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How to Play Queens

Queens (also called Star Battle or Two Not Touch) has three rules:

1. Place exactly one crown in every row.
2. Place exactly one crown in every column.
3. Place exactly one crown in every color region.

One restriction ties it together: crowns can never touch each other — not even diagonally.

Solving strategies

1. Start with the smallest regions

A region with only one or two squares has almost no freedom. If a region has a single square left, the crown must go there — place it and cross out everything it touches.

2. Region confinement

If all of a region's remaining squares sit in one row (or one column), that region's crown must use that line — so no other region may place a crown anywhere else in it. Cross those squares out.

3. The stranding test

Before placing a crown, ask: would it leave some other region with no legal square? If placing a crown on a square would eliminate every remaining square of another region, that square can be crossed out.

4. Never guess

Every puzzle on this site is computer-verified to have exactly one solution that these logical techniques can reach. If you feel stuck, there is always a deduction available — the in-game hint button will point out the next one and explain it.

Play now

Play today's daily puzzle or choose unlimited mode with boards from 7×7 to 11×11. Prefer paper? Pixel Wizard Press publishes Star Battle puzzle books with the same single-solution, no-guessing guarantee.