Minesweeper has a very basic gameplay style. In its original form, mines are scattered throughout a board. This board is divided into cells, which have three states: uncovered, covered and flagged. A covered cell is blank and clickable, while an uncovered cell is exposed, either containing a number (the mines adjacent to it), or a mine. When a cell is uncovered by a player click, and if it bears a mine, the game ends. A flagged cell is similar to a covered one, in the way that mines are not triggered when a cell is flagged, and it is impossible to lose through the action of flagging a cell. However, flagging a cell implies that a player thinks there is a mine underneath, which causes the game to deduct an available mine from the display.

In order to win the game, players must logically deduce where mines exist through the use of the numbers given by uncovered cells. To win, all non-mine cells must be uncovered. At this stage, the timer is stopped. Commonly all mine cells are also flagged, but this is not required.

When a player left-clicks on a cell, the game will uncover it. If there are no mines adjacent to that particular cell, the mine will display a blank tile or a "0", and all adjacent cells will automatically be uncovered. Right-clicking on a cell will flag it, causing a flag to appear on it. Note that flagged cells are still covered, and a player can click on it to uncover it, like a normal covered cell.