Star Battle: today's puzzle
Today's puzzle
Loading · the grid and its level
(a small spoiler)
Checked: exactly one solution, reachable by logic. The level is the hardest technique our solver needed, not the grid size.
Settings
Rule breaks (two stars touching) always show in red. "Show mistakes" also marks cells that disagree with the solution.
Place stars so that every row, every column and every outlined region holds the same number of stars, and no two stars touch, not even at a corner. Today's set has three 1-star grids and two 2-star grids; each has exactly one solution.
The rules in three lines
- Each row, each column and each outlined region holds the same number of stars: one in a 1-star grid, two in a 2-star grid.
- Stars never touch each other, not even diagonally.
- Every puzzle has exactly one solution, and you can reach it by logic.
The 1-star version is the same puzzle people call the queens puzzle: one star (or queen) per row, column and region, none touching. The 2-star grid is the championship format, which some newspapers print under the name Two Not Touch: to play Two Not Touch online here, pick the 2-star grid of the day. Full rules and a worked example.
Today's levels and our bank
Each day has 5 Star Battle puzzles, one per level below. The bank covers 512 days, from 16 October 2026 to 10 March 2028, and every one of its 3,110 puzzles was checked for a single solution by a separate program before it shipped.
| Daily puzzle | Size | Days in the bank | Median steps | Hardest technique, most often (share) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 star · Easy | 8x8 1-star | 512 | 26 | Stars never touch (100%) |
| 1 star · Medium | 9x9 1-star | 512 | 31 | Region inside one line (99%) |
| 1 star · Hard | 10x10 1-star | 512 | 40 | N regions in N lines (98%) |
| 2 stars · Hard | 10x10 2-star | 512 | 77 | N regions in N lines (84%) |
| 2 stars · Expert | 10x10 2-star | 512 | 83 | Contradiction (100%) |
Source: the Gridaday bank, 2,560 puzzles of Star Battle graded by our solver; data as of 2026-10-17.
Why the regions matter more than the rows
Rows and columns all look alike; regions do not. A small region, or one squeezed against an edge, has only a few places for its star, and those few places usually rule out a neighbourhood of cells around them. That is why most solvers start from the smallest region rather than from the top-left corner, and why our hints so often begin with "look at this region".
One star or two
In this stars puzzle game, a 1-star grid is a warm-up: the basic rules and a little counting go a long way. Two stars per unit change the game. A region can no longer be settled by its own cells, and the useful pictures become pairs of rows cut into 2x2 blocks, each holding at most one star. Our 2-star Hard puzzles stop there; Expert ones also need a short contradiction.
Questions
Is Star Battle the same as the queens puzzle?
The 1-star Star Battle is. The 2-star version is the classic championship format and needs other techniques, which is why we grade it separately.
Do I ever have to guess?
Never blindly. Our step-by-step solver finished every puzzle here, and the hardest step it needed sets the level. 1-star grids and 2-star Hard grids yield to pure deduction; a 2-star Expert grid may need one short what-if check: assume a star, follow the rules, and watch a region run out of room. The hint shows that check when you need it.
What do the dots do?
Nothing for the rules: a dot is your own note that a cell is empty. Turn on "Dot the cells around a new star" and the board dots the eight neighbours for you.