The standard efficiency metric is IOE (Index of Efficiency), defined as 3BV / total clicks. The idea is solid: compare your actual clicks against the theoretical minimum to clear the board. But the execution has a major flaw — it counts EVERY click, including:
- Accidental clicks on already-revealed cells
- Clicks on empty open areas (misclicks)
- Flag and unflag actions
None of these advance the board in any way, so why are they penalizing your score?
A cleaner formula would be:
efficiency = 3BV / meaningful clicks
Where meaningful clicks are only left clicks that reveal a new uncovered cell + chords that open at least one new cell. Everything else is ignored.
This makes the metric a pure measure of play quality, completely independent of time, flagging style, or mouse slip-ups. A no-flag speedrunner and a careful flagger could finally be compared on equal footing.
Chess has had this figured out for a while — accuracy scores evaluate move quality with zero regard for how fast you played. Minesweeper deserves the same.
The only reason IOE persists is inertia. It's been the standard forever, it's easy to implement (just increment on every click), and changing community metrics is hard when people have years of scores to compare. But that doesn't make it right.
Would love to hear if anyone has pushed for this before or if any clients already track it this way.