Royals (Puzzleship)

About Royals (Puzzleship)

Royals uses the Star Battle rules with crowns in place of stars. Three rules apply to the same board at once: one royal per row, one per column and one per coloured region, and no royal may sit next to another in any of the eight directions. With so many demands on each cell there is little freedom, and the puzzle is about finding where it runs out.

The coloured regions do most of the work. A small region has to hold its royal somewhere in a cramped space, which can rule out a row or column before you place anything. A region lying entirely in one row claims that row's royal. Players of LinkedIn's Queens will know the feel, since Queens uses the same family of rules.

Puzzleship publishes six boards of Royals a day, graded from very easy to ultra hard. Each day's boards are numbered and dated, the same for every player, and appear at midnight in your own time zone; earlier days stay playable in the archive. The site is free with ads, and a premium plan removes them.

How to play Royals (Puzzleship)

1. Open Royals and pick one of the day's six boards.
2. Find the smallest regions and the regions confined to one row or column.
3. Tap a cell to cycle it between marked, royal and empty.
4. Place one royal per row, column and region, keeping royals apart in all eight directions.
5. Finish when every row, column and region holds its royal.

Tips

• Start with the smallest region; its royal has very few places to go.
• A region inside a single row takes that row's royal, so clear the rest of the row.
• Remember diagonals: each royal blocks all eight neighbours.
• When choosing between two cells, prefer the one that blocks fewer cells in undecided regions.

Questions