Mine Hunt is the pencil-and-paper form of minesweeper. Some cells print a number, which counts the mines in the eight cells around it, diagonals included. A cell with a number on it is never itself a mine. From those numbers alone you work out where every mine hides.

Is this Mine Hunt generator free?

Yes. Pick a difficulty, generate a puzzle and print it with its answer, with no sign-up and no watermark. It is free for classroom, home and personal use.

Do I ever have to guess?

No, and that is the point. The computer game regularly ends on a coin flip: two cells, one mine, and nothing on the board to say which. Every puzzle here is checked to have exactly one mine layout, so the answer is always reachable from the numbers.

How do I start solving one?

Start with the zeros: a 0 has no mines around it, so all eight of its neighbours are clear. Then look for a number whose remaining blank cells are exactly as many as the mines it still wants, because all of those are mines. When it stalls, compare two numbers that share cells.

Does every puzzle have one solution?

Yes. A board can look perfectly reasonable and still have two layouts, which makes the printed answer wrong rather than merely hard. Every puzzle here is checked by the same solver our Publisher Studio uses, so the numbers fix exactly one layout.

What size are the pages?

The free tool prints at 8.25 by 11 inches, a popular large-print size. Our Publisher Studio will export the same book at any KDP trim, from 5.06 by 7.81 up to 8.27 by 11.69, as a print-ready 300 DPI interior.

Free tool

Free Mine Hunt generator, with the answer

Pick a size and generate a Mine Hunt puzzle, then print it with its answer. Every puzzle has exactly one answer and never needs a guess, with no sign-up and no watermark. It runs on the same engine as our KDP Publisher Studio.

Difficulty

Bigger boards with fewer numbers on them are harder. Every puzzle has exactly one answer, and never needs a guess.

10×10 board. Each number counts the mines in the eight cells around it, and never sits on one itself. Find every mine.

Two pages: the puzzle and its answer. Every puzzle is proved to have exactly one answer by the same engine as our KDP studio.

Want the whole book?

This makes one puzzle. Sign up to turn it into a full Mine Hunt book for Amazon KDP: hundreds of graded puzzles at any trim, as print-ready PDFs.

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Preview

The puzzle and its answer, as they print.

Mine Hunt Medium

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Mine Hunt Medium · Solution

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How to make a Mine Hunt puzzle

1Pick a difficulty. Choose a board. Harder grades are bigger with fewer numbers printed, so the chains of deduction run longer.
2Generate the puzzle. Press Generate puzzle. You get a fresh board, proved to have exactly one answer.
3Print the two pages. Press Print / save PDF. You get two pages: the puzzle on page one and its answer on page two.

How to solve a mine hunt

Every printed number counts the mines in the eight cells around it, diagonals included, and never sits on a mine itself. Work out where every mine hides from the numbers alone.

The method

1Start with the zeros. A 0 has no mines around it at all, so every one of its eight neighbours is clear. That is free information and it is usually what opens the first corner of the board.
2Then take the numbers that are already full. When a number has as many blank cells around it as mines it is still looking for, every one of those blanks is a mine. A 3 with exactly three blanks left has found all three.
3And the ones that are already satisfied. The mirror image: once a number has all its mines marked, every other cell around it is clear. Marking a mine and clearing its neighbours alternate, and most of a board falls out that way.
4When it stalls, compare two numbers that overlap. Two numbers side by side share some of their cells. If a 1 and a 2 overlap and the 1 is satisfied by a cell inside the overlap, the 2 needs its second mine from the cells only it can see. That is the step that gets a hard board moving.

The one rule people get wrong: A number counts all eight cells around it, corners included, not just the four beside it. And a cell with a number printed on it is never a mine.
What the answer page shows: Every mine, marked on the same grid at the back.
How the grades differ: Bigger boards with fewer numbers printed on them, which measurably about triples the chain of deductions a grade at a time.
Good for: Anyone who has played the computer game and wants it without the guessing.

Publishing a whole book?

This tool makes one puzzle for home or the classroom. To make a Mine Hunt book you can sell on Amazon KDP, Publisher Studio generates hundreds of graded puzzles across a difficulty curve, at any KDP trim, as a print-ready interior and solutions PDF.

See the KDP Mine Hunt maker

Questions

What is Mine Hunt?: Mine Hunt is the pencil-and-paper form of minesweeper. Some cells print a number, which counts the mines in the eight cells around it, diagonals included. A cell with a number on it is never itself a mine. From those numbers alone you work out where every mine hides.
Is this Mine Hunt generator free?: Yes. Pick a difficulty, generate a puzzle and print it with its answer, with no sign-up and no watermark. It is free for classroom, home and personal use.
Do I ever have to guess?: No, and that is the point. The computer game regularly ends on a coin flip: two cells, one mine, and nothing on the board to say which. Every puzzle here is checked to have exactly one mine layout, so the answer is always reachable from the numbers.
How do I start solving one?: Start with the zeros: a 0 has no mines around it, so all eight of its neighbours are clear. Then look for a number whose remaining blank cells are exactly as many as the mines it still wants, because all of those are mines. When it stalls, compare two numbers that share cells.
Does every puzzle have one solution?: Yes. A board can look perfectly reasonable and still have two layouts, which makes the printed answer wrong rather than merely hard. Every puzzle here is checked by the same solver our Publisher Studio uses, so the numbers fix exactly one layout.
What size are the pages?: The free tool prints at 8.25 by 11 inches, a popular large-print size. Our Publisher Studio will export the same book at any KDP trim, from 5.06 by 7.81 up to 8.27 by 11.69, as a print-ready 300 DPI interior.

Short of ideas? Browse our ready-made printables for this puzzle and print one today.