Battleship

Placement Strategy: Spread Out and Stay Unpredictable

Battleship is a duel of hidden fleets. Each player secretly places a fleet on a hidden grid — 8×8, 10×10 or 12×12 — chosen by the host in online rooms or by the player in local and vs-computer games. Fleets come in three presets: Small (4, 3, 3, 2), Classic (5, 4, 3, 3, 2) and Large (5, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2). You then take alternating shots, each call answered by a hit, a miss, or a sunk ship. Sink the whole fleet to win, and your placement is a signal that bad habits punish quickly.

• Never cluster your ships: once your opponent finds one ship, they keep firing around it — and a touching neighbor is found almost for free. Keep empty water between ships so one discovery stays contained.
• Avoid the classic edges-only pattern: beginners hug the outer ring and corners because it feels safe — exactly why experienced players sweep the border first. Mix your ships through the interior.
• Leave decoy gaps: leave a tempting lane where a ship looks like it belongs, then place your real ships elsewhere. Opponents will waste several shots proving your decoys empty.
• Use the cover screen in Local 2P: pass-device cover screens keep each placement secret — arrange your fleet calmly, and look away while your opponent does the same.

Probability Basics: The Center Holds the Advantage

Not every square is equally likely to hide a ship. Ships lie horizontally or vertically, so a cell near the middle touches more lines of possible placements than a corner, which can only anchor a ship in two directions. Center cells have more ways to belong to a ship, making the middle of the board the densest hunting ground.

In practice, opening volleys belong in the middle of the grid, not on the edges — when you know nothing, work inward and let the math aim.

The Parity Trick: Fire Like a Checkerboard

The most powerful habit in Battleship is firing by parity. Picture the grid as a checkerboard, where a square’s color depends on whether its row and column add up to an even or odd number. Because even the smallest ship — the 2-cell Destroyer — is two cells long, every ship must cover at least one square of each color. A full sweep of one color is guaranteed to touch every ship, roughly halving the shots you need before your first hit.

Once you hit, expand to the neighboring squares to finish that ship; once it sinks, drop back to your parity scan where you left off — that discipline is what makes the trick pay.

Reading Your Opponent's Misses

Misses are information, not dead ends. A stream of misses clustered in one region tells you your opponent believes ships live there, and the shape of their search reveals how experienced they are — an edges-first sweeper is following the beginner script, while tight shots around their own hits mean they have found something real.

In vs Computer mode, the CPU hunts the neighbors of every cell it hits, so its fire piles up around any ship it touches — one more reason your fleet should never sit in clusters. Against a human, use the map their misses draw and fire where their attention isn't.

How Online Rooms Work

Online rooms recreate the hidden-board duel over any distance, with the rules unchanged.

• The host sets the board: the host picks the grid size and fleet preset for the room, and can change them between battles. Both players always fight on the exact same setup.
• Create a room and share the invite: the host passes the invite code or link to the guest, and the battle starts automatically once both players have placed their fleets and pressed Ready to fight.
• Only hit and miss results are shared: ship positions never leave your device, so there is nothing to peek at and no way to cheat.
• Classic rules apply: alternating shots, a hit or miss after every call, and victory the moment the whole enemy fleet is sunk.
• Rematches need both players: after a battle, Play again waits until your opponent accepts too, then both fleets reset to secret placement.

Discipline Beats Luck on the Grid

Battleship rewards discipline far more than luck. Place your fleet spread out and unpredictable, hunt the center first, commit to the checkerboard scan, and treat every miss as a clue about the mind across the table. In online rooms, remember that only hits and misses are shared — the information gap is the game. Build those habits and you will sink the whole enemy fleet long before a lucky guess decides otherwise.