Free online game
Play Battleship online free with a friend or computer
Play classic Battleship online without downloads or mandatory registration. Invite a friend with a code or start immediately against the computer.
How to play
Place your five ships on the 10×10 sea, then take turns firing at your opponent’s cells. Find every occupied cell and sink the entire enemy fleet before your own ships are destroyed.
Tips for winning
Spread out your opening shots instead of clearing one small area. After a hit, check neighboring cells to identify the direction of the ship and finish it efficiently.
Battleship strategy: how to search and hide ships
There is no perfect opening shot because the enemy fleet is hidden. Strong players still do not click randomly: each shot gathers information, and the search pattern reduces how many cells must be checked.
Know the fleet and the board
Five ships of different lengths are placed on a 10×10 board. Longer shapes are easier to find, so an opening pattern should intersect likely positions of the largest ships still afloat. As ships sink, use the remaining lengths to eliminate areas where no valid shape can fit.
Make your placement hard to read
Do not put every ship on an edge or cluster all of them in the center. Mix locations and orientations so one hit reveals as little as possible. TableDuel allows connected, non-branching ship shapes, so your fleet does not have to consist only of straight lines.
Use a search pattern instead of random shots
During the opening, leave gaps between shots and cover the board evenly. If the smallest remaining ship has two cells, a checkerboard-style search is often more efficient than testing adjacent cells in sequence. Recalculate which empty regions can still hold the remaining shapes.
Switch from search to investigation after a hit
A hit is valuable because it narrows the next useful shots. Check directly connected cells and update the ship’s possible continuation after every new result. Do not begin searching a distant area until the nearby possibilities have been resolved or ruled out.
Common Battleship mistakes
Clearing a large empty region cell by cell, assuming a direction too early, and repeating the same placement across matches all waste information. Separate confirmed facts—hit, miss, sunk ship—from intuition before selecting the next target.
Frequently asked questions
Is the game free?
Yes. You can play free directly in your browser.
Can I play with a friend?
Yes. Start a game, then send the generated invite link or code to the other player.
Do I need to register?
No. You can play immediately as a guest; registration is only needed to keep your match history.
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