How to Play Battleship Royale: Rules and Instructions

Objective of Battleship Royale

The objective of Battleship Royale is to be the last player/commander with one or more ships remaining.

Setup for Battleship Royale

Unsnap the grid from the storage tray.

Snap the four storage trays together at the corners. Position the two trays with dividers across from one another.

Line up the grid with the grooves in the storage trays. Snap the grid into place.

Inserting the grid into the storage trays

Separate the pegs by their colors. Place the orange pegs in the two storage trays without dividers. Place some green and red pegs in the two storage trays with dividers.

Each player takes a Command Center

There are two different gameplay modes in Battleship Royale. You should decide whether you want to play the Standard or Advanced game. While the two modes are similar, the rules do differ in some ways.

Setup for Standard Mode

Shuffle the blue Standard Mode cards. Return the red cards to the box.
Deal cards face down to each player. The number of cards you will deal each player depends on the number of players.
- 2-4 players: 5 Ship cards
- 5-6 players: 4 Ship cards
Look at your cards. Choose two of the cards to discard.
Each player places their remaining Ship cards into their Command Center. For 2-4 player games you should have three cards. For 5-6 player games you should have two cards.
The youngest player starts the game.

Choosing your Ship cards in Standard Mode — This player has these five Ship cards at the beginning of the game. They decided to keep the three cards they placed in their Command Center. The other two cards they decided to discard.

Playing Battleship Royale Standard Mode

Taking Shots

You will begin your turn rolling the die. The number you roll on the die determines how many shots you will make on your turn.

Standard Mode die roll in Battleship Royale — This player has rolled a two on the die. They will get to choose two coordinates on the grid to target.

You may shoot at any coordinates on the grid as long as no one has already shot at that location. The coordinates you pick do not need to be next to one another.

Determining Hits and Misses

When you call out the coordinates that you are shooting at, you will call them out one at a time. Once you call out a coordinate, you will wait for all of the other players to consult their Ship cards. Each player looks at their Ship cards to see if the coordinate is on one of them.

If the coordinate is listed on one of the player’s cards, they will call out hit. You will place a red Hit peg on the coordinate that you chose.

Placing a Hit peg on the grid — The current player chose A9 on the grid. One of the player’s Ship cards are on that location. The current player places a red Hit peg on A9.

The player whose ship was hit takes a orange Sunk peg. They will place it under the corresponding coordinate on the Ship card.

Marking a hit on a player's Command Center — This player had the ship on A9. They will place an orange Sunk peg on the corresponding spot on their Command Center.

If none of the players have the coordinate on one of their cards, your shot missed. You will place a green Miss peg on the coordinate that you chose.

Placing a Miss peg on the grid — For their second coordinate, this player picked B9. No one had a ship at that location so they place a Miss peg on B9.

You will then call out your next chosen coordinate. This continues until you have called a number of coordinates equal to the number you rolled on the die. You will end your turn by passing the die to the player on your left.

Sinking a Ship

Once a player places a orange Sunk peg underneath all of the coordinates on a Ship card, that ship has been sunk. You will tell the other players that your ship is sunk.

Place a Sunk peg on top of each of the Hit pegs that correspond to the sunk ship.

Placing Sunk pegs on the grid — The ship on A7-A9 has sunk. Sunk pegs are placed on top of each Hit peg to indicate that the ship was destroyed.

Hand the Ship card to the player who called out the last shot that sunk the ship. The player will place the card face up in front of them.

Claim Ship card in Standard Mode of Battleship Royale — The player who sunk this Destroyer card takes it. That player can use it now or on a future turn in order to take another shot.

Due to sinking a ship you get to take a bonus shot. You can take the bonus shot on your current turn by calling an additional coordinate. Otherwise you can wait to take the extra shot on another turn. When you take the bonus shot you will flip the Ship card that you sunk over to the other side.

Using a Ship card received in Standard Mode — This player has used the bonus shot form the Ship card they claimed. They will turn the card over to show that the bonus shot was used.

Winning Battleship Royale Standard Mode

Players will take turns rolling the die and calling out shots.

Once a player’s last Ship card is sunk, they are eliminated from the game.

Elimination in Standard Mode — All of this player’s Ship cards have sunk. They are eliminated from the game.

The game ends when all but one player are eliminated from the game. The last remaining player wins Battleship Royale.

Setup for Battleship Royale Advanced Mode

Shuffle the red Advanced Mode cards. Return the blue cards to the box.
Separate the Ship cards from the Submarine cards. Each player takes a Submarine card.
Shuffle the rest of the cards and deal them out facedown to the players based on the number of players.
- 2-4 players – 4 Ship cards
- 5-6 players – 3 Ship cards
Look at your cards. Choose two to discard. You cannot discard the Submarine card.
Place the Ship cards you kept in your Command Center. In 2-4 player games you should have two Ship cards and one Submarine card. In 5-6 player games you should have one Ship card and one Submarine card.

Advanced Mode starting Ship cards — This player has these five cards at the start of the game. The player has to keep the Submarine card. They also chose to keep the Patrol Boat and the Destroyer. They chose to discard the Aircraft Carrier and the Battleship.

Playing Battleship Royale Advanced Mode

The Advanced Mode of Battleship Royale is similar to the Standard Mode, but there are a couple differences.

Sonar Search

To begin your turn you can decide to use sonar. You can only use your sonar once during the game. If your Submarine is sunk before you can use your sonar, you lose the ability for the rest of the game.

When you choose to use sonar you will pick a row (letter) or column (number). You will tell the other players what row/column you choose. All of the players (including yourself) look at their Ship and Submarine cards to see if at least one of the cards have a coordinate that is in the row/column that you chose. Any player who has a ship or submarine in the row/column has to say “Ping!”. This includes the player who chose to use sonar. The player(s) don’t have to say the location or ship/submarine that the sonar hit.

Using sonar in Advanced Mode — The current player has decided to use their sonar on column 1. One of this player’s ships are on C1 so they have to say ping.

If one or more players say ping!, take a Hit peg (red) and place it in the first spot in the row/column that you used the sonar on. This indicates to all of the players that at least one ship/submarine is located in that row/column. If no one says Ping! place a green Miss peg in the row/column.

Placing a Hit peg in a sonar space — This player used their sonar on column 1. One or more players responded with ping. This means that there is one or more ships in the column. The players place a Hit peg in column one to alert the other players that there is a ship in the column.

Taking Your Shots

After you have used Sonar or chosen not to use it, you will roll the die. The number you roll on the die determines how many shots you will take on your turn.

Advanced Mode die roll — The current player rolled a three on the die. They will get to call out three shots on their turn.

Unlike the Standard Mode, you must call out all of the coordinates for your shots at the same time. Your shots do not need to be next to one another. You cannot shoot at a location that another player has already shot at though.

Determining Hits and Misses

After you have said all of the coordinates that you have shot at, the players will look at their Ship and Submarine cards. If any of their ships/submarines are hit, they will say which coordinates were hits.

Place pegs in each coordinate you chose based on if they were hits or misses.

Place red Hit pegs on coordinates with a hit.
Place green Miss pegs on coordinates with a miss.

Placing pegs on the grid in the Advanced Mode of Battleship Royale — For their turn this player called out shots for H10, I7, and J9. J9 received a hit, but the other two shots were misses.

The Advanced Mode does add one twist to the Standard Mode. Since there are submarines and ships, a ship and submarine could occupy the same space. When you call out a location, the shot will hit both a ship and submarine if both occupy the space. To indicate this on the grid, place two red Hit pegs on the space.

Double Hit in Advanced Mode — Two players have a ship on J9. This means that one player’s submarine was on the spot along with another player’s ship. Place two Hit pegs on the spot to indicate to players that there are two ships on the spot.

The other players will place orange Sunk pegs in the corresponding spots on their Ship/Submarine cards corresponding to the coordinates that were hits.

After all of the coordinates you called out are handled, your turn ends. Pass the die to the player on your left who takes the next turn.

Sinking a Ship and/or Submarine

You will mostly handle sinking Ships and Submarines in the same way as the Standard Game.

Once all of the coordinates of a ship/submarine have been hit, the corresponding ship/submarine is sunk. The player that controls the sunk card tells the other players. They will give the corresponding card to the player that sunk it.

Sinking a Ship card — All three coordinates of the Submarine card have been targeted. This player has lost their submarine.

Look at the card you just sunk. If you sunk a Ship card, you will receive bonus shots. The number of bonus shots you will take is equal to the number printed on the card. You can either take these shots right away, or you can use them on a future turn. When you choose to use the bonus shots, you must call out all of the coordinates at the same time. You will turn over the card when you choose to use the bonus shots.

Using bonus shots in Advanced Mode of Battleship Royale — This player sunk another player’s Battleship card. Sinking the ship gives them three bonus shots (symbol and number on picture). They can either use the shots right away, or they can hold them until a future turn.

Sinking a Submarine card gives you a bonus sonar action. You can choose to either use the ability right away or use it on a future turn. You will use the sonar ability in the same way as detailed above. The sonar ability must be used immediately or at the start of future turn. When you use the sonar ability, turn the Submarine card over to the other side.

Using bonus sonar action — This player sunk a Submarine card. They will get to take another sonar action at some point during the game.

Overlapping Ships/Submarines

Since a ship and a submarine can overlap the same space(s), there could be situations where the ship or submarine is sunk before the other one.

In this case do not put orange Sunk pegs on spaces shared between the two ships. This is done so the players know that there is still a ship or submarine in that location that hasn’t sunk yet.

Sinking overlapped ships — One of the players have sunk a ship that was on J7-9. Since another ship that is on J9 is still floating, no Sunk peg is placed on that spot.

Winning Battleship Royale Advanced Mode

Players will keep taking turns calling out shots.

When all of a player’s ships and submarine are sunk, they are eliminated from the game.

Eliminated from Battleship Royale Advanced Mode — This player has lost all three of their Ship/Submarine cards. They are eliminated from the game.

The game continues until only one player is still in the game. The last remaining player with a ship(s)/submarine left wins the game.

Battleship Royale FAQs

If you have any questions about how to play Battleship Royale, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.

Battleship Royale Components

Battle Grid
4 Storage Trays
30 Standard Mode Cards
30 Advanced Modes Cards
60 Hit Pegs
60 Miss Pegs
50 Sunk Pegs
5 Command Centers
Die (two 1’s, two 2’s, two 3’s)
Instructions

Year: 2023 | Publisher: Hasbro

Genres: Deduction, Family, Wargame

Ages: 8+ | Number of Players: 2-6 | Length of Game: 30 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: Moderate-High

Where to Purchase: Amazon, eBay Any purchases made through these links (including other products) help keep Geeky Hobbies running. Thank you for your support.