Most casino games hide the danger behind spinning reels or a dealer’s fixed smile. mines puts it right there on the board, in plain sight, and then dares you to keep picking. Hacksaw’s take on the old bomb-sweeper format strips the whole thing down to a single decision repeated over and over: take the money, or take one more step.
The board is the whole game
No free spins, no bonus wheel, no cinematic intro you’ll skip after the third time. You get a grid – anywhere from a tight 3×3 up to a 9×9 mega board – and a number of mines buried somewhere inside it. Click a space. Diamond, and your win value climbs. Mine, and the round is over and everything you’d built evaporates. That’s the entire architecture.
Before each round you choose the grid size and the mine count yourself, from one lonely mine up to eighty, and the paytable reshuffles to match. The house edge sits at 94% RTP, with a headline max win of 10,000x your bet for the brave or the reckless.
How a round runs
- Set your bet, then choose the grid size and how many mines to bury.
- Pick spaces. Every diamond raises the current win value and buys you another pick.
- Hit a mine and the round dies, taking the whole balance with it.
- Cash out after any diamond to bank the win and walk away.
Risk is the only dial that matters
Everything else is decoration. The mine count is the lever that sets your payout per diamond, and it’s brutally honest about it – pile on the mines and the prizes get fat while your margin for error gets razor thin.
- More mines means a bigger payout per diamond and a shorter life expectancy.
- Larger grids stretch a round out, giving you more picks before the maths catches up.
- Nothing locks in – grid and mine count reset every single round.
What the setups feel like
| Setup | Mines on the board | What it feels like |
|---|---|---|
| 3×3 grid | 1 | Almost gentle. Small picks, small wins, low drama. |
| 5×5 grid | 3-5 | The default rhythm – tense but survivable |
| 7×7 grid | 10 or more | Long odds, and longer odds on cashing out |
| 9×9 grid | Up to 80 | Lottery territory with a cash-out button |
It’s built for a phone
Portrait or landscape, the whole thing stays on screen – grid, mine customisation, paytable, bet controls. No pinching, no scrolling to find the cash-out button while your hands are sweating. That matters more than it sounds, because hesitation is where this game eats people.
What to actually do
Decide your exit before your first pick, not after your third diamond. Pick a target – two or three safe spaces, cash out, repeat – and treat the mine count as a stake you’re willing to lose rather than a puzzle you’re going to solve. The grid never gets easier. The only thing you control is when you stop.