So what tricks do you have for improving your times?

I neither understand your hint nor can I really believe that any of those 3 seconds are real. There are 54 squares to open - in 3 seconds means 18 squares per second  ???

To repeat to the general topic: The best tricks are practising and memorizing patterns...

Hi Stephan,Hi guys!
I think my beg(2s) and int(34s) times are decent,but for some reason my exp(190) is really poor
Can anyone help me with some tips or the only way to improve my times is practising and memorizing patterns... 

Yes, i have developed a new Intermediate strategy.  
The idea came up last weekend, after checked out my 16.50s to see if it would be possible to achieve 15s.  
My conclusion was, YES, it is possible. But only if i don't flag at all!!!!!!
The results couldn't be more brilliant:
1x14s (14.09);
7x15s (15.03, 15.20, 15.31, 15.53, 15.68 and 2x15.76);
12x16s
Man, my Intermediate scores dropped more than 25%.
And there is room to improvement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hexx Intermediate strategy

If you are an absolute beginner, go practice for a couple of weeks in order to improve pattern recognition and sweeping skills.
Those who have some Intermediate experience can and should adopt this strategy. However i must warn you that non-flagging and fast sweeping at the same time is not an easy task, only top sweepers can perform it successfully.

- Non-flagged.
Never flag.  
I used to face flagging as an investment. Present day, i'm absolutely sure that is time wasting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don't forget that all is needed is to sweep 36 unmined boxes, which means 36 clicks in the worst possible scenario. Fortunately many unmined boxes are placed together so 24/26 clicks is the usual and a very easy grid can be finished in less than 20 clicks. (17 on my 14.09)
 
Sweep edges.
Place mouse cursor at right bottom corner and sweep all edges counterclockwisely.
TIPS:
1- At this stage, guessing is the rule to follow and use it to change non-easy to perfect patterns*. Every time you have to guess do it always after the first mined block. (see screenshot green ovals and the magnificent 15.31s example)
2- Avoid thinking.
   
Sweep rows horizontally.
Start at lower rows using left-right sweeping in order to finish the puzzle at the top of the grid.
The main goal at this stage is to find out where easy patterns and large unmined blocks** are. (see screenshot red ovals)
TIPS:
1- Use row edges to extract information.  
1.1. Mined row edges.
1.1.1. Edge mined in a row with 1 mined block. ( e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
What can be easier than this situation, just sweep the large unmined block.
(see Stephan's 19s screenshot, it is an extraordinary example and the easiest Intermediate board i've ever seen!!!!)
1.1.2. Both edges mined in a row with 2 mined blocks. (e.g. 1-2, 2-3, 4-1, etc...)
Another easy pattern, just sweep in between mined blocks.
1.2. Swept row edges.
1.2.1.  1 edge swept in a row.  
The patterns 7-1, 6-2, 5-3, 5-1-1, 4-2-1, 3-3-1, 3-2- 2, 3-1-1-1, 2-2-1-1 and 1-1-1-1-1 become perfect* under this circumstances. (It happens many times)  
1.2.2. Both edges swept in a row.
The patterns 6-1, 5-2, 4-3, 4-1-1, 3-2-1, 2-2-2 and 2-1-1-1 also become perfect*. (It happens some times)
2- Think, but not that much because the clock is ticking.
3- If you face a difficult pattern use vertical large mined blocks to guide sweeping. (see screenshot yellow ovals)
4- Avoid vertically and "swinging"/random sweeping.
5- Keep a regular sweeping pace. Never stop, if necessary use guessing as your last option.
6- Never go back. The field left behind should be clean.



Pattern recognition - Learn as many patterns as you can. They allow you to finish more games in less time.  
Sweeping skills - If you want to manage very fast time solving, improve your sweeping skills by reducing the number of mouse left-clicks. All you have to do is to keep left button down when you sweep an unmied block.  
Grid visualization - Never see all grid at the same time. Focus your attention on a small part of the board.  
Ignore column numbers - If you reach at step 2 successfully in an easy grid, usually the clues given by row numbers are enough to solve the puzzle.


Perfect patterns*- When you know where all mines are.
Large unmined blocks** - At least with 5 boxes.


If a picture's worth a thousand words, then a video must be worth one million!
15.68sec video link (note: click mouse right button and choose save target as....)
http://www.free-webspace.biz/nonosw/1568.avi
CODEC link
http://www.getafile.com/cgi-bin/merlot/get/techsmith/tscc/TSCC.exe


If you want a Word version of this post click in the next link:
(note: click mouse right button and choose save destiny as....) :
http://www.free-webspace.biz/nonosw/HexxIntermediatestrategy.doc



         

   

Hi Roland, hi all

yes, I achieved four 17 (best 17,11) and I missed because of the mouse a 16.
But I don't think I would go under 16

It seems that my notion of playing intermediate without flags wasn't a bad idea after all. A good job to come up with that solving procedure, hexx. Maybe I should try this next time on intermediate.

where is Jon's post?

@Luca: I've been a little lazy, and haven't upgraded my Pro-version yet. I think I'll soon be ready to participate. I'm working on it