How to Play Star Battle, Also Called Two Not Touch
Star Battle is a logic puzzle with three rules and no arithmetic, which is why it travels so well between newspapers, apps and paperbacks. You may know it as Two Not Touch, the name The New York Times prints it under, or as Queens, the name it usually carries online. Same puzzle every time. Some links below are Amazon affiliate links, which support the shop at no extra cost to you.
What is Star Battle?
Star Battle is a grid puzzle where you place stars into an outlined layout. The grid is divided into irregular regions, like countries on a map. Your job is to work out where the stars go using position alone. There is nothing to add up and nothing to memorise, so the whole puzzle is deduction from the first mark to the last.
What are the rules of Two Not Touch?
Three rules, and that is the entire game:
1. Place one star in every row. 2. Place one star in every column. 3. Place one star in every outlined region.
Plus the rule the puzzle is named for: no two stars may touch each other, not even at a corner. A placed star seals off all eight squares around it.
That fourth rule is the engine of the puzzle. Every star you place removes up to eight squares from play, which cascades through the rows, columns and regions those squares belonged to.
How is Star Battle different from Sudoku?
Both reward patient scanning, but they ask for different things. Sudoku is about which symbol belongs in a cell. Star Battle is about which cells can hold anything at all.
| Star Battle | Sudoku | |
|---|---|---|
| What you place | Stars | Digits 1 to 9 |
| What defines a zone | Irregular outlined regions | Fixed 3x3 boxes |
| Arithmetic involved | None | None, but symbols carry order |
| Key constraint | Stars cannot touch, even diagonally | Each digit once per row, column and box |
| Starting information | Region shapes only | Given digits |
| Grid sizes | Commonly 8x8 up to 10x10 | Almost always 9x9 |
The practical difference is the blank start. A Sudoku hands you digits to build from. A Star Battle hands you only the shape of the regions, so the opening move comes from geometry rather than from a given clue.
How do you start a Star Battle puzzle?
Look for the smallest regions first. A region covering three squares has only three candidates for its star, and that is far more useful than a region sprawling across fifteen.
Then look for regions trapped inside a single line. If an entire region sits within one row, that row's star has to belong to that region, so every other region is locked out of the row. The same works for columns. Those two observations alone will open most easy grids.
From there it is bookkeeping. Mark the squares each placed star rules out, watch for rows and columns that have only one square left standing, and keep going.
Where can you play Star Battle free?
You can play it right now in your browser. Our free Queens game runs the same rules under the Queens name, with a clean board and no download. It is the fastest way to learn the pattern, because the board stops you from making an illegal placement while the rules are still settling in your head.
If you want to try other logic puzzles in the same style, the rest of the browser games are on the games page. There is a fuller write up of the browser version in Queens game online free.
Where can you get Star Battle puzzles in print?
Screens are good for learning the rules and poor for a long sitting. For paper, I put together Star Battle: 160 Two Not Touch Puzzles, which runs 48 grids at 8x8, 64 at 9x9 and 48 at 10x10, easy through hard, four puzzles to a page with answers in back. Full details are on the book page.
The 10x10 grids at the back are where it gets interesting. Ten regions have to be satisfied at once, and the no-touching rule turns a single placement into a chain reaction across the board.
Frequently asked questions
Is Star Battle the same as Two Not Touch?
Yes. Two Not Touch is the name The New York Times publishes it under. Star Battle is the name used across most of the puzzle world. The rules are identical.
Is Queens the same puzzle as Star Battle?
Queens is the one star version of Star Battle, which is the version almost everyone plays. You can try it on our browser Queens game.
Do Star Battle puzzles ever need guessing?
A well made Star Battle can be finished by reasoning from the region shapes and the no-touching rule. Every grid in our book has one solution reachable that way.
What size Star Battle grid should a beginner start with?
Start at 8x8. Eight regions is enough to make the deductions interesting while still fitting in your head. Move up to 9x9 and 10x10 once the opening moves feel automatic.
Can two stars sit in the same region?
Not in the one star version. Each region holds exactly one star, and so does each row and each column.