🧩 Battleship Solitaire

Battleship as a logic puzzle

Battleship Solitaire is a free logic puzzle that you play in your browser. It takes the idea of the classic Battleship game, a fleet of ships hidden on a grid, and turns it into a puzzle you solve by pure reasoning. Instead of firing shots and hoping, you get clues: a number beside every row and under every column tells you how many squares of ships are in that line. Put the clues together and you can work out exactly where every ship is.

The puzzle is also known as Bimaru or Yubotu, and it is a favourite in puzzle magazines. Here, every puzzle is generated fresh, and every one has exactly one solution, so you never need to guess.

The rules

A fleet of ships is hidden in the grid. Each ship is a straight line of squares, across or down, and the fleet list shows how many ships of each length there are. Ships never touch each other: not side by side, not end to end, and not even diagonally at the corners. The number beside each row says how many of its squares are part of a ship, and the same goes for the numbers under the columns. A few squares are filled in for you at the start, to get you going.

How to solve it

Start with the easy wins. A row or column with a 0 is all water, so mark it. A line whose number already matches the ship squares in it can have the rest marked as water too. Around every ship square, the diagonal neighbours must be water, because ships never touch at the corners. When a given square shows the end of a ship, you know which way the ship continues. Then look at the biggest ship in the fleet list: there are usually only a few places it can fit. Step by step, the grid fills in.

Marking the grid

Tap a square once to mark it as water, tap again to mark it as a ship part, and tap a third time to clear it. You can also right-click, or long press on a touchscreen, to mark water quickly. Undo takes back your last move, Check shows whether anything you have marked is wrong, and Hint fills in a square for you when you are stuck.

Four sizes and a Daily puzzle

Easy is a 6 by 6 grid with 6 ships, a gentle introduction. Medium is 8 by 8 with 10 ships, including a four-square battleship. Hard is 10 by 10 with the same 10 ships spread across a much bigger sea, so it takes more careful reasoning. And the Daily puzzle is an 8 by 8 grid that is the same for everyone in the world that day. Solve it every day to build your daily streak.

Why it is good for your brain

Battleship Solitaire is all about logical deduction: using what you know for certain to work out what must be true. It trains careful thinking, patience and planning, and the satisfaction of a grid that slowly fills in, square by square, is hard to beat. Because every puzzle has one solution, every step can be reasoned out. It is a great puzzle for older children, teenagers and adults alike.

A daily habit

The Daily puzzle is a lovely little routine: one 8 by 8 grid each day, the same for everyone, and a streak counter that grows every day you solve it. Your best time on the 8 by 8 grid is saved too, so you can try to beat it.

Play anywhere

Battleship Solitaire runs in any modern browser on computers, Chromebooks, tablets and phones, with no download and no account. Tap or click the squares. Your solved count, daily streak and best time are saved only in your own browser. See the Parents & Safety page for more.

More games like this

Prefer to fire the shots yourself? Play the classic Naval Battle against the computer or a friend, or command a warship in Warship Sea Battle 3D. For another calm puzzle, try Water Sort Puzzle. More puzzles are on our Brain & Trivia page.

Frequently asked questions