How to play Fleet Finder
Place the whole fleet so that each row and column has the right number of ship squares, with no ships touching. Also known as Hidden ships, Ship solitaire.
The rules
- The fleet to find is listed under the grid.
- Ships are straight lines of squares, placed across or down.
- No two ships touch — not along a side, and not at a corner.
- The number beside each row and under each column counts its ship squares.
Playing Fleet Finder on Puzzle Solvers
- Choose a grid and fleet and a difficulty, then press New Puzzle.
- Tap a square: water → ship → clear. Or choose the Ship or Water tool and drag. Tap a count to fill the rest of its line with water.
- Counts turn blue when a line has all its ships and green when it’s complete; the fleet list under the grid ticks off ships you’ve found.
- Hint explains the next deduction — full lines, corners of ships, and where the remaining ships can still fit.
Using the Fleet Finder solver
- Choose the grid and fleet, type the counts and mark any given water or ship squares (or press Sample).
- Press Solve and step through: full lines, ship corners, and fitting the fleet.
A worked example
Row 1 has a count of 0 — all water. Column 3 needs 4 ship squares and has exactly 4 unknown squares left: they’re all ship.
That makes a 4-long ship going down column 3, so the squares around it are water.
Strategies
- Zeros first. A row or column with 0 is all water.
- Full lines. When a line has all its ship squares, the rest is water; when its unknown squares exactly match what’s missing, they’re all ship.
- Corners. Every ship square has water on its four diagonal corners.
- Shown pieces. An end piece continues one way; a single round piece is a one-square ship with water all round.
- Fit the big ship. Find every place the longest ship still fits — if there’s only one, put it there.
Common mistakes
- Letting two ships touch at a corner.
- Forgetting which ships of the fleet are already placed.
- Bending a ship around a corner — ships are straight.
Where it comes from
Pencil-and-paper hidden-ship puzzles grew out of the classic two-player guessing game and became a solo logic puzzle in magazines in the 1980s.
Frequently asked questions
What is the fleet list?
The ships to find, from the longest down to single squares. Ships you’ve completed turn green.
Is there always one answer?
Yes — every puzzle here is checked to have exactly one solution.
What do the shown pieces mean?
A rounded end shows the ship continues the other way; a middle piece has ship on both sides; a circle is a one-square ship.
How do I solve one from a magazine?
Open the Fleet Finder Solver, type the counts, mark any shown squares and press Solve.
Keep going
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