How to play Battleship
Battleship pits two hidden fleets against each other on 10×10 grids. Find a ship, follow its line and sink it before your opponent finds all of yours. A hit earns another shot; a miss passes the turn.
Start a game
- Review the automatically placed fleet, shuffle it or adjust the layout.
- Confirm Ready before the 90-second setup timer expires.
- Fire at an untried square on the opposing grid.
- Continue firing after a hit; wait for your next turn after a miss.
- Sink all five opposing ships to win.
Fleet and placement
The fleet has ships of lengths 5, 4, 3, 3 and 2: 17 occupied squares in total. Each ship lies in a straight horizontal or vertical line. Diagonal ships are not allowed.
Ships cannot touch along an edge or at a corner. Leave at least one empty square between them. The game begins setup with a valid random fleet and gives you 90 seconds to confirm or adjust it. If time runs out, the game completes a valid layout automatically.
Hits, misses and sunk ships
Choose a square on your opponent’s board to fire. A hit keeps the turn with you; a miss gives the other player a shot. A ship sinks once every square it occupies has been hit, revealing its full outline.
The game ends when one entire fleet is sunk. The number of hits matters only as progress toward that goal: several hits spread across different ships do not count as sinking one.
Example: follow a hit
After a first hit, check the neighbouring squares above, below, left and right. A second hit establishes whether the ship runs horizontally or vertically. Follow that line; if you reach a miss at one end, return to the other end.
Once the ship sinks, its surrounding squares cannot hold another ship because touching is forbidden. Avoid wasting future shots there.
Search patterns and your own layout
Searching in a checkerboard pattern can find every ship, because even the shortest ship occupies two adjacent squares. When only longer ships remain, spread shots according to the shortest remaining length while checking which placements still fit.
Distribute your own ships and mix horizontal and vertical directions. No arrangement is unfindable; avoid a predictable cluster that points an opponent straight to the next ship after the first one sinks.
Strategy and useful habits
- Switch from searching to following a line after a hit.
- Track the lengths of ships still afloat.
- Use the no-touching rule to rule out squares around sunk ships.
- Review your own fleet before pressing Ready.
Common mistakes
- Placing ships so they touch at corners.
- Continuing random search after finding part of a ship.
- Firing around an already sunk ship.
- Forgetting that a hit grants another shot.
Questions and answers
Can ships be diagonal?
No. Only horizontal or vertical placement is allowed.
What happens if setup time expires?
After 90 seconds the game completes a valid random placement.
Do ranked matches affect ELO?
Yes. Ranked one-on-one Battleship matches affect its separate ELO rating.
