How to Play Battleship
Battleship is a guessing game played on two hidden grids. You place a fleet, your opponent places theirs, and then you take turns firing at coordinates trying to sink what you cannot see.
Sink the enemy fleet before they sink yours. Good play is mostly about how you search.
Play BattleshipHow to play
- Place your ships on your grid, horizontally or vertically, without overlapping.
- Take turns firing at a square on the enemy grid.
- A shot is reported as a hit or a miss, and a ship is sunk when every one of its squares is hit.
- The first player to sink the whole enemy fleet wins.
Hunt and target
While hunting, fire in a checkerboard pattern rather than sweeping row by row. The smallest ship covers two squares, so every other square is enough to find everything, and it halves the shots you waste.
The moment you score a hit, switch to targeting: fire at the four squares around it until you find the direction the ship runs, then follow that line to the end.
Placing your own fleet
Avoid the edges and avoid clustering. Both are the first places an experienced opponent looks.
Do not leave single gaps between ships either, because once one is sunk the shape of the hole gives away the next.
Frequently asked questions
Can ships touch each other?
In this version yes, ships may sit side by side as long as they do not overlap.
What is the best Battleship strategy?
Hunt in a checkerboard pattern until you get a hit, then target around that hit to find the ship's direction and finish it.
Can you move ships once the game starts?
No. Placement is locked in once the battle begins.