Battleship

How to Play Battleship

Battleship is the classic game of naval hide-and-seek on two 10x10 grids. First, position your five ships - the Carrier (5 squares), Battleship (4), Cruiser (3), Submarine (3), and Destroyer (2) - anywhere on your grid, horizontally or vertically. Ships may sit side by side but can't overlap or hang off the edge. Click a square to place the selected ship, press R to rotate, or hit Random for an instant layout.

Then the shooting starts. Each turn you fire one shot at the enemy grid: a red ✕ means hit, a blue splash means miss. Land a hit on every square of a ship and it's sunk - the wreck is outlined so you can rule out the water around your search. Sink all five enemy ships before the AI (or your friend in multiplayer) sinks yours, and the ocean is yours.

Strategy Tips

• Hunt on a checkerboard - every ship is at least two squares long, so firing only at alternating squares still touches every possible ship while halving your search space.
• After a hit, probe in a line - test the four neighbors, and once you get a second hit, keep firing along that line until the ship sinks or you miss off both ends.
• Don't cluster your fleet - packing ships into one corner means a single lucky hit leads the enemy straight to the rest. Spread out, and vary edges versus center between games.
• Track what's left to find - if only the Destroyer (2) remains, gaps of a single square between misses can't hide it. Aim where the longest unsunk ship still fits.
• Use sunk ships as information - when a ship goes down you know its exact footprint. Any leftover hits nearby must belong to a different ship, so keep working that area.