Breakdown · arithmetic instead of systems
Half of what is sold under "mines strategy" is click patterns and stake doubling. The first does nothing, the second makes things worse. But two decisions in this game really are yours: how many mines to set and on which tile to cash out. Below is the full multiplier table for every mine count on Mines by InOut Games, and a breakdown of how to use it.
You do not change the game's return: it equals the stated RTP at any mine count and any tile order. What you change is the spread - by choosing the mine count - and what you do with that spread - by naming an exit point in advance. Choosing a version by RTP is the third decision, and it is the only one that moves the expected result: between 98.4 and 92 lie 6.4 points on every bet.
This is the first thing to accept and the only one that needs proof. A 5x5 grid is 25 tiles. When you set 3 mines, the game picks three positions out of twenty-five and remembers them. Then it waits for a click. A click on a corner, the centre, a diagonal - to the game it is just a tile number, and under that number there is either a mine or there is not, decided before you lifted your finger.
The consequence sounds unkind: any "system" built on patterns sells you an order of reading an already finished list. Ask the seller how a pattern changes what is already under the tiles, and the conversation ends. On provably fair games this is even verifiable - the layout is locked with a key before the round, and after the round the key is shown.
What is left? Two levers. The mine count sets how long the ladder is and how steeply it climbs. The exit point sets where you step off it. Everything else is scenery.
Why this version: InOut published its payout table, and our computation matched it digit for digit on all four published rows. RTP 95, mines from 3 to 24. Columns x1-x20 are the multiplier after that many open tiles; "whole field" is every safe tile opened.
| Mines | 1st odds | x1 | x2 | x3 | x5 | x8 | x10 | x15 | x20 | Whole field | Odds to get there |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 88.0% | x1.07 | x1.23 | x1.41 | x1.91 | x3.21 | x4.80 | x18.20 | x218.5 | x2185 | 0.043% |
| 4 | 84.0% | x1.13 | x1.35 | x1.64 | x2.48 | x5.04 | x8.80 | x57.22 | x2403 | x12017 | 0.0079% |
| 5 | 80.0% | x1.18 | x1.50 | x1.91 | x3.25 | x8.15 | x16.80 | x200.2 | x50473 | x50473 | 0.0019% |
| 6 | 76.0% | x1.25 | x1.66 | x2.25 | x4.34 | x13.59 | x33.61 | x801.1 | not that many tiles | x168244 | <0.001% |
| 7 | 72.0% | x1.31 | x1.86 | x2.67 | x5.89 | x23.48 | x70.96 | x3805 | not that many tiles | x456664 | <0.001% |
| 8 | 68.0% | x1.39 | x2.09 | x3.21 | x8.15 | x42.26 | x159.6 | x22833 | not that many tiles | x1027496 | <0.001% |
| 9 | 64.0% | x1.48 | x2.37 | x3.90 | x11.55 | x79.83 | x387.7 | x194082 | not that many tiles | x1940826 | <0.001% |
| 10 | 60.0% | x1.58 | x2.71 | x4.80 | x16.80 | x159.6 | x1034 | x3105322 | not that many tiles | x3105322 | <0.001% |
| 11 | 56.0% | x1.69 | x3.13 | x6.00 | x25.21 | x342.1 | x3102 | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | x4234530 | <0.001% |
| 12 | 52.0% | x1.82 | x3.65 | x7.63 | x39.21 | x798.3 | x10857 | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | x4940284 | <0.001% |
| 13 | 48.0% | x1.97 | x4.31 | x9.93 | x63.72 | x2075 | x47050 | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | x4940284 | <0.001% |
| 14 | 44.0% | x2.15 | x5.18 | x13.24 | x109.2 | x6227 | x282302 | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | x4234530 | <0.001% |
| 15 | 40.0% | x2.37 | x6.33 | x18.20 | x200.2 | x22833 | x3105322 | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | x3105322 | <0.001% |
| 16 | 36.0% | x2.63 | x7.91 | x26.01 | x400.5 | x114166 | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | x1940826 | <0.001% |
| 17 | 32.0% | x2.96 | x10.17 | x39.01 | x901.3 | x1027496 | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | x1027496 | <0.001% |
| 18 | 28.0% | x3.39 | x13.57 | x62.42 | x2403 | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | x456664 | <0.001% |
| 19 | 24.0% | x3.95 | x18.99 | x109.2 | x8412 | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | x168244 | <0.001% |
| 20 | 20.0% | x4.74 | x28.50 | x218.5 | x50473 | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | x50473 | 0.0019% |
| 21 | 16.0% | x5.93 | x47.50 | x546.2 | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | x12017 | 0.0079% |
| 22 | 12.0% | x7.91 | x95.00 | x2185 | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | x2185 | 0.043% |
| 23 | 8.00% | x11.87 | x284.9 | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | x284.9 | 0.333% |
| 24 | 4.00% | x23.75 | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | not that many tiles | x23.75 | 4.00% |
Read the table by rows, not columns. The 3-mine row is a gentle ladder: 1.07x, 1.23x, 1.41x, 1.91x by the fifth tile, 4.80x by the tenth, and the whole field is worth 2185x at a 0.043 percent chance of getting there. The 10-mine row is steep: the first click is already 1.58x, the third 4.80x, the fifth 16.80x, the tenth 1034x. And the 24-mine row is a single step: 23.75x for a click that lands four times in a hundred.
Notice how the same multipliers repeat along the diagonal: 4.80x is both ten tiles at three mines and three tiles at ten. The chance of getting there is the same in both cases, so the price is the same. The game pays exactly for probability, and nothing else is hidden in it.
The last column is more honest than any banner. Yes, 3105322x exists - for all fifteen safe tiles at ten mines. The chance of opening them in a row is below a thousandth of a percent, and InOut's money ceiling of 20000 USD will stop the round long before. A table ceiling is not a target, it is a boundary.
Three scenarios on one and the same return. Different not in the outcome but in how it arrives.
The first click lands 88 times in a hundred, three tiles in two cases out of three. The multiplier at the third tile is 1.41x. An evening of such rounds looks even: many small cash-outs, occasionally a full-stake minus. A good mode for seeing the game, a bad one for "winning it back".
The first click lands 60 times in a hundred, so four rounds in ten you lose before deciding anything. In return the third tile is worth 4.80x and the fifth 16.80x. This is a mode for people who agreed with themselves in advance where they leave, and do not renegotiate mid-round.
Five safe tiles, the first click lands twenty times in a hundred and pays 4.74x, the second 28.50x. There is nothing left to "steer": the round either blew on the first click or paid a lot at once. It is a ticket, not a ladder, and worth treating as a ticket.
Left: a grid with two mines - many rounds, small multipliers. Right: a grid packed with mines - the round almost always ends at once, but the single gem is worth a lot.
The most workable system in mines costs nothing and sounds dull: before the round, name the tile on which you cash out, and cash out on it. Not "I will see how it goes" - the third, precisely. Or the fifth. The number does not matter; what matters is that it was named before the multiplier started climbing and the "one more" conversation began with it.
Why it works even though it does not change the return: because money in this game is lost not on the maths but at the moment when 1.91x on the fifth tile looks like small change next to 3.21x on the eighth. The gap between them is three clicks, and at three mines each one lands with a lower chance than the last. An exit point takes the decision away from the you who is already carried away and hands it to the you who was counting.
The second half of the system is the stake. One stake is one hundredth of the bankroll, and then a streak of ten losses costs a tenth of the money while the game goes on. At a tenth of the bankroll the same streak ends everything. The mine count does affect streak length: at 10 mines a first-click loss happens forty times in a hundred, and three in a row is an ordinary event, not a sign.
It takes a minute to compute, and after that minute nobody will be able to sell it to you.
The idea sounds convincing: lose, double, and the first win returns everything. The problem is how fast the stake grows. Lose once and the stake doubles, twice and it quadruples, eight times in a row and it is two hundred and fifty-six times the original. Start with a hundred and the ninth bet of the streak is twenty-five and a half thousand, which the table limit will most likely refuse.
Now the probability. Playing at 10 mines and cashing out on the second tile, you lose the round roughly two times in three: reaching the second tile happens in 35 percent of rounds. Eight such losses in a row is an event with odds of about three in a hundred - routine for an evening.
The outcome is always the same: the system turns many small wins and one enormous loss into exactly the return of ordinary play, only with a sharper ending. No sequence of stakes can change the return - rounds are independent, and that is not an opinion but a property of the generator.
Part of the decision is made before the first click - when choosing the version.
Versions of mines differ in more than artwork. Minesweeper by BGaming has a path instead of a grid, and the mine count is not adjustable at all: the player sets the path length from 3 to 15 steps and the row width from 2 to 6 tiles. 1Tap Mines has no settings whatsoever: a 5x5 grid, exactly 3 mines, a one-tap round, and the exit point is set before the round by the game itself - the only version where the system above is built into the rules. And Turbo Mines offers a 9x9 grid, 81 tiles, where the multiplier ladder runs further than anywhere else.
The practical choice is this. Need a long ladder and a big ceiling - take a big grid. Need frequency and a short round - three mines on the classic grid. Need the highest return, all else equal - look at the stated RTP and take the higher one: it is the only number that moves the result on its own, and how it works has its own breakdown with curves.
Test the table on a live grid
The BGaming and Turbo Games demos open without an account: set an exit point and run a dozen rounds for free.
None of them changes the return: it is set by the RTP and does not depend on how you click. What changes is the distribution of results. Careful play at 3 mines with an exit on the third tile gives frequent small pluses and rare big minuses; play at 20 mines with an exit on the second gives rare big pluses and frequent small minuses. Over the long run both end in the same place.
No. Each round's layout is generated afresh and knows nothing about previous rounds. The feeling that you are "due" is called the gambler's fallacy, and in games with fixed odds it is the most expensive one there is: it is what stake doubling is built on.
Corners, cross, diagonal, snake - the result is identical. Mine positions are fixed before your first click and do not depend on the order you open tiles in. A pattern only affects how fast you click and how confident you feel.
Three. With three mines a click lands 88 times in a hundred, and the round has time to show how the multiplier grows before it ends. At ten mines the round ends on the first click forty times in a hundred, and you cannot learn the shape of the game from rounds like that.
A way to prove the layout was not changed after your click. The game locks the result with a cryptographic key before the round and reveals the key after - you can verify that the mines were where they are shown. The rule cuts both ways: since the layout is fixed before the click, no pattern gets around it.
Exit point named? Then to the grid
Every version in the set is on the platform, from three mines on 5x5 to 9x9 at Turbo Games.
