Cleaning Up After a Sinking
Level: Intermediate
Once a ship is confirmed sunk, clear the area around it to simplify your next search.
Once a string of hits sinks a ship, the cells surrounding it either can't hold another ship (under rules that disallow touching) or, if they can, must be treated as belonging to a separate ship. Clean up your tracking list the moment a sinking is confirmed.
If hits are scattered but no ship has been sunk yet, each hit could still belong to a different ship. Accurately counting confirmed sinkings is the key to effective tracking.
Always keep the sizes of the remaining ships in mind. Whether a two-cell ship is still alive, or a large ship remains, changes where you should aim next.
Related Tactics
Locking In a Direction
Once two consecutive cells are hit, target only the two ends of that line.
AdvancedTracking Remaining Ship Sizes
Remove sunk ships from consideration and adjust your search net to match the sizes left.