Play Star Battle Online
Place stars so every row, column and region holds exactly two.
How to Play Star Battle
Modes: Easy · Medium · Hard · Daily
Star Battle is played on a 10×10 grid divided into ten colored regions. Place exactly two stars in every row, column and region.
Tap a cell to cycle through empty, star and block. Pre-filled stars and blocks are clues — they are locked.
Stars may never sit next to each other, even diagonally.
Solved when every row, column and region holds exactly two stars and no two stars touch.
Rules
Each row contains exactly two stars.
Each column contains exactly two stars.
Each colored region contains exactly two stars.
No two stars may be adjacent, including diagonally.
Scoring
| Solved | place every star correctly |
| Time | fastest solve wins |
History & Origins of Star Battle
Star Battle belongs to the Nikoli-style family of grid deductions that flowered in Japanese puzzle magazines from the 1980s onward. Its hook is spatial: ten irregular regions fill a square board, and the solver must place two stars in every row, every column and every region without any two stars ever touching, even at a corner.
The puzzle is a favourite because region shapes make ordinary row-and-column logic richer. Each star silently blocks all eight of its neighbours, so a single placement prunes a large patch of board at once, and reading the colored regions becomes as important as reading the lines. It is pure visual reasoning of the kind that fills newspapers and puzzle apps today.
ThinkyPlay keeps the classic 10×10 shape with ten colored regions and two stars per line, then tunes the difficulty by how many givens you receive: fourteen on Easy, nine on Medium and only five on Hard. The Daily Star Battle deals everyone the same Medium board to solve each day.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Resting two stars diagonally next to each other: the no-touch rule covers all eight surrounding cells, and the pair is flagged red the moment it appears.
- Forgetting that each region needs exactly two stars too, even after every row and column looks finished, and dropping a star across a bold region border into a zone that is already full.
- Filling a row with three stars because the extra one seems harmless, when every row, column and region is strictly limited to two.
- Blocking out a cell where a star is actually forced; treat crosses as working notes rather than commitments and clear them whenever a region tightens.
Tips & Strategy
Start in regions with few empty cells — a region of four cells with two stars forces the answer.
A star blocks its eight neighbours, so placing one often empties several cells.
If a row or column is nearly full, the remaining cells must hide its stars.
Mark empty cells with a block to narrow down where stars can go.
Use the Hint button when stuck; it reveals one cell of the solution.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Star Battle free to play?
- Yes — Star Battle on ThinkyPlay is completely free, with no download and no sign-up.
- How many stars go in each row?
- Exactly two stars in every row, every column and every colored region.
- Can two stars be next to each other?
- No — stars may not touch, even diagonally.
- Are all puzzles solvable?
- Yes — every puzzle is generated with exactly one solution, and the Hint button reveals a correct cell.
- What are the pre-placed stars and crosses at the start?
- They are givens: locked clues that are always correct. A star marks a guaranteed star and a cross marks a guaranteed empty cell. You cannot change them, and every good deduction builds outward from them.
- If the board is always 10×10, how is Hard harder?
- The difficulty changes how many givens you receive: Easy starts with fourteen, Medium with nine and Hard with only five. Fewer clues leave the regions ambiguous for longer, so the search space you must reason through grows.