Star Battle strategy and techniques
Every Star Battle board can be solved with a small set of deductions. These are the ones the Twin Stars solver uses to check that a board needs no guessing, in the order you will meet them.
Beginner techniques
- Mark around every starRule out every tile that touches it, including diagonally, and then check whether its row, column or region now has both stars.
- Count the open tilesWhen a row, column or region has exactly as many open tiles as it still needs stars.
- The 2×2 ruleOne at most.
Intermediate techniques
- Try every fitList every way its remaining stars could go in without touching.
- Tiles that get touched every timeIf every possible arrangement of a region's stars puts a star next to the same outside tile, that tile can never hold a star, even though you don't yet know which arrangement is right..
Expert techniques
- Regions that fill rows and columnsIf two regions lie entirely inside two rows, their four stars are all four stars those rows can hold.
- One star too manyImagine a star on it and look at what it blocks.