Star Battle (Two Not Touch) — Stars Puzzle
Place stars so every row, column, and region has the same count, and no two stars touch. Pick a size, tap to place a star or a mark, and press Check whenever you like.
How to play Star Battle
Tap to place
Tap an empty cell for a star, tap again for an X mark, a third time to clear it.
Count every unit
Each row, each column and each region holds the same number of stars (1 on small grids, 2 on large ones).
No touching
Stars may not sit next to each other, not even on a diagonal.
Star Battle is a stars-and-regions puzzle. You get an empty grid cut into regions, and you place stars so every row, every column and every region holds the same count. Stars never touch, not even on a diagonal. People also look this up as Two Not Touch, or as how to play Star Battle.
Rules
Pick a size. On a 5×5 grid you place one star in every row, every column and every region. On an 8×8 or 10×10 grid you place two.
Stars may not sit in neighbouring cells. Sharing an edge or a corner is enough to break the rule.
Regions are the coloured or bordered areas drawn on the grid. Each region is one connected piece. Every region must end with the same star count as a row.
Each puzzle here has one solution. Two finished grids that both obeyed the counts and the no-touch rule would not be a fair Star Battle.
Controls
Tap an empty cell to place a star. Tap again for an X mark, and a third time to clear it. Right-click, long-press, or Shift+tap cycles the other way. Arrow keys move the selection. S places a star, X places a mark, and Backspace or Delete clears the cell.
Press Hint when you want a forced cell. Press Check when you want the board scored against the rules. Undo and Redo step through your own moves.
Beginner tips
Start with a region that has only a few open cells left for its stars. Mark every cell that touches a placed star. When a row already has its stars, mark the rest of that row empty. The same idea works for columns and regions. Easy puzzles fall to these counts alone; harder ones need you to notice when two candidate cells would block each other.