HELP

Tap a square. The highlighted ship is anchored there and runs to the right, or downwards if you have tapped Vertical first. The strip under the board shows which one is next. Undo takes back the last, and Random in the bar at the top lays out all five at once.

Either the ship would run off the board from that square, or it would land on one of your own. The line above the buttons says which of the two it was. Remember that a ship runs right or downwards from where you tap, so tapping near the right or bottom edge leaves it no room.

Tap a square in enemy waters. A square you have already fired at takes nothing more, and while the machine is thinking the board is locked, so a tap then does nothing rather than swallowing a shot.

Dark blue is water not yet fired at, pale grey a miss, red a hit on a ship still afloat, and dark red a ship on the bottom. Grey hulls on your own board are your ships. The same key sits under the log inside the app.

Because you are not meant to. An enemy ship stays hidden until it sinks; only then is its wreck drawn on the board. Your own ships are always visible on the Your fleet tab, along with every shot that has been taken at them.

All three fire blindly until something connects. Easy then forgets the hit entirely. Normal tries the four neighbouring squares and extends the line once it knows which way the ship lies. Hard does the same after a hit, but hunts on a chequerboard rather than at random — since the smallest ship is two squares long, none can hide in the gaps, so it covers the board in half the shots.

The level applies to the next game you start, not to the one you are in.

No. It only ever learns the answers to its own shots — miss, hit, or sunk. The harder levels search better, not further into your board.

Yes. A game in progress is written down at every move, and a half-placed fleet too, so closing the app mid-battle loses nothing. A finished game is not kept, and a game against another device cannot be resumed — the other phone will not be waiting.

Pick 2 players at the top of the setup screen. Each lays out a fleet in turn, and a hand-over screen covers everything in between so nobody sees the other's board. Between shots the same screen appears, showing only whose turn it is. These games are not added to the high scores.

Pick Two devices, then one of the three ways across. On the same Wi-Fi one device hosts and the other searches. Nearby uses Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Direct and needs no network at all. Online goes through a relay and pairs the two by a short code.

Most often a VPN: it routes even local traffic away from the network, so the two devices never see each other. Turn it off or let it bypass the local network. Guest networks often separate their clients on purpose, which has the same effect. Either way, the host shows its address — type that into Address and port — or switch to Nearby, which needs no network.

Only for playing against someone who is not on your network. Two home routers accept no incoming connections, so both devices dial out to a relay instead, which pairs them by a short code. You run it yourself: it is one Python file, published here. There is no relay of ours, so without one of your own the Online option has nowhere to connect.

Not on their own. Neither device holds both fleets — each owns its board and answers shots fired at it, and learns about the other only from the answers it gets back. Moving a ship after the fact would need both ends to agree to it.

Only games against the machine, and only wins are ranked — a loss counts towards played and lost but has no shot count worth placing. Up to ten best wins are kept, fewest shots first, a tie going to the older game.

Under Settings › Language: System, German or English. It is independent of the language the phone is set to, so the app can be German on an English phone. Changing it rebuilds the screen, which takes an instant.

In the bar along the bottom, or behind the button with three lines at the top left — both lead to the same three places. Back from either returns to the game rather than leaving the app.

Yes. Every square announces where it is and what is on it, and the newest line of the log is read out as it arrives. Ship names are only spoken for boards you are allowed to see.

Only below Android 13, and only for Nearby. The system counts scanning for nearby devices as a location capability there, although the game never asks where anyone is. On Android 13 and up it asks for the nearby-devices permission instead. Neither is needed if you only play against the machine.