How to play Mines
Mines is a game of nerve on a 5 × 5 board. You choose how many mines hide under the 25 tiles, from 1 to 24, then turn tiles over one at a time. Every gem raises your multiplier and you can cash out after any of them. Hit a mine and the bet is lost.
The aim
Find gems and cash out before you find a mine. When you start a round the Blibzz server places the mines, before you can turn a single tile.
After each gem you choose: turn another tile, or cash out and take your bet times the multiplier. Find every gem and the board is cleared, and the round pays the top multiplier for your mine count at once.
When the round ends, win or lose, the board shows where every mine was.
How the multiplier works
After a run of gems, the multiplier is 97% of the fair price for finding that many gems in a row, rounded down to the cent. With 3 mines, for example, the first tile is safe 22 times in 25, so the first gem pays 1.10×. The more mines, the faster it climbs.
The 3% is taken once per round, not once per tile, so every cash-out point returns about the same over time. Before the first gem the multiplier is 1.00×, and you can't cash out until you've found one.
- 1 mine: first gem 1.01×, all 24 gems 24.25×
- 3 mines: first gem 1.10×, all 22 gems 2,231×
- 5 mines: first gem 1.21×, all 20 gems 51,536.10×
- 10 mines: first gem 1.61×, all 15 gems 3,170,697.20×
- 24 mines: a single gem to find (a 1 in 25 chance), paying 24.25×
Why the mines can't move
Each round is sealed before your first tile. The server sends a SHA-256 fingerprint of where the mines are, mixed with a random secret. When the round ends it shows the mines and the secret, and the game works out the fingerprint again to check they match.
If a single mine had moved, the fingerprints wouldn't match. Menu › Fairness shows the seal of the round in play and the check of the last one.
Using the controls
In the lobby, pick the mine count from the cards (1, 3, 5, 10 or 24) or set any count from 1 to 24 with − and +. Each card shows what the first gem pays. Set your bet and tap Play.
Tap a tile to turn it, or tap Random tile to let the game choose one; it shows what the next gem is worth. Cash out shows what you'd take right now. On a keyboard, the arrow keys move around the board, R turns a random tile, C cashes out, and Space or Enter starts the next round.
Bets start at 1 coin. − and + step through the usual amounts, ½ and 2× halve or double the bet, or you can type any amount up to everything you have (at most 1,000,000,000). Tap the mine count under the board to change it in the lobby.
Leaving mid-round, or changing the mine count, cashes the round out at its current value. Before the first gem, your bet comes back.
Tips
- Decide when you'll cash out before the round starts (say, three mines and out after four gems) and stick to it.
- There's no safe spot on the board. Corners, edges and the tiles next to a gem are as likely to hide a mine as any other.
- Turning more tiles doesn't lower the return; it only makes the round riskier.
- Low mine counts suit long, steady sessions. High mine counts are short and spiky.
- Over time the game keeps about 3 coins of every 100 bet, however many mines you choose.