LOGIC · ORIGINAL BROWSER GAME
Safe Mines
Open all thirteen safe cells on a 4×4 board without selecting one of three mines.
Implementation reviewed August 11, 2026 · Published independently by StarboxPLAY THE CURRENT BUILD
Start a round in your browser
The game runs locally in this tab. No account, download, payment, or score upload is required.
DIRECT ANSWER
How do you play Safe Mines?
Open all thirteen safe cells on the 4×4 board without selecting any of the three hidden mines. A revealed number counts mines in the neighboring cells around it.
- Board: 16 cells
- Mines: 3 unique positions
- A zero proves all adjacent cells are safe
Rules and objective
Open all thirteen safe cells on a 4×4 board without selecting one of three mines. Three unique mine positions are generated locally; revealed numbers count neighboring mines across valid row and column boundaries.
How scoring works
Opening every safe cell records a completed 100-point board. Scores are saved only in this browser's local storage, so changing devices or clearing site data starts a new local record.
What we checked in this build
We tested corner and edge counts, repeated taps, mine loss, full safe completion and board regeneration.
This note describes the Starbox implementation rather than the rules of every similarly named game elsewhere.
FIRST-HAND CHECK
Test record
- Tested
- August 11, 2026
- Environment
- Source-level board-boundary review and production build on Windows 11.
Procedure
- Traced corner, edge, and center cells through the neighbor-count function.
- Checked the repeated-cell and post-loss input guards.
- Reviewed unique mine generation, safe completion, and New board reset.
Observed result
Counts used only valid adjacent cells, repeated taps did not change progress, a mine ended the board, and New board generated three unique mine positions with progress reset.
WORKED EXAMPLE
Example: what a zero in the corner proves
Starting position: The upper-left corner opens as 0.
Reasoning: That corner has only three possible neighbors: right, below, and lower-right. A zero proves all three are safe, so they can be opened without guessing.
Takeaway: Expand guaranteed safe cells around zeroes before taking any uncertain move.
Count the correct neighborhood
A revealed number refers to mines in the surrounding horizontal, vertical, and diagonal squares—up to eight neighbors in the middle, five on an edge, and three in a corner. Before reasoning from a clue, trace its complete neighborhood so an overlooked diagonal does not invalidate the deduction.
Use satisfied clues
If a clue shows 1 and exactly one adjacent unopened square must contain a mine, every other adjacent unopened square is safe. Conversely, if a clue still needs two mines and has exactly two unopened neighbors, both are mines. The power comes from comparing required mines with remaining unknown squares.
Combine overlapping neighborhoods
Two nearby clues often share several unknown cells. If one clue’s mine requirement is already accounted for in the shared area, the extra cells around the second clue can be cleared. Work with small sets rather than guessing which single square “looks” dangerous.
Know when information runs out
Some randomized boards can reach a position where the visible clues do not force a unique safe move. Distinguish that from a missed deduction by checking every open clue once. If no constraint identifies a safe square, any choice is a probability decision; do not treat the resulting loss as a reasoning failure.
Editorial and correction notes
This page was checked against the game code and its visible controls. It does not present entertainment scores as medical, educational, or professional assessments. If a rule, score, or control behaves differently from this description, email songtianqi0920@gmail.com with the page URL, browser, and device.
Play the current build, then return to compare the result with the strategy above.