Meowdoku rules, tips and strategy
Short answer: in Meowdoku you place one cat in every row, every column and every color area, and no two cats may touch, not even diagonally. You solve it by crossing out squares that can't hold a cat until each row, column and color has only one place left. The rules and techniques below work on every board, and you can practice them on the free Cat Sudoku puzzles on this site.
Cat Sudoku is an independent website. It is not affiliated with Meowdoku or its developer; this page only explains the shared puzzle rules and how to solve them.
Meowdoku rules
A Meowdoku board is a square grid split into colored areas. A board that is 7 squares wide has 7 rows, 7 columns and 7 colors, and you need to place 7 cats.
- Every row has exactly one cat.
- Every column has exactly one cat.
- Every color area has exactly one cat.
- Cats can't touch each other, side by side or corner to corner.
That's all. There are no numbers, and a well-made board has exactly one correct answer, so logic alone gets you there. Puzzle fans know the same idea as "one star" Star Battle; LinkedIn's Queens game uses the same rules with queens instead of cats.
How to play Meowdoku, step by step
- Find the smallest color area. An area with two or three squares has very few places for its cat. Start there.
- Mark the squares that can't hold a cat. Put an X on every square you know can't hold a cat (in Cat Sudoku that's one tap; a second tap places a cat). Marking X's is where the real solving happens.
- Place a cat only when it is the last option. When a row, column or color has a single unmarked square left, the cat goes there.
- Cross out around every cat. Each cat rules out its whole row, its whole column, its color area and the eight squares around it.
- Repeat until every row has its cat.
Meowdoku tips for beginners
Colors that sit inside one row or column
If every square of a color area lies in the same row, that row's cat must be in that area. Every other square in the row can be crossed out. The same goes for an area that fits inside one column.
The square of four
Any two-by-two block of squares can hold at most one cat, because cats can't touch. So if all the open squares of a color area (or of a row) sit inside one two-by-two block, that cat is somewhere in the block, and the block's other squares can't hold any cat. Cross them out.
Count areas against rows
If two color areas fit completely inside the same two rows, those two rows already belong to those two areas. Cross out every other square in those two rows. Three areas inside three rows works the same way, and so do columns. This one technique cracks most medium boards.
Ask "what would this cat block?"
Pick a square and imagine a cat on it. If that cat would leave some other row, column or color area with no open square at all, the square must be an X. Good players do this test quickly on the squares next to a small color area.
Meowdoku strategy for hard boards
On 8×8 and 9×9 boards the easy moves run out sooner. When you get stuck:
- Go back to counting. Look for groups of color areas packed into the same number of rows or columns. It is the most powerful move and the easiest to miss.
- Look at the edges. A color area along the border often has its open squares in one row or column.
- Check two-by-two blocks around areas that are almost finished.
- Never guess. If you can't prove a square, test it with the "what would this cat block" question instead of placing a cat and hoping.
Common mistakes
- Forgetting the diagonals. Two cats that meet only at a corner still break the rules. After placing a cat, cross out all four diagonal neighbors too.
- Placing a cat to "see what happens". A wrong cat sends you down a long path before anything looks off. Mark X's instead; they are cheap to undo.
- Only looking at colors. Rows and columns matter just as much. A row with two open squares left is often the fastest way in.
- Missing a color that has only one cat spot left. Scan every color area after each move. When an area is down to one open square, the cat goes there even if the row still has other options.
Practice the same rules for free
You can play these puzzles in your browser on Cat Sudoku: 320 levels from 5×5 to 9×9, a daily cat, an optional timer and auto-marking of blocked squares. Every board is checked to have exactly one answer. If you are stuck on a board somewhere else, the cat puzzle solver lets you copy the colors in and see where the cats go.