Play Sea Battle Online for Free

Sea Battle Objective

The goal of Sea Battle is to destroy all of your opponent’s vessels before they destroy yours by clicking squares in a 10x10 grid.

Playing Sea Battle on Solitaire Bliss

When you play this classic battle game online, also called Battle at Sea or Salvo, you go head-to-head against the computer. Solitaire Bliss gives you options to change the format of your game and helps you keep track of hits you make.

• Formation: Choose between Standard, Classic, and Lucky for vessels of different sizes and shapes. Formation can mix and match with the Attack Mode (see next bullet) for a customized game.
• Attack Mode: This mode allows you to adjust how you fire on potential targets, choosing from Hit Streak, Chainfire, and Salvo.
• Hit and ship count: At the bottom of an active game, your ships and your opponent’s ships are listed with hits indicated, helping you see what you have left in your fleet and what you need to target in your opponent’s fleet.

Sea Battle Rules

• Decide where your ships are located. After you click “Start,” you’ll see a grid with your ships. You can adjust their placement by dragging them on the grid, click the boat to move it 90 degrees clockwise, or click the “Reshuffle” button to see varying layouts. If you checked the “Ships are allowed to touch” box when selecting your modes, you may place ships so they touch. If you leave it unchecked, ships cannot touch, and the cells surrounding a sunk ship are automatically marked as misses.
• Click “Play” to begin the game.
• Take turns clicking squares on a 10x10 grid to try and hit your opponent’s ships. A miss is indicated by an X, but an exploding square indicates you hit a vessel. You’ll see a piece of the ship in the grid after the explosion.
• Whether you continue firing depends on the attack mode you chose before the game started. To change the mode, click New Game. The modes are:
  • Hit streak: You can keep firing as long as you’re hitting a ship.
  • Chainfire: Fire shots, one by one, in a single turn equal to the number of ships you have left. If you have 5 ships, you get 5 shots. After each shot you can see whether you’ve hit anything, which can help you place your next shot.
  • Salvo: Fire simultaneous shots in one turn equal to the number of ships you have left. If you have 5 ships, you must place all 5 targets and then click “Fire” before you see if you hit anything.
• The player who destroys all the ships first wins.

Sea Battle Strategies

• Adjust your ships thoughtfully. Clumping ships together can be a recipe for disaster if your opponent is firing several shots in the area. With a few hits and misses, they can narrow down the location of all those ships. So spread your ships throughout the grid and avoid clumping them too closely together or on all the edges.
• Fire into four quadrants at first. Don’t fire in a straight line of connected squares when you first begin. Instead, divide the 10x10 grid into four quadrants, and be sure to fire shots into each of those quadrants until you zero in on a hit.
• Continue firing methodically. As you hunt for targets, fire in a pattern. Fire into the middle of each quadrant and then spoke out from those misses continuously. For example, if you fire into C3 in the first quadrant and miss, move out one square to B3 the next turn, then D3, C2, C4, and so on. Match that pattern in each quadrant.
• Avoid firing at the edges at first. It’s tempting to think boats are resting on the outskirts of the grid, but more hits will happen inside those edges than on them.
• Target both sides of a hit. When you hit a square the first time, you most likely won’t know which direction to go unless you’ve fired several shots in the area already. So select one side, and even if you get a hit, select the opposite side next, continuing this pattern until you know for sure which direction to continue firing. For example a boat could be in four squares (E3, E4, E5, and E6). If you hit E5, make your next fire E4 then E6. Then keep firing on each end until you get a miss or have destroyed the entire ship.
• Consult the map before firing. If you’ve destroyed ships already and/or have several fires that missed, you can start to see possible placements take shape. Because most players are spreading vessels throughout the grid, you can make informed decisions about possible targets.

If you enjoy classic two-player games like Sea Battle, you should try playing Checkers or Dominoes. But if you like the adrenaline rush of wondering whether you’re about to get destroyed, you might like to give Minesweeper a run! No matter what game you choose, you can play them all as well as several Solitaire games for free on Solitaire Bliss!