Question 1

Can ships touch each other?

Accepted Answer

Yes, under the official rules ships may sit side by side. If you'd rather they didn't, turn on No ships touching before the game: then every ship needs a clear cell all around it, corners included.

Question 2

Do I get another turn when I hit?

Accepted Answer

Not by default: it's one shot a turn, hit or miss. Turn on Extra turn on hit and a hit earns another shot straight away, for as long as you keep hitting.

Question 3

Can the other player see my ships?

Accepted Answer

No. In an online game your fleet is held on the server and never sent to the other player's browser. They are sent only the result of each shot, and a ship's position once it has been sunk. Against the bot, the bot picks its shots from its own hits and misses, the same information you have about its fleet.

Question 4

How do the two bots differ?

Accepted Answer

Easy searches on a checkerboard and, after a hit, tries the cells around it until the ship sinks. Hard works out every place your remaining ships could still be and fires at the cell the most of them cover.

Question 5

How do I play with a friend?

Accepted Answer

Choose Online room, create a room and send the five-character code or the link. No account is needed. The host sets the house rules and starts, then you each place your fleet in private. Rooms are deleted 24 hours after the last activity.

Question 6

What happens if someone leaves?

Accepted Answer

Leaving a battle ends it, and the player who stayed wins. A player whose connection drops shows as away and has five minutes to come back before that happens. If the host leaves, the other player becomes the host.

Question 7

How does it work on one device?

Accepted Answer

Local 2-player puts a pass screen between turns. It shows neither board, and the next one appears only when the player taking over says they're ready to look.

Question 8

What if I can't tell the colors apart?

Accepted Answer

You don't need to. A miss is a ring, a hit is a cross and a sunk ship's cells carry a skull, so the shape alone tells you what happened.

Question 9

Is my record saved?

Accepted Answer

Your wins and losses against each bot, your online wins and losses, and how many local games each player has won on this device are counted in your browser's localStorage. They stay on your device. If you're logged in to a Detour account, your record against the bots and online is saved to your account too, and follows you to any device you log in on. The local two-player count belongs to the device it was played on and stays there.