Battleships: Dare Edition
Classic battleships with a twist — the loser has to do the dare. Challenge someone, place your fleet, fire your shots, and settle it on an 8x8 grid.
How It Works
Each game is a 1v1 match on an 8x8 grid. Both players place their fleet of 4 ships, then take turns firing at each other’s grid. Sink all your opponent’s ships to win — the loser does whatever dare was agreed at the start.
Your fleet:
- Carrier — 4 cells
- Destroyer — 3 cells
- Submarine — 3 cells
- Patrol — 2 cells
Getting Started
You can find Battleships from the Games Hub:
Click the Battleships card to go to the create page.
Three Ways to Play
1. Create a Challenge Thread (Recommended)
This is the main way to play. You post a dare in the Battleships category, and other members can accept your challenge right from the thread.
From the Battleships category page, click the New challenge button:
This opens a thread with your dare as a challenge card. Other members will see a “Play against @you” button on your card. While you wait for a challenger, you can click “Set up your fleet” to place your ships in advance.
Here’s what a challenge thread looks like with multiple challenges:
2. Share a Private Link
From the Create page, write your dare and click “Create & share link”:
You’ll get a link to send directly to someone — no forum post needed. Good for when you already know who you want to play.
3. Play vs Jinx (Solo)
Want to practice or just have fun? Click “Play vs Jinx” on the create page. Jinx will place ships automatically and you can play right away — no waiting for an opponent.
Responding to a Challenge
When you see a challenge card in a thread, click “Play against @username” to accept it. You’ll be taken straight to the ship placement screen, and the challenger will get a notification that you’ve joined.
You can also Reply to any Battleships thread to post your own challenge.
Creating Your Own Challenge in Someone’s Thread
Every challenge card has a “+ Create your own” button. Click it to post a new challenge as a reply in the same thread. The dare text is pre-filled from the original, but you can edit it. This keeps related challenges together in one thread instead of spreading them across multiple topics.
Placing Your Ships
Once you’re in a game, you’ll see the placement screen:
- Select a ship from the list on the left
- Click a cell on the grid to place it
- Press R to rotate between horizontal and vertical
- Click a placed ship to remove it and try again
- Use the Random button if you want a quick random layout
- Click Reset to clear and start over
- When you’re happy, the Lock In Fleet button will appear — click it to finalize
Both players place ships at the same time. You can’t see your opponent’s ships, and they can’t see yours.
The Battle
Once both players have locked in their fleets, the battle begins:
- Your Fleet (left) shows your ships and where your opponent has fired
- Target Grid (right) is where you fire at your opponent
- Click any cell on the target grid to fire when it’s your turn
- Red = hit, White with dot = miss
- When you sink a ship, you’ll see it revealed on the target grid
- The fleet panels below each grid track which ships have been sunk
Players alternate turns. Sink all 4 of your opponent’s ships to win!
After the Game
When the game ends, you’ll see who won and the dare that’s owed. The challenge card in the thread updates automatically to show the result.
You can propose a rematch right from the end screen — the dare proposer switches each round, so the loser gets to set the stakes next time.
Tips
- Set up your fleet early — if you’re the challenger, place your ships while waiting for someone to accept. You’ll be ready to battle the moment they join.
- Spread your ships out — clustering them together makes it easier for your opponent to chain hits.
- Watch the sunk ships panel — it tells you what your opponent still has floating, so you know what size ship to hunt for.
- You can forfeit if you need to leave mid-game — click the forfeit button rather than just closing the tab, so your opponent gets the win.
- Games expire after 2 hours of inactivity, so don’t leave your opponent hanging too long between turns.