Meowdoku! Explained: Rules, Solving Tips, Ads and Premium

Meowdoku! is a free logic puzzle game from Oakever Games, and as of early November 2026 it sits at #1 in the App Store’s games chart. You place cats on a grid of colored regions so that every region, row and column has exactly one cat and no two cats touch, not even diagonally. It is free to download but supported by ads, which is the main complaint in reviews.

Below is how the rules work, a set of solving techniques that get you through the harder boards, and what to know about the ads and subscriptions before you spend anything.

What Meowdoku! actually is

The App Store listing describes Meowdoku! as a pure logic puzzle that mixes Sudoku and Minesweeper, with cats as the pieces. That comparison is a little misleading if you expect numbers. You never write digits and you never fill the whole grid. Each board is split into color-coded regions, and your job is to work out the one correct square for a cat in each region.

If you have played LinkedIn’s Queens or other “star battle” style puzzles, the rules will feel very familiar. The Sudoku part is the one-per-row and one-per-column rule. The Minesweeper part is ruling out squares near pieces you have already placed.

Where to get the official game

Use the official store pages: the App Store on iOS and Google Play on Android. The trend has brought a lot of copycats. Apps like “Meow Sudoku Puzzle” and “Catdoku” are made by other developers, and many “Meowdoku online” websites have nothing to do with Oakever. Check that the developer name says Oakever Games before you download. Skip third-party APK sites too. They are not an official source, and you get nothing from them that the free store version does not already give you.

The rules of Meowdoku

Every board follows the same four rules:

1. One cat per colored region. Each region gets exactly one cat.
2. One cat per row. No row can have two cats.
3. One cat per column. No column can have two cats.
4. Cats can’t touch. No two cats can be next to each other, including at the corners.

A board is solved when every region has its cat and none of the rules are broken. Each puzzle has one solution you can reach by logic, so you should never have to guess.

Mistakes cost lives

Fan guides report that the mobile version gives you a small number of hearts per puzzle (usually said to be three) and that a wrong cat costs one. Android Central notes that you can watch ads to earn hints and extra attempts. Either way, guessing is expensive. Only place a cat when you can prove it belongs there. The exact heart count and hint rules may change with updates, so check the game itself.

How to solve Meowdoku boards

Every technique below comes straight from the four rules. Learn them in this order and the harder boards stop being frustrating.

1. Start with the smallest regions

A region with only one or two squares has almost no options. If a region is a single square, the cat goes there. If it has two, look at what each choice would rule out and see whether one of them breaks a rule. Small regions are always the place to start.

2. Clear out everything around a placed cat

Every time you place a cat, mentally (or with the game’s marking tool, if your version has one) cross off:

• the rest of its row,
• the rest of its column,
• all eight squares around it,
• the rest of its region.

This is where the Minesweeper comparison fits. Each cat you place shrinks the board, and the cleared squares often leave another region with only one legal square.

3. Look for regions stuck in one row or column

If every remaining square of a region sits in a single row, that region’s cat has to go in that row. So no other region can use that row, and you can cross off every other square in it. The same logic works for columns.

This scales up. If two regions fit entirely inside the same two rows, those two rows belong to them, and every other region’s squares in those rows can be removed. Spotting these groups is the main skill on larger boards.

4. Use the “no touching” rule

Any 2x2 block of squares can hold at most one cat, because any two squares in it touch. If a region’s remaining squares all fall inside one 2x2 block, its cat will touch every square in that block. So the squares in that block that belong to other regions are ruled out.

A related trick: if a region’s leftover squares all border the same square from another region, that shared neighbor can’t hold a cat.

5. Test a square, but never place it

If you are stuck, choose a square and follow the consequences in your head: “If a cat goes here, which squares are ruled out?” If that leaves some other region, row or column with no legal squares, the square is wrong and you can cross it off. This is still logic, not guessing, and it costs no hearts.

6. Count what’s left

On an N-by-N board you need exactly N cats. Late in a puzzle, compare how many rows and columns are still open with how many regions still need a cat. When the numbers match, the board often solves itself in a few moves.

Ads, hints and Premium: what to know

This is the part that splits opinion. Android Central called the game highly addictive, but said its “one big problem” is ads. It reported a mandatory ad after almost every level and no ad-free premium version on Android at the time. Reviews on Google Play complain about the same thing, and the listing says the app has ads and in-app purchases.

On iOS, the App Store listing shows two subscription tiers. Here are the US prices as listed at the time of our research (November 2026):

The same figures appear in Marks Angry Review’s breakdown, which gave the game 75/100 and called it worth trying if you like short logic puzzles and can put up with an ad-supported app. A Life and Soul Magazine review noted that there is no one-time purchase to remove ads.

Some details are still unclear. None of the sources we checked clearly explain what Premium includes compared with Premium Plus, and the Android situation may have changed since Android Central’s review. Prices also vary by region and can change at any time.

Practical advice:

1. Play a few days for free first. The puzzles don’t change if you pay, and every board can be solved by logic.
2. Read the in-app subscription screen carefully before you tap. Look for exactly what each tier removes or adds.
3. Watch out for weekly plans. Paid weekly, a year costs far more than the yearly price.
4. Manage or cancel subscriptions through the store, not the game. On iPhone, go to Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions. On Android, open Google Play, then Payments & subscriptions.

Is Meowdoku! worth playing?

If you like Sudoku, Queens or nonograms, yes. The rules are quick to learn, boards are short, and the difficulty ramps up through real deduction, not luck. The ad load is a real drawback, and whether that is acceptable is up to you. It costs nothing to try, so download the official version, learn the techniques above, and decide after a few days of play whether it’s worth paying for.

Details in this guide are accurate as of November 2026. Mobile games change with updates, so features, prices and ad behavior may change.