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Archive · Star Battle #18

Star Battle #18 (October 22, 2026): solution and step-by-step

The 9×9 Hard two-star puzzle from Thursday, October 22, 2026. Play it first; the answer is folded below. Replays don't affect your streak.

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Star Battle #18 was the 9×9 hard board of Thursday, October 22, 2026: two stars in every row, column and region, 18 stars in all. Our deduction solver, the same one behind the hint button, places them in 56 steps without guessing. 27 steps follow straight from the rules (a star's neighbours, a line that already has both stars, the last free cells of a line), 22 work out where a line's remaining two stars can sit without touching, 3 come from confinement (a region squeezed into one or two lines), and 4 need a “what if” check: imagine a star in a cell and watch some line run out of room. Regions range from 5 to 14 cells; the smallest are gold, sky and lime.

Star Battle #18 in numbers

Board9×9, two stars, Hard
Stars to place18
Regions9, from 5 to 14 cells
Deduction steps56
Rule steps27
Pair-placement steps22
Confinement steps3
“What if” contradictions4
How to start Star Battle #18: the first 12 deductions

Each step is a deduction a person can make, in the order our solver found them. Rows and columns are counted from the top-left corner.

  1. Cross out 2 cells. The mint region still needs two stars that don't touch — these cells can't be part of any such placement, so they're crossed out.

  2. Cross out 2 cells. The lime region still needs two stars that don't touch — these cells can't be part of any such placement, so they're crossed out.

  3. Star at row 9, column 4. Every way to place the lime region's two stars without touching uses this cell — so it's a star.

  4. Cross out 3 cells. Stars can't touch, not even diagonally — the cells around this star are crossed out.

  5. Cross out row 6, column 5. The gold region still needs two stars that don't touch — this cell can't be one of them, so it's crossed out.

  6. Star at row 5, column 5. Every way to place the gold region's two stars without touching uses this cell — so it's a star.

  7. Cross out 7 cells. Stars can't touch, not even diagonally — the cells around this star are crossed out.

  8. Cross out 4 cells. Every free cell of the sky region is in column 9, so both that region's stars must be there — the rest of column 9 is crossed out.

  9. Cross out row 8, column 7. This cell touches every free cell of the lime region — a star here would leave the lime region with no room for its last star, so it's crossed out.

  10. Cross out row 9, column 7. This cell touches every free cell of the lime region — a star here would leave the lime region with no room for its last star, so it's crossed out.

  11. Cross out row 5, column 2. Row 6 still needs two stars, and every way to place them without touching puts one next to this cell — so it's crossed out.

  12. Cross out row 7, column 2. Row 6 still needs two stars, and every way to place them without touching puts one next to this cell — so it's crossed out.

44 more steps follow until all 18 stars are placed.

Star Battle #18 solution

Stars by row: row 1: columns 1 and 3; row 2: columns 7 and 9; row 3: columns 2 and 5; row 4: columns 7 and 9; row 5: columns 3 and 5; row 6: columns 1 and 8; row 7: columns 4 and 6; row 8: columns 2 and 8; row 9: columns 4 and 6.

Back to the Star Battle archive, today's puzzle, or the two-star deductions used above.

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