Meowdoku is easy to learn and hard to finish. These Meowdoku tips work on every board: put one cat in each colored region, keep every row and column to one cat, and never let two cats touch, not even diagonally. Most hard boards fall to three moves: fill the smallest regions first, use regions that sit in a single row or column to cross out the rest of that line, and test a square in your head before you spend a heart on it. Store details below were checked at 11:40 UTC on October 20, 2026, when Meowdoku! was the #1 free game on Apple’s US iPhone chart.
Table of Contents
Quick answer
- The rules: an N x N grid needs N cats, exactly one per color, row and column. Cats can’t be neighbors in any of the eight directions.
- Controls: double-tap a square to place a cat. You have three hearts, and a wrong cat costs one.
- Best first move: look for a region with one or two squares. A one-square region is a free cat.
- Best habit: cross out every square a new cat rules out (its row, its column and the eight squares around it) before you look for the next cat.
- Stuck? Ask “what if a cat went here?” If that would leave any color, row or column with no free square, the square is wrong.
- Ads: the game is free with ads. On iPhone, Meowdoku Premium costs $3.99 a week, $7.99 a month or $34.99 a year, but the store listing doesn’t say what it includes.
Meowdoku rules in one minute
Oakever Games’ App Store listing sums up the game as Sudoku logic with Minesweeper-style deduction. Every level shows the same three rule buttons above the board: “1 Cat per color”, “1 Cat per column & row” and “Cats cannot touch”. A counter shows how many cats you have found, and three hearts show how many mistakes you have left. The listing is blunt about guessing: every move “must be carefully calculated”.
If you play LinkedIn’s daily Queens puzzle, you already know Meowdoku. Queens uses the same rules (one queen per row, column and colored region, and queens can’t touch, even diagonally), with crowns where Meowdoku has cats. Every trick for Queens works here too.
The boards grow as you go. Oakever’s own store screenshots show the size jump:
| Level (store screenshot) | Grid | Cats to find | Hearts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | 5 x 5 | 5 | 3 |
| Level 24 | 7 x 7 | 7 | 3 |
| Level 80 | 9 x 9 | 9 | 3 |
| Later levels | 10 x 10 | 10 | 3 |
The 10-cat boards come from Android Central’s write-up (September 20, 2026). The same piece says that running out of hearts means starting the level over, and that some levels give you one cat at the start.
Level 1 in three steps: the one-square green region, the forced blue cat, then the solved board. Image: Oakever Games
How to solve a Meowdoku board: Level 1 step by step
The tutorial board from the store screenshots shows the whole method on a small grid. Here is its layout (P = pink, G = green, Y = yellow, B = blue, L = lilac):
| Col 1 | Col 2 | Col 3 | Col 4 | Col 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Row 1 | P | G | Y | Y | Y |
| Row 2 | P | Y | Y | Y | L |
| Row 3 | P | B | Y | Y | L |
| Row 4 | P | B | Y | Y | L |
| Row 5 | P | B | B | Y | L |
- Take the free cat. Green is a single square (row 1, column 2), so a cat goes there. Cross out the rest of row 1, the rest of column 2, and the squares touching it.
- Squeeze the next small region. Blue has four squares, but three of them are in column 2, which is now used. The only blue square left is row 5, column 3, so that’s the second cat. Cross out row 5, column 3 and its neighbors.
- Look at what’s left. Rows 2, 3 and 4 and columns 1, 4 and 5 still need cats. Pink can only go in column 1 (rows 3 or 4), lilac in column 5 (rows 2 to 4), and yellow has just two free squares: row 2 or row 3 in column 4.
- Test the yellow options. A cat at row 3, column 4 would touch or share a row with every free lilac square, leaving lilac nowhere to go. So yellow goes at row 2, column 4.
- Finish. Lilac can’t be in row 2 (taken) or row 3 (touching yellow), so it goes in row 4. Pink takes the last free row, row 3. Five cats, no hearts lost.
That’s the whole game in miniature: small regions first, cross-outs after every cat, and a “what if” test when two squares are left.
Meowdoku tips for hard boards
On 8 x 8 and bigger boards you rarely get a one-square region. These techniques, which also apply to Queens and similar region puzzles, open them up.
1. Start with the smallest and most cramped regions
Count the free squares in each color. A two-square region tells you a lot: its cat goes in one of two places, so any square that touches both of them (or shares a row or column with both) can never hold another cat. Cross those out first.
2. Use line locks
If every square of a color sits in one row, that row’s cat must belong to that color. Cross out every other color’s squares in that row. The same goes for columns.
3. Count regions against rows
Line locks scale up. If two colors fit entirely inside the same two rows, those two rows belong to them, so cross out every other color in those rows. Three colors inside three columns works the same way. On big boards, this can clear whole strips at once.
4. Watch the touch ring
Every cat wipes out up to eight squares around it. Before you commit, check that the ring doesn’t swallow every free square of a nearby small region. If one square touches all the free squares of a small color, a cat there would leave that color empty, so cross it out.
5. Test a square without spending a heart
When you’re down to two candidates, imagine a cat in one of them. Cross out its row, column and neighbors in your head (or with X marks). If any color, row or column is left with no free square, the other candidate is right. The test costs nothing, while a wrong double-tap costs a heart.
6. Check rows and columns, not just colors
It’s easy to scan colors and forget that every row and column also needs exactly one cat. When a row has a single free square left, that square is a cat, whatever its color.
Boards grow from 7 x 7 at Level 24 to 9 x 9 at Level 80, with one cat per row, column and color. Image: Oakever Games
How hearts, hints and the daily puzzle work
- Hearts: three per level. A wrong cat costs one, and losing all three sends you back to the start of the level, according to Android Central.
- Hints: limited. Android Central says you can earn more by watching ads or through the in-game reward system.
- Daily Puzzles: a new puzzle every day, with global leaderboards for the fastest completion times (store listing).
- Offline play: the listing says no internet is needed, and Google Play gives it an “Offline” tag. Our best offline mobile games list has more picks for commutes and flights.
- Events: Google Play currently lists “Peekaboo Autumn Meows!”, an autumn event about farm cats hiding in hay bales, running until October 30 at 00:00 UTC (the evening of October 29 in the US), according to its event page.
How to get rid of ads in Meowdoku
Meowdoku is free, and Google Play marks it “Contains ads”. The listings call the ads “non-intrusive”, but Android Central’s review says an ad plays after almost every level. That review also said there was no ad-free option on Android in September. Google Play now lists in-app purchases of $3.99 to $69.99 per item, the same range as the iPhone plans, which suggests the subscriptions have reached Android since then. On iPhone, the App Store lists these plans:
| Plan (App Store, US) | Price | Cost over a year |
|---|---|---|
| Meowdoku Premium, weekly | $3.99 | $207.48 (52 weeks) |
| Meowdoku Premium, monthly | $7.99 | $95.88 |
| Meowdoku Premium, yearly | $34.99 | $34.99 |
| Meowdoku Premium Plus, weekly | $6.99 | $363.48 (52 weeks) |
| Meowdoku Premium Plus, monthly | $14.99 | $179.88 |
| Meowdoku Premium Plus, yearly | $69.99 | $69.99 |
Neither store explains what Premium or Premium Plus unlocks, so open the in-game store and read the plan details before you pay. Some things to know first, from Oakever’s terms of service:
- Subscriptions renew automatically. Cancel in your App Store or Google Play settings at least 24 hours before the next payment.
- Payments are non-refundable, though residents of the EEA, Switzerland and the UK get 14 days to cancel for a refund.
- If a free trial is offered, the paid plan starts automatically when it ends.
A weekly plan only makes sense for a short binge: kept for a year, it costs about six times as much as the yearly plan. Android Central also mentions players hunting for ad-skipping workarounds. Skip those: they can break the game’s terms, and modded APKs can carry malware.
Meowdoku at a glance
| iPhone and iPad | Android | |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Oakever Games | Oakever Games |
| Released | May 19, 2026 | April 24, 2026 (Play listing) |
| Price | Free, ads and in-app purchases | Free, ads and in-app purchases |
| Rating | 4.8 (352K ratings) | 4.7 (498K ratings), 10M+ downloads |
| Age rating | 12+ | Everyone |
| Requirements | iOS 15.0 or later, about 367 MB | Android phones and tablets; also on Windows through Google Play Games |
| Latest update | Version 1.21.0, October 19, 2026 | October 15, 2026 |
One warning for Android players: searching Google Play for “Meowdoku” turns up several look-alike cat puzzles from other developers. The official app is “Meowdoku: Brain Puzzle Games” by Oakever Games. Browser sites that call themselves “Meowdoku online” aren’t Oakever’s either.
Looking for something to play between boards? Our trending puzzle games list led by Meowdoku compares the other chart-toppers, our new mobile games for October 2026 roundup covers this month’s releases, and the addicting games like Candy Crush list covers more casual favorites.
FAQ
What are the rules of Meowdoku?
Place one cat in every colored region. Each row and column can hold only one cat, and no two cats can touch, including diagonally. An N x N board always needs N cats.
Is Meowdoku the same as LinkedIn Queens?
The rules match: one piece per row, column and colored region, and no touching pieces. Meowdoku uses cats instead of crowns and adds three hearts, hints, levels and daily puzzles.
Where can I find answers for Meowdoku level 20?
We don’t publish per-level answer keys. Every board yields to the same steps: fill the smallest regions, apply line locks, and test the last two candidates in your head. The Level 1 walkthrough above shows the method.
Can you play Meowdoku without internet?
Yes. Oakever’s listing says no internet is required, and Google Play tags the game “Offline”.
How much is Meowdoku Premium?
On the US App Store, Premium costs $3.99 a week, $7.99 a month or $34.99 a year, and Premium Plus costs $6.99, $14.99 or $69.99. Prices were checked on October 20, 2026.
Sources: App Store listing and Apple’s Top Free Games feed, Google Play listing and event page, Oakever Games terms of service, Android Central, LinkedIn Queens. All checked October 20, 2026.
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Featured image: Oakever Games
