Battleship
About Battleship
Battleship is the hide-and-seek naval duel almost everyone played on paper or from a boxed set as a kid, and it holds up because it is pure deduction wearing the costume of luck. You place a five-ship fleet on your own ten-by-ten grid, the computer hides its own, and then you take turns calling shots into blind water — hit, miss, or the dreaded announcement that a ship has been sunk. The opening looks like guesswork and is not: because the smallest ship covers two cells, firing in a checkerboard pattern guarantees you cannot sail past anything, and it cuts the hunt roughly in half. The moment you land a hit the game changes character — you probe the four neighbours to find which way the hull runs, then walk that line until it goes down. The computer here does exactly the same, weighing where enemy ships can still fit rather than spraying, so a careless clustered fleet gets picked apart fast. Auto-place drops your ships in a tap, or arrange and rotate them yourself, and three difficulty levels take you from casual to genuinely ruthless. Free in the browser, win record saved, no sign-up.
How to play
- Place your five ships on your grid, or tap Auto-place to set the whole fleet at once.
- Take turns firing at one cell of the enemy grid — a shot is a hit or a miss.
- Hit every cell of a ship to sink it; sink all five enemy ships to win.
- Watch the enemy’s shots on your own grid and protect your remaining ships.
Strategy & tips
- Fire in a checkerboard pattern while hunting — no ship longer than one cell can hide from it, so you cover the board in half the shots.
- After a hit, fire the four cells around it to find the ship’s direction, then follow that line until it sinks.
- Spread your own ships out and avoid clustering them, so one lucky enemy hit does not reveal two ships.
- Keep count of which enemy ships are still afloat — knowing a 5-length Carrier remains tells you where it can still fit.
- Placing ships flush against the edges makes them a little harder for a probability-based opponent to find.
FAQ
How do you win at Battleship?
Be the first to sink your opponent’s entire fleet — all five ships — by hitting every cell each ship occupies.
How big is the fleet?
Five ships: a Carrier (5 cells), a Battleship (4), a Cruiser (3), a Submarine (3) and a Destroyer (2), placed on a 10×10 grid.
Does the computer play a real strategy?
Yes. On Normal and Hard it hunts with a parity pattern and, once it lands a hit, targets the surrounding cells and follows the ship’s line until it sinks — it does not fire at random.
Do I have to place my own ships?
Only if you want to. Tap Auto-place to drop the whole fleet legally in one go, or place and rotate each ship yourself.
Is it free and account-free?
Yes. Battleship plays free in your browser with no download and no sign-up. Your win record saves locally.