How to Play Sea Battle (Battleship): Rules, Weapons and Tips
Sea Battle is the classic naval guessing game, also known as Battleship. Each player hides a fleet on a 10×10 grid, and players take turns firing at squares on the enemy grid. Sink every enemy ship before they sink yours to win.
Your fleet
Every player has five ships: one of 5 squares, one of 4, two of 3 and one of 2. Ships are straight lines, either across or down, and on Royal Duels they never touch each other, not even at the corners. Press Shuffle until you like your layout, then press Ready.
Taking turns
- On your turn, tap a square in the enemy waters to fire.
- A 💥 means you hit part of a ship. A dot means a miss.
- When every square of a ship has been hit, the ship is sunk ☠️.
- The first player to sink the whole enemy fleet wins.
Special weapons (they unlock during the match)
To keep things fair for new and experienced players, every match starts with all weapons locked. They unlock based on how the match goes:
- 🚀 Missiles (×2) hit a 2×2 square. They unlock on your 8th turn.
- 📡 Sonar counts the ship squares hidden in a 3×3 area without firing. It unlocks after 4 misses in a row.
- 🌊 Torpedo races across a whole row and stops at the first ship it hits. It unlocks after 7 misses in a row.
- ✈️ Airstrike bombs a + shape of 5 squares. It unlocks when you are 2 sunk ships behind.
- ☢️ Nuke hits a 3×3 square. It unlocks when you are down to your last ship.
Tips to find ships faster
- Hunt in a checkerboard pattern. The smallest ship is 2 squares long, so firing at every other square still finds every ship with half the shots.
- After a hit, check the four neighbors. Once you get a second hit, keep firing along that line.
- Use the gap rule. Ships never touch, so the squares all around a sunk ship are always empty. Don't waste shots there.
- Save the sonar for big unexplored areas and fire missiles where the sonar found ships.
- Don't panic when behind. Falling behind unlocks the airstrike and, at the end, the nuke.
A bit of history
Battleship began as a pencil-and-paper game played on grid paper in the early 20th century. Milton Bradley turned it into a popular plastic board game in 1967, and it has since appeared as electronic versions, video games and even a movie. Royal Duels adds special weapons and fair in-match unlocks to the classic formula.
Playing Sea Battle on Royal Duels
Play the bot on Easy, Medium or Hard, or send a challenge link and duel a friend. In duels you can also send emoji reactions. Wins earn points toward your title.
More: How to Win at Battleship