Now that you know how to spot mines in an area that has been auto cleared and flag them accordingly, the next step is to move to adjacent numbers and use complete determinism to clear and flag additional cells.

The following example expands upon Figure 6, "One on the Corner". Study Figure 10(a) carefully. In particular, examine the blue "1" to the left of the corner "1" we studied in Figure 6. This "1" has a mine flagged directly above it. Since we already know where in this "1"s neighborhood the mine is, that tells us that any remaining cells do not contain mines. See Figure 10(b). The covered cell above and to the left of this "1" can be safely cleared, as shown in Figure 10(c).

Figure 10
(a) Examine the blue "1" left of the corner "1". Its mine has been flagged. (b) The pink area highlights the blue "1" and its neighborhood. (c) The appropriate cell has been safely cleared. The highlighted numbers are also now completely determined. Can you see which cell can be flagged and which cell can be cleared?

You should practice using complete determinism with Beginner and Intermediate levels. The more you play, the more you will be able to quickly see these situations and mark them without having to count neighboring cells.

The complete determinism technique is almost always sufficient to solve the Beginner and Intermediate levels. There are situations that occur, however, which cannot be solved using complete determinism. At this point, you are left with guessing until you create another situation in which complete determinism can be used.

Expert level, however, can only very rarely be solved using only complete determinism. How then, can such great times be achieved with Expert level? The answer lies with Partial Determinism!

At this point, we will discuss quick clearing before moving on to partial determinism. Quick clearing can be used to speed the process of clearing cells that do not contain mines, and is an essential tool for bringing down your scores.

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