Star Battle

Place stars so every row, column, and region holds exactly one — with no two stars touching.

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The rules

How to play

  1. 01

    The grid

    Star Battle is played on a square grid divided into colored regions. Each region is an irregular shape you must satisfy alongside the rows and columns.

  2. 02

    One star per row

    Place exactly one star in every row. No row may hold two stars, and none may be left empty.

  3. 03

    One star per column

    The same rule runs vertically: each column contains exactly one star, top to bottom.

  4. 04

    One star per region

    Every colored region must also hold exactly one star. Rows, columns, and regions all have to balance at once.

  5. 05

    No touching

    Stars can never be adjacent — not horizontally, not vertically, not even diagonally. Placing one clears all eight neighbouring cells.

Full guide with examples

Play smarter

Six habits of star hunters

Mark the impossible

Use the ✕ mark to block cells that can never hold a star. Eliminating options is half the puzzle.

Corner regions first

Small or tightly boxed regions often have only one or two legal cells — solve those to seed the board.

Count what remains

When a row, column, or region has a single valid cell left, that cell must be a star.

Block after placing

Every star forbids its eight neighbours. Mark them immediately to keep the board honest.

Cross-region logic

If a region's cells all sit in one row, that row's star must live inside the region — freeing the rest of the row.

Look for overlaps

Where a region hugs a single column, it constrains both — chain those deductions to break the puzzle open.

Watch & learn

Two minutes to mastery