Mines: the math of every click
In Mines you choose how many mines to hide in a 5×5 grid and open tiles one by one: every safe tile raises the multiplier, a mine takes the stake. The chance of every move can be computed exactly.
Calculator
The formula
With m mines among 25 tiles, the chance that the first k tiles you open are all safe is the number of ways to pick k of the 25 − m safe tiles, divided by the number of ways to pick k of all 25:
P(k safe) = C(25 − m, k) ÷ C(25, k)
A game with 97% RTP pays 0.97 divided by that chance. With 3 mines and 5 tiles, for example, the chance is 49.6% and the multiplier is 1.96x. Chance times payout always comes to 0.97, whatever the number of mines or clicks.
| Mines | Tiles opened | Chance all are safe | Multiplier (97% RTP) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 96.0% | 1.01x |
| 1 | 2 | 92.0% | 1.05x |
| 1 | 3 | 88.0% | 1.10x |
| 1 | 5 | 80.0% | 1.21x |
| 1 | 10 | 60.0% | 1.62x |
| 3 | 1 | 88.0% | 1.10x |
| 3 | 2 | 77.0% | 1.26x |
| 3 | 3 | 67.0% | 1.45x |
| 3 | 5 | 49.6% | 1.96x |
| 3 | 10 | 19.8% | 4.90x |
| 5 | 1 | 80.0% | 1.21x |
| 5 | 2 | 63.3% | 1.53x |
| 5 | 3 | 49.6% | 1.96x |
| 5 | 5 | 29.2% | 3.32x |
| 5 | 10 | 5.65% | 17.16x |
| 10 | 1 | 60.0% | 1.62x |
| 10 | 2 | 35.0% | 2.77x |
| 10 | 3 | 19.8% | 4.90x |
| 10 | 5 | 5.65% | 17.16x |
| 10 | 10 | 0.09% | 1,055.84x |
There are no “safer” tiles
Mines are placed at random in every round. Corners, diagonals or “the tiles that paid last round” do not change the odds, and apps that claim to show where the mines are are scams, just like crash predictors.
What more mines change
More mines mean bigger multipliers and more frequent losses. The average cost does not change: it stays at 3% of every bet. See what that means per hour in the cost-of-play calculator.
Real multipliers may be rounded or capped by a maximum win; check the rules of the game you play.