Fast Minesweeper players are not doing more maths than you. They are doing less. After enough boards, certain shapes stop being puzzles and start being words: you see a 1-2-1 the way you see the word "cat", without spelling it out.
This article is a vocabulary list. Each pattern is explained once, properly, so you understand why it works. Then the goal is to stop thinking about it. Learn the shape, trust the shape, tap. Everything here works on all three Funzigo boards, from the 9 by 9 warm-up to the 16 by 30 monster.
The setting: reading a frontier
Almost every pattern lives on the frontier, the border between opened squares and hidden ones. Picture a straight run of opened numbers along that border, and an unbroken line of unopened squares just past it. Each number touches the three hidden squares in front of it: the one straight ahead and the two diagonals. Numbers at the end of a run may touch fewer, because a wall or an opened square cuts them off.
Keep that picture in mind. Every rule below is about which of those hidden squares two neighbouring numbers share and which they do not.
Pattern 1: the 1-2 rule (the one that unlocks the rest)
Take a 1 sitting right next to a 2 along a flat frontier. The 2 touches three hidden squares. Two of those are also touched by the 1, and the 1 says at most one mine lives there. So the 2 must find its second mine in the one square the 1 cannot see: the hidden square diagonally beyond the 2 on the far side from the 1. That square is a mine. Flag it.
This is the most useful rule in the game, and it hides inside the famous patterns. Once you see the 1-2 rule, 1-2-1 and 1-2-2-1 are not separate things to memorise. They are the 1-2 rule applied from both ends.
Pattern 2: 1-2-1
Apply the 1-2 rule from the left 1: the square beyond the 2 on the right side is a mine. Apply it from the right 1: the square beyond the 2 on the left side is a mine. That is the 2 fully used up, so the square straight in front of the 2 is safe, and so are the outer squares in front of each 1.
Shape to burn into memory: mine, safe, mine, sitting in front of the 1, the 2 and the other 1. Mines in front of the ones, a gap in front of the two.
Pattern 3: 1-2-2-1
Same trick, longer run. From the left 1, the 1-2 rule puts a mine in front of the second 2. From the right 1, it puts a mine in front of the first 2. Each 2 now sees two mines, the one in front of itself and the one in front of its twin, so every other square in the stretch is safe, including the squares in front of both 1s.
Shape to remember: safe, mine, mine, safe. The two mines sit straight in front of the two 2s.
Pattern 4: the full number
Count a number’s hidden neighbours. If the count equals the number, every one of them is a mine. A 3 with exactly three hidden squares around it, a 2 tucked into a nook with only two hidden squares, a 1 touching a single hidden square: flag them all without a second thought.
This is where corners pay out. An opening often ends in a little notch where a number sits with the board edge on one side and opened squares on another. Those numbers have very few hidden neighbours, so they hit the full-number rule constantly. When you are stuck, scan the corners and edges of every opening first. They are the cheapest deductions on the board.
Pattern 5: the satisfied number
The mirror of the full number. If a number already has that many flags beside it, every other hidden neighbour is safe. A 2 with two flags next to it is finished, and anything else it touches can be opened.
On Funzigo this is what chording is for: tap the satisfied number and all its other neighbours open at once. The catch is that the chord believes your flags. Only chord around flags you deduced, never flags you guessed.
Pattern 6: reduction
Here is the trick that turns hard positions into easy ones. Subtract the flags a number already touches, and treat what is left as a smaller number. A 3 with one flag beside it behaves like a 2 for the remaining squares. A 2 with one flag behaves like a 1.
Why it matters: after reduction, ugly-looking runs like 2-4-2 or 2-3-2 often turn into a plain 1-2-1 among the squares that are still unknown. Strong players do this without noticing. Make it a conscious step until it becomes automatic: before staring at a number, ask how many mines it still needs, not how many it shows.
Pattern 7: the shared-square rule (1-1 and friends)
When everything one number can see is also seen by its neighbour, compare their counts. Two side-by-side 1s against a wall are the classic case: the first 1 sees two hidden squares, the second sees those two plus one more. The first 1’s mine is in the shared pair, which satisfies the second 1 as well. So the extra square is safe.
The same logic scales. If a 2 can see squares A and B, and a neighbouring 2 sees A, B and C, then C is safe. If instead the neighbour is a 3 that sees A, B and C, then C must be a mine. Whenever one number’s squares sit entirely inside another’s, subtract and the difference tells you exactly how many mines live in the leftover squares.
The endgame pattern: let the counter decide
Late in a game, the mine counter becomes a clue in its own right. Suppose the last unresolved pocket could be filled in two ways, one using a single mine and one using two, and every other square is settled. If the counter reads 1, only the single-mine layout fits, and the pocket is solved. Always check the counter before calling anything a coin flip.
Just remember the counter on Funzigo is total mines minus flags placed. It trusts you. If your flags are wrong, it is wrong.
Spot the true 50/50, and do not waste time on it
Some shapes really are luck. The common one: two hidden squares at the very edge or corner of the board, sharing one mine, with no other number touching either of them. No pattern breaks that tie. Recognise it on sight, make the tap while the rest of the board is still open, and move on. Leaving it to the very end only means a bigger loss if it goes wrong.
Drills to make the patterns automatic
- Name before you tap. On Easy, say the pattern in your head ("1-2 rule", "full number") before each deduction. If you cannot name it, you are guessing.
- Corners first. After every big opening, check its notches and edges for full numbers before anything else.
- Reduce out loud. On Medium, for each number with flags beside it, say the reduced value. It feels slow for a week, then it disappears into instinct.
- Review your losses. When you hit a mine, Funzigo marks wrong flags with a cross. Find the pattern you misread instead of just pressing restart.
- Graduate deliberately. Move to Hard only when Easy boards stop surprising you. On Hard the density goes up, and the patterns overlap more often.
Where else these patterns show up
The habit of comparing what two clues can see is not just a Minesweeper skill. Nonogram rows, Light Up bulbs and Nurikabe islands all reward the same move: find two constraints that overlap, subtract, and read off what must be true. Get fluent here and you will find those puzzles opening up faster too.