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!
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
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!
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."
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 😌
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
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
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!
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
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
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 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.
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
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:)
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 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!
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 😄
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!
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 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.
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
I've got to admit, when I saw this in my recommended, I thought "oh this is just RU-vid being RU-vid, 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.
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 ;)
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
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!
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!
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)
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.
Your major issue in this video preventing you from faster times is simply clicking efficiency. You see a spot that you can open, and you click it open. You need to do 2 things simultaneously: slow down to get out of your panic mode thinking, using that time to look several moves ahead. Your goal should be to reduce your total number of clicks by marking the minimal amount of bombs, and selecting the best places to chord near your mouse pointer to open the maximum number of squares per chord click. Once you get more efficient in your clicking, your spasmodic mouse movements will smooth out and become a lot faster by not backtracking nearly as much. Spend a few games first visualizing where the bombs are, and plan a mouse route to open the squares in the most efficient way. Trying get faster by increasing your clicks per second is a fool's errand. That's very hard to increase. Some ways you can try though is by fiddling with game board scaling and mouse movement settings. Don't expect miracles here though. Your problem is efficiency not speed. You should be able to lower your PB by some 15-20 seconds over the time in this video. Good luck.
Haha fam, I made this video 2.5 years ago before I discovered minesweeper.online which taught me a lot more (and I did lower my time by like 30 seconds from here). Don't play anymore due to wrist issues, but yeah, efficiency is super important.
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.
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.
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)
@@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.
Had no idea what a chord was. Played minesweeper casually as a kid because Windows but never knew I could right and left click. Apparently middle click also works. The more you know...
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
I play on mobile, where you have to long press to mark mines. I quickly realized i can go much faster without marking any mines... pretty much the only time i mark them now is if there is a region at the end that requires me to know the number of mines remaining to get it correct.
When I play on mobile (which is not super often), I pretty much do the same. It's a lot faster only when you've got a mouse and right/left click is essentially the same amount of effort.
I first learned how to play minesweeper only a month ago and today I finally got under 2 minutes, it’s on an app version tho so I don’t know if playing it on mobile makes it any easier or not, besides the fact it’s easy to zoom in, but either way I am proud of myself Edit: I forgot to mention, I play the 99 mine mode
