to tap on a phone, and a long press or Flag mode places flags by touch. Tidy Puzzles runs entirely in your browser: there is no app to install, no account to create and no interstitial before you can play. After the first visit the game also works offline, because each puzzle is generated on your device from a seed. Every board can be played with the keyboard alone, on a phone or a desktop, and your stats and unfinished puzzles stay in this browser rather than on a server.

Frequently asked questions

How many mines are on Minesweeper intermediate?

40 mines on a 16×16 board of 256 cells, about 16 percent. That leaves 216 safe cells.

Is intermediate Minesweeper solvable without guessing?

By default, yes. The board is picked after your first click so a solver using single numbers, number pairs and the mine count can clear it. You can turn the setting off.

What is a good intermediate Minesweeper time?

Many players are pleased with anything under three minutes; fast players finish in well under a minute. Your best and average times are saved per board size.

What is the difference between intermediate and expert?

Expert is 30×16 with 99 mines, a higher density of about one in five, and uses plain random boards by default, so it can need a guess.

How does chording work?

Click an open number that already has as many flags around it as its value, and all its other hidden neighbours open at once.

Last updated 2026-09-27. Written and maintained by the Tidy Puzzles team; puzzles are generated on your device. How it works.