How to Play Meowdoku
Place exactly one cat in every row, column, and colored region. Cats cannot touch, including at a corner. Those are the rules of the Meowdoku gameplay implemented on this site.
This guide describes our independent browser version, with three teaching boards and nine practice puzzles. Our boards and controls do not correspond to the official app's numbered levels.
Read the board
The grid is divided into connected colored regions. Each region needs one cat, regardless of how many squares it contains. A five-by-five board needs five cats; a six-by-six board needs six.
A square can be empty, contain a cat, or carry an × exclusion mark. An × is your note that a cat cannot go there. It does not count toward completing a row or region.
Every cat must satisfy all the rules at once:
- Its row contains no other cat.
- Its column contains no other cat.
- Its region contains no other cat.
- None of the eight immediately neighboring squares contains a cat.
The diagonal rule
Cats must not touch at a corner. For example, a cat at row 2, column 2 conflicts with another at row 3, column 3.
This is a neighboring-square restriction, not a ban on the entire diagonal. A cat at row 4, column 4 is far enough away from row 2, column 2 to satisfy the distance rule. That placement still needs to satisfy the row, column, and region rules.
Mouse and touch controls
Choose Place cat to place cats or Mark × to record exclusions. Select a square to apply the chosen mark. Select the same mark again to clear it. Changing modes changes what your next selection does.
Use Undo to reverse your most recent board edit. Undo history is kept for the current session; it is not restored after a refresh.
Use Reset if you want to start the current puzzle again. Confirm the reset in the game before the board clears. Reset applies to the selected puzzle.
Keyboard controls
Move focus into the board before using its shortcuts.
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Arrow keys | Move between squares |
| Enter or Space | Apply the currently selected mode |
| C | Toggle a cat on the focused square |
| X | Toggle an exclusion mark on the focused square |
The focused square shows where your next keyboard action will apply. The mode buttons remain available if you prefer to choose the action before selecting a square.
Use a hint without confusing it with a reveal
Explain a step looks for a supported deduction and explains it. It may identify a square ruled out by an existing cat or the only remaining candidate in a row, column, or region. Choose Apply this step if you want the game to make that change.
A logical hint is not always available. Reveal one cat (assisted) can supply a placement from the solution when you choose more help. It is not presented as a deduction you have established yourself. Using either an explained hint or a reveal marks the run as Assisted.
Hints depend on the board state. If your placements or exclusions have led to a contradiction, revisit them with Undo or Reset rather than continuing to build on an uncertain mark.
A useful solving routine
After placing a cat, inspect its whole row, column, and region, then its neighboring squares. Mark the places that cat rules out.
Next, look for a row, column, or region with only one candidate left. That remaining square must hold a cat if your earlier marks are correct. After placing it, repeat the check. A region with no candidates is a reason to review earlier decisions.
There is no need to put a cat in a square just because it looks likely. An exclusion mark can record a deduction while you examine the rest of the board.
Saving and returning
The game saves puzzle marks, timing, hint and assistance state, and the selected puzzle through an anonymous server save associated with a browser cookie. Use the same browser and keep its site data if you want to return to that save.
A save needs a working connection. If it fails, the open session remains playable, but unsaved changes may be lost when you refresh or close it. Clearing cookies or changing browsers can remove access to the saved progress. Read the privacy notice for the data-handling details.
Play Meowdoku or send feedback about a board or control that is unclear.