How to Play Meowdoku

Meowdoku is a cat logic puzzle, a bit like sudoku. Fill the board with cats using nothing but logic.

The rules

Every board is an N×N grid split into N colored regions. Place cats so that:

• Every row has exactly one cat.
• Every column has exactly one cat.
• Every colored region has exactly one cat.
• No two cats touch, not even diagonally.

Each level has exactly one solution, so you never need to guess. When all cats are placed and none are clashing, the level is solved.

Controls

• Tap a cell to cycle: empty, then a × (no cat here), then a cat, then empty again. Tapping the same cell quickly counts as one step for Undo.
• Drag across cells to mark a whole line of × at once.
• On 9×9 boards, a magnifier appears above your finger so you can see the cell you are touching.
• Keyboard: arrow keys move, Space cycles, X marks, C places a cat, Z undoes, H gives a hint.
• Open the gear for Auto dots (grays out cells that are blocked by cats you already placed), Show clashes and Sound.
• The sleepy cat on Easy and Hard boards is a free starter. It is locked in place.

Solving tips

1. Start with the smallest region. A region with only one or two cells has very few options, so it is the best place to begin.
2. Mark the cells a cat rules out. A cat blocks its whole row, column, region and all eight neighbors. Marking them with × keeps the board easy to read.
3. Look for regions stuck in one line. If every open cell of a region sits in the same row, that row's cat must belong to the region, so every other cell in that row can be crossed out. The same works for columns.
4. Test a cell in your head. If putting a cat in a cell would leave some row, column or color with nowhere to go, that cell must be empty.

FAQ