Quick winning principles
- Start with parity shooting (checkerboard pattern) — hits on half the squares.
- Switch to target mode immediately after a hit — shoot all adjacent squares.
- Place ships away from edges and avoid parallel alignment patterns.
- Track remaining ship lengths to prune impossible orientations.
Ideal strategy
- 1
Hunt mode: shoot squares with highest probability density based on remaining ship placements. Center squares have higher hit probability than corners.
- 2
Target mode: after a hit, prioritize inline extensions before diagonals. A hit with no adjacent hits means orient and extend both directions.
- 3
Parity optimization: checkerboard covers every other cell; once a ship of even length is sunk, adjust parity for odd-length ships.
- 4
Ship placement: scatter ships across the board; avoid clustering. Place destroyer (2) in a corner to reduce hunt efficiency.
- 5
Probability map: recalculate after each sink — a 3-length ship has fewer valid positions than a 5-length carrier.
- 6
Salvo variant: distribute shots across high-probability zones rather than clustering on one hit.