TruthScape.com - Using Playing Field Numbers to Deduce Seed Locations and Explore the Field

Every number on the Vinesweeper playing field is a piece of information for you about the location of seeds in its vicinity: it tells you how many of the eight spaces surrounding that space have seeds in them. I introduced this concept when I talked about digging, and mentioned that these numbers are like puzzle pieces. Just like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, one piece is useless by itself, but when you have many of them, they can be used together to solve the puzzle.

I will now do my best to illustrate to you, step by step, how to use those funky numbers to figure out where seeds are—and aren’t—in the playing field. This isn’t easy to do in words, but I’ll try my best, and hopefully the result will help at least a little bit. J I’ll also use plenty of examples, which may make things easier too.

Note that this discussion will set the stage for our look at field patterns later in the section.

Let’s start with an example showing how only a few numbers don’t tell you much. Suppose I dig a hole in a fresh part of the field and find a “1”. This gives me one piece of information: there are eight undug holes around that number, of which one has a seed and seven do not. Okay, great, but how do I know which of the eight has the seed? Simply put, I don’t.

Now, say I decide to dig the hole immediately south of the first one, and reveal a “2”. Now I have eliminated one of the possible places that the seed could have been near the original hole: there are now one with a seed and six without. Furthermore, I also know something about the hole where the “2” is: it has a “1” to the north of it and seven undug neighbors, of which two have seeds and five do not.

As you can see, there’s a synergy in digging multiple holes that are near each other. Each new number you reveal tells you something about the spaces you dug previously, while the older revealed numbers help you interpret the new ones you reveal as well.

Now, let’s say that I decide to dig the hole just to the west of the original one. This time, I hit an empty space, and the game opens up a small area to the west of my first two squares; it also reveals a “1” just north of my first hole and another “1” to the south of the “2”. This setup is shown in Figure 301

**Figure 301: Example Field Scenario**
In this example I have dug three holes to reveal a “1”, a “2” and “1” between an empty area and a line of undug holes. We can deduce the location of two seeds using this information.

Now I’ve been given a lot of information! Instead of my original “1” having six spaces around it with no seed and one without, it only has two spaces without a seed and one without—four of the spaces have been eliminated as possibilities because they are either empty spaces (zeroes) or have a “1”.

The “2” we revealed in the second dig has likewise had some of its possibilities removed. It now has a “1” both north and south of it and empty spaces to the west. There are only three holes left—to the northeast, east and southeast—of which two must have seeds.

The “1” south of the “2” has five undug holes next to it. But two of those touch an empty space, and as we’ve previously discussed, an empty space is a zero and no hole next to a zero can have a seed. Thus, it is in the same situation as our original “1”: three places to the northeast, east and southeast contain one seed and two non-seeds. I’ve illustrated this information in Figure 302

**Figure 302: Possible Seed Locations For Example Scenario**
This image is the same as Figure 301, except I’ve added some colored dots to show possible seed locations. Green dots show the possible locations of the two seeds adjacent to the “2”; purple dots show the possible locations of the seed that touches the “1” north of the “2”; and blue dots show where the seed touching the “1” south of the “2” must be. The last two holes near the “1” are touching empty space, so they cannot have seeds in them.

In the example above, we know a fair bit about three spots on the field. Three holes remain next to the “2”, of which two have seeds and one does not. There’s a “1” both north and south of the “2”, and each of those has three holes that has one seed and two non-seed spots. Yet we don’t know which of the holes has a seed and which doesn’t—or do we? It turns out that, in fact, we do, as long as we combine what we know about all three numbers.

Let’s start with the “2”, and consider the holes northeast and east of it. The first thing we know is that there cannot be seeds in both of these holes. Why? Well, these two holes are also adjacent to the “1” just north of the “2”, and if they both had seeds, that “1” would be a “2”! So… one of these must not be a seed. Since there is only one hole left near the “2”—the one southeast of it—that must be a seed.

Now, remember that there’s also a “1” south of the “2”, and we’ve just said that the hole southeast of the “2” has a seed. This hole is east of that “1”, which means the holes northeast and southeast of the “1” must be safe to dig. Of course, the hole northeast of that “1” is immediately east of the “2”, so now we have figured out two of the three spots near the “2”.

This leaves only one hole left unsolved near the “2”: the one northeast of it, which is just east of the initial “1” we started out with. This hole must also have a seed, because we’ve already found that there’s one seed in two of the other three holes near the “2”.

You can see how this works graphically in Figure 302. Look at the three holes next to the “2” (the ones with green spots). You can see that the upper two also have purple spots and the lower two also have blue spots. There cannot be seeds in two places with purple or two with blue, so it must be the middle one that is empty.

Voila: we have figured out where the two seeds are. In fact, this sort of “1-2-1” pattern always solves with the seeds next to the “1”s and a non-seed next to the “2”s, as we’ll see.

As we just saw, using numbers to find seeds is largely about eliminating possibilities. Once we are sure of which holes must have seeds, we can use the numbers to tell us which cannot have them, or vice-versa. Another way to help this process along is to make use of the edges of the playing field: any hole dug along an edge starts out with just five neighbors instead of the usual eight, which makes things go along faster.

Consider Figure 303. I came to this area with the field completely undug and just dug up a hole in the space where I’m standing; it was an empty, and caused all of the numbers you see to be revealed. Just to my east is a “1”, and it only has two undug holes next to it; there cannot be any seeds to its northwest, north or northeast because that’s outside the playing field. This makes it easy to figure out where a seed is nearby. (There’s also another obvious seed near the three “1”s, but I’m ignoring that for the moment.)

**Figure 303: Edges Can Make Seed Identification Easier**
Working near an edge eliminates certain possibilites. Here, the lowest hole with the green spot must be a seed, because the upper two both border the “1” and so cannot both have seeds.

The only holes near that “1” are east and southeast of it, but both of these are also adjacent to the northernmost “2”. They cannot both have seeds, so the third hole adjacent to the “2” must have a seed. Thus, I can flag that immediately, without needing to dig anything else at all.

The same reasoning we used to figure out the “1-2-1” pattern earlier can be applied to more complicated situations. For example, consider the setup in Figure 304; as you can see, there’s a “3” to my southwest that has five holes next to it—three seeds and two empties. Most players find these bigger numbers harder to figure out, yet there’s already enough information on the board for me to figure out which of the five have the three seeds.

**Figure 304: More Complex, but not Too Complex to Figure Out**
The holes highlighted in green are the only ones touching the “2” just south of me; they must both have seeds. The hole in blue is the only one touching the “1” northwest of me. These all touch the “3” as well, so the other two holes cannot have seeds in them and are safe to dig.

First, look at the “2” to my south. You can see that it only has two holes adjacent to it. Obviously, then, they both must have seeds, so I can mentally mark those as two of the five neighbors of the “3” that contain seeds.

Next, look at the “1” to my northwest. It is surrounded by five blank spaces, a “1” and a “2”, leaving just one hole. That also must have a seed, and it is a neighbor of the “3” as well. So that’s the third seed near the “3”; the holes west and southwest of the “3” cannot contain seeds.

And that’s pretty much all there is to it. As you practice, you will get better and better at this, and pretty soon it will come to you naturally. And note that this is done without using the “Inspect” option at all—it’s simply not necessary most of the time.

In many situations, you may find that you cannot identify all of the seed locations in a particular area, but you can figure out some of them. In Minesweeper this would be a problem, but in Vinesweeper, it’s perfectly fine—remember, you’re not trying to solve the entire board! Again, you do this simply by analyzing the position of numbers and holes on the board, and eliminating whatever possibilities you can.

You can see a good example of how to do this in Figure 305, which has an intimidating-looking “4” in its center. Bigger numbers can be hard to figure out, but in this case it actually helps us. There are only five holes near the “4”, so all but one must have a seed. But, look just south of the “4”: there’s a “1” there, and it shares two of the five holes near the “4”. Even though we don’t know which of these has the seed, we do know that since one out of those two has a seed, all three of the remaining holes adjacent to the “4” have them also. They can all be flagged without any additional work.

**Figure 305: Three Out of Four Ain’t Bad**
Figuring out all four of the seed locations near this “4” would be difficult, but three of them are obvious once you look at it closely.

Whether this is worth doing or not is a matter of personal style. But if you do want to play this way, here’s how to do it. I’ll use a continuation of the same example shown in Figure 304. In that example, you’ll recall that I figured out where the seeds were surrounding a floating “3”, leaving two holes that could not be seeds. In the left frame of Figure 306 I have dug up these two holes, revealing another “3” (I’m standing on it) and a “1”.

Well, just as we can use numbers and empty spaces to identify where seeds must be in the playing field, we can also use our knowledge of where the seeds are to help us figure out where it’s safe to continue digging. Digging more then turns up more numbers, which lets us find more seeds, and so on. This repeated sequence of digging allows you to potentially locate all the seeds in a particular region.

This “1” may not seem that big a deal, but it is actually a surprisingly useful little fella. At the time that I dug it up, it had a “3” north of it and a “3” northeast of it, and seven undug holes around it. However, remember that we already know that the hole east of that “1” has a seed in it! This means none of the other five holes surrounding that “1” have seeds, and we can dig them all to learn more about this part of the map. The right frame of Figure 306 shows the results of digging up those five holes.

**Figure 306: Exploring the Field Using Known Seed Locations**
We already know where the seed touching the “1” to my south is, so the other five holes are safe to dig.

As you can see, being able to dig all around that “1” let me open up a lot of the board. The extra numbers and spaces revealed allow me to figure out more seed locations: for example, there are two seeds adjacent to the “2” that’s southwest of the “1”. Then that lets me dig more spaces, and so on.

I could have kept going, except some other player showed up and ruined all of my work (a common problem when you try to dig out large areas, unfortunately). A similar example of a large, fairly complex, fully-explored area can be seen in Figure 307.

**Figure 307: A Large Area with Seeds Identified**
This image shows the results of my opening up a decent-sized area and locating the positions of at least a dozen seeds.

TruthScape Minigame Secrets - Vinesweeper - Using Field Numbers and Field Patterns to Find Seeds

Recognizing and Exploiting Simple Field Patterns

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Last Update: May 28, 2008

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