How many mines should I play in Mines?

Any number returns 99% of the stake on average, so the honest answer is: the number whose swings you can stand. With 1 mine the first pick is safe 96% of the time and pays 1.0312×; with 24 mines it is safe 4% of the time and pays 24.75×. Survival times payout is 0.99 in both cases.

Is picking one tile and cashing out a good strategy?

It is a Dice roll. One pick with 3 mines is a 88% chance paying 1.125×, which is exactly what Dice pays at 88%. It has the same 99% expectation as picking ten tiles; it just loses less often and wins less each time. Adding martingale to it hits a wall fast, because recovering a loss at 1.125× needs 9 times the previous stake.

Do the mines move after I start clicking?

No. All mine positions are drawn without replacement from the HMAC-SHA256 floats when the round starts, before the grid is shown. Clicking only reveals. Reveal the server seed by rotating and the Verify link recomputes the whole layout, which is how you can check that nothing moved.

Mines guidePublished 2026-09-27

Mines strategy: the honest maths

Mines strategy is a question about variance, because the expectation is fixed. Twenty-five tiles, m of them mines; each safe pick multiplies the payout by (25 − i) ÷ (25 − m − i) and the game keeps 1% of the product. Survival odds times payout is 0.99 after every pick at every mine count. This guide computes the survival of each pick, where the 2× line sits for each mine count, and what “one tile and out” with martingale does to a bankroll, all from the formula the free Mines game uses.

How Mines pays

The round draws m tile positions without replacement. After k safe reveals the payout is 0.99 × Π (25 − i) ÷ (25 − m − i) for i from 0 to k − 1, floored to four decimals. The product is one over the probability of surviving k picks, so payout times survival is 0.99: the ladder is the odds inverted, with 1% taken off.

What the mine count does

Mines: first-pick odds, where 2× sits, and the top of the ladder for each mine count
Mines	First pick safe	Pays after 1	Picks to reach 2×	Survive that far	Pays	Clear the board, one in	Board pays
1	96.0%	1.0312×	13	48.0%	2.0624×	1 in 25	25×
2	92.0%	1.0760×	8	45.3%	2.1838×	1 in 300	297×
3	88.0%	1.1250×	6	42.1%	2.3498×	1 in 2,300	2,277×
5	80.0%	1.2375×	4	38.3%	2.5848×	1 in 53,130	52,599×
10	60.0%	1.6500×	2	35.0%	2.8285×	1 in 3.3 × 10^6	3,236,072×
15	40.0%	2.4750×	1	40.0%	2.4750×	1 in 3.3 × 10^6	3,236,072×
20	20.0%	4.9500×	1	20.0%	4.9500×	1 in 53,130	52,599×
24	4.0%	24.7500×	1	4.0%	24.7500×	1 in 25	25×

“Clear the board” means revealing all 25 − m safe tiles; with 1 mine that is 24 picks at 1 in 25 for 24.75×. With 24 mines a single pick is the whole board: 1 in 25 for 24.75×. Every cell in this table has survival × payout = 0.99.

More mines makes the ladder steeper: fewer picks to 2×, but each pick riskier. With 3 mines you need 6 safe picks for 2× and survive that 42% of the time; with 10 mines it is 2 picks at 35%. The two 2× bets are worth the same. The mine count is a variance dial with no expectation attached.

What staking plans do

“One tile and out” at 3 mines is a 88% bet paying 1.1250×: a Dice roll at 88%, to the fourth decimal. People pair it with martingale because it “almost always wins”. It does; it also pays 1.125×, so a loss cannot be recovered by doubling. Getting back to even after a loss at that payout needs L ÷ (x − 1), which is 9 times the previous stake.

Recovering a loss at 1.125× (one pick, 3 mines) from a 10 base bet
Losses in a row	Lost so far	Stake needed next	Fits a 1,000 bankroll?
1	10	80	yes
2	90	720	yes
3	810	6,480	no
4	7,290	58,320	no

A 1,000 bankroll recovers from 2 consecutive losses; the 3rd is the wall. At a 88% win rate, a run of 3 losses appears in 26% of 200-round sessions.

The simulator's martingale doubles rather than multiplying by 9, so it under-recovers at this payout and drifts instead of cliff-diving; either way the return on turnover reads −1%. Run one-tile-and-out with martingale, then flat-bet five picks at 3 mines (49.6% for 1.9973×), then martingale three picks at 10 mines (19.8% for 5.0043×). Three shapes, one expectation.

Corner tiles, patterns and “the mines are never next to each other” are the other folklore. Positions are drawn uniformly without replacement from the seed; every tile is equally likely to hold a mine on every round, and the layout is fixed before you see the grid.

Mine count and cash-out point choose the shape; the average is 99% everywhere. One pick at 3 mines is a Dice roll at 88%. Ten picks at 10 mines is a 1 in 1,088 shot at 1,078×. A staking plan sets the stake before the layout is known, so its expected loss is 1% of the turnover it generates. Nothing here moves the −1%.

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Questions

How many mines should I play in Mines?: Any number returns 99% of the stake on average, so the honest answer is: the number whose swings you can stand. With 1 mine the first pick is safe 96% of the time and pays 1.0312×; with 24 mines it is safe 4% of the time and pays 24.75×. Survival times payout is 0.99 in both cases.
Is picking one tile and cashing out a good strategy?: It is a Dice roll. One pick with 3 mines is a 88% chance paying 1.125×, which is exactly what Dice pays at 88%. It has the same 99% expectation as picking ten tiles; it just loses less often and wins less each time. Adding martingale to it hits a wall fast, because recovering a loss at 1.125× needs 9 times the previous stake.
Do the mines move after I start clicking?: No. All mine positions are drawn without replacement from the HMAC-SHA256 floats when the round starts, before the grid is shown. Clicking only reveals. Reveal the server seed by rotating and the Verify link recomputes the whole layout, which is how you can check that nothing moved.

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Last reviewed 2026-09-27