Rules of Mines
- The board has 25 closed tiles arranged 5 by 5.
- Before the round you set your stake in ₹ and choose how many mines to hide. The rest of the tiles are safe (shown as gems).
- The mines are placed at random when the round starts. You can't see them.
- You open tiles one at a time. Each safe tile raises your current multiplier.
- After any safe tile you may cash out and receive stake × current multiplier.
- If you open a mine, the round ends and the stake is lost. The board then reveals where the other mines were.
There's no limit on how long you take between taps. There's also no bonus for clearing the whole board except the multiplier itself.
A Full Round, Tap by Tap
Let's take a ₹25 stake and 3 mines, which leaves 22 safe tiles.
Tap 1. 22 of the 25 tiles are safe, so this tap has an 88% chance of being a gem. You get a gem. The multiplier moves up a little.
Tap 2. Now 21 safe tiles are left among 24 closed ones. Still a good chance. Gem.
Tap 3. 20 safe out of 23. Gem again. At this point, the chance that you'd get through all three taps was about 67% when the round started. You're in the lucky two-thirds.
The decision. You had decided before starting: three gems and out. So you cash out. The app pays ₹25 × whatever the multiplier shows for 3 safe tiles on a 3-mine board.
What if you'd kept going to five? The chance of surviving five taps from the start with 3 mines is roughly 50%. A coin flip. Most beginners don't realise it drops that fast. That's the whole reason to decide your stopping point in advance.
The Odds of Surviving, Worked Out
These are not the app's numbers or anyone's claims. They're plain counting on a 25-tile board: the chance that every one of your first few taps lands on a safe tile.
| Mines | 1 tap | 2 taps | 3 taps | 5 taps | 8 taps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 96% | 92% | 88% | 80% | 68% |
| 3 | 88% | 77% | 67% | 50% | 30% |
| 5 | 80% | 63% | 50% | 29% | 12% |
| 10 | 60% | 35% | 20% | 6% | under 1% |
Look along the 5-mine row. Three taps is already a coin flip, and eight taps succeeds about once in eight or nine tries. This is why the multiplier on a 5-mine board jumps so quickly: it's paying you for surviving something that genuinely gets unlikely.
In casino-style games like this, multipliers generally follow those chances but sit a little below what they would strictly justify. That gap is how the house makes money. So no mine count is secretly "better value" than another in a way you can exploit. They're just different shapes of the same bet.
Matching the Mine Count to Your Mood
It helps to think of the mine count as choosing what kind of evening you want, rather than which setting "wins".
With 1 or 2 mines, you'll open tile after tile and the payout crawls upward. It's relaxing, a bit like shelling peanuts. The catch is that a single mine late in the round can cost you more than the handful of small wins before it made.
At 3 to 5 mines, each gem feels like it means something. This is where most regulars settle, because a round lasts long enough to make a decision but not so long that it gets boring.
Above 8 or so, the game changes character completely. You're really betting on one or two taps. Some players like to keep a tiny stake aside for a couple of these rounds at the end of a session, win or lose, and then close the app. That's a sensible way to scratch the itch without letting it take over.
Words You'll Come Across
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Gem / safe tile | A tile with no mine. Opening one raises the multiplier. |
| Mine / bomb | The hidden tile that ends your round. |
| Mine count | How many mines you chose to place before the round. |
| Multiplier | The number your stake is multiplied by if you cash out now. |
| Cash out / collect | Ending the round and taking stake × multiplier. |
| Random pick | A button on some versions that opens a tile for you. Same odds as choosing yourself. |
Mistakes New Players Make
Deciding the stopping point mid-round. After two gems everything feels safe. The table above says otherwise.
Jumping to high mine counts early. A 10-mine board looks exciting because of the multiplier. But you'll lose most rounds within two or three taps, and a beginner learns nothing from that except frustration.
Believing in "safe spots". Some YouTube videos swear by corner tiles or certain patterns. The mines are shuffled each round. There's nothing to learn from where they were last time.
Raising the stake after a mine. It's the same trap as in every quick game. Flat stakes keep a bad run from snowballing.
And one quieter mistake: playing Mines while doing something else. Because the board waits for you, it's easy to tap absent-mindedly during a TV show. Those are the rounds where people forget their plan.
A Beginner's Practice Routine
- Session 1: Smallest stake, 3 mines, cash out after 2 gems every single time. Play 20 rounds. Note how many ended on a mine.
- Session 2: Same stake and mines, but stop after 4 gems. Compare with session 1. You'll see bigger payouts and more busts.
- Session 3: Try 5 mines, stop after 2 gems. Feel how different it is.
- After that: Choose one setting and one tap count you're comfortable with, set a session budget, and keep it.
Real-money Mines is for adults aged 18+. Online real-money gaming is restricted in some Indian states, so check yours before you start. Keep it to money you've already set aside for fun, and see our responsible gaming tips if a session ever runs longer than you meant it to.
Once you're comfortable here, the Crash guide covers a similar "when do I stop?" game with a timer, and all our other rules pages are on the Games Guide hub.
