How to play Torpedo
Hide your fleet, find theirs, sink it first. A battle takes a few minutes to learn and every rule variant is one switch away.
A battle in four steps
- Place your fleet. Drag each ship onto your 10 by 10 grid, across or down, never diagonal and never overlapping. Tap a ship to rotate it, or shuffle for a random layout. Online, your fleet is sealed the moment you are ready.
- Call a square. Tap a square in the enemy waters, from A1 to J10, to fire.
- Read the result. A miss marks open water. A hit marks part of a ship. When every square of a ship is hit, it sinks and the game tells you which ship it was.
- Sink the whole fleet. The first player to sink every enemy ship wins the battle.
New to the game itself? Our guide to the classic rules, ships and setup covers the paper version and its house rules, and the strategy guide shows how to win more often.
Two fleets
Pick the fleet your family grew up with.
| Fleet | Ships | Squares | Where it is popular |
|---|---|---|---|
| Classic | 5 ships of 5, 4, 3, 3 and 2 squares | 17 | The US, UK and the boxed board game |
| Classic 10 | 1 of 4, 2 of 3, 3 of 2 and 4 of 1 | 20 | Central and Eastern Europe, where it is played on paper, usually with ships kept apart |
Either fleet can be played with ships allowed to touch, or kept apart by at least one square of water.
Shot rules
| Hit Streak | One shot per turn, and every hit earns another. The default. |
|---|---|
| One Shot | One shot per turn, hit or miss. |
| 2 to 6 Shots | A fixed number of shots every turn, hit or miss. |
| Chainfire | One shot for every ship you still have afloat. |
| Salvo | Pick one target for every ship you still have afloat. Both sides fire at once, so a draw is possible. |
| Salvo-3 | Pick three targets every turn. Both sides fire at once. |
Add a turn timer of 10, 20, 30 or 60 seconds if someone at the table takes too long.
Advanced battles
Advanced battles add fuel and special weapons. Both sides earn one fuel each turn, and the cannon stays free. Before the battle you can also lay defenses: an AA Battery shoots down the first bomber or airstrike aimed into its two rows, and a hidden Sea Mine fires back at whoever hits it.
| Radar | 2 fuel | Counts the ship squares hidden in a 3×3 area. Nothing is fired. |
|---|---|---|
| Bomber | 3 fuel | Drops five bombs in a plus shape. |
| Torpedo | 4 fuel | Runs along a row from the left edge until it hits a ship. |
| Airstrike | 6 fuel | Hits every square of a 3×3 area. |
| Atomic Strike | 10 fuel | Hits every square of a 5×5 area, once per battle. |
Where the rules apply
Against the computer and with two players on one device, you set every rule. Ranked online play uses four fixed rule sets (Classic, 10 Ships, Salvo and Advanced), so ratings compare like with like. The Daily Challenge and weekly events bring their own twists, such as Fog, where the water around a sunk ship is never marked. See all modes on the features page.
How many ships are in a Torpedo fleet?
The classic fleet has five ships of 5, 4, 3, 3 and 2 squares, 17 squares in all. The 10-ship fleet has one ship of 4 squares, two of 3, three of 2 and four of 1, 20 squares in all.
Can ships touch?
You choose. By default ships may sit next to each other, as in the classic board game. Switch it off and ships must keep at least one square of water around them, corners included; then the water around a sunk ship is marked for you.
Who fires first?
A coin toss decides, and the game shows who fires first before the first shot. In a rematch or the next pass-and-play round, the other side opens. In your first few battles against the computer, you always fire first.
Can a battle end in a draw?
Only under Salvo rules, where both sides fire at the same moment. If both last ships go down in the same volley, the battle is a draw.
