How do you move through a 2D array without for loops?

I am trying to build a treasure hunt game using test files I have been given. These texts files are of chars S,W,E,N and T which all correspond to directions except for T, which is the treasure. Everything works fine until it moves the length of the rows/columns. I suspect it has something to do with the for loops but I'm not certain. Is there a way to do this without for loops or does anyone have any advice to get this back on track?

Here is my Updated code so far:

import java.util.*;

public class NewGridGame {
    public static final int FALL_OFF = -1;
    public static final int GOING_IN_CIRCLES = -2;
    private int row;
    private int col;
    private char[][] gameBoard;

    NewGridGame(int conRow, int conCol, char[][] conGameBoard) {
        row = conRow;
        col = conCol;
        gameBoard = new char[row][col];
        for (int i = 0; i < gameBoard.length; i++) {
            for (int j = 0; j < gameBoard[i].length; j++) {
                gameBoard[i][j] = conGameBoard[i][j];
            }
        }
        System.out.println(Arrays.deepToString(gameBoard));
    }

    public int playGame() {
        boolean[][] beenHereBefore = new boolean[row][col];
        int turns = 0;
        int i = 0;
        int j = 0;
        while (true) {
            if (beenHereBefore[i][j] == true) {
                return GOING_IN_CIRCLES;
            } else {
                beenHereBefore[i][j] = true;
            }
            if (gameBoard[i][j] == 'N') {
                if (i - 1 >= 0) {
                    i--;
                    turns++;
                    System.out.println(turns);
                    System.out.println(gameBoard[i][j]);
                } else {
                    return FALL_OFF;
                }
            } else if (gameBoard[i][j] == 'S') {
                if (i + 1 < row) {
                    i++;
                    turns++;
                    System.out.println(turns);
                    System.out.println(gameBoard[i][j]);
                } else {
                    return FALL_OFF;
                }
            } else if (gameBoard[i][j] == 'E') {
                if (j + 1 < col) {
                    j++;
                    turns++;
                    System.out.println(turns);
                    System.out.println(gameBoard[i][j]);
                } else {
                    return FALL_OFF;
                }
            } else if (gameBoard[i][j] == 'W') {
                if (j - 1 >= 0) {
                    j--;
                    turns++;
                    System.out.println(turns);
                    System.out.println(gameBoard[i][j]);
                } else {
                    return FALL_OFF;
                }
            } else if (gameBoard[i][j] == 'T') {
                return turns;
            }
        }
    }
}

Here is an example of a test file as well.

ES
TW

this one should return 3, which is the number of moves (turns, in my code) but instead it gets to W (which takes 2 moves) and returns -2, which is only for when it's gone to a position more than once. Additionally, not all of the Arrays are squares, some are 1x200 or 4x5 for examples.

If you know that the board is such that, starting at (0, 0), you won't get stuck in a loop or move off the board you can just used something like this:

public int playGame()
{
int numMoves = 0; 
int currentRow = 0;
int currentCol = 0;
while(gameBoard[currentRow][currentCol] != 'T')
{
switch (gameBoard[currentRow][currentCol])
{
case 'E': currentCol++; break;
case 'W': currentCol--; break;
case 'S': currentRow--; break;
case 'N': currentRow++; break;
default:
throw new IllegalStateException("Unrecognized Move");
}
numMoves++;      	  	
}
return numMoves;
}

You may want to use if-then-else instead of a switch.

If you need to check for loops or off-board moves you should be able to add these checks in.