Beginner guide
How to Play Meowdoku
Meowdoku is a cat logic puzzle you solve by pure deduction — no math, no guessing. This guide walks you through the goal, the three rules, the controls, and your very first move.
The goal
Every Meowdoku board is a grid split into colored regions. Your job is to place cats on the board so that the whole grid obeys three rules at once. When every region, row, and column has exactly one cat and no two cats touch, the puzzle is solved. Each board has a single correct answer you can always reach by logic alone.
The three rules
- 1One cat per region. Each colored region holds exactly one cat — no more, no fewer.
- 2One cat per row and column. Every row and every column holds exactly one cat, just like Sudoku.
- 3Cats can’t touch. No two cats may sit in neighboring squares — horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
That third rule is what makes Meowdoku special. Every cat you place fences off all eight squares around it, so one good placement often forces several more.
The controls
You play a whole board with two simple taps:
- Tap a cell mark it with an ✕
- Double-tap a cell place a cat there
- Tap a cat again to remove it
You start each board with three fish crackers — your lives. Placing a cat that breaks a rule costs one fish cracker, so the ✕ marks are your safety net: the more carefully you rule out impossible squares first, the fewer mistakes you make.
Your first move
Open a fresh board and look for a colored region that has only one or two squares left. In a 5×5 board, the corner regions are often the easiest because they wrap around fewer neighboring cells. Place an ✕ on any square that violates a rule, then scan again — a region that looked open may now have only one legal cell left.
After placing your first cat, cross out every square around it — rows, columns, and all eight neighbors. The board shrinks quickly, and you’ll spot the next forced cat within a few seconds. If you get stuck, use a hint. Hints never reveal the answer — they point to a cell that is forced by the rules you already placed.
Boards and modes
Meowdoku boards come in three sizes: Easy (5×5), Normal (7×7), and Hard (9×9). Larger boards have more regions, more cats, and longer deduction chains, but the three rules never change. You can play a single free puzzle, tackle the daily challenge (the same board for everyone each day), or work through the campaign of 50 hand-crafted levels that grow from 5×5 up to 9×9.