Choose each next ship cell by cross-checking the row and column clues, then confirm that it becomes part of a straight fleet of length 1, 2, or 3 without touching another ship. The fixed five-by-five board provides enough information for a deduction-based route rather than a guessing game.
Open the Battleships Puzzle and focus on one question at a time: which remaining cell can satisfy a clue while preserving the fleet’s shape, spacing, and exact size?
Read the clue totals before choosing a cell
Each row and column clue is an exact count of occupied ship cells, not a count of separate vessels. A clue of 2 means that the line contains two ship segments; it does not initially reveal how those segments belong to the fleet. On this board, the second row and fourth column both have a clue of 0, so every cell in either line must remain water.
Eliminate those impossible cells before examining other candidates. Then look for intersections between row and column totals that still need occupied cells. Such an intersection can shorten your list, but it is not automatically a valid placement: fleet shape and the no-touch rule must also pass.
| Clue set | Line 1 | Line 2 | Line 3 | Line 4 | Line 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rows, top to bottom | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Columns, left to right | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
Read the top row’s 3 as three occupied cells rather than immediate proof of a cruiser. Likewise, the fifth column’s total of 2 does not identify a destroyer until its connected shape is checked. Use clue intersections to create candidates, then test each candidate against the fleet rules in a consistent order.
Choose your next cell with this checklist
- Pick an unfinished line. Start with a row or column whose clue has not yet been met. A zero line gives you useful exclusions, but another line with cells still to place gives you a more focused place to begin.
- Cross it with another constraint. Compare the line with its perpendicular row or column. Intersections often narrow the field quickly, although a valid cell does not have to satisfy both totals at once. Its placement must still leave a possible completion for every other line.
- Check the connected shape. If the candidate touches an occupied cell along an edge, see whether the resulting group remains horizontal or vertical. A perpendicular connection creates a bent ship, which is invalid. An isolated candidate may start a new ship or form the one-cell submarine, depending on the final fleet.
- Check separation from other ships. Reject a candidate that touches a different connected group along an edge or a corner. The same ship may continue in a straight line, but separate ships may not touch even diagonally.
- Protect the totals and fleet size. Do not let a row or column exceed its printed clue, and do not add more than six occupied cells. The finished fleet must be exactly one length-1 ship, one length-2 ship, and one length-3 ship—not merely six occupied cells.
- Enter only the segment you have justified. Move around the board with the arrow keys and press Space to add or remove a ship segment. Mouse and touch users can click to toggle a segment. Press Enter on an unoccupied cell to place or remove an optional water mark; pointer users can use the context-menu gesture instead.
- Revalidate and update your candidates. The board recalculates connected components after each ship action. If the current arrangement produces a contradiction, remove the suspect segment with Space and reconsider it. Continue until all five row clues and all five column clues match and the component lengths are exactly 1, 2, and 3.
Why a clue-matching cell can still be wrong
The line totals are necessary but not sufficient. Validation groups orthogonally adjacent occupied cells into connected components. A component that spans more than one row and more than one column is bent, while a component longer than the largest declared ship is rejected. The completed board must then contain the exact fleet of 1, 2, and 3, pass the diagonal-contact check, and match every row and column count.
| Check | Failing situation | Move decision |
|---|---|---|
| Line budget | The new cell would push a row or column above its printed clue. | Revise the candidate before continuing. |
| Ship shape | The connected group would turn a corner rather than remain straight. | Do not keep the turn in a final arrangement. |
| Fleet membership | The board has six occupied cells, but their connected lengths are not 1, 2, and 3. | Adjust the components; the total alone is not enough. |
| Separation | A candidate touches another ship by an edge or a corner. | Choose another cell or revise the earlier placement. |
| Cell count | The proposed arrangement contains more than six ship cells. | Remove an unjustified segment. |
This is why a board can have the right number of occupied cells and still fail. For the detailed shape and spacing checks, see why a connected ship cannot bend and why diagonal contact between separate ships is forbidden. For the broader traditional ruleset, Conceptis’s Battleships rules provide useful background, although this product’s exact grid, fleet, controls, clues, and score are specific to the Lizely puzzle.
Use marks and feedback without changing the rules
Water marks are optional reasoning aids. They can record a cell you have ruled out, but they do not count as occupied cells, alter the fleet validator, or affect the score. Use Enter to add or remove one, and remember that a mark cannot turn an invalid ship placement into a valid fleet.
The board uses semantic buttons, and every cell announces its row, column, ship state, water state, and keyboard-selection state. That makes it possible to state a candidate precisely—such as row 3, column 5—before toggling it. If a contradiction appears, treat it as a problem in the current arrangement rather than as a new placement rule. Space can remove the relevant ship segment, while Restart clears ships, water marks, score, moves, and the contradiction state. There is no timer or random board change, so pausing to reason does not cost progress.
Keep the scoring path efficient
The score is calculated as max(0, 1000 − 10 × ship actions). The shortest clean completion uses one ship action for each of the six occupied cells, so the score calculation is 1000 − 10 × 6 = 940 points.
Water marks do not change that score. Extra ship toggles lower it, which makes it worthwhile to test a candidate against all five constraints before pressing Space. Choose the cell you can justify from the visible clues, enter it once, and then reassess the remaining candidates rather than placing ships by trial and error.
Check the finished board against every rule
Use the disclosed arrangement as a final verification, not as a replacement for deduction. Using 1-based row and column labels for this explanation, the solution consists of a cruiser in row 1, columns 1–3; a destroyer in rows 3–4 of column 5; and a submarine in row 5, column 2.
- The cruiser occupies zero-based cells 0, 1, and 2.
- The destroyer occupies zero-based cells 14 and 19.
- The submarine occupies zero-based cell 21.
This placement produces the row totals 3, 0, 1, 1, and 1 and the column totals 1, 2, 1, 0, and 2. It contains six ship cells and nineteen water cells, with every ship straight and no ship touching another by an edge or a corner. If your arrangement differs from this disclosed placement, recheck every clue and fleet rule rather than trusting a partial line match. A sound next step is one that satisfies the row budget, column budget, shape, spacing, and fleet-size requirement together.