Star Battle › Guide
Two Not Touch vs Star Battle vs Queens
Two Not Touch uses the two-star Star Battle rules: two stars in every row, column and region, with none touching. LinkedIn-style Queens uses the one-star version. Star Battle is the wider puzzle family, so always check the stated quota.
Krazydad's tutorial identifies Two Not Touch puzzles published in The New York Times and explains their two-star constraints. Solvedle's boards are original practice puzzles; they are not copies of newspaper puzzles.
What changes between the games?
| Feature | Two Not Touch / two-star | Queens / one-star |
|---|---|---|
| Per row, column and region | Exactly two stars | Exactly one piece |
| Immediately touching diagonally | Forbidden | Forbidden |
| Farther along a diagonal | Allowed | Allowed |
| Pieces on a 10×10 board | 20 | 10 |
| After placing the first piece | The unit still needs one more | The unit's quota is complete |
Try an original 10×10 two-star board
Each colour and letter identifies a region. The board below is practice puzzle #1 in Solvedle's Classic library. It has ten regions and needs 20 stars, counted once across the ten rows. The column and region quotas count those same stars again, not extra pieces.
Play this exact 10×10 board →Follow a complete two-star solve →
Can I use Queens strategies?
Yes: single candidates, no-touch exclusions and matching region/row capacity remain useful. Adjust the quota before acting. In particular, the first star only excludes its immediate neighbours; it does not clear its entire row, column or region. Compare non-touching pairs rather than individual cells when two stars are still missing.
A 2×2 block holds at most one star in both formats. It need not contain a star at all. Read the 2×2 capacity guide and common Star Battle mistakes.
Is Two Not Touch a different game from Star Battle?
For the two-star format described here, the placement rules agree. The name and publication context differ; “Star Battle” alone does not specify a star count. For the separate chess problem, see Queens, Star Battle and N-Queens compared.
Sources: Krazydad's Two Not Touch tutorial and Grandmaster Puzzles' Star Battle rules. Solvedle is independent of The New York Times and LinkedIn.