Sea Battle

Each side has 10 ships: one of 4 squares, two of 3, three of 2 and four of 1. Ships never touch each other, not even at the corners. Hit a ship and you shoot again; miss, and it is your opponent’s turn. The first to sink all 10 enemy ships wins. Drag a ship to move it, tap it twice to turn it, or tap Shuffle for a new fleet. Then tap a square of the enemy’s waters to fire.

Online play uses Apple’s Game Center, so sign in to Game Center on your iPhone. Tap “Play online” on the home screen: find a random opponent, or invite a friend from Game Center. Matches are live: you’re both in the game from the first shot to the last. You have 30 seconds for each shot; if time runs out, the turn passes to your opponent. If no one turns up within about 15 seconds, the computer plays you, and the match counts like any other.

You lose. The same happens if you let your time run out three turns in a row. Switching to another app or locking your phone for 10 seconds or more counts as leaving, and so does losing your internet connection for about 8 seconds.

Not until the match ends. Until then your board stays on your phone: at the start the game sends only a sealed fingerprint of it, and when the match ends every hit and miss is checked against it, so nobody can move a ship or hide a hit.

With quick phrases: “Good luck!”, “Nice shot!” and “Good game!”, one tap each. The phrases are preset and there’s no open chat, so the talk stays friendly.

Online play needs the internet. The daily challenge also works offline.

On your device. It is included in your iPhone backup, and it is deleted if you delete the game.

No. This version of the game shows no ads and has no purchases.