Neopets Neggsweeper is a puzzle game where you have a grid of Neggs, and you need to click on all of the Neggs that aren’t explosive. Neggsweeper can earn you a trophy if you’re lucky enough to get a high score.

 

 

Strategies

 

This game can seem very complicated if you’ve never played it before, so I think pictures will be helpful. (By the way, if you’ve ever played Minesweeper… this is another version of that game.)

 

So when you’re starting a game, what you need to do is click on random Neggs in the grid, until either you lose or you reveal a large blank area. This takes some luck, so don’t be surprised if you lose a few games before even getting a good start on one.

The number that is displayed in a spot signifies the number of explosive Neggs (I call them mines) it is next to. If it’s a 1, then there is only one mine next to it. If it’s an 8, then it’s completely surrounded by mines, but you’ll almost never see those.

 

So, the best way to get started on a game once you’ve got a large area, is to find a Negg that is connected to a lot of 1’s, because it’s likely to be a mine. You can see this on the northeastern tip of the mass of Neggs in the screenshot above. You know that the left Negg is a mine, so you should click on the one directly to the right.

If that Negg turns out to be a 1, then you can click on the Negg below it, and if that’s a 1, you can click on the two below it. (NOTE: In this case, you shouldn’t click on the leftmost Negg in that row, because it isn’t connected to the 1.

Here’s what I got after using the 1’s I revealed:

 

Now, you see that there is a Negg near that spot that has a few 1’s next to it… so you know it’s a mine. You can then click on the other Neggs that those 1’s connect to.

You can also get started on the left side of that group of Neggs; you see that a corner Negg is diagonally connected to a 1, and that is proof that it’s a mine. So, you can click on the Negg to the left of it.

 

Here, I did both of those things, and removed a few more Neggs using the same principle. Unfortunately, now there aren’t any more 1’s connected to only one Negg, so we need to figure out a few more strategies.

 

One thing I notice has to do with the middle 3. We know that the two Neggs to its left are both mines, which means there’s one more next to it. I see that there’s a 1 next to it, and it’s also next to the mine (we don’t know exactly where the mine is, but it’s one of the two below the 3). The 1 is also connected to another Negg, and we can figure out that that third Negg is safe to remove.

Here’s what we get:

 

Now, the next step that I took is fairly complicated, because there aren’t any more easy ones. You see the rightmost 3? Well, because the 2 right above it is already connected to a Negg, we know that there’s only one more mine next to it. That means that the two Neggs below the 3 are both mines… and because that means the 2 on the bottom is connected to two mines, we know that the Negg above it is safe.

So after clicking the safe Negg (and another safe Negg above it, because I saw that there was a 1), and then using the strategy that was explained earlier to remove some more, we get this:

 

 

Now, we’ve gotten every Negg down at the bottom that wasn’t a mine… We need to look at the top corner now. I see that both of the sides of the four-block of Neggs have a 1… That means that either the two touching the edges are mines, or the Negg they have in common is a mine.

At this point, I would be making a guess out of those two choices, if it weren’t for one thing: the “Remaining” count. It says there are 3 safe Neggs still on the board, which you need to remove in order to win. I know that all three of those Neggs are up in this corner. If both of those things are true, then that means only one of the Neggs is a mine: the one that both 1’s are touching. So, just click on the other three Neggs, and voila:

 

 

As you can see, this is a pretty complex logic game. Once you get the hang of it, though, you’ll be able to see other strategies that you can employ to find safe Neggs, and you might think it’s fun after a while (though you’re probably only playing it to get a trophy, I’m sure).

 

Extras

 

Bonus Neggs

 

Sometimes you’ll see this happen; it’s a random occurrence when playing Neggsweeper. It just adds some points to your jackpot (making you more likely to get a trophy if you win that game). If you’re not lucky with the bonus Neggs, then you’re not going to get a trophy. Neggs can award 50, 100, 150, 300 or 500 points.

 

Cumulative Scores

 

There is a second trophy for Neggsweeper; it’s a total of all of the points that you score in your games. Your score clears if you don’t play for three months, though. If you’re dedicated enough to win thousands of games, you can get this Neggsweeper Cumulative trophy.

 

Flags

 

If you hold down the Shift key on your keyboard when clicking a Negg, it’ll place a flag (in the form of an X) on that Negg, rendering it unclickable. You can use this to remind you that a certain Negg is explosive. I personally never use them, because flagging can make your game last twice as long, but if you’re not very good at the game yet then it might be good for you. (To remove a flag, you can hold Shift and click on the Negg again.)