Meowdoku Tips · A Reasoning Guide
Every Meowdoku level can be solved by pure logic — no guessing. These four techniques, ordered from easy to hard, cover all 120 levels; the first two alone will carry you through almost every 5×5 and 6×6 board.
First, the three rules
- 1 cat per color — exactly one in every region;
- 1 cat per row & column — exactly one in every row and column;
- Cats never touch — no two cats on adjacent cells, diagonals included.
Controls: tap a cell to cross it out, double-tap or right-click to place a cat, press and drag to batch-cross. Start each board by crossing out the obviously impossible cells — a cleaner board reasons better.
Technique 1: forced single (beginner)
If a row, a column or a region has only one un-crossed cell left, the cat goes there — place it. This is the foundation of everything; the first twenty levels barely need more. After each correct placement, watch the counter and the auto-elimination demo: they flag the new forced singles for you.
Technique 2: elimination cascade (beginner)
Every placed cat immediately crosses out its whole row, column and region, plus the 3×3 neighborhood around it (cats never touch). Cascades like these constantly create new forced singles. The three-part demo after each correct placement traces exactly this chain: region → rows and columns → neighborhood.
Technique 3: region pointing (intermediate)
If all remaining candidates of one region sit in a single row (or column), then that line's cat belongs to this region — cross out every other region's cells on that line. The key mid-level technique on 7×7 and 8×8 boards.
Technique 4: subset locking (advanced)
When the candidates of k regions are squeezed into exactly k rows (or columns), those lines are fully booked by those k regions — every other region's candidates there can be crossed out. Hard 8×8 and 9×9 boards often need this, together with small proofs by contradiction: assume a cat on a cell, follow the eliminations a few steps, and if some row, column or region is left with no candidate at all, that cell was never the answer.
Practical habits
- Cross first:batch-eliminate the impossible cells early — the cleaner the board, the easier the thinking;
- Hunt small regions:two- and three-cell regions are the strongest clues and usually fall first;
- Mistakes are information:a wrong placement tells you which rule it broke — that's a clue in itself;
- Use the toolbar:undo and hints (3 per level) sit right above the board; settings also has a pressure-free zen mode;
- Stuck? Switch:levels unlock in order but nothing forces a streak — jump into the level picker and change boards.
The difficulty curve
Levels 1–20 are 5×5 warm-ups, 21–40 are 6×6, 41–60 are 7×7, 61–75 are 8×8, and 76–120 are the 9×9 endgame, each size ramping up internally. The daily puzzle is easiest on Monday and hardest on Sunday. Want to check a board you're building? Try the Meowdoku Solver.