Star battle

This star battle game gives you a fresh puzzle whenever you want one, plus a puzzle of the day at each level that is the same for everyone. Every grid comes from our own generator and is checked by the star battle solver before you see it, so it has exactly one solution and can be finished by reasoning, never by guessing.

How to play star battle

The square grid is cut into colored regions, as many regions as there are rows. Place stars so that:

• every row and every column holds the same number of stars (one on easy and medium, two on hard);
• every region holds that number too;
• no two stars touch, not side by side and not at a corner.

Tap a cell once to put a dot in it, which means "no star here", and tap again for a star. A right click or a long press places a star straight away, and dragging across cells dots them all at once. Stars that break a rule, such as two touching stars or a region with too many, get red stripes right away, so you only need Check for mistakes the rules cannot show.

The three levels

Easy is a 6 by 6 grid with one star per row, column and region. Our solver finishes it with the basic rules alone: stars clear their neighbors, full lines clear their other cells, and a line with as many open cells as missing stars fills them. Medium is 8 by 8 with one star, and may also need a trial step: suppose a star sits in a cell and see whether some region runs out of room. Hard is the classic 10 by 10 grid with two stars in every row, column and region. Medium and hard come from a bank of puzzles that were made the same way and checked to have one answer.

Strategy tips

• Start with the smallest region. A region of two or three cells has very few places for its star, and the cells around all of them often lose their star for good.
• When a region lies inside one row or column, that line's star belongs to the region, so dot the rest of the line.
• Count across neighboring lines: if two regions fit entirely inside two rows, those two rows have no stars left for any other region.
• In two-star grids, split a pair of rows into 2 by 2 blocks. Each block holds at most one star, which often pins down where the four stars of the pair can go.
• Dot generously. Most of a solve is ruling cells out, and dots make the stars obvious.

Hints, checks and your times

Hint gives the next logical step and says why, the same deductions the solver page shows, and highlights the cells it uses. If an entry is wrong, Hint removes it first. Check marks entries that do not match the solution; tick Show mistakes to see them as you play. Times are kept per level in this browser: games, best time, average, and your streak of days on which you solved the puzzle of the day. Challenge a friend copies a link with the exact puzzle, and your time once you have solved it.

If you are stuck on a star battle from a book or an app, paint its regions into the star battle solver to see each deduction explained. For more logic grids with the same no-guessing feel, try binairo, where rows balance 0s and 1s, or nonograms, where number clues paint a picture.

Solver tested 6 October 2026. Found a problem? Tell us.

Questions