Battleship Online With Friends (2 Player)

This is free Battleship to play online with friends, or on one phone. Play the computer, pass one phone, or play by text: each turn is a link you send, and your fleet never leaves your own phone. Your ships are placed for you, so you can fire the first shot in seconds. No sign-up, no app and no ads.

How does Battleship by link work?

1. Choose By text link and place your fleet. Tap a ship to select it, tap a square to move it, and tap it again to turn it. Or tap Shuffle.
2. Pick 1, 3 or 5 shots per link and tap Send the challenge. Changed your mind about a shot? Tap its ring to take it back before you send. Send it by iMessage, WhatsApp, Instagram or any chat; ask them to open it in Safari or Chrome so their fleet is saved.
3. Your partner places their fleet and fires first. Their link shows you where they fired and what they hit.
4. Keep trading links until one fleet is gone. A game usually takes dozens of shots each, so 5 shots per link keeps it to around a dozen links each.

The link holds only shots and answers. Each fleet is locked in with a fingerprint before anyone fires at it. When the game ends, the losing fleet is revealed and checked against its fingerprint and every answer it gave, and the winner's fleet is checked when it arrives with the result or the rematch. So you know nobody moved a ship. It works between iPhone and Android.

What are the rules?

• Each player hides five ships on a 10 by 10 grid: Carrier (5), Battleship (4), Cruiser (3), Submarine (3) and Destroyer (2).
• Players take turns firing at a square. The answer is miss, hit, or sunk when every square of a ship is hit. Classic rules give one shot per turn; you can switch on Hit = shoot again.
• The first player to sink the whole enemy fleet wins.
• Against the computer and on one phone, the first shot switches every game. In a link rematch, the player who did not start it fires first.

How do you win at Battleship?

• Hunt on a checkerboard. Every ship covers at least two squares, so firing at every other square needs about half the shots while you search.
• Finish what you hit. After a hit, try up, down, left and right, then follow the line until the ship sinks.
• Spread your fleet. Ships that touch get found together. Do not hide them all on the edges either; good players check there.
• Practice on Hard. The Hard computer counts every way each ship could still fit and fires where a ship is most likely.

What else can we play?

Quicker games with the same three modes: Tic Tac Toe for 2 players and Four in a Row for 2 players. Long distance? See our long distance relationship games, games to play over the phone and free games for couples with no ads.

What are the limits?

• Link games are turn by turn, not live, so they suit a slow day of texting. For live play on a call, use one app on both phones, such as Cupie.
• Your fleet is saved in this browser. Open every link in the same browser (for example Safari, not the Instagram browser), or the game cannot continue.
• The fleet fingerprint is a fairness check for friends, not bank-grade security.
• Same phone and computer scores are saved on this phone only.