A free alternative for the mine-flagging grid puzzle

Hidden Mines in Games by Zaweba is a free alternative if you're looking for a mine-flagging logic puzzle on Windows. Open every square that hides no mine, using the numbers to work out where the mines are, and flag them as you go. It's an original game, it runs offline and there are no adverts or accounts.

Minesweeper is the mine-finding puzzle that came with Windows for many years, and it made this kind of game familiar to millions of people. The idea itself, a grid of numbers telling you how many mines are nearby, is a classic logic puzzle, and Hidden Mines is the take on it in Games by Zaweba.

How Hidden Mines plays

The grid starts covered. Click a square to open it. If it hides no mine, it shows a number: how many mines touch that square, including diagonally. Use those numbers to work out where the mines must be, and flag them. When a number already has all its mines flagged, click the number to open everything else around it in one go.

The first square you open is always safe, so you never lose on your very first click.

To flag, right-click a square, or turn on flag mode and click. F or Space switches flag mode on and off, which is handy on a laptop touchpad where right-clicking is awkward. Hidden Mines is on the Puzzles shelf.

Why it does the job well

The core of this kind of puzzle is reasoning from the numbers, and Hidden Mines keeps that at the centre. The rules are the ones people already know, so there's nothing to relearn.

Clicking a number to open its neighbours, once its mines are flagged, saves a lot of clicking on a big grid and lets you move at the speed you think. Flag mode makes the game comfortable without a mouse. And because it's part of Games by Zaweba, it sits alongside 81 other games with no adverts, nothing online and no account to sign in to.

Your best score for each game and mode, plus plays and wins, is kept in a file on your own PC, and the result card at the end shows your score next to your best.

Getting better at the grid

Start with the ones. A 1 with only one covered square next to it means that square is a mine. Flag it, and its neighbours often become safe.

Look for numbers that are already satisfied. If a 2 already has two flagged mines beside it, every other covered square next to it is safe. That's exactly when clicking the number to open its surroundings pays off.

Compare neighbouring numbers. Two numbers side by side often share most of their squares. The difference between them tells you about the squares they don't share, which unlocks many tricky spots.

Flag only what you're sure of. A wrong flag can lead you to open a mine later. If you're not certain, leave it and work elsewhere.

Other logic puzzles in the app

The Puzzles shelf of Games by Zaweba has 12 games. If you like deduction from numbers, Number Place is the 9 by 9 grid where every row, column and box has 1 to 9 once, and Picture Grid reveals a hidden coloured picture from number clues. Colour Code asks you to crack a hidden row of coloured pegs in ten tries. Esc pauses any of them, and the game pauses itself when you click away.