What is a Battleship solver?
A Battleship solver is an online tool for solving Battleship solitaire, Battleships puzzle, Bimaru and naval logic puzzles. Instead of firing at an opponent, you enter the row clues, column clues, fleet list and any known ship or water cells, then the solver searches for the hidden fleet.
This Battleship puzzle solver follows the standard logic rules: ships are straight horizontal or vertical groups, every row and column total must match, the full fleet must be used, and separate ships cannot touch, even diagonally.
- Solve a Battleship puzzle from a newspaper, book, app or printable sheet.
- Check whether your current ship and water marks still allow a solution.
- Find the next logical move without revealing the full grid.
- Test a Battleship solitaire puzzle you are creating for uniqueness.
How to use this Battleship puzzle solver
Choose a grid size, enter the fleet as comma-separated ship lengths, and type the row and column clues around the board. The fleet field starts with a common setup, but you can edit it for any custom puzzle.
Select Ship, Water or Erase, then click cells to enter the clues you already know. Press Solve to complete the grid, Check to test whether the puzzle is valid, or Next move to reveal one forced cell.
- Use numbers around the board for row and column ship-segment totals.
- Enter ships as lengths, such as 4,3,3,2,2,2,1,1,1,1.
- Mark confirmed water cells when the original puzzle gives them.
- Leave unknown cells blank.
- Apply a next move only when you want the solver to write it into the grid.
Battleship rules checked by the solver
The solver treats every ship as a straight run of adjacent ship segments. A length-4 battleship occupies four consecutive cells in one row or one column, while a length-1 submarine occupies a single cell.
Separate ships may not touch by an edge or a corner. That no-touching rule is what lets a single confirmed ship segment force water into surrounding cells and create the next deduction.
- Every row clue and column clue must be satisfied exactly.
- Every ship length in the fleet must be placed exactly once.
- Ships cannot bend or branch.
- Ships cannot touch horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
- Known ship and water marks must be respected.
Next move logic for Battleship puzzles
The Next move button starts with direct Battleship strategies. A completed row or column forces all remaining unknown cells in that line to water. A line whose remaining unknown cells are all needed for its clue forces those cells to ship.
The helper also places water diagonally around confirmed ship cells, because separate ships can never touch at a corner. When direct logic pauses, it compares valid completions and highlights a cell that has the same value in every solution it can find.
- Completed rows and columns force water.
- Rows and columns with exactly enough open cells force ship segments.
- Diagonal cells around a confirmed ship segment force water.
- Shared solution evidence can identify a forced ship or water cell.
Battleship solver keywords and search intent
This page is written for people searching for Battleship solver, Battleship puzzle solver, Battleships solver, Bimaru solver, Battleship solitaire solver, naval puzzle solver and online Battleship logic puzzle helper.
Those searches usually need an interactive grid editor with row clues, column clues, fleet input, water marks, ship marks, a Solve button and a next logical move option. The article covers the rules, strategy, uniqueness checking and no-touching logic that solvers expect.