The Shared World: Co-op Minesweeper Online

What the Shared World is

Think of it as one giant board with no edge in any direction. Instead of each player getting a private copy, all players of a season work on the same world, one 8x8 area at a time.

The multiplayer here is cooperative and asynchronous, not versus. Nobody races you cell by cell, and there is no chat. You work on the same map at different moments, and the map keeps what everyone has done. The game calls its players pioneers.

The rules do not change. Each number counts the mines among the 8 surrounding cells, as explained in How to Play Minesweeper. What changes is that the board has company.

How to get there

The home screen has two large buttons. The top one is SOLO, your own private world. The bottom one is ONLINE, which takes you into the Shared World. It shows the current season number and the time left, for example "Season 4 · 12 days left", and between seasons it reads "New season is being prepared…".

The Shared World needs an internet connection. Offline, the game asks you to go online, and your progress is sent once the connection returns. You can play in the browser or in the mobile apps, and both connect to the same Shared World. Store links are on the app page.

How other players appear

When another player works in the same region as you, you see their cells open on your map a few seconds later. You are watching what just happened, not a live video feed.

• Names are shown near each player's activity. This is on by default.
• Other players' flags appear semi-transparent. They are shown live but are not saved into the world.
• An "N online" counter shows how many pioneers are around.
• Cells that other players open appear on your map, but they give you no rewards and do not count toward your score.

Other players can see your nickname and country in the Shared World and in the rankings. The game does not ask for a name or email address when you start, so you choose the nickname people see.

What happens when someone hits a mine

As in Solo, opening a mine explodes the area and locks it. In the Shared World that lock is private: it exists only on your screen, so one player's mistake never stops anybody else from clearing that area. Only that one area is affected, and everything else stays as it was.

Other players see something different: the mine you hit shows your avatar in grey as "Pioneer remains", a marker that an explorer fell here.

Remains, graves and being buried

When another player clears the area where you fell, your remains turn into a grave. Your area is unlocked, you get a message that the other player buried your remains, and they see "You helped bury" followed by your name. You may also get a notification on your phone.

You can get back up on your own too. If you restore the area yourself, with a free restore when one is available or by watching a short ad in the app, the remains still become a grave. Tapping any grave shows who fell, when, and who buried them.

Score, rankings and seasons

Your score is the number of areas you cleared minus 10 for each area that is currently locked, so restoring a locked area removes its penalty. The leaderboard can be filtered by All Time, Today, This Week, Personal and Country, and it has a separate Season tab. No rewards are promised for any rank.

Each season has its own world. The design default is 14 days, and the ONLINE button always shows the real time left. When a season ends, its map becomes view only and a new world with a new seed starts. Past worlds cannot be revisited.

A Season Records screen keeps the history of each finished season: areas cleared, how many players took part, continents discovered, who named them, the final top 100 and a picture of the map.

Continents and naming

The Shared World starts from Origin Land. As the total number of cleared areas grows, new continents emerge, placed away from the origin and from other continents. The milestones grow along with the world, and a banner announces "A new continent has emerged!"

Any player can name a continent that has no name yet. The first name sticks, and only that player can rename it later. The game shows "Discovered by" and "Named by" separately, so the player who found a continent and the player who named it can both get credit.

For the terrain you will see while exploring, see Worlds and Terrains.

Gates to other worlds

Some versions of the game add personal gates. After you clear 10 areas, and then every 20 more, a gate may appear with the message "A gate to another world has appeared". If you open it and confirm, your map is recolored as a Mars, Cyberpunk or Ink Wash parallel world.

This changes colors only. It is not a separate map, and you stay in the same Shared World. A Worlds button switches between color versions, and Original brings back the normal look. You can find up to three per season, and found worlds reset each season. Gates may not be in the version you have, so check your app.

Playing with friends and other pioneers

The Shared World has no chat or friends list. Everyone who plays the season is in the same world, so playing with friends means agreeing to open the game in the same season and work near each other. You will see their names near their activity and their cells appearing on your map.

• Do not treat another player's flag as proof. Others' flags are shown live, are not saved, and can be placed by mistake. For example, if a flag sits next to a 1 whose count is already explained by a different forced mine, the flag is wrong. Check the numbers yourself before you chord, because a chord around a wrong flag opens a mine; see Flags and Chording.
• Do not count on a safe first click. In the Shared World first-click safety is off, so start from numbers already on the map and work outward using Minesweeper Patterns.
• Expect unfinished areas. Someone may have opened half an area before you arrive, so read the existing numbers instead of assuming a plan.
• If a real 50/50 shows up, move to another area and come back. Another player's progress next to it may give you the number you need. The no-guessing guide explains how to postpone guesses.
• Pick a nickname you are happy for strangers to read. It appears near your moves and in the rankings.

A mine hit is part of the game. Restore the area, or let the next pioneer bury you. The grave then carries your name as a warning for the next explorer.