Minesweeper online, the Hedgehush way

How a minesweeper-style puzzle works

A minesweeper-style puzzle hides a set number of mines under a grid of covered squares. Open a square and you either find a mine, which ends the game, or a number. The number tells you how many mines touch that square, counting all eight neighbors. Blank squares have none around them, so the board opens a whole clearing for you.

From those numbers you work out where every mine must be. Mark the ones you're sure of, open every square that's safe, and the board is cleared. The first square you open is always safe.

Hedgehush is our own game. We made it from scratch, gave it its own look and story, and it isn't connected to any other version of the puzzle. In our meadow the mines are sleeping hedgehogs, the squares are leaves, and the flags are little lanterns.

Board sizes

Expert is a wide board that never fits a phone held upright, so on a tall screen we turn it on its side. Same difficulty, same count, shaped for your hand.

No guessing, ever (unless you want it)

The worst part of the classic puzzle is the fifty-fifty at the end, where logic runs out and you just have to pick. In Hedgehush most meadows are no-guess. Before you see a board, our own solver plays it from your first leaf using only what you could see. If it would ever need a guess, we move a few hedgehogs and check again, until the whole board can be finished with logic.

Miss the old luck of the draw? Switch to Classic when you start a new meadow and hedgehogs land anywhere except around your first leaf.

Playing on a phone

• Tap a leaf to lift it, and long-press to hang a lantern.
• The Dig and Lantern switch at the bottom flips what a tap does, handy when you have a row of lanterns to hang.
• Tap a number that already has all its lanterns to lift the rest of its neighbors at once.
• Pinch to zoom and drag to look around. When leaves get too small to hit with care, a tap zooms in first instead of guessing what you meant.

On a computer it plays the way you'd expect: left click to lift, right click to hang a lantern, and click a satisfied number (or press both buttons) to open around it. There are keyboard controls too.

The Daily Meadow

Every day at midnight UTC a new Daily Meadow grows: a 16 by 16 board with 40 hedgehogs, no-guess, and the same for everyone from the same opening. The clock waits until you tap Start. If you wake a hedgehog, you can hush it back to sleep for a 30 second penalty and keep going. Your first clear of the day goes on the daily board.

Tips that win more boards

• Start with the easy reads. A 1 with only one covered leaf beside it has a hedgehog right there.
• Learn the 1-2-1 along a wall: the hedgehogs sit under the two 1s, and the leaf beside the 2 is safe.
• Open around numbers instead of lifting leaves one at a time. It's faster and your efficiency score climbs.
• In a no-guess meadow there is always a sure step. If you feel stuck, look along a different border.

Our full Hedgehush guide covers every setting, the stats keen players track (3BV, 3BV per second and efficiency) and more patterns. If you like this kind of logic, play sudoku online with Ninebark Sudoku next.

Questions