Star Battle

Overview

Star Battle places stars on a grid divided into irregular outlined regions. In this introductory board, each row, each column and each region must contain exactly one star. Stars cannot touch along an edge or at a corner. The row and column restrictions alone resemble a placement puzzle, but the irregular regions introduce another set of competing choices. A star that completes one region may eliminate the only remaining position in another. This locally hosted pzpr player provides a checked six-by-six introductory puzzle. Eight selectable practice orientations rotate or reflect that same arrangement; they are not advertised as separate original levels. You can mark excluded squares, undo decisions and request answer feedback while learning how the three counting systems interact.

How to Play

Click an empty cell to place a star. Secondary input marks a cell as unavailable; enable the Secondary toggle for those exclusions on a phone. Place one star in every outlined region while also using each row and column once. Leave a full one-cell neighbourhood around every star free of other stars, including diagonals. Press Check answer when you want to validate your arrangement. Restart clears the attempt, Undo reverses the latest change, and the orientation selector offers a transformed view of the same introductory puzzle.

Tips & Strategy

After placing a star, exclude the rest of its row, column and region as well as its eight immediate neighbours. Then look for a region with only one legal position remaining. A narrow region occupying a small number of rows can constrain other regions even before its star is fixed. Compare candidate positions across region boundaries rather than solving each outlined shape independently. Near the finish, count stars by all three systems: six stars in six rows do not automatically satisfy the regions. Practising a rotated board is useful for checking whether your reasoning depends on memorised locations rather than the placement rules.

About this version

Star Battle uses the locally built starbattle rules from pzprjs. The original authors retain credit under the MIT license. SonoTap provides the browser adaptation and this guide.