The rules
How to play Star Battle
Star Battle — known to New York Times solvers as Two Not Touch — is a pure-logic puzzle. Fill the grid with stars so every row, column, and region has exactly two, and no two stars ever touch. That's the whole game. Everything after is deduction.
The goal
You're given a square grid divided into irregular coloured regions. Your job is to place stars so that:
- every row has exactly two stars,
- every column has exactly two stars,
- every region has exactly two stars, and
- no two stars touch — not side by side, not diagonally.
One star, two stars?
"Two stars per unit" is the classic version and the one Zavija leads with. Some puzzles use one star per row, column, and region instead — that one-star variant is exactly what you may know as LinkedIn Queens. Same rules, one fewer star.
The one rule that trips people up
No two stars may touch — not even diagonally. A star claims all eight squares around it, the way a king moves in chess. The diagonals are the easiest to forget, and forgetting them is the most common mistake beginners make.
Marking: dots and stars
Good Star Battle solving is mostly about ruling squares out. As you deduce that a square can't hold a star, you mark it with a dot. Dots are your notes — only stars count toward the solution — but they're how you turn a wall of empty squares into a forced answer.
- Tap a square to drop a dot ("this can't be a star"); tap again to clear it.
- Double-tap a square to place a star; double-tap again to remove it.
- Drag across empty squares to paint dots quickly.
- Undo steps back one move; Clear empties the board.
The core loop: place a star → dot out its whole row, column, region, and its eight neighbours → look for the next square that now has only one place left for a star. Repeat until the board is full.
A first deduction
Here's the smallest satisfying move. Suppose a region has only one row its stars can still reach. Then those stars must come from that row — which means no other region can use that row. You can dot out the rest of it immediately, often unlocking three or four more squares in a chain.
That's the entire feel of the game: each fact you nail down narrows the board, and narrowing the board hands you the next fact. When it clicks, you'll see a cascade — one dot forcing the next. The techniques guide names every pattern, from the one-square singles to the deep look-aheads.
Reading a puzzle's difficulty
Most Star Battle apps grade puzzles as just "normal" or "hard." Zavija measures difficulty with a solving engine and shows it on a three-axis radar, so you know what you're walking into:
- Hunt — how hard the next move is to find (search effort).
- Snags — how much careful housekeeping the board demands along the way.
- Gate — the single hardest technique you must use to crack it.
Common questions
Is Star Battle the same as Two Not Touch?
Yes — Two Not Touch is the name The New York Times uses for the two-star version of Star Battle. Identical rules: two stars per row, column, and region, and no two stars touching.
How is it related to LinkedIn Queens?
Queens is a one-star Star Battle — one queen per row, column, and colored region, none touching. Star Battle is the fuller game behind it, usually played with two stars on bigger boards. If Queens stopped challenging you, this is the step up.
Do stars really block diagonals?
Yes. A star blocks all eight touching squares, diagonals included — like a chess king. It's the rule beginners forget most.
Is there ever guessing involved?
No — a well-made Star Battle has exactly one solution reachable by pure logic. Every Zavija puzzle is machine-verified for a unique, no-guess solution before it's served.
Do I need an account to try it?
No. Play the free weekly puzzle and see the full move-by-move review of your solve with zero sign-up.
Know the rules? Meet a real one.
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