Core Rules
Meowdoku follows four non-negotiable rules for every board:
Each colored region holds exactly one cat, no more and no fewer
Every row and every column holds exactly one cat
No two cats may sit next to each other, including diagonally adjacent squares
Every puzzle has exactly one reachable solution that can be found using pure deduction, with zero guesswork required
The control scheme is simple: tap any empty cell to mark a cross to rule it out, double-tap to place a cat, and tap an existing cat to remove it. You get 3 fish crackers (lives) per puzzle, and one life is lost if you place a cat in an invalid square. There are no paid shortcuts to skip levels or buy extra lives.
Game Modes and Difficulty
Meowdoku offers four distinct board sizes that scale in difficulty:
Easy: 5×5 board, suitable for new players learning basic patterns
Normal: 7×7 board, for players familiar with core rules
Hard: 9×9 board, with longer deduction chains
Extreme: 10×10 board, the largest challenge for experienced players
Your best completion time for each board size is saved locally on your device. Beyond free play, the game includes a Daily Challenge that gives every player the same single puzzle per day, and a Campaign mode with hand-picked levels that gradually introduce more advanced deduction patterns.
How It Compares to Sudoku
Meowdoku shares the one-symbol-per-row, one-symbol-per-column structure of classic Sudoku, but replaces numbers with cats, fixed 3×3 boxes with irregular colored regions, and adds the no-adjacency rule. This makes Meowdoku a spatial visual puzzle instead of a numeric puzzle, so players do not need to do any arithmetic to solve boards. Many players who find traditional Sudoku dry prefer Meowdoku for its focus on adjacency and elimination pattern spotting.
The browser version of Meowdoku works on all modern devices including iPhones, Android phones, iPads, Windows computers, and Macs. It automatically adapts to different screen sizes, and you can install it as a lightweight native-style app using your browser's Add to Home Screen menu. Your best times, daily streak, and campaign progress are stored locally on your device, so no account creation or internet connection is required to access your saved data once the page loads. Native apps are also available for free on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for offline play.
Solving Tips
The official strategy guide recommends the following practices to solve puzzles efficiently:
Place cross marks to rule out impossible squares aggressively before you place any cat
After every cat placement, mark all 8 surrounding squares as invalid immediately
Prioritize solving the smallest, most constrained colored regions first, especially corner and edge regions that have fewer legal possible positions
If a colored region is squeezed entirely inside a single row or column, you can cross out every other square in that line outside the region
If you get stuck, scan for rows or columns that already have multiple adjacent cats marked as invalid, as these often only have one remaining valid position for a cat
If you reach a contradiction where two cats would have to touch, or a region has no remaining valid squares for a cat, backtrack to find your earlier mistake, since no valid puzzle requires guessing
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