Star Battle asks you to place stars so every row, column, and outlined region holds exactly two — and no two stars ever touch, not even diagonally. New to the rules? Start with how to play, then come back here.
The techniques below are grouped into three tiers, and every one is illustrated on a mini board — follow the numbered frames left to right to see the deduction happen. You rarely need the advanced techniques on easy puzzles, but knowing where each move fits is what turns a stall into a solve. Prefer learning by doing? The interactive tutorial walks you through your first solve.
The foundations
These solve most easy puzzles on their own. Learn them cold.
1. Elimination & the no-touch rule
The moment you place a star, mark an X on all eight touching cells — a star's neighbours can never hold one. This single rule does more work than any other: one star removes up to eight candidates. Also X out every remaining cell in a row, column, or region that already has its two stars. Always mark every forced X before looking for the next star — the answer usually appears on its own. Deep dive: the elimination technique.
1 Place a star.
2 The no-touch rule X's every neighbour instantly — one star, eight eliminations.
See it fire in a real puzzle — the October 5 Inkwell Stars walkthrough
Mark 7 cells adjacent to stars as X
This is step 4 of 45 — replay the full solution to see every deduction in context.
2. Region & line completion
When a region, row, or column has exactly two open cells left, both must be stars. When it has exactly two stars already, every other cell in it is an X. Sweep the whole grid for these after every placement — completions cascade, each one opening up the next. Deep dive: forced placements.
1 Three of this region's five cells are already X'd — only two remain open.
2 A region needs exactly two stars, so both open cells must be stars. Rows and columns work the same way.
See it fire in a real puzzle — the October 5 Inkwell Stars walkthrough
Region completion: 1 stars needed, 1 candidates
This is step 5 of 45 — replay the full solution to see every deduction in context.
3. Confined regions
A region squeezed entirely inside a single row (or column) claims both of that line's stars — so the rest of the row can be X'd out. Small, tightly-packed regions are the best place to break a fresh puzzle open. Deep dive: region confinement.
1 This region sits entirely inside one row — both of that row's stars must fall inside it.
2 The rest of the row can never hold a star — X it out.
See it fire in a real puzzle — the October 1 Inkwell Stars walkthrough
Region confined to column: Eliminate other column candidates
This is step 8 of 59 — replay the full solution to see every deduction in context.
Watch it work: our Inkwell Stars walkthroughs replay real Inkwell puzzles one deduction at a time — the fastest way to see the foundations in motion.
Intermediate: counting & pressure
When elimination stalls on a medium or hard puzzle, these force the next mark.
4. The counting method
Count what a block of regions or lines must contain against the space it has. If three regions together need six stars but only fit into a narrow band of columns, those columns are nearly full — and cells outside the band get eliminated. Under-counting (too little room) and over-counting (too much claimed) both hand you free Xs and stars. Deep dive: the counting technique.
1 The top two rows hold exactly four stars — and these two regions, which fit entirely inside them, also need exactly four.
2 Those regions consume the whole quota, so every other cell in the two rows is X'd.
See it fire in a real puzzle — the October 4 Inkwell Stars walkthrough
Undercounting: 4 regions fit in rows 1-4, eliminate 4 outside candidates
This is step 8 of 57 — replay the full solution to see every deduction in context.
5. The star claim
When a region's two stars are forced to sit in a single row or column — even if you don't yet know which cells — that region "claims" the line. No other region can use it, so you can X out that row or column everywhere outside the region. This is the workhorse of hard puzzles.
1 Earlier X's have squeezed this region's open cells into a single column — both of its stars must land there.
2 The region claims the column's two stars, so the column is X'd everywhere outside it.
See it fire in a real puzzle — the October 4 Inkwell Stars walkthrough
Star claim: Region 4 must place a star in row 4; cells touching all its options are eliminated
This is step 17 of 57 — replay the full solution to see every deduction in context.
6. Clumps & the squeeze
A clump is a cluster of cells that, because of the no-touch rule, can only hold a fixed number of stars. Combine a clump with an overlapping row, column, or region and the two constraints squeeze the stars into a single arrangement — often placing a star with no candidates left to spare.
1 This row is down to two touching pairs. Touching cells can't both be stars, so each pair holds exactly one.
2 Any cell that touches both cells of a pair touches that pair's star wherever it lands — X them all.
See it fire in a real puzzle — the October 4 Inkwell Stars walkthrough
Clump analysis (Column 9): candidate clumps can only just supply the remaining stars
This is step 6 of 57 — replay the full solution to see every deduction in context.
Advanced: for expert grids
The techniques the toughest expert puzzles are built to demand. Deep dive: advanced Star Battle techniques.
7. Fish (multi-line patterns)
Look across three or four rows at once: if the candidate cells for their stars are confined to the same three or four columns, those columns are fully spoken for, and their other cells clear out. The same works with rows and columns swapped. Fish patterns crack positions no single-line scan can see.
1 Three rows have open cells only in the same three columns: six stars must squeeze into columns that hold at most six.
2 Those three columns are now fully spoken for, so their cells in every other row are X'd.
8. Virtual bands
Treat a group of adjacent rows (or columns) as one super-constraint: n lines must hold exactly 2n stars. Comparing that total against the regions cutting through the band reveals cells that can't possibly be filled — a powerful move on large, open expert boards.
The bottom three rows form a band holding exactly six stars. The two highlighted regions fit fully inside it and claim four — leaving just two stars for every other cell in the band, an accounting no single row reveals.
9. Constraint pairs & lookahead
When two regions press against a shared row or column, analysing them together often forces a mark neither reveals alone — the dominant technique in the hardest hand-made puzzles. And when everything else stalls, controlled lookahead — following the forced consequences of a single candidate a step or two ahead — will surface a contradiction that eliminates it. It's disciplined logic, not guessing: you only ever confirm a mark that had to be true.
1 The second row is down to three open cells. Test a candidate: what if this cell held a star?
2 It would X out all three of those cells — the second row could no longer fit its two stars. Contradiction.
3 So the candidate can never be a star — mark it X. That's disciplined logic, not guessing.
See it fire in a real puzzle — the September 27 Inkwell Stars walkthrough
Lookahead: Placing star here leads to contradiction - Row 4 would only have room for 1 of the 2 stars it still needs
This is step 18 of 65 — replay the full solution to see every deduction in context.
See every technique in a real solve
Our step-by-step Inkwell Stars walkthroughs name each deduction as it happens — the clearest way to recognise these patterns in your own solving.
Build the toolkit by difficulty
Technique follows difficulty. Drill the foundations on easy and medium puzzles until the Xs are automatic, then push into counting and star-claim territory on hard, and finally test the advanced patterns on expert. A fresh set lands every day, and the full archive is there to work back through. And when a grid beats you, the daily puzzle answers show the full deduction path for every puzzle we publish.
Coming from a different puzzle? Star Battle is the same puzzle the NYT publishes as Two Not Touch, and the natural step up from LinkedIn Queens — every technique here carries over. Still exploring? See our roundup of games like Queens.
Planning ahead matters in our own game too: Slidesmith, the daily sliding puzzle, has a guide to sliding puzzle strategy for cutting your move count.