Support

Help with Stelline

Everything the game does, in one page. If your question is not here, write to us.

How do I play?

Place one queen (or, in 2 stars mode, two stars) in every row, every column and every colour region, and never let two pieces touch, not even diagonally. Every board has exactly one solution, checked before it is shown to you.

Stelline plays Star Battle-style logic puzzles. The board is a square grid divided into colour regions (or bordered regions in the Classic theme). There are as many regions as rows.

What are the rules in 1 queen mode?

• Every row holds exactly one queen.
• Every column holds exactly one queen.
• Every region holds exactly one queen.
• Two queens never touch — not side by side, not diagonally.

What are the rules in 2 stars mode?

• Every row, every column and every region holds exactly two stars.
• Two stars never touch, not even diagonally.

Every board has exactly one solution, and the game checks that before it shows you the board. On every tier except Expert in 2 stars mode there is always a next step the hint ladder can name. Most Expert 2 stars boards are explained step by step too; a few need what-if reasoning the ladder cannot explain (see Hints).

Learn on the Home screen holds First steps, a lesson played on a real board that teaches the rules and the controls, and the six-slide summary The rules at a glance. (Before version 1.4 the slides were the How to play button.)

Which modes and board sizes are there?

Two modes: 1 queen on boards from 6×6 to 11×11, and 2 stars on boards from 9×9 to 11×11, each graded Easy to Expert where the tier is offered. Pick the mode and the size on the Home screen; the choice applies to the next New puzzle.

• 1 queen: sizes 6×6 to 11×11. Difficulty Easy, Medium, Hard or Expert.
• 2 stars: sizes 9×9 to 11×11. Difficulty Medium, Hard or Expert.

The game remembers the size and difficulty you last used in each mode.

Besides ordinary boards there are Today's board and the archive under Compete, and, on iPhone since version 1.4, Tactics, a three-minute rush of positions to read.

How do the controls work?

Tap a cell to cycle it through empty, dot and queen (or star); drag across cells to dot a whole run. Undo, Redo, Clear and New puzzle sit under the board, and Hint in the toolbar.

Tap a cell

Cycles it: empty → dot → queen (or star) → empty.

Drag across cells

Dots every cell you cross. Start the drag on a dot you placed yourself to erase dots instead. Starting on a queen or star does nothing, so you cannot drag a piece away by accident. One drag is one undo step.

Undo, Redo, Clear

Under the board. Clear empties the whole board and can itself be undone. Undo history is saved with the game.

Hint

In the toolbar. See Hints.

New puzzle / Next puzzle

Generates a fresh board of the selected mode, size and difficulty. The board you leave is not kept; only the game you are currently playing is saved.

What do dots, X marks, queens and stars mean?

A dot (or an X, if you prefer) marks a cell where no piece can go; a queen or a star is the piece itself, and which one you see is only a drawing choice. Only the pieces count towards solving the board.

A dot means “no queen or star can go here”. It is a note to yourself; the game ignores dots when deciding whether the puzzle is solved, so a stray dot never blocks a win. If you prefer the traditional look, Settings → Mark switches the dot to an X. The meaning is the same.

The piece you place is drawn as a crown on 1 queen boards and a star on 2 stars boards. Settings → Piece can force a queen or a star on every board, or, on iPhone since version 1.4, one of four drawn pieces: a donut, a cat, an elf or a teddy bear. Again, only the drawing changes; the rules and the labels still speak of queens and stars.

What do Auto-dots and Auto-check do?

Auto-dots place dots for you where nothing can go: around every queen or star you place (on by default) and, if you turn it on, in rows, columns and regions that are already complete. Auto-check stripes in red any pieces that touch or exceed what a row, column or region may hold. All three are optional.

• Auto-dots around a queen or star (on by default): placing a piece dots its eight neighbours, because nothing can touch it. Removing the piece removes the dots it caused — and only those; dots you placed yourself stay.
• Auto-dots for completed lines and regions (off by default): once a row, column or region has all its queens or stars, its remaining cells are dotted.
• Auto-check (on by default): pieces that touch, or that exceed what a row, column or region may hold, are striped in red. Turn it off in Settings if you prefer to find conflicts yourself.

To remove an automatic dot, tap the cell twice (the first tap turns it into a queen or star, the second empties it), or use the Clear cell VoiceOver action. Drag-erase only removes dots you placed yourself.

How do hints and “Show me where” work?

Hints are unlimited and come in stages, so you only get as much help as you ask for: first two counters that say how many queens and dots are misplaced without saying where, then Show me where, which highlights the next logical step (or the mistake) and can apply the fix for you. Every stage counts as a hint.

1. Counters. The first tap shows two numbers: misplaced queens (pieces that are not on a solution cell) and misplaced dots (dots sitting where a queen or star belongs). It never says where. Zero and zero means everything on the board is right so far; anything else means it is time to undo.
2. Show me where. If something is misplaced, the game highlights the region (or regions) that holds the mistake, then, on the next tap, the exact cells, and finally offers to Clear them. If the board is all correct, it instead highlights the row, column or region behind the next logical step — or the cells themselves when the step spans several units — then shows the cells with a preview of the dots and pieces the step settles, names the technique, and can Do it for you. Since version 1.6, Learn this next to it opens the idea’s lesson and comes back to your game; every idea is also explained on the techniques page.
3. Reveal. Only when no logical step is available (which is rare, and only on Expert 2 stars boards) the game offers to place one solution queen or star.

Using a hint means the board will not earn the Flawless badge, which is reserved for solves with no hints and no conflicts.

What do the difficulty levels mean?

Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert describe the reasoning a board needs, not its size: Easy and Medium boards are solved by direct deductions, Hard adds several counting steps or the advanced counting techniques, and Expert needs what-if reasoning.

Before a board is offered, a deduction engine solves it with the techniques a person would use, from “dot the neighbours of a piece” to counting arguments across several regions, and grades it from the reasoning it needed. The grade does not depend on the board size.

Easy

Simple steps all the way: forced cells, neighbours, lines locked in a region.

Medium

A few moments where you must weigh two or three cells against each other, or count queens across regions.

Hard

Several counting steps, or the advanced counting techniques (squeezes, set differences, fish), in both modes. Still pure deduction: no what-if step.

Expert

In 1 queen mode, the board needs one-level what-if reasoning (“what if a queen went here?”, never nested), possibly at more than one point. In 2 stars mode, the board needs what-if reasoning (“what if a star went here?”), possibly more than one level; a few boards go beyond what the hints can explain, and the caption under the difficulty picker says so.

Is there a colour-blind mode or a Classic theme?

Yes. Settings offers a Colour-blind mode with high-contrast colours and thicker borders, a Classic black-and-white theme, and a light, dark or system appearance. Region borders are drawn in every theme, so colour is never the only cue.

• Colour-blind mode (Settings) swaps the pastel palette for high-contrast colours chosen so that every pair of neighbouring regions stays distinct under the common forms of colour vision deficiency, and thickens the region borders.
• Classic theme draws the traditional black-and-white Star Battle look: white cells (near-black in dark appearance), a light grid and heavy region borders, with no colours at all.
• Appearance follows your phone’s light or dark setting, or you can pin one. Dark appearance uses softer region colours.
• Region borders are always drawn, in every theme, so colour is never the only cue.

Is my game saved when I leave the app?

Yes. Your game is saved after every move, with its undo history and the time so far, and the Home screen shows Continue when you come back. The timer pauses whenever the app is not in front.

• The timer starts when a board appears and pauses whenever the app is not in front. Hide it with Settings → Show timer; it keeps counting quietly.
• Your game is saved after every move, including the undo and redo history. Quit, switch apps or restart the phone: the Home screen shows Continue with the board size and time so far.
• One ordinary game is kept: the one in progress. Starting a new puzzle replaces it. Today's boards are kept separately, one per mode per day, so leaving one for another board and coming back keeps your marks and your time (see below).
• Everything is stored on your phone only. See Privacy.

Is Today's board the same for everyone?

Yes. Today's board is the same board for every player for 24 hours, on iPhone and on Android, keyed to the UTC date and generated on your phone, so no connection is needed. On iPhone, optional Game Center leaderboards, off by default, let you compare your time on it with other players; leaderboards are on iPhone only for now.

• Today's board is the same board for every player for 24 hours: a 9×9 board in 1 queen mode and a 10×10 board in 2 stars mode, both generated on your phone from the date, so no connection is needed. The same puzzle engine runs on iPhone and Android, so it is the same board on both. The day changes at midnight UTC; the card on Home shows the next change in your local time.
• The card shows each mode's state: not played yet, in progress with the time so far, or solved with your time and whether it was flawless. Leaving Today's board for another board does not lose it: come back through the card and your marks, undo history and clock are restored. A day you have played is never regenerated differently, even after an app update.
• Leaderboards are on iPhone only for now (the Android app has none in version 1.0). They are optional and run by Apple's Game Center, and off until you turn on Game Center in Settings or accept the prompt from the trophy button or the Solved screen. When on, the app posts your time on Today's board (and whether the solve was flawless) to the day's leaderboard for that mode; lower is better, and the leaderboards reset daily. Other players see the nickname and avatar of your Game Center profile, as Apple's settings allow. There are no prizes.
• Compete. Today's board, the numbered archive (#1 is 12 September 2026, one number per day in each mode) and Enter a code live under Compete. On these boards Auto-check, auto-dots and hints are off for everyone, whatever your settings, so every time is made on equal terms; your settings still apply to ordinary boards. Past boards can be played any day; their times stay on your phone and are not posted.
• Times are measured by the app on your device; there is no server and no anti-cheat beyond Apple's. Treat the leaderboard as a friendly comparison, not a competition with stakes.
• Turn Game Center off any time in Settings: the app stops signing in and posting. Boards, marks and times stay on your phone either way. What is sent to Apple, and by whom it is processed, is described in the privacy policy.

What is Tactics?

Tactics (iPhone, version 1.4) is a three-minute rush of positions to read. Every position is a board part-way through a solve, with the eliminations so far shown as dots. Tap the cell where a queen (or a star) can be proven right now.

• Scoring. A right tap scores a point and moves on to the next position. Any queen of the solution that the board does not show yet counts as right, not only the one the engine had in mind.
• Misses. A wrong tap costs one of three lives and stops the clock. The game shows the answer, tints the cells of the idea that proves it, and names the technique with a one-line reason; tap Next to go on. Three misses end the run.
• The clock. Three minutes, counted only while a position is waiting for your answer: not while the next position is being found, not while a miss is on screen. Leaving the screen ends the run as it stands.
• Where the positions come from. The same deduction engine as the hints solves a freshly generated board and cuts a position out at the moment one idea proves a piece. Positions where a blind tap would be right too often are dropped. A run starts on 6×6 one-queen boards and works up to 10×10 two-star boards.
• Your best score stays on the phone; nothing is posted. Tactics is on the Home screen next to Learn and Compete, and uses your piece, theme and colour-blind settings.

What do the lessons under Learn teach?

Learn (version 1.4 on iPhone, version 1.0 on Android; the Techniques and Advanced lessons since 1.6 on both) holds lessons you play on a real board, one move at a time, with you making every move.

• First steps teaches the rules and the controls: tap to cycle a cell, drag to dot a run, undo. It opens by itself the first time the app runs; Skip goes to the Home screen and the lesson waits under Learn.
• Two stars introduces 2-star mode on a board where two stars share each row, column and region.
• Techniques: one lesson per idea of the solver (last cells, nosy neighbours, line locks, two-by-two blocks, exclusion, clumps, container consumption, counting, X-wing, finned count). Each explains the idea on a real position with the cells highlighted, has you make the deduction, then shows the same idea on a second board. Practice this idea at the end serves fresh positions keyed on that idea, untimed and without lives, with a counter of solved positions. The same ideas are explained with example boards on the techniques page.
• Advanced: squeezes, set differences and fish in the same shape, and the what-if step: suppose a queen on the cell shown, place the queen it forces, see the contradiction, then dot the cell on a fresh copy of the board.
• The rules at a glance, the six-slide summary of the rules and controls, is under Learn as well. A finished lesson shows a check next to its title; you can replay any lesson.

What are what-if marks?

A way to try a move you are not sure of (version 1.6 on both platforms, off by default). Switch on What-if marks in Settings; a What if? button then sits above Undo. From that point your marks are drawn hollow in the accent colour, so they read apart from the firm ones. Keep makes them firm; Drop removes them all in one step, and Undo brings a dropped branch back. One branch at a time; Clear empties the whole board, branch included, as one step you can undo.

Does Stelline work with VoiceOver, TalkBack and Dynamic Type?

Yes. On iPhone, every cell is a VoiceOver element with actions to mark, place and clear, all controls scale with Dynamic Type, Reduce Motion turns off the animations, and haptics can be switched off. On Android, TalkBack reads every cell and the font size and remove-animations settings are respected.

• VoiceOver: every cell is announced with its state, region colour name, row and column, and offers the actions Mark dot (or Mark X), Place queen (or Place star) and Clear cell. Hints, banners and the difficulty badge are labelled.
• Dynamic Type: all controls scale with your text size; the board never gets clipped, even at the largest accessibility sizes.
• Reduce Motion: the generating shimmer, the banner and Solved transitions, the hint-highlight animation and the completion badge bounce are disabled when it is on.
• Haptics can be turned off in Settings.
• Android: TalkBack reads every cell with its piece, region colour, row and column; the phone's font size and remove-animations settings are respected.

Which devices run Stelline?

iPhone and iPad running iOS or iPadOS 26 or later, Apple-silicon Macs, and 64-bit Android phones and tablets running Android 9 or later, Chromebooks included. Stelline works entirely offline and comes in seven languages.

• iPhone and iPad running iOS or iPadOS 26 or later (the iPad since version 1.6). Earlier versions of iOS cannot install the app.
• Android phone or tablet running Android 9 or later, 64-bit. Stelline for Android is on Google Play. It is the same game with the same puzzle engine; tablets and Chromebooks since version 1.6.
• Portrait on phones; tablets and the iPad rotate, with the board beside its controls in landscape. Not available for Apple Watch.
• No internet connection is needed, ever. Nothing is downloaded after installation. The Android app requests no permissions at all.
• English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and Brazilian Portuguese. The app follows the phone's language; on iPhone, Settings, Apps, Stelline, Language lets you choose another, and on Android 13 or later, Settings, Apps, Stelline, Language does the same. This website and support are in English.

Does Stelline run on a Mac?

Yes, on Apple-silicon Macs: the iPad app is on the Mac App Store, verified for macOS, with the same purchase. Since version 1.6.1 it has a menu bar and keyboard shortcuts.

• File: New puzzle ⌘N (it asks first while a game is in progress). Edit: Undo ⌘Z, Redo ⇧⌘Z, for the game or the lesson on screen. Settings ⌘,.
• Game: Hint ⌘/, What if? ⌘E, Keep ⌘↩, Drop ⇧⌘E, Clear ⌘⌫.
• Go: Home ⌘1, Learn ⌘2, Tactics ⌘3, Compete ⌘4, The rules at a glance, Common two-star shapes.
• On the board: the arrow keys move a ring from cell to cell, Space or Return cycles the cell (empty, dot, piece), Escape takes the ring away or closes a sheet. Right-click a cell for Mark dot, Place queen or star, and Clear cell. The trackpad or mouse clicks and drags like a finger.
• The same shortcuts work on an iPad with a keyboard; hold ⌘ to see them. On Android tablets and Chromebooks the same commands take Ctrl (from the next Android update).

What does Stelline collect?

Nothing. Stelline has no network access, no account, no analytics, no ads and no third-party code; its App Store privacy label reads “Data Not Collected” and its Google Play Data safety section says no data is collected or shared. The one optional exception, on iPhone, is Apple's Game Center for the daily leaderboards, off by default and described above; the Android app requests no permissions at all, not even internet access. Your settings and your saved game stay on your phone and are deleted with the app. Full details are in the privacy policy.

How do I report a problem?

Use the contact form below or email support@stelline.page, whether it is a bug, a board that looks wrong or something the hints explain badly. For ideas and feature requests, the ideas board is the best place: others can vote on them.

Because the app sends nothing to us, we cannot see your game. The following helps us reproduce a problem:

• Phone model and OS version (iPhone: Settings → General → About; Android: Settings → About phone).
• Stelline version, shown in the app under Settings → About.
• The mode, board size and difficulty, and what you did just before the problem.
• A screenshot of the board if you can. If you think a board has more than one solution, a screenshot of the empty board is all we need.

Contact form

The form is hosted by Tally and needs no account. Only what you type is sent. If it does not load here, open it in its own tab.

Where can I suggest a feature or see the roadmap?

On the public ideas board at stelline.featurebase.app, which lists what is planned and what other players asked for. You can vote and post there as a guest, no account needed. Ideas sent through the contact form end up on the same board.