The classic logic sweep becomes a duel, you each hide traps, then take turns daring the grid.
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How to play
Two players share one minefield, and each has planted some of the mines in it. You are clearing a board that contains neutral mines, your own traps and your opponent's — and the revealed numbers count all of them together, so the information on the board is honest but incomplete for both of you.
You know where your own mines are. You do not know where your opponent put theirs.
Revealed numbers count every mine nearby, regardless of who planted it.
The opponent plays by the same rules and cannot see your traps — it deduces from the revealed frontier exactly as you do.
When it cannot prove a cell is safe it takes the lowest-risk guess available, preferring ground away from its own traps.
Your own mines are safe ground for you and a hazard for the opponent, which is the whole asymmetry.
Controls
Desktop: left-click to reveal a cell, right-click to flag
Phone & tablet: tap to reveal, long-press for the flag menu
Game modes
Versus computer, Easy, Medium, or Hard
Two-player hotseat on one device
Online multiplayer
Daily seeded board or random
Tips & strategy
Your traps are also your map. Numbers next to a mine you planted tell you how many OTHER mines are nearby, which is information your opponent does not have about that square.
Clear near your own mines early. It is the safest ground on the board for you and the most dangerous for them.
Watch where the opponent avoids. It steers clear of its own traps, so a patch it will not touch is a patch worth being careful in.
A guess it is forced into is your opportunity. It only guesses when it cannot prove anything, so a board with a murky frontier favours whoever has more private information.
Do not assume a high number means danger everywhere — part of that count may be your own mines, which cost you nothing.
Origins
The numbered grid is Minesweeper, whose lineage runs back to Mined-Out on the ZX Spectrum in 1983 and which most people met through the version Microsoft shipped with the Windows Entertainment Pack in 1990.
The original twist is a second player who has also planted mines, and numbers that count everybody's together.
That breaks the parent game's guarantee. Minesweeper is a pure logic puzzle because the numbers are honest and complete; once they aggregate mines from three sources the same clue supports several readings, and the game turns from deduction into deduction about an opponent.
About Minesweeper Duel
Minesweeper Duel turns single-player logic sweeping into a head-to-head deduction battle. Free to play in your browser on PlayPendium.
A free, original browser game on PlayPendium. No download, no install.
