Love Two Not Touch? Here's How to Play More Star Battle Puzzles
If you're hooked on the New York Times' Two Not Touch puzzle and wish there were more than two a day, you're not alone.
Two Not Touch has quietly become one of the most addictive puzzles in the Times — right up there with Wordle, Connections, and the daily crossword. Every day, thousands of solvers work through the easy and medium grids, and then… that's it. You have to wait until tomorrow.
But here's the thing: Two Not Touch isn't a puzzle the NYT invented. It's actually a well-known logic puzzle called Star Battle, and it's been around since 2003. The puzzle was created by Hans Eendebak for the World Puzzle Championship in the Netherlands. Will Shortz renamed it "Two Not Touch" for the Times because the original name didn't describe what you actually do — and "Two Not Touch" captures the core rule in three words.
Once you know that Two Not Touch and Star Battle are the same puzzle, a whole world of additional puzzles opens up.
What you get with the NYT version
The Times publishes two puzzles each day, Monday through Saturday: one easy, one medium. They're all 10×10 grids where you place 2 stars per row, column, and region. The puzzles are supplied by Jim Bumgardner of KrazyDad, who has been making Star Battle puzzles since 2005.
That's a great daily dose — but if you solve both in a few minutes and want more, you're stuck.
What you're missing
Star Battle puzzles come in a much wider range of sizes and difficulties than what the NYT offers:
Grid sizes: The NYT only has 10×10 grids. Star Battle puzzles also come in 8×8 (great for beginners or a quick solve) and 14×14 (a serious challenge that can take 30 minutes or more).
Star counts: The NYT always uses 2 stars. But the number of stars scales with grid size. 8×8 puzzles use 1 star per row/column/region. 14×14 puzzles use 3 stars. More stars means dramatically more complexity — placing 3 stars per region on a 14×14 grid is a completely different experience from the daily NYT puzzle.
Difficulty levels: Even within the same grid size, puzzles range from straightforward to fiendish. The NYT's "medium" difficulty corresponds to roughly the easier end of what competitive puzzle solvers would tackle. There are much harder puzzles out there that require advanced techniques like region intersection analysis and multi-step elimination chains.
Want to jump straight in? Our Star Battle Puzzles app has over 20,000 puzzles across all grid sizes with smart hints — or keep reading to learn more about what's out there.
Where to find more
There are several good options for playing more Star Battle / Two Not Touch puzzles:
Online (free): KrazyDad offers hundreds of free printable Star Battle puzzles in all three grid sizes and difficulty levels. These are the same puzzles that appear in the NYT. Puzzle Baron has an online solver with leaderboards and competitive solving.
Books: KrazyDad sells printed puzzle books on Amazon under the "Two Not Touch" name, ranging from beginner to diabolical difficulty.
Apps: This is where it gets interesting. A good Star Battle app adds things you can't get on paper — like smart hints that teach you solving strategies, instant error checking, and the ability to play anywhere without needing to print anything.
What to look for in a Star Battle app
Not all Star Battle apps are created equal. Here's what matters:
Hints that teach, not just tell. The best hints don't just highlight the next move — they explain why that move is correct. "This cell must be empty because placing a star here would leave no room for stars in row 7" teaches you a technique you can apply to every future puzzle. "This cell is wrong" teaches you nothing.
Multiple grid sizes. If an app only offers 10×10 grids, you're getting the same experience as the NYT. Look for 8×8 (for a quick solve), 10×10 (the NYT format), and 14×14 with 3 stars (for a real challenge).
No ads. Star Battle is a focus puzzle. You need to hold the entire grid in your head, tracking eliminated cells and possible star positions. An ad popping up mid-solve doesn't just interrupt — it destroys your working memory. Look for apps that are either ad-free or offer a one-time purchase to remove them.
Puzzles that are verified solvable by logic. Every puzzle should have exactly one solution reachable through deduction alone. No guessing, no trial and error. This matters more than you'd think — poorly constructed puzzles that require guessing are deeply unsatisfying.
Our take
We built Star Battle Puzzles because we're puzzle solvers ourselves and couldn't find an app that met all these criteria. We partnered with Puzzle Baron — who has been crafting logic puzzles since 2006 — to offer over 20,000 verified puzzles across all five grid sizes, from 8×8 one-star to 14×14 three-star.
Our hints explain the logic behind every move, so you're learning solving techniques, not just getting answers. There are no ads, no locked levels, and no daily limits — every puzzle is available from the moment you download the app.
If you've been wishing the NYT gave you more than two puzzles a day, give it a try. We offer 50 free plays so you can see if it clicks.
Download Star Battle Puzzles for
Star Battle Puzzles is made by Egghead Games, the team behind Logic Grid Puzzles (100,000+ downloads). We make puzzle apps with a "magazine-quality" philosophy: no ads, no gimmicks, just great puzzles.