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Comment by _9ptr | Hacker News Reader

In minesweeper online there's also a "no guessing" mode which, in my opinion, is much more interesting than the normal mode. It means that if you guess in a situation where you could have deduced the mines, you always get a mine. Conversely, if you really are in a guessing situation, you will never get a mine. I'm pretty sure the game calculates the unknown part of the map after each click anew.

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I thought no guessing mode means the map is generated in such way that guessing is not needed to solve the whole board? (To those who didn't know the mode, it also forces you a starting point)

As an experiment, I tried clicking on a random position after clicking the starting point. And it is possible to that the position is safe. So I don't think the map in no guessing mode is dynamic.

Also in the help section: "In this mode, a starting position is provided, and you never need to guess to complete the board."

How would the game know you are guessing?

By considering the bomb location notations you have made on the board.

Are they all valid, and do they prove that the location you're clicking on is empty? Then you're not guessing.

Are they invalid, or do they not prove that the location is empty? Then you're making a guess that should fail.

Are they valid, comprehensive (there are no more bombs you could mark), and prove that all you have left are random choices? Then clicking is you indicating that you've found all there is to find for now, not a "guess".

I never use the bomb notations and I have not noticed this behaviour. I wonder if that is why?

Anyway, with the no guessing mode i get more consistent times, and it's more fun/less frustrating. But I get faster times without it, just far more variance.

I think the only guessing situation in the game is the starting point (first click). after that, everything can be solved by deduction.

That's not the case. I have come to such situations. And I suppose the program can identify those as well and put the bomb where you didn't click.

I've played that one a lot (hundreds of games on Evil difficulty). So far there's no guessing required after the initial click. Everything can be deducted. Even though some deductions are really hard (you have to go through mine blocks from multiple starting points and multiple hops in order to determine the next safe block).

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