How the Heck Do You Speedrun Minesweeper?
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- čas přidán 15. 07. 2024
- Wanna learn how to speedrun Minesweeper? Then you've found the right video! This is about one third tutorial on how to play the game and two thirds discussion about the mentality and philosophy of speedrunning a game like this. Also, consider hanging out in our discord and following me on twitter!
patreon - / errorprone
twitter - / evelynnerror
Discord: / discord
Some Minesweeper Resources!
minesweeper.online/
0:00 - Introduction
0:50 - Part 1: Beginner
4:50 - Part 2: Intermediate
10:07 - Part 3: Expert
Additional footage from World of Longplays
Music from Baba is You, Celeste, Soul Calibur 6, and Super Smash Bros. Melee
#speedrun #videoessay - Hry
"Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless - like water. You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend."
-Bruce Lee on speedrunning Minesweeper
I feel like I discovered a big youtuber before the blow up, don't mess it up
I'll do my best!
Lmfao I agree
@Lilith does stuff Thank you!
Same! This is such a good video!
blow up
I'm in love with how this video waxes poetic. You sound so passionate about the subject, and it's infectious.
I am a passionate person, I'm glad it comes through in my videos
i love minesweeper
Me too.
here before this blows up (i know no one cares lol)
(i just want the bragging rights)
Then make an AI to play minesweeper bfdi man
@@fredylanes20 this comment didn't age well... Huh?
@@fredylanes20 well look how this is the 5th reply after 1 year
I know this is a cliche thing to say in these types of small youtuber tutorials, but this is a really, REALLY good tutorial. Everything in this video (and when you need to learn it) is perfectly and clearly stated, which is somehow made EVEN BETTER with the vibe of the music and your smooth, concise, and almost poetic voice.
I hope you reach 1k soon!
I'm glad that you find the video up to snuff
i lost nnn to this
The video is super interesting, with the ambiguity that the minesweeper visuals have I find it draws in the viewer to want to understand minesweeper, great video!
I'm glad you liked it
You can go faster by moving the mouse backwards. Only the forward movement speed of the mouse is capped by the game.
Seriously though, if you have to guess a 50/50 the best move isn't always to just guess blindly, but to quickly identify the guess that would reveal the most information and pick that. If you make a right guess only to end up in a situation where you have to make another guess, you are only increasing your chances of guessing wrong eventually.
Been playing this game casually for a few years straight in middle school, think I managed to beat expert under 90 seconds but yet I've never seen the "chords" or whatever mechanic
That's really impressive, great job! With the chords it's a lot easier.
Fear is the mind killer, the little death
DAMN, that ending was even more hypnotizing than your first video on the subject. Good to see you've gotten even better, Error, both at the youtube game and the mine game. Massive grats on the sub 100.
When I found the "no guessing" mode I thought experts would mostly be attracted to it, due to it's lack of luck, but was surprised to see it was the opposite. Not only does the top tier community snob it due to its slightly easier (?) patterns, but building consistent win rates _despite_ the guessing and being able to guess _quickly_ (like you mention) are non trivial skills, quite valued in high level players. I for one retired after my sub 140, but this video almost gives me the itch again. Great stuff. Would be very interest in the next episode of the "How the Heck Do You Speedrun X" saga.
I'm glad you liked the video! I definitely feel like both of those skills have improved a lot over the last six months. I agree that a game with guessing involved is more interesting and skill testing than one with no guessing. I see the appeal for new players because there is nothing as bitter as losing what might be your best time, or even first win! to a guess, but I do have to imagine that it changes what makes the game special.
As for the next video in the series, I have spent time speedrunning a few games, but none where I'm at the point of feeling ready to write on this topic, but I've got ideas, and I'm hoping to have monthly installments over the summer!
oh god. my record now is 84s. in three months I pushed it by 67s. Thank you so much, Error, for motivation. you are just cool
Way to go! That is totally wicked
Minesweeper is the way to get humans to execute the flood fill algorithm.
It's kind of interesting how a few of these tips also apply it to speed solving of Rubik's Cube like what's called look ahead which is where you're solving two pieces you look ahead to the next two pieces also pattern recognition is very important for Speed solving
12:31 if you were to mark all the mines you would be aware that there are only 2 mines left. now consider the 1 and 4. their neighbours have no intersecting tiles, and each of them needs 1 extra mine. the remaining 2 tiles are safe to reveal. any reason to guess is eliminated
This is quite true. The problem (for me at least) is that while speedrunning I don't want to be marking every mine, and it would take too much processing power (i.e. "time") to try to figure that out while also going for your best ever time, so in such an instance, I feel compelled to guess. But if you're just playing to win (which is certainly valid!) then you should play this way
Wow. I play minesweeper continuously for 3 years on mobile. I am completely clueless about most of the terms, but I literally went through the exact same thought process over the years, watching my record time slowly dwindle over the years is so satisfying 😌
It doesn't matter if you know the terms, the fact that you enjoyed the game and worked to keep lowering your time is what's most important!
Thanks.
Minesweeper truly is one of the best stress-relievers to me. Have no idea how people think that it causes stress
I remember the first time Minesweeper asked for my name at the end. I was like "Woah, why do they want my name?", and minesweeper was like "Kid, you've finally reached the point where you can pretend you matter."
It's so satisfying to see the name pop up when you finish a run
I love how seriously this video takes the game, it's not a joke or anything
This was more like a philosophical detailing of the game rather than a tutorial.
ive been obsessed with minesweeper speedrunning lately, and this whole time i had no idea chords existed-
i love this video, it's charming, and you've got a way with words
Thanks for watching, you rock! If you want to get into speedrunning Minesweeper, you should join our discord, where I will encourage you as much as I can. Also, if you can beat expert in under 2 minutes, I will invite you to an exclusive discord chat, what could be better than that? (discord.gg/CprNaAGHJC )
Some additional sources a much better player than me suggested!
minesweepergame.com/
minesweepergame.com/strategy.php
minesweeper.online/
minesweeper.online/help/guides
Sub 100s is just the first step - it took me literally years from Sub 100s to my currenct record (78s)
Absolutely, sub-100 is nowhere near top level play!
How i got to 63s playing for like 6 months casually
@@bobross5731 these comments are filled with subhumans
Ever since my school issued chromebooks, the google doodle minesweeper has become part of my daily grind
This video makes it seem so easy, haha. Maybe this can help me beat the game in under 10 minutes
Chords really help, but the most important thing is practice and learning the patterns. I believe in you
Just here to jump on the bandwagon before you reach the 100k subscribers mark
I've played a lot of Minesweeper but never chorded. I've just started trying because of this video, and I can safely say it was very confusing for me for quite some time. I've been going a lot slower with it, taking quite a bit longer to solve a grid, but it's starting to click in my head and I'm hoping I can actually start getting faster again and beat my old times with it. Will take time for sure, cause I'm playing TOTALLY different now, but this actually helped a ton. Thanks!
Awesome! I'm glad you learned something new, it warms my heart
The only thing I can speedrun in Minesweeper is losing at it. XD
This is such a good video. Excellent work, my man. Love me some Minesweeper!
Thanks!
Just started watching your videos after shout-out from Architect of Games, and this one was a short form one for me to jump into your videos. Really liked how well thought out your video was and that you do sound so passionate about this topic. Really excited to check out your other videos!
I hope the rest of my videos meet your expectations!
Absolutely amazing video!
i speedran minesweeper during all my online classes last semester lol
got all As and Bs and 112 seconds by the end
Nice! As a college instructor myself, I approve!
Amazing video! I'm glad it got recommended to me, even if it was a few months late. Super poetic and beautiful.
Thank you so much! It means a lot to me
Beautifully presented!
My PB on mobile is 91 seconds, while my PB on PC version is 166 seconds so far. Need to deal with my mouse, I’m still slow on PC. Great video btw
Wow, great video man, really high quality. You made me want to start playing minesweeper again.
And also you earned a subscriber, I hope this blows up and brings you many more, keep it up!
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it
i am in love with celeste in bg
Wow incredible vid love every second of it keep up the work
Thanks!
I was enjoying the video, and then I heard the 5B music. Instant like and sub. Great video.
Thank you! I try to make great music choices in my videos, glad you noticed ❤
Just learned how to play it fully yesterday and CZcams bombast me with all these recommendations related to minesweeper and I'm not complaining
I didn't expect to meditate when I clicked on this minesweeper video, but it was a welcome surprise nonetheless 😃 minesweeper has been my stress buster game for the past year and your video perfectly explains the state i get into when i play. Thanks for this!
Thank you for this comment! I also have used minesweeper to relieve stress quite a bit over the past year. It's a great way to focus your mind but not on the things stressing you out, which is nice for those of us with some anxiety!
thank you for this video, i've been looking to improve my minesweeper speedrun technique since i stopped a couple years ago!
I only played this game from the reference in the creeper rap Minecraft song but then I actually liked the game and here I am now
This was quite fascinating, thank you :)
Thank YOU for the kind words
Very nice vid I think I am gonna start speed running this game. I used to play casually on my phone but you have inspired. Also I like your writing and your video is very high quality overall you earned my sub and I wish you good luck going forward.
Thank you for the kind words! minesweeper.online/ is the best place to learn to speedrun the game in my opinion. I hope you enjoy it!
i've fallen in love with your voice and your videos
keep it up :)
Cool analysis, this made me want to play minesweeper again. What's your best time so far?
I think 97 (or 1:37), but I think I can push my score lower. I get hand cramps if I play too long, so I'm trying to pace myself!
@@iamerror, what's your best time with glitches?
@@KakeiTheWoIf I haven't played with any exploits, unfortunately.
@@iamerror, there's a timer freeze glitch.
@@KakeiTheWoIf I have never used it, but sounds interesting!
i havent even played this game before and yet i watch the video
God damn this is so well made
Thank you!
Awesome video! I love how philosophical it gets at the end.
I play minesweeper a lot on my phone, but despite playing thousands of games and seeing how speedrunners play it i realise that i have yet to reach that level haha. The expert level is the one i struggle with as i always mark off every mine.
This is a minor thing that someone might have already pointed out but at 2:54 you didnt have to guess it ;)
Dude this is very high quality. If you keep this up I assure you you will get so many views lol. I hope to be a pioneer in the rising your channel :)
This makes me quite happy, thank you for your kind words!
how could you just make something like minesweeper be so poetic and so interesting, I've been playing for a year and a half and I've never thought of it like that, wow
Thanks, I do my best!
awesome video, and love the username
I can't believe I watched this whole video. But I am grateful, it was really great. Thank you video maker guy.
You're welcome! I'm glad you liked it and I hope (if you partake in them) you enjoy some of my other videos
@@iamerror ok, I subscribed. ❤️
this was great thanks!
I'm glad you enjoyed it
This is just cool.
Amount of the motivation for playing minesweeper is huge.
Thank you very much, Error. My record now is 151s, but im ready to beat it.
Good luck on lowering that record, I'm confident you can crush it with enough time and effort!
@@iamerror thanks!
I always trip when you have to guess
Huh, didn't know about the f2 button. Good video.
amazing video, take my sub
One of the best ways to improve your pattern recognition is to play no guess mode on the minesweeper online website. I find that having absolute certainty that there is logic to beat the game really gives you the drive to keep trying, and after enough games you may learn some new patterns from it.
I'm at that point where I need to focus on improving my efficiency and as a mostly no flag player, when I do try to flag I either go overboard with it or not enough. Hopefully I'll beat my 73 second expert time soon.
Great guide! It really captures the important steps to learning this fantastic game!
I have played for years but my record is so far almost exactly 2 minutes. It's interesting that when watching people play it seems slower than you thought it should be but when you play it yourself you're even slower than who you watch :D .
I agree, I think it's because when we're watching we can just think about what's going on without devoting any mental energy to actually doing anything, so the board seems easier to interpret. Watching myself play (yuck!) is always a weird experience because I feel like "How could I play this slow? I'm better than this!"
i feel like watching ones own wrestling matches is the opposite because it seems as though time slows down when you are wrestling which i have no clue why but it does which makes watching my matches always feel a little weired
I've played THOUSANDS of minesweeper games, and i never knew chords were a thing. I though they were a visualizing aid for begginers to see what was directly around a square, didn't know they actually revealed them if you had marked the mines xD
It's also interesting to know how diferent poeple look at the same game diferently, i always tought minecraft wasn't about speed, but keep your overall percentage of won games as high as possible. I've managed to keep mine as high as 10% once, but am currently at 6% I always felt pretty good about my 120 seconds time too, your video gave me new insight into this game i love!
This was mesmerizing to watch
Keanu Reeves voice: _you're mesmerizing!_
its funny having watched the minesweeper is causing me health issues 1st. knowing your futute makes it hilarious how excited you are.
Wow great video man! This should have way more views.
Well, it's got a lot of views in the context of my channel, so maybe your statement is becoming true! I encourage you to share it as well
Yeah of course succes isn't instantanious but the video is a very well made product! Keep it up man! I hope to see your channel continue to grow. Btw i found it on reddit
Keep doing what you're doing, just wait until the algorithm does its thing, awesome content :)
Thanks! It feels like the algorithm has been quite kind to me the past week.
I used to play minesweeper on my grandma's computer but honestly never understood how to play it and I just clicked anywhere and I lowkey hated it for years. Now, this video made me want to try it out and I actually learned how to play it!, came back to write this comment after winning for the first time:)
This comments means a lot to me, I'm glad you were inspired to go back to this great puzzle game enough to get your first win. It warms my heart!
that celeste music in the back!
Literally flawless video
Thank you
I've got to admit, when I saw this in my recommended, I thought "oh this is just CZcams being CZcams, recommending another wild video with a couple million views," but no, it's only a quality video that deserves a couple million views. Seriously, your voice is so clear, and the video is well-structured. You kept me interested in *Minesweeper*, and as a person with ADHD and as a person who specializes in the opposite of calm and collected content, that's saying a lot. Then, I realized you have less than 1k. That's less than anyone else I've ever had recommended to me. I'm not meaning that in a bad way; I'm meaning it in a "what the actual %(*$&@% how, this is actual quality, and normally when I see a smaller channel, it's nothing but background noise, 'uhh' and 'uhmmm', etc." Keep it up. You've already earned my respect. I can't imagine what it's like to *not* purposely crank the gain up to +50db and have a chaotic mess to upload, but it's definitely impressive to see someone who's not got at least 100k subs doing it and making it so professional. I can tell effort went into this video, and I think it makes for a very accessible and easily consumable one at that. Can't wait to see this vid get randomly recommended later on and get at least a mil views on it. It just seems like one that would. TL;DR, this was great, keep it up.
Thank you for your kind words
Great video! I feel like, despite its popularity, not enough people talk about how fun this game is.
I agree, hopefully this video can inspire more people to try it out
Good video. You'd be stunned how many people think they're done with this game before trying to engage in click efficiency at all. Of course I play far, far more on mobile than anything else nowadays, so it's easy for me to say. Tap flag, tap "chord" , hold to clear a cell, and all of a sudden you're doing like ALL chords. Plus you've gotta deal with zooming - you can get arbitrary precision with a mouse, but not touch controls.
Anyway, I'm rambling. Basically only had one thing I thought I really oughta share, which is that the mind and the hand have another friend called the eyes, and that isolating it from your hand and mind is probably harder than isolating you hand and mind from each other. You can watch the gameplay in this video with no obligation but scanning, and you'll find lots of little improvements in real time that you couldn't with your eyes busy looking at the cells you're clicking.
Much love. Minesweeper players are a great reminder to me that there are some like-minded individuals out there after all, and I'm very grateful for every one of them.
I somehow feel lucky to know "og" windows pinball, solitaire, paint and minesweeper from windows 95 (I was born 95). Brings back great memories c: and of course Nintendo 64, PS1, etc c:
I never understood as a kid how the heck minesweeper worked, learned it on my own maybe from when I was 13 years old, now my PB is 98 seconds after 450 hours and I'm twice as old. It feels unexpectedly good to finally be there under 100 seconds (even though I'm still slow, 3BV/s 1.45) , and to have learned the game on my own. Sorry for rambling, I just feel weirdly attached to this game.
I love the rambling! I also have a weird attachment to the game. I didn't go into it too much in this vid (maybe a later video on Minesweeper I will) but I specifically first got into the game because my best friend in high school was into it. Her times were way better than mine and it spurred me toward playing more. It was only a dozen or so years after that when I started playing again. Great games have a way of finding us.
Love the dune reference!
Great video
Thanks!
You can cord with the space key as well. I find that to be faster.. Somewhat.
Used to spend hours on this game as a teenager, more than 20 years ago. If I recall correctly my record was 67 seconds on expert. First game I ever speed ran, and pretty much the only one 😄
67 is a great time! Good job!
the metaphors you give make me think you'll love kaiji
Wow! Such an underrated channel!
Thanks
This video is beautifully written.
Thank you
Honestly, why did you do this to me bro. One minute in and I knew this was gonna become my new obsession damn.
Better be careful, his sequel to this video is called "minesweeper is literally causing me health issues."
Don't mind me, just commenting to let the algorithm know it should recommend this to more people 💪
Thanks!
When I heard the Litany of Fear I was so happy :D
this, I suppose unsurprisingly, is very similarly to speedcubing in a lot of ways. it looks fun!! and so nostalgic for me, I miss computers pre installed games
so basically a Minesweeaper speedrun is playing StarCraft.
I wouldn't go *that* far, but hot damn if my years playing Starcraft didn't help me hone my mouse skills for my eventual minesweeper addiction!
Finally, after 2 months of practicing, my PB on expest is 126s. Im practicing NF(not easy at all, but, believe, it will improve). Thank you so much for impact!
That's awesome (and a good time for NF)! It makes me so happy to hear that the video was inspirationa for you
@@iamerror see u soon on sub 100(i believe) :-D
I really like this video.
Thank you!
@@iamerror You are welcome.
The entirety of the Expert chapter makes you sound like Sun Tzu
(I hope that's a good thing!)
@@iamerror It's one of the best things I've seen on a YT video talking about Minesweeper
Great
Nice video honestly
Good voice
Good montage
Thanks!
I haven't played Minesweeper in so long. I still remember my first victory on Expert Mode. After that, i kept getting better and better, and when i hit a 50/50, i would just pick one as soon as i see it. If i lose, i would have lost anyway, so why delay the inevitable. If I picked correctly, then i can continue that run.
It's been years since i last played, so i don't know what my 'record' would be, or if I'm sub-anything good, but now I'm itching to play again and see how i do.
Good luck on picking up the game again!
2:54 i have videos about "land mines" and "shore mines", but the gist is that you *always* wanna guess that the edges are safe. If there can be 1 or 2 mines, guess there is 1. Always guess there is less mines on a configuration than guess there is more.
Inb4 I didn't finish watching the video so you go over that. (i figured that out through Curtis Bright's minesweeper probability tool. cool dude)
I don't think I covered it in quite that way, but this is good advice!
@@iamerror Aw darn so you did cover it! 10/10 video!!
It's not just to reveal numbers btw, the multiplicity (thus the probability) of less mines is higher than more, purely because more than 50% of the board is NOT mines, the same can be said for every subset of this board.
In isolation, this seems wrong, but the probability of a "shore mine (mines next to numbers)" configuration is directly tied to the multiplicity of all the "land mine (mines isolated from all numbers)" configuration.
Nice job, my pb is now 98 too and I know the struggles to get there :D
(update: 90, got lucky, had a 124 3BV game)
(update: 73, took a year and one month to shave off 17 seconds from 90)
Awesome! Congrats on sub-100 ❤
@@iamerror thanks dude :D and you too! (y)
I used to speedrun it as 12 year old because I wanted to top all the leaderboards on each seperate school computer haha. I think my best beginner rounds on the tiny board were like between 2 or 3 seconds because sometimes you would luck out and get a round that wins after only 3 clicks or so.
Beginner has a lot of luck involved for sure! But it's still a fun alternative when you're burnt out of the other modes.
You put me in my minesweeper craze again. There's this mobile minesweeper port called "antimine" that I play to wind down or pass the time.
So minesweeper is basically the first speedrun-friendly rogue-like game everybody had?
Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.
A great way of putting it!
to be in the zone, you must embrace the minefield
This is one of those weird videos that starts off sounding like a tutorial video and ends up sounding like some cult indoctrination video.
I'll take that as a compliment [also, please join the cult of minesweeper]
I think it's a little bit funny that you can make such a good video with a serious tone like this. Never thought I'd see any hardcore minesweeper fans in my life, but I was proven wrong
It's definitely kind of funny. My videos tend to have this serious tone, but that's mostly just the way I write. I try to find deep meaning in the games we play (I am getting my PhD in Media Studies), but it's also a pretty humorous thing to devote so much attention to! I should probably make more jokes in my videos to lighten the tension!
@@iamerror That's awesome man! Good luck with getting your PhD and keep up the good work
You can always figure a minesweeper map out without guessing. Not for speed runs though, but you need to slow down and consider your options and how it’ll affect the squares around it and the squares around that until you get to a tautology or a contradiction meaning your initial guess was right or wrong
This is just patently untrue unless you're playing a version of the game with a "No Guessing" map. In fact, *most* maps without a no guessing mode on will require a guess at some point. Actually, a traditional minesweeper map will often require a guess... on the second click!
Go play a few rounds normal expert mode on minesweeper.online/ and come back with your findings